Lipstick, meet pig: US frackers’ hopeless ESG beauty parade won’t wash with investors

American shale oil producers are unleashing a torrent of ESG obfuscation on capital markets in a desperate pitch to green investors. It is destined to fail.

The US fracking industry is redoubling efforts to convince investors that the energy transition will not put it out of business. Amid last month’s frenzy of defensive merger and acquisition deals in the North American shale patch, companies responsible for not insignificant amounts of natural gas flaring, venting and methane leaks—not to mention the pro…