Petrochemicals are Big Oil’s big hope for the future—the distant future. Petrochemicals are used in thousands of products, with the biggest group among these being single-use plastic products. The bad news for oil is that green initiatives around the world are mounting and many of them are targeting precisely this group of products. The latest such initiative came from Kenya. Last month, the East African country introduced what is considered one of the toughest bans on plastic bags globally. The making, marketing, and use of plastic bags carry fines of up to US$38,000 or up to four years imprisonment. It’s a decisive step in tackling the piles of plastic bags that so often end up inside cows, raising fears of plastic contamination of beef. Praiseworthy as this ban may be (although some bag manufacturers have warned that the new rules could result in the loss of 80,000 jobs), it’s […]