Want to sum this up in two words? Greed. Selfishness.
These people have children. They put the welfare of their children up for sale so they can have more money when they all have far more than they could spend if they tried.
This is an illness. It is a "off" as any other addiction. The Koch Brothers alone have done more damage to the planet than hundreds of thousands of car owners could even attempt to do. Add to that the rest of the billionaire class, at the top of which is Darth Vader Trump.
The sad thing is that this news, real not fake, will make zero difference to the GOP. Pathetic.
15
We are approaching if not past peak net energy per capita. It gets uglier from here.
https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/energy-slaves/
1
People ... there is a crisis at hand.
Oil is not the future.
In fact, it must be abandoned.
Wake up.
12
Someday it will be shown that the Koch's are linked to Putin. They certainly are unAmerican.
7
good! The sooner we(humans)have rendered ourselves extinct,the etter for the planet! (And I DARE NYTies to let this post!!!)
3
This is an insane effort to walk backwards into an ignorant toxic past.....the Koch brothers are actively anti-American and are pursuing their very sinister agenda....I suggest we all boycott their products, from their toilet paper to LuLuLemon leggings, Lycra fiber, chemicals, etc They actively tried to block solar energy development here in Palm Springs, (they lost that battle) and are not held in high regard here in CA.....they are forces of toxic destruction and they use their inherited wealth to bully and control. Pay attention when shopping and boycott their products and tell retailers that you will not shop there as long as they continue to sell Koch Industry products of any kind. Money is all these guys understand or care about so spend your precious hard earned money elsewhere, every consumer has the power of one and we are free to choose what we buy and who we buy from. So let's all BOYCOTT KOCH INDUSTRIES NOW! We do have choices.
14
This president dare to betray the country to Russia for the sake of his and his family business. He dare to stay silent over an unjust murder of a journalist for the sake of billion dollar business with Saudi Prince. He dare to withdraw from the Paris Accord for the sake of his base and donors who wants to roll back those rules set up by President Obama. The unfit president has no regards for moral laws, no conscience for justice. NO sympathy for poor suffering with health problems.
Oh, America, Oh America, what have you done to yourselves ? Wake up!!! How come the only people really fighting him and his administration are the hero journalists and the Muller group?
10
So much for the Koch machine standing apart from Trump.
9
Buy an electric car as your next automobile. That is all.
11
Sec. of Transportation Elaine Chao is Mrs. Mitch McConnell. It is relevant, and should always be stated, especially in this sea of cronyism and behind-the-scenes manipulation.
10
40 % of new cars in Norway 2018 are electric. It's possible.
The oil lobby described in this NYTimes article is a dinosaur. Or an ostrich hiding it's head in the sand. Wake up USA! We need all the bright, smart and innovative US brains we know you have in abundance to lead the world on a green path!
9
The article is part of a serial narrative on the failure of most people to 'link the dots'. The top layer of 'C-suite' executives and major shareholders closes the loop of vested interests. These people earn more in one year than almost everyone else does in a lifetime of work.
The Oil industry is the grand-daddy of capitalism. Tony Hayward was CEO of BP when the Deepwater Horizon exploded on the Gulf of Mexico causing eleven oil workers to die in the inferno (April-2010). He claimed he would tighten safety. He failed to do so and took the sword in the aftermath of Deepwater Horizon’s demise. http://science.time.com/2010/07/25/oil-spill-goodbye-mr-hayward/
This is the pattern the Japanese have raised to political theater. The company does wrong. A scapegoat is identified. The scapegoat goes before a camera and apologizes for ‘his’ serious mistakes. Sometimes they cry before the camera begging forgiveness. We are the fools to believe this nonsense and condone a Too Big to Fail logic that has compromised America and the world. It is the reason we have a serious challenge in climate change and GHG emissions abatement enactments.
Between the crying executives and the money paid to politicians, we are out-gunned. Too many voters are suckers for bad acting. In the absence of quality leadership to radically change our lenient carbon emissions policies, we need to face-up to an environmental doomsday.
Are your kids ready?
7
Marathon Oil, the Koch brothers and the Trump administration will maintain tbe premature death rate due to burning fossil fuels.
6
Covert? Hardly. For years, public interest watchdog organizations have been reporting on the oil industry's outrageous campaign contribution to Congress (and yes, more to Republicans than Democrats - now, there's a shocker, right?)
So not covert. Rather, out in the open but not something Amercians care much about when push comes to shove, or the rubber hits to road. Or perhaps in future, when sea water flows down Broadway.
Want proof? Just mention campaign financing reform at your next cocktail party.
3
Tragically, I think there is little hope of saving the human race. As we move into Christmas, I am reminded of Dickens’ words, “This boy is Ignorance and this girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.” We have a powerful, antisocial and ignorant elite, epitomized by Donald J. Trump, who will gladly trade the future of their offspring for their short term comfort. Sadly, our leaders are their servants, and we, by our inaction are complicit in our own destruction.
