ExxonMobile consultant Silly question. I understand oil and gas corporations have sunk a lot of money into capital and they want to extract as much value from

ExxonMobile consultant Silly question. I understand oil and gas corporations have sunk a lot of money into capital and they want to extract as much value from that capital as possible BUT... They've got a lot of money. Why not buy a lot of very cheap land throughout the world, establish an expensive and expansive HVDC network, and erect a metric-F-tonne of solar panels? I say expensive for a reason - the barrier to entry is a good thing for big players. Why not own the whole enchilada and protect yourself from young upstarts? And land. Wow, you can do a lot with land. It's not like land is a bad investment - you can put up solar panels, wind turbines, people can live on it, you can grow food on it, you can capture water on it. I just feel like they're stuck in an ideological feedback loop. They could own the battery business if they wanted to. Exxon, Shell, BP...guys come over here. Listen. I appreciate where you took us in the 20th century but we're in a new place now and you need to see where that big ol' puck is going. It's yours for the taking. [Edit: this was supposed to be a reply to tzs, for those wondering where the ExxonMobile consultant quote came from]