http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/21/bp.oil

The new head of BP has accepted the inevitability of $100 per barrel petroleum, and now plans on downgrading the conglomerate's green future envisioned by the former chief executive.

BP appears to be dropping a central plank of Browne's strategy, the green promise to go "beyond petroleum", in favour of going back to petroleum - a move which many believe has riled the former boss. In what some saw as a thinly veiled criticism, Browne argued at a recent conference that some energy groups were "in denial" over the need to clean up their carbon output.

The move into tar sands through a deal with Husky Energy has been condemned by Greenpeace as "a climate crime" because three times as much carbon is produced extracting the crude from the ground compared with ordinary oil operations. Steam or hot water is used to separate the oil from the sand and then more power must be used to turn it into useable fuel. Hayward has also upset green groups by downgrading the company's alternative energy portfolio and dropping plans for an innovative carbon capture and storage (CCS) experiment at Peterhead, Scotland.

Its no surprise that environmental groups and some of the visionary senior executives at BP are grumbling that this happened. The former head of exploration for new oil reserves is now in control of the company.

The Guardian; February 21, 2008

Submitted by B. Shapiro