So darkly amusing is this that it’s almost a shame Chu’s not a Republican: Imagine how much fun the media would have had with it then. Credit Verum Serum for rescuing it from the memory hole to remind the world what a sad joke in hindsight BP’s green posturing was. They spent years showering cash on guys like this (and Obama, of course) in return for positive PR that would hopefully keep environmentalists off their back; then they turned around and ran their gulf rig to the point of detonation long after they knew there were major problems with it, taking care to ignore federal law about blowout preventers — the last line of defense against a catastrophic spill — in the process. What happens when a “dirty energy” company tries too hard to get “clean”? A few theories from Ace:

But it seems to me this might have three bad effects (beyond mere waste and bribery):

1. They get a lot of latitude in their actual petroleum operations, because, hey, they’re beyond petroleum and stuff.

2. There is a diversion of precious intellectual capital and capital-capital away from the dirty, unsexy, and un-saving-the-world business of drilling for oil.

3. It creates a moral hazard within the company whereby they don’t have to sweat such stuff as safety in their drilling because they have these other small-potatoes operations out “saving the world” and stuff.

As if to prove the point, in an almost eerie echo of Chu’s comment, compare the second clip below (also via Ace) of Tony Hayward musing in retrospect on the trouble with BP’s world-saving crusade. Exit fun fact: Guess which company Chu’s top deputy at the energy department used to work for.