Our Approach To Energy on Planet Earth: The Oil Companies Against the Rest of the World—But Is This Really Necessary?
According to the Writer’s Almanac, it’s the 90th birthday of American political humorist Art Buchwald (pictured). They write:
Buchwald began writing political satire when President Eisenhower made a trip to France. His humorous articles caught the attention of Eisenhower’s press secretary, who called the pieces “unadulterated rot.” Buchwald answered back, “I have been known to write adulterated rot, but never unadulterated rot.” After this, he moved back to the United States and began writing political satire full-time. Buchwald said, “If you attack the establishment long enough and hard enough, they will make you a member of it.”
I bring this up because it’s perfectly possible that something like this might happen to me (not that I compare my impact to that of Buchwald, of course). Society’s approach to energy today is defined by the combat between two essential forces: with the oil companies and their lawyers on one side, and the rest of civilization and their lungs on the other. However, it’s conceivable that, in the future, we’ll become less contentious and employ a bit of pragmatic reasoning. Maybe I can play a role in that. Who knows?
I hope so.
Already there is some divergence in approach between American and European oil majors. US Oil firms seem to be generally hostile to changing the current energy landscape, whilst European majors appear to have a more pragmatic approach – and are prepared to make an increasing proportion of their revenues from new energy sources – e.g. Total (A French oil major) is the largest investor in SunPower.