The company I work for is on a big electrification push. Corporate has mandated that all new equipment be electrically heated, not natural gas fired. We are already the biggest electrical consumer in this part of the state and we heat large ovens and many literal tons of molten metal with gas.
When the point is made that natural gas is cheap and much of our electricity is made from natural gas so electrification results in more expense and more CO2 emissions, their answer is that how the electricity is generated is not our concern, we need to be ready as green energy sources come online. They don’t care that we will spend millions more a year extra in electricity as we convert our gas heated equipment over to electric.
The result is millions in stockholders’ money wasted just to make the ESG score look better. So much for fiduciary responsibility.
The CEO’s of today’s large corporations are similar to the HC’s of the big time football schools. Basically, guaranteed large sum contracts with $millions in separation clauses to make them go away when they fail. This has resulted in corporate leadership that doesn’t worry too much about financial performance except as it affects them personally. After all, the costs of poor performance are someone else’s money, and if they can curry favor with the right people by being woke enough, there will be other lucrative opportunities.