Petrochemical Industry Doesn't Get It: Wall St Doesn't Care About Their Greenwashing, Or Anything That Might Cost More

[hatrack]

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A dramatic moment came early in the conference. “Is green hydrogen dead?” Mark Eramo, copresident of S&P Global Commodity Insights, asked Bob Patel, a former CEO of LyondellBasell Industries and W. R. Grace. Patel is a current director of Air Products & Chemicals, which recently pulled out a pair of projects to make green hydrogen via water electrolysis powered by alternative energy. “It’s difficult to see a business model today without subsidies,” Patel said. For all sustainability projects, he said, factors like technology, subsidies, and regulations create uncertainties, and investments should be able to stand up to them. “If you can’t see a path to a clear, self-sustaining economic model over—let’s say over 5–10 years, maybe not 0–5—then likely it is not something you should be doing.”

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John Roberts, a stock analyst with Mizuho Americas, said in a presentation at the conference that Wall Street has soured on sustainability. He brought up four plastics sustainability start-ups—Danimer Scientific, Loop Industries, Origin Materials, and PureCycle Technologies—that raised nearly $3 billion in total when they went public at the beginning of this decade. “Wall Street can throw a lot of money at something very quickly when they get excited about it,” Roberts said.

The stock prices of all four companies have since dropped to a small fraction of their peak values—an indication that they were unable to meet Wall Street’s lofty expectations. Danimer even filed for bankruptcy in March. “Part of what is going on with these recycling, circular sustainability plastics companies is just a lack of enthusiasm for sustainability broadly,” Roberts said, pointing to dismal stock performance for solar and lithium firms. Wall Street is now focused on artificial intelligence and data centers, he said.

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As it weathers the current downturn and braces for a possible trade war, the US petrochemical industry also is confronting longer-term threats. Since the early 2010s, the US has had a cost advantage predicated on the shale oil and gas boom and the resulting abundance of cheap ethane extracted from natural gas liquids. At the conference, Kurt Barrow, vice president of oil, fuels, and chemicals research at S&P, said production of natural gas liquids should soon plateau. From 2005 to 2025, US supply rose by 95%. He forecast that the next decade will see only a 12% increase. By the 2030s, ethane production will peak—particularly in areas that supply the petrochemical industry with feedstock, such as the Permian basin in Texas. If ethane ability does indeed level, the impact could be profound.

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https://cen.acs.org/business/petrochemicals/Petrochemical-makers-fret-over-future/103/web/2025/04