Category: Energy

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Climate change Climate Change Domestic Policies Education Energy News Politics

Mrs. MacDowell 1 Exxon 0: Why I Knew in 1970 What Big Oil Still Denies

OK, let’s go back to the halcyon days of the 1969-70 school year when I was in fourth grade. My teacher was one of those cool, hip, young people who knew how to reach children, to excite them to learn, and to inject a bit of reality and responsibility into them as they began to navigate the world. She was the kind of teacher that every child has, I hope, at least once during their schooling. I was lucky enough to have her as a teacher twice.

One of the great activities I clearly remember from that school year was a unit we studied on pollution that included not only classwork on the issue but an assembly in front of the school. We made posters. We wrote skits. We listened to CCR’s Who’ll Stop the Rain  (lyrics).

And we wrote songs.

One of them was based on the Pepsi Cola jingle, “You’ve Got a Lot to Give.” Sing along with me:

It’s the pollution generation
Comin’ at ya, goin’ strong.
Put yourself behind pollution
If you’re livin’
You won’t for long.

I also seem to remember a pollution song based on the Marseillaise, but I can’t seem to recall the words.

We were a cheeky group. She was a great teacher.

And Mrs. MacDowell also knew a heck of a lot more than Exxon did, if contemporary news reports are believable. How is that possible? Because Exxon and other energy companies are not telling the truth about what their scientists were telling them about air pollution and the environment. Even in 1970, as a ten-year old, I had heard about the “Greenhouse Effect” and how pollutants in the air were being trapped and were causing the planet to heat up.

But Exxon? They say they didn’t know. I don’t blame the scientists who work(ed) for the company. I’m going to assume that they stuck to science and dutifully reported what they knew to the best of their ability. To believe otherwise would call into question their credibility and morality. I’m going to blame the company because it has shown time and time again to be on the wrong side of propriety, from the Valdez tragedy to employee protections to today’s allegations about covering up what it knew about the effects of fossil fuels on climate.

I certainly understand that institutions will do whatever they need to do to survive, and the oil and gas industry is no exception. After all, this is the group that came up with the oxymoronic term “clean coal” to try and make the world’s greatest pollutant and killer of far too many miners sound acceptable. It’s also an industry that probably sees low gas prices as a short-to-medium-term good for its survival since many Americans have moved away from hybrid cars in response to lower prices. We even seem to be acting irrationally by taking the savings we’re seeing in low prices and buying slightly pricier premium fuel.

And then there’s the political angle. President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline project became a formality because of the low price of oil, the glut in the very refineries and storage tanks that the Canadian oil was supposed to occupy, and the plain fact that the promised jobs from the pipeline project were not going to approach the economy-saving levels that many conservatives, and labor unions, envisioned. Plus, the Canadian oil is actually getting to the United States through other means, so destroying the Midwestern landscape for a pipeline was not necessary. Obama rightly measured the impact on the environment and cannily waited until a great Labor Department employment report materialized, then mercifully killed the proposal.

As for the Republicans running for president, their views on the environment, climate and energy policy are, to be kind, ignorant. They see no reason to act on what is clearly happening to the earth, preferring to stick their heads in the sand and wait for the Montana banana industry to flourish (catchy as the jingle would be). Forget about Carson and Trump, who will not be elected president in 2016. Certainly, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have seen the devastation wrought by climate change on eco-sensitive Florida, and Chris Christie, who used to be somewhat reliable on the issue, certainly saw what happened during Sandy and the October snowstorm of the previous year. All of them are in favor of more drilling, more oil company benefits and, most tragically, more United States involvement in the Middle East, which is rapidly coming undone by climate, politics and religion. For these reasons alone they are unelectable.

So thank you Mrs. MacDowell for being one of the early few who knew about the climate problem and doing what terrific teachers do: Telling your students, waking them up, getting them to act.

If only Exxon, other energy companies and the Republican party were as smart as you are.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Energy Tid Bits

How to Build a Stove Out Of Soda Cans – Video

I wish I had known this little trick before investing all that money in that generator! I would have saved a bundle!

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Energy energy independence Politics

President’s Weekly Address – Taking Control of America’s Energy Future

In his weekly address, President Obama spoke about the progress America has made in energy production since he took office. The President also highlights the fact that we are producing more energy now, while consuming less.

