Oil exploration and refining companies are natural enemies of alternative energy. Wind power, nuclear power, clean coal, and solar could all undermine the value of crude in world markets. Oil companies have a great deal to gain if new sources for heating and electricity prove successful, even if they will not admit as much in public.
Under those circumstances, it is odd that Valero (VLO), one of the world’s largest oil refiners, would turn to wind power to provide energy to some of its operations.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Valero installed 33 windmills to supply a refinery in Texas with green electricity to produce gasoline and diesel.
The rising cost of energy is creating strange bedfellows. The wind energy being used by Valero is relatively cheap compared with alternatives. At the same time, it offers proof of the efficacy of a critical counter to the use of fossil fuels and provides the government with more fodder for its argument that an investment in new forms of energy can produce inexpensive and plentiful options that do not involve the production of oil and gas and the pollution by-products that go with their use.
Valero is in the process of making a case against its own core business.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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