(Bloomberg) -- In the immortal words of Kermit the Frog, it’s not easy being green.The below chart shows just how hard it can be for energy companies to nail the green transition, all while navigating cyclical swings in the industry. It shows the moment when Dominion Energy Inc. unloaded most of its gas units to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. for $4 billion. The deal was described as a “narrowing of focus” that would allow Dominion to focus on “zero-carbon generation and energy storage.”

The sale was announced on July 5, 2020 — just a couple months after the price of oil had dropped sharply during the worst of the pandemic-driven market rout, reaching a low of -$38 a barrel. Since then crude has come roaring back and the Alerian Index of midstream energy companies has soared more than 200%.

What did Dominion do with the money from the sale? It reduced its debt and used $3 billion of the proceeds to buy back shares — something energy investors in general have been asking for after billions of dollars of losses incurred during the last oil bust.

Now, analysts at CreditSights Inc. are calling Dominion’s ill-timed sale an “ESG backfire,” noting that “Dominion sold a cash producing asset that made up circa 25% of earnings at the low while buying back shares near the high with the proceeds.”

In that sense, the deal embodies the difficulty of navigating both the move towards renewable energy as well as key turning points in the energy cycle. It also demonstrates the long timelines that tend to characterize renewable energy projects and the patience required of investors who place their money in them.

In that sense, as more of Dominion’s renewable capacity comes online, earnings should improve.

“The issue is timing as replacing commodity volume and price sensitive assets with rate-based renewable assets is clearly a positive,” Creditsights analysts led by Andrew DeVries said. “The majority of the midstream sale occurred in late 2020 but the majority of the offshore wind assets won’t be online until the end of this decade and in the meantime (i.e. now), Dominion has less capacity for a cash flow shortfall at the core Virginia Electric Power opco than if it had a $10 billion midstream business.”CreditSights estimates that Dominion’s gas business would probably be worth more than $15 billion now.

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