Questions are being asked about BP’s commitment to clean energy after news that its Alternative Energy headquarters in London are being closed came alongside the announcement that the division’s managing director is stepping down.
Vivienne Cox, 49, who oversaw around 80 staff working on wind and solar power, will leave tomorrow. Officially, she is quitting to spend more time with her children but some industry insiders are suggesting that her decision had more to do with frustration over the business being downgraded in importance.
It is less than two years since BP leased a 40,000-square-foot office space in County Hall near Westminster for BP Alternative Energy, but staff will now be moving back to the oil company’s corporate head office in St James’s Square. Space in the West End HQ has been freed up by earlier cutbacks.
Group Chief Executive Tony Hayward told The Guardian: “We are going through a major restructuring and bringing the alternative energy business headquarters into the head office seems a good idea to me. It saves money and brings it closer to home.”
Environmental critics, however, fear the move is a backward step, away from the aims of Hayward’s predecessor, Lord Browne, to take the BP brand “Beyond Petroleum”.
The latest warning signs come on the back of a slash in spending in the Alternative Energy division. Last year’s budget of $1.4 billion (£850 million) is expected to be halved this year, though overall investment – pledged to be $8 billion for the period from 2005 to 2015 – is currently still on track.
BP Alternative Energy operates a range of businesses, including wind farms in the US, and solar power, biofuel, hydrogen-energy and carbon-capture and storage projects. But in April the company shut down solar power manufacturing plants in the US and Spain, laying off 620 employees, and Hayward has publicly questioned whether solar power can ever be competitive with fossil fuels.
In respnse to the most recent news, a Greenpeace spokesperson said: “They have been selling off and downgrading their alternative energy businesses since 2007. More and more, BP is showing that it is really only committed to its core business of oil and gas.”
Ramon Juan, Madrid around 2 years, 7 months ago