If you have a pension, 401K, mutual fund, etc you are likely invested in public companies.
Not guilty
It is the OBLIGATION of these public companies to maximize profits for shareholders.
This is what makes me so crazy, the fact that we have a system that encourages the exploitation of people and the depletion resources so the next quarterly report looks good. Does humanity as a whole benefit? Living conditions improve? Are we ensuring a better life for our children - Better bank the maximized returns, the kids will need it to buy water!
It is also their obligation to work within the law to do so,
Or to rework the law to do so if they have enough clout. I'm reminded of the agribusiness effort a few years back to neuter the organic standards on food so consumers would be unable to tell the difference between industriorganic and true organic. But no matter if they can't get convenient laws, They'll just move to another country where the laws are more accomidating. Sorry about the jobs, but the shareholders expect maximum returns
this is assumed but let me state it another way: one should expect any public company to do everything in their power to legally maximize returns. By the way I don’t believe anyone has suggested Conoco or Tyson is doing anything illegal or underhanded. They submitted a plan for producer credits that was (after review) approved.
I may be a bit cynical, but with the current administration I'll bet they weren't sweating the approval. The way I understand it, Conoco/Phillips already has refining capabilities in place and Tyson has a byproduct with a negative value. Doesn't seem like they really need the taxpayer support does it? With their deep pockets? (but then there's the shareholders and the executive's salaries and bonuses to consider) The incentives were intended to help start up's like Brian Appel who's doing virtually the same process but from the ground up, and biodiesel producers also starting from nothing. Not as more corporate welfare.
So what is the problem here, a big company has teamed up with another big company and developed a new process?
Seems like Brian has done most of the development work.
Would the objection be so loud if it were a little company from your home state that teamed up with Tyson?
Absolutely not. If a small start up from any state made a deal to haul Tyson's or any other meatpacker's garbage to turn into fuel I'd be all for it. And if they're investing in production equipment, then the incentives would be justified in my opinion.
The fact is that in order for these processes to make economical sense you need scale, scale with inputs which Tyson offers and scale with production capacity which Conoco offers. Without the scale each offers to the other the project would not be worth the effort. Conoco is using production assets and technology it already had, this is not something a startup is going to have available.
Agreed. At this time, with my limited knowledge of the process and it's environmental implications, I'm all for it. Just not the money grab. Wonder why they're just starting now?
What is the downside to this project? A new use for slaughter house waste is found and more fuel is supplied to the country?
well there is the national debt and the use of public funds to further enrich the already wealthy but that aside I'm all for it.
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Nothing matters but the almighty dollar and anything in the way is expendable. People, communities, countries, social responsibility, ecosystems, environments, fairness, truth, are all secondary to the pursuit of money.
The upside is that new jobs are created for people in the community,
though far fewer than by start ups IMHO
Conoco and Tyson are acting as socially responsible corporate citizens,
I'm sorry, Tyson and "socially responsible" do not belong in the same sentence
the ecosystem is bettered by removing waste from the waste stream, environmentalists should be happy waste is reduced.
agreed
In terms of fairness any other company large or small could have embarked on this type of project, but none did,
well, actually they did.
Conoco and Tyson were the ones willing to take the risk as such they should reap the reward.
and they will I'm sure. I suppose Conoco will use the stuff to meet the renewable fuel mandates with minimal investment and a dollar a gallon from the taxpayers. Wonder what they'll call the blend? I hope that they're required to label it accurately. Might make vegetarians avoid biodiesel if the named are similar
I would be willing to bet that this project yeilds a lower ROI than the vast majority of those Conoco works on.
I'll take that bet for a dollar. How do we find out?
In that respect they are infact doing their part to help the enviornment, and without the credits it probably not happen because it would cost too much.
So by embarking on a venture that may yield a lower ROI (and I'm not conceeding that it will) than what they are accustomed to, even though still profitable, they become good stewards or the environment? Lets face it, the CEO and the board make an OBSCENE amount of money. Do you think ever discuss cutting back to a simply huge salary and put the savings toward some humanitarian purpose.
Please understand they are not doing this because there is a huge amount of money in it, they can make more in a day pumping oil than his project will make all year.
Agreed, this takes care of that annoying renewable mandate so they can get back to making real money. I can hear the bonuses adding up.
The worst case scenario is that every gallon the Conoco/ Tyson project produces displaces one gallon of oil from a country hostile to the United states!
And that is good. Wonder why those guys don't like us?
This issue is a real hot button for me. Not my intention to offend anyone. Bill