9
And besides, we're all going to die anyway; why not let the oil companies profit a bit from it?
2
Power utilities will not be helping the oil industry - electric cars are good for the utilities. Read this (or full article at link below) - expecting > 18.7 million electric vehicles by 2030. Utilities like that.
"With US EV sales forecast to explode, Southern says grid will be prepared
As more states, cities and municipalities work toward 100% zero emission vehicles by 2050, utility experts view the growing flexible load from electric vehicle (EV) charging as an opportunity. [...]
utility representatives said they have already prepared for the growth of EV adoption [...] "We’ve done multiple studies on how much infrastructure you need to support a future of all EVs," Darren Epps, product development specialist for Southern Company, said on the panel.
"Really, one of the reasons we’re such proponents of [increasing EV adoption] is it does check all the boxes for us, it’s new load and it’s load at the right time," Epps said, after remarking that owners often charge EVs at night, helping utilities flatten load."
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/with-us-ev-sales-forecast-to-explode-southern-says-grid-will-be-prepared/544154/
4
Like Nero of the Roman Empire of the past, who fiddled while Rome burned, Trump twitters while the earth cooks! During the last major oil embargo crisis of the mid ninetine seventies, the US auto industry was smacked hard by consumer preference for far more energy effificient Japanese and European products!
6
Why would anybody want to pay more for fuel than necessary.
Just put more efficient engines in suv's.
Forget the crooked lobbyists and banana republic corruption.
Go buy a tank with good fuel economy.
When sales of bloated gas guzzling US suv's dry up the motor industry will deliver what you want.
Meanwhile there are lots of more fuel efficient options from Europe, Japan, Korea, India and very soon China.
Okay Trump will stick extra taxes on that the American consumer will pay to punish these countries.
Offset by fuel economy.......
4
Could it be that people in the oil industry do not need to breathe the same air as the rest of us, and have contingency plans for how their future generations will survive when global warming makes the world uninhabitable or at very least as unpleasant as Phoenix in summer during a power outage... Apparently the prospect of greater income interferes with cognitive ability of the filthy rich.
3
Websters defines covert as "not openly shown, engaged in, or avowed." If your reading about these efforts on ALEC's website and it's being discussed on Marathon's public calls with analysts, it isn't covert. Letter writing campaigns, using form letters, are a common practice when commenting on regulations. No one is fooled into thinking that everyone just happened to use the same words. But everyone who sends in the form letter should be understood as supporting that position.
Hyperventilating about "convert" and "stealthy" cabals added nothing to this article and undermines any appearance of objectivity.
2
This is corporate greed at its worst, disguised as high-minded principle. Corporate propaganda has tarnished the word "freedom." When I hear this word now, I think of the Koch Bros.
4
Facebook has a lot to answer for in this. I never saw the ads sponsored by the Koch regime, probably because they were targeted by Facebook to people whose online habits show a different orientation. If I had seen them, I could not have known who the Men Behind the Curtain were. Did Facebook even care? Not as long as the checks cleared.
5
Why would any human being that has its brains in the right place want to pursue short term personal gain at the expense of the wellbeing of its children?
But actually, we see reality in the streets. The yellow vests also vote with their wallet. Yes climate must be preserved, but only few want to bear the financial consequences.
1
I can't keep reading this; it makes me want to cry. That human beings can be so greedy at the expense of everyone on our planet is inconceivable.
8
In poor countries, people ride motorcycles. Americans are too large for them. Cars are getting larger, because Americans are getting larger.
1
While this auto emissions rollback is bad news, leadership by California and Bloomberg will take precedence, so science will win over special interests. This is not to say the journey won't be rough
2
Currently, i have more trust in un-elected beaurocrats writing regulations than wealthy secretive donors working behind shell lobbying organizations.
2
Trump voters are generally as a group anti-government regulation, so I expect they would cheer this action of this POTUS (as they do about everything he does). I wonder if they really, really, really think that paying more to fill the tank is better for them and their families? Or are they so focused on "regulations bad" and "climate change is a hoax" that they fail to consider that paying more at the pump is part of the deal?
2
At the end of the day the responsible citizen, who graces this beautiful planet for a short time, must spend hard earned dollars wisely, seek the truth and change our behavior for this planet. This is a great article, thank you for the depth of your research.
9
You cannot trust any company. They only care about themselves and their bottom line. If they have a choice between making money and hurting you, have no doubt they will always choose profits. Yes, there may be a few companies where this does not hold true. But, then again, how many supposedly good companies have been found to be in actuality not very good, at all.
