[jfengel]

There is no conspiracy by Big Oil to control investment flows, but there is most certainly one to denigrate renewable energy. Example:

https://www.energyandpolicy.org/renewable-energy-state-polic...

I can't evaluate the counterfactual of what would have happened if they hadn't done that, but it may have deterred even more investment in renewables that should have been occurring over the last couple of decades.

[photochemsyn]

I'd say it's more like a conspiracy by Big Investment to control energy markets to maximize profitability, and renewable energy is just less profitable than fossil fuels, for the fairly obvious reason that you can't easily meter sunlight and wind. OPEC can't decide 'less sunlight this quarter', for example.