January, 18 2014, 09:30am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Aaron Pickus, aaron.pickus@350.org, 425-418-7606;
Steve Kretzman, steve@priceofoil.org, 202-497-1033;
Keiller MacDuff, keiller.macduff@greenpeace.org
Environmental Groups React to Royal Dutch Shell Reporting 48% Decline in Expected Earnings
Environmental groups across the country reacted today to Royal Dutch Shell's announcement that company earnings for the quarter would decline 48% compared to the previous year. This is the third straight quarter of what the New York Times described as "disappointing" earnings results. Forbes described the report today as "disastrous" and "dreadful."
WASHINGTON
Environmental groups across the country reacted today to Royal Dutch Shell's announcement that company earnings for the quarter would decline 48% compared to the previous year. This is the third straight quarter of what the New York Times described as "disappointing" earnings results. Forbes described the report today as "disastrous" and "dreadful."
"Shell's been betting heavily on dirtier and harder to get oil for the last decade, and it's clear now that it's been a bad bet. The new frontier for energy is not dirty oil in the arctic, it's clean energy," said Steve Kretzmann, Executive Director of Oil Change International in Washington D.C.
"Given Shell's appalling profit warning, how we can we expect to trust Shell with the fragile Arctic environment? They can barely make money in the most profitable business the world has ever known," said Gustavo Ampugnani, a Greenpeace Arctic Campaigner in Washington D.C.
"Shell's announcement today is just one example of the mounting body of evidence that fossil fuel investments are not only bad for the planet, but bad for bottom lines," said Jay Carmona, National Divestment Campaign Manager of 350.org in Oakland, CA. "Pension funds, university endowments and future retirees should take note."
Today's news is only the most recent development in the uncertain financial picture for fossil fuel companies. Just last week, Goldman Sachs completely divested from their previously significant financial support for the expansion of dirty coal exports to China through the Pacific Northwest. Goldman Sachs's divestment move is the first sign that they are following their own report last year arguing that the "window is closing" for profitable investment in dirty coal.
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The Massachusetts Democrat introduced the Accountable Capitalism Act, explaining that for much of U.S. history, corporations reinvested more than half of their profits back into their companies, working in the interest of employees, customers, business partners, and shareholders.
In the 1980s, said Warren corporations began placing the latter group above all, adopting "the belief that their only legitimate and legal purpose was 'maximizing shareholder value.'"
That view was further cemented in 1997 when the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group that represents chief executives across the country, declared that the "principal objective of a business enterprise is to generate economic returns to its owners."
Now, Warren said in a policy document, "around 93% of American-held corporate shares are owned by just 10% of our nation's richest households, while more than 40% of American households hold no shares at all."
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