Fossil fuel extractors bend the world to their will – help fund the journalism that exposes them
Across the globe, oil, gas and coal companies use an ever-widening set of tactics to crush competition and opposition. With the world's most powerful man helping them at every turn, it's critical we reveal their full impact
Why does capital love fossil fuels? It's not hard to explain. They exist in a small number of discrete locations, where the right to exploit them can be owned and monopolised. Most can be extracted commercially only at scale, excluding small competitors. They can be stored and traded all over the world, allowing prices to be optimised across time and space. Renewable energy, by contrast, can be generated almost anywhere, by almost anyone with a small amount of money to invest.
Renewables might now be cheaper than fossil fuel in the vast majority of cases, but this makes them less attractive to capital, not more. Fossil fuels are uncompetitive and highly profitable. Renewables are highly competitive and not very profitable.
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