Jones Beene <jone...@pacbell.net> quoted someone:
> “It’s not that oil companies dislike renewables,” says Oppenheimer “It’s > just not their core business, or where they have expertise. They just don’t > know what to do with it.” > > > > … yet > Not yet, not ever. "Not their core business" hardly begins to describe the situation with cold fusion. Oil companies have absolutely no relevant expertise. Companies that make batteries, computer chips, instruments, engines and many other small, high tech, high purity devices have the kind of expertise it takes to make cold fusion devices. Oil companies do not. You might as well expect them to go into the medical supplies business, or the production of fiber optics. Their managers, technical staff, sales department and everyone else in the company have no experience in such businesses, and no academic degrees or hands-on experience. What are the manager going to do? Fire everyone and hire the people at Union Carbide, or the Eveready Battery Company instead? Why would the people from Union Carbide go there, when they are looking at an opportunity to expand their own company and take away Exxon's business for nothing? They are much better positioned to eat Exxon's lunch where they are now, with their company as it now exists. The markets will offer them all the capital they need. If a battery production company were to announce plans to dig an oil well and build a refinery, people would say they are crazy. People would say they will never be able to compete. Why would anyone take it seriously when Exxon Mobil announces they are getting into the business of manufacturing small devices that resemble batteries? (I predict there will never be large cold fusion devices; only small ones, perhaps manufactured in large arrays, similar to the uranium rods in a fission reactor.) - Jed
