Posts Tagged by Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers and Renewable Energy
| September 5, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
I don’t want to appear as if I don’t have a life outside of 2GreenEnergy, but each Friday night, I try to watch Bill Moyers’ Journal on PBS. Occasionally the content directly or indirectly affects the renewable energy debate, and last night was a good example. Two extremely senior constitutional attorneys took on a question that one of the two will be arguing in front of the US Supreme Court this week: does the right to free speech guaranteed under the First Amendment (including the right to exert pressure over the electoral process) extend to corporations?
Of course, this issue is central to the growing debate over where our democracy is headed and whether, as some say, it’s been abrogated so many times and so thoroughly that we no longer have a democracy in any meaningful sense of the word. As a citizen concerned that ordinary people are losing too much power to corporate giants, my immediate reaction was to favor restricting the rights of corporations to influence the political process in their own favor. Yes, there are campaign contribution limits, but the corporations, with their extensive legal support, exploit the many loopholes in the form of political action committees, etc. And, as someone pointed out on tonight’s show, the ultimate work-around is for the corporation simply to run a political campaign at its own expense, to elect representatives known to favor its positions. At first glance, this seemed to work against the ideals of our society — if only the idea of one person, one vote.
Yet I must say that I was swayed by the first speaker, whose claim was that the First Amendment does not identify who does and who does not have the right to free speech. He freely acknowledged that free speech isn’t free at all, that wealthy people can own television networks and newspaper chains, and thus enjoy hundreds – or probably millions — of times more “free speech” than you or I could possibly dream of affording. But we don’t restrict rich people’s freedom; and by extension, the fact that a corporation is big or wealthy does not mean that it must not communicate.
I must say that I was flummoxed on this issue and, as a fair-minded guy, I was about to give up hope and turn on Jeopardy! when the second speaker came on. But I’m happy to report that at the end, I think he won the day. He pointed out that corporations, defined under law as “fictitious persons” are given enormous power to achieve their one and only goal: to make a profit. Human beings, i.e., voters, are not fictitious, but real people. Unlike these fictitious persons, we get sick, we die, we are given no special powers outside of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and we have a multitude of interests: familial, religious, social, etc. If we now grant corporations, who have by force of law unnatural profit-making powers the right to communicate without restriction about matters of their one concern (profit), they will use that profit to exert extreme pressure on the political process — potentially at the expense of human voters.
He went on to point out that ExxonMobil made $85 billion last year, and, if left unrestricted, could ensure the election of only those who would work against global warming mitigation. He also mentioned that the coal and nuclear lobbies, funded similarly, could make it impossible for these industries ever to be brought down — even by fair competition from renewables. This, for what it’s worth, is *exactly* what is happening now as I see it.
It will certainly be interesting to see on what side the Supreme Court comes down.
In any case, for those readers who may be new, this blog follows three different courses within the issues that surround renewable energy: the scientific, business, and political/philosophical issues. I argue that anyone serious about pursuing a clean energy business needs to have a solid understanding of all three “legs of the stool,” so to speak. And to that end, I’ve recently begun working on bringing on contributing authors to augment each of these three discussion threads. If any of you wish to make such contributions, please contact me.
