If people take a breath for a moment, it might be worth looking at what the deal actually offers BC. If it’s significant investment, opportunities to improve cycling in the UK from an Elite and amateur level along with infrastructure etc, then great. Nobody moaned about having a deal with HSBC with all of their suspect money laundering scandals/involvement in people losing their homes during 2008.
Like it or not, we live in a capitalist world where not every company has the budget to invest massive chucks of cash in charities. I’m sure if BC signed a deal with Facebook everyone would be squealing ‘data theft etc.’ Unfortunately, most ‘green’ companies won’t have the budget or the balance sheet for big sponsorship deals. I’d rather see millions of Shells profits going to British Cycling than fund managers.
As for the lube claims – Shell’s tech labs in NL are huge. If they can come up with a synthetic fuel that’ll power a Ferrari F1 car, sure they’ll be able to make a chain lube that’ll save 0.5 watts.
Regardless of your personal circumstances (FYI – fossil fuels are still needed to build both Tesla’s and wind turbines, and let’s not get started on the mess colbalt and lithium mining makes), fossil fuels are going to be in the energy mix for a while until we find other raw materials and embrace nuclear, is if that’s the case, why is it so unacceptable for the companies to try and do some good? I’d add that Shell/BP etc don’t set the price of gas or oil, that’s traded on the spot markets. Most oil companies are hedged at c. $70 bbl and <100p/therm. The people making the killings are the traders…