3
This comes as no surprise. There is a massive campaign by Big Oil to push its agenda, and it has a very loud and prominent spokesperson in the form of the current US President. Who knows what Trump's real motives are (he clearly hates environmentalists) but for a man who claimed he was going to 'drain the swamp' it is very interesting how readily he follows the agenda of the most powerful lobby group of all -- the fossil fuel industry. More fuel efficient vehicles are in the best interests of everyone and every thing, excepting Big Oil of course.
7
Thank you NYT for uncovering this unscrupulous lobbying effort.
I have 36 years experience in the global automotive industry and I can add a couple of points with certainty.
1. The auto industry has the technology already developed to achieve the 2015 Obama Administration targets. The technology is in market in Europe today.
2. The Obama Administration targets will save consumers significant amounts of money over the life of their vehicle in fuel cost savings.
3. The only beneficiary of the roll backs would be the oil industry. Every other stakeholder would be worse off.
10
Switching to an electric vehicle saved me about 75% on fuel expenses. It’s a whole ton of money I never really recognized I was spending. This group wants to keep it that way.
11
Sad! I heard a union official say the rollback of the CAFE fuel efficiency standards (which made the Chevy Cruze an expendable line in-spite of selling over 180,00 units in 2017), is a main reason GM is shuttering its Lordstown Ohio plant.
This article also illustrates why public policies, not individual choices, are needed to fight global warming. Now about 200,000 people a year no longer have the choice to buy this fuel efficient, albeit, less profitable compact car from GM.
6
ALEC - the un-elected - should be outlawed. How can a secretive alliance of tax dodging, polluting industrial profiteers have the right to co-opt our government and write laws dictating to the citizenry what ALEC wants? The tyranny of industry and the Kochs. Perhaps a counter-group funded by a gofund me account can counter ALEC which could, for example, impose legislation requiring fossil fuel industry to subsidize a Tesla car or truck for ALL citizens - see how they like it.
Who in their right mind wants to spend more on MORE fuel? Not drive double the distance on the same amount of fuel? Let alone breath more pollution Beijing style?
New technology? No! Marathon's chief executive wants us to stay with "existing technology." That's the stale thinking that defines conservatives - who hate progress, innovation, competition and love an economy they've rigged for themselves. Free markets? Free for them and costly for everyone else.
“choice in vehicles that best fit their needs” - who wouldn't want an electric SUV or an electric pick up truck that can out-accelerate any gas driven sports car and never have to pay the Kochs for another ounce of gasoline or diesel again? We just need to work on the range of e-vehicles and have as many electric charging stations as gas stations.
Since we do not live on a disposable planet, every effort must be done to dispose of the Kochs and their business - bury 'em under clean coal ash - before they destroy the world for future generations.
14
Of course, the overall premise is true, that Big Oil stands to benefit colossally (if they could somehow be separated from the rest of Earth) from the policies of a Madman. But the secondary premise, that this was in some way hidden in plain sight, is quite absurd. It is completely obvious in every way we need to pry ourselves loose from the clutches of a fatal fossil fuels addiction.
It's not like jobs and economic strength in the coal, oil, fracking and dirty energy industries are actually going to be there in the long run. Why tempt Fate and create an even steeper fall for these industries by procrastinating in what is an absolute must?
Clean energy, now and for the future. It's a forced move.
4
The fact that low-mileage vehicles are being offered for sale does not mean that we have to buy them. If people want to save gas and reduce emissions, they will say so in the obvious way, by their purchase choices.
You will not convince me that every car manufacturer is going to immediately pull every economical car from their line up if this goes through. All this does is transfer the decision making process from bureaucrats in DC to each and every one of us, the public who will have to live with the results of our choices.
2
We the people should do whatever we can to reduce pollution and boycott buying fuel inefficient gas guzzler. I just returned from Boston, MA, the intellectual capital of the USA. I was surprised by the number of smoke spewing chimneys around the Boston skyline and the number of cars on the road that would not qualify as fuel efficient. If each of us looks in the mirror we will find the polluting culprits staring at us. It is time we take responsibility for our actions and not expect government and corrupt politicians to reduce pollution and climate change.
4
@Girish Kotwal
Boston is a wealthy city (as cities go). Wealthy people like to signify wealth. Most people with an income over 200k won't drive a cheap car. But more expensive cars tend to have more horsepower and torque (which I love), and high horsepower cars gets worse mileage. Someone needs to market an ICE car that's over 50k yet that gets great mpg. I know that sounds strange. Why spend more? For the same reason people buy an expensive watch rather than just use the clock on their phone. It needs to be ICE for people who don't want to charge. Expensive American and Japanese cars tend to be large and, as consequence, get poor MPG. However, it'd be hard to sell buyers on a low horsepower car with a big price tag. You'd have to make a small designer car with a very high-end interior that's light enough (and low horsepower) to get good MPG. I've seen a Gucci Fiat around NYC/Fairfield. Presumably, a Fiat made in collaboration with Gucci. It's small and probably gets good mpg, but, because it has Gucci colors on it, wealthy