There has rarely been a better time to be a seller of fossil fuels — nor a worse time to be exposed to their effects.
Thanks to resilient crude prices and lackluster investment activity, shareholders in oil and gas companies are enjoying a bonanza. Of the $569 billion in dividends paid by businesses with at least $10 billion in net income over the past 12 months, more than a third — $206 billion — has come from fossil energy. Almost half of that has come from just one firm, Saudi Arabian Oil Co. The United States is producing more oil and more gas than any nation in history. The S&P 500’s index of energy companies hit a record high in April.
Even as sums are rising on the credit side of fossil fuels' ledger, they are climbing on the debit side, too.