No One Should Be Afraid to State the Truth: Big Energy Really Is No Friend To Humankind
A reader who’s been around here for a great while responded to my newsletter this morning:
Craig. Sorry to see you’ve declared Big Energy your worst friend forever. Whenever waging warfare, it’s good to carry a Big Gun.
I respond:
As I’ve covered in many of the 4200+ blog posts that I’ve written here since 2009, not to mention many hundred others I’ve put on other sites, I stand unapologetic in my position that the fossil fuel industry is–choose whatever synonymous phrase you like–an evil empire. I don’t think that qualifies me as unique–or even unusual. Who among us sees nothing sinister here?
This is the wealthiest, most powerful group in the history of humankind that uses its riches to perpetuate a business enterprise that is demonstrably ruining the planet and poisoning everyone and everything on it. Doesn’t that get your attention?
To make matters worse, they use their enormous bankroll to help elect a huge numbers of U.S. Congressmen who are supportive to their cause, both here and around the world. That’s called “corruption.” And it’s not an opinion; it’s a matter of public record. I could go on for months on this, but let me ask you to consider this: In the late spring of 2013, a vote came up on the floor of the U.S. Senate to maintain or discontinue taxpayer subsidies for the oil companies. Keep in mind that this is a 90-year-old industry that happens to be the most powerful group of entities in history. After the shouting, we learned that the 57% who voted to keep the subsidies in place had received five times the campaign contributions per capita from Big Oil, compared to the 43% who were honest and brave enough to vote to remove the subsidies.
Keep in mind also, that I’m one little guy; people with thousands of times the outreach power that I’ll ever hope to have are making this case far more loudly than I. Here are a few posts I’ve written about talks I’ve attended featuring Ed Rendell, ex-governor of Pennsylvania, who uses his incredible oratory skills to make the same points I do, but with far greater panache. And, as you’ll see, he doesn’t mince words.
I wouldn’t call them “worst friends forever,” btw, because things can change–in fact, they are changing; we’re very close to the point at which the entire industry will be gone, given the plummeting cost of renewable energy and efficiency solutions. Mark my word on that.
Have I made enemies in that camp? To be sure. I got a call a few years ago from a fellow in South Carolina who owns a ton of shares in one of the top (I won’t name it) oil companies, who told me that, in a conference call with the executive team and other top shareholders in which he had participated earlier that morning, one of the subjects du jour was “Craig Shields and 2GreenEnergy.”
What were they saying? The caller couldn’t remember. But let’s face facts: they weren’t contemplating erecting a statue of my likeness in the corporate courtyard.
Do I have a “big gun?” No. I have a couple-year-old computer, a few thousand people who regularly check out my blog, and a whole collection of cleantech projects I’m trying to facilitate.
Am I scared? To be honest, a bit. I’m not Edward Snowden, but, per the above, I have an unknown and unknowable list of people who don’t like the cut of my jib.
Am I quitting? I wouldn’t be writing this if I were.
