For about a decade, companies like BP and Exxon said they would invest tens of billions of dollars into green energy. The days when fossil fuel companies highlighted green plans and investments on their corporate home pages are over. Their CEOs have returned to discussing the need for and demand for oil and coal.

The boldest statement by the CEO of a major oil company talking about green energy was from Exxon Mobile chief Darren Woods. He told Fortune, “…consumers were driving the issue by being unwilling to invest in clean-energy solutions and indicated that pollution-reduction goals would not be met by 2050.” Why should the oil companies lead when the public will not follow?

Reuters explains that fossil fuel companies have almost started to walk away from green energy. The most recent example is that BP dumped most of its wind energy projects. “The retrenchment by oil majors comes after governments around the world slowed the rollout of clean energy policies and delayed targets as energy costs soared following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.”

Green Energy Is Risky

Green energy start-ups are expensive and can be risky. Without big corporations participating and tremendous government support, most green energy companies have few places to turn. Capital is hard to come by, and when it is available, the funding is expensive.

The return of big oil to big oil has an additional consequence. As AI server farms grow and use massive amounts of electricity, the modest availability of green energy sources is not nearly large enough. That means oil and coal are used when available to power the output of utilities.