This Week's Poll Results - Should Exxon be Forced to go Green?

I did not want to voice my opinion on this week's poll [May 28: What's your Opinion? Should Exxon go Green?] since I don't want to have any influence on the results, but I have to say I was surprised by the results.

With 117 votes, "No, their job is to make money at their core business - nothing else" won with a 63% majority but "Yes, they should branch out and be working to the greater good" had a much stronger showing than I expected with 37% of the votes.

Myself, I agreed with the majority - I consider that to be the 'conservative' stance (libertarian?), while working for the greater good would be the more liberal stance. Business is business - either government or companies who choose alternative energy as a profit making venture can go down the path of "green"; an oil business is just that - an oil business. The one gray area is one could argue they should go green to help balance out their long term business in case "green energies" do take over in 25 years, but if they believe the best profit opportunity is to stay solely on the current path, then they seem to have made that decision - the core business is where the dinero is. If their judgement is incorrect; than Exxon will be out of business in 30-40 years. Unfortunately CEO's lifespans are much shorter than that, so this makes the arguement - do managers really manage for 15, 25+ years out? Or just long enough to maximize profits during their tenure? Somehow I feel the latter in most of America. Contrast that with say, a Toyota Motors (TM) which has a 25 year business plan.

Anyhow interesting results to take the 'pulse' of the readership.