Have you seen those ads by oil companies touting that they are investing billions of dollars into research of renewable energy sources. They do. But it requires putting the numbers into perspective.

Sierra Magazine of July/August 2012, published this informative chart which puts into perspective what is really going on with oil companies and research into renewable energy.

As you can see, the $4 billion of investment into renewable fuel is a tiny moon in a solar system where the sun represents a 500 times larger investment of capital expenditures. Note also the Jupiter-sized planet of taxpayer subsidies. I don’t understand why in the world we taxpayers subsidize oil companies.