One area where we’ve made great progress is American energy.  After years of talk about reducing our dependence on foreign oil, we are actually poised to control our own energy future.

Shortly after I took office, we invested in new American technologies to reverse our dependence on foreign oil and double our wind and solar power.  And today, we generate more renewable energy than ever – with tens of thousands of good, American jobs to show for it.  We produce more natural gas than anyone – and nearly everyone’s energy bill is lower because of it.  And just this week, we learned that for the first time in nearly two decades, the United States of America now produces more of our own oil here at home than we buy from other countries.

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Energy Politics weekly address

President Obama’s Weekly Address – An All-Of-The-Above Strategy to Energy Independence

President Obama used his weekly address to talk about energy. He mentioned his recent speech at the United Auto Workers meeting, and reminded us that if nothing was done about the auto industry, “Detroit would have gone bankrupt. “I refused to let that happen, the President said, “these jobs are worth more than just a paycheck – they’re a source of pride and a ticket to the middle class.”

Mr. Obama also mentioned that over the last two and a half years, over 200,000 more jobs were created in the auto industry.

Today, GM is the number one automaker in the world.  Chrysler is growing faster in America than any other car company.  Ford is investing billions in American plants and factories, and plans to bring thousands of jobs back home.  All told, the entire industry has added more than 200,000 new jobs over the past two and a half years.

He also spoke of new fuel efficiency standards put in place by his administration, that would require automobile producers to build vehicles capable of 55 miles per gallon. This, the President says, would save the typical consumer over $8000 over time.

And although the new fuel efficiency standards are a step in the right direction , the President spoke about an “all the above strategy” where fossil fuel wouldn’t be our main source of energy.

 While we consume 20 percent of the world’s oil, we only have 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves.  We’ve got to develop new technology that will help us use new forms of energy.  That’s been a priority of mine as President.  And because of the investments we’ve made, our use of clean, renewable energy has nearly doubled – and thousands of Americans have jobs because of it.

 

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Energy Newt Gingrich Politics

Fact Checking Newt Gingrich’s Lie About President Obama

Welcome to the world of Newt Gingrich and quite frankly, today’s Republican party, where anything and everything is said with one objective in mind – solidifying your misguided, uninformed base.

One of these statements made by Newt Gingrich is an attack on President Obama – what else is new – where Newt tells everyone who cares to listen that President Obama has “kill” jobs since he’s taken office.

“I think the president has now spent three years proving that he kills jobs in energy, he kills jobs in manufacturing, he kills jobs in virtually every part of American life. I mean, notice — the only reason the unemployment rate is going down is because … twice as many people dropped out of the employment pool as the number of jobs were created.”

PolitiFact, a non-partisan, well-respected organization, studied Newt’s claim and found the following

In Energy

During the entire Obama presidency, employment in the oil and gas extraction sector grew by 18,800 jobs, or an increase of 11 percent. Over the same period, jobs in mining declined by 9,200, or 4 percent. Combining the two categories, energy jobs grew by 9,600 jobs, or 2 percent.

Beginning one year into Obama’s presidency, oil and gas extraction jobs increased by 27,500, a rise of 18 percent. Mining jobs grew by 14,900, or 8 percent. Combined, the two sectors increased by 42,400 jobs, or 12 percent.

So over both periods, the energy sector grew in absolute terms — and if you measure beginning in January 2010, the increase has been quite healthy at 12 percent over two years.

In Manufacturing

PolitiFact found that overall, manufacturing jobs decreased since President Obama took office. But the fact checking group also found that this decrease was not a phenomenon that started under President Obama. According to PolitiFact, manufacturing jobs have decreased since 1970.

When compared to past Presidents however, PolitiFact found the following;

So say what you may Newt/Republicans, but when your empty rhetoric settles, the truth will still prevail.

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Barack Obama Energy Politics United States weekly address

Tax Cuts For The Rich – Not Right, Not Smart, Must End – Obama

President Obama in his weekly address;

Now, I don’t have a problem with any company or industry being rewarded for their success. The incentive of healthy profits is what fuels entrepreneurialism and helps drives our economy forward. But I do have a problem with the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies we’ve been handing out to oil and gas companies–to the tune of $4 billion a year. When oil companies are making huge profits and you’re struggling at the pump, and we’re scouring the federal budget for spending we can afford to do without, these tax giveaways aren’t right. They aren’t smart. And we need to end them.

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