Black is the New Green

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Photo courtesy of <em>Greening of Oil</em>.

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First, it was “green coal.” Now oil is apparently going green too.

Petroleum News has launched a new publication, Greening of Oil—”a science-based publication…scrutinizing what is being done to make hydrocarbons a more earth-friendly energy source,” according to its mission statement.

I don’t want to knock the magazine entirely. Any effort the oil industry makes to reduce the damage it does to the environment is a good thing. And I’m actually interested in reading about Shell developing new technologies that reduce the footprint of drilling operations, for instance, or about what natural gas producers are doing to conserve water. But let’s be honest—extracting oil from the ground and burning it is never going to be “green.”