The reason why a lot of hedge funds are scooping these shares up is precisely because of the environmental lobby.
The environmental lobby thinks purely in first order: I am a good person, I will save the environment, I am fighting evil, oil companies are evil, they must be shut down immediately.
But the reason why Exxon produces oil is not related to wanting to pollute. Them embracing environmentalism, as the lobbyist wisely points out, is neither here nor there because environmentalism doesn't mean they aren't going to stop producing either. The reason why pollution happens and Exxon produces oil is because people need oil. If people stopped consuming oil, Exxon would just do something else.
Therefore, investing in oil and gas is pretty much a lock because it is fairly obvious now that environmentalists are jacking up the oil price, jacking up the gas price, consumers will starting paying triple the price to get to work, electricity bills are going to skyrocket, and oil and gas companies are going to do amazingly well. Again, the key point here is that oil demand is, if anything, rising whilst supply is going to stop growing or, most likely, shrink significantly in the next five years (something like $500/barrel looks reasonable to me, and double digit NG).
If environmentalists thought about this from the money perspective, they would realise that Exxon are nothing to do with it...but, as ever, it is easier for people to believe that a secret cabal of people who aren't like them is actually controlling the world, and that is why people disagree with them.
Also, it is far easier to believe this than take this to consumers, convince them of your arguments (rather than believe Exxon is bribing everyone), and tell them why they should pay more. Again, it is far easier to believe that Exxon are to blame, and that everyone would agree with you if it wasn't for Exxon, than recognise that you need to work to put in progress (Greenpeace are the classic example of a totally ineffectual, self-centered approach to activism...their campaigns are usually aimed at causing maximum disruption for other people, maximum press to boost the profile of people involved, and minimum attempt to actually appeal to other people's rationality...if Greenpeace didn't exist, the world would be the same).
