Scientists working for them did. Imagine how many layers of middle management exist between any scientist and someone capable of making a decision at a large corporation now. Then imaging what it would have been like in 1960's, where communication was primarily face to face, and with executives, through secretaries....

Chances are, no executive capable of making a single decision about shifting away from fossil fuels or aiming towards fuel efficiency ever heard this. An army of middle managers would have funneled it elsewhere as soon as they realized it wasn't going to create profit, and was inactionable with technology of the time.