Reply #5: The other way to look at it [View All]

[Coastie for Truth]

is that all of the "Big Oil" players at least have their

-patent portfolios,
-research contracts (one sided with garage and academic inventors), and
-"non-competes" (with the bright young alternative and renewable energy PhD's they hired and then laid off after 2-3 years)

all tied up nice and pretty.

That way they make money off of the risk takers who actually go into alternative, renewable, and green energy. But, they don't put their own capital at risk.

That is precisely the strategy that GM followed with hybrids and ev's. They own a piece of every hybrid (and pure EV) sold anywhere in the world -- and don't lift a finger. All because of their patent law suits in the early 1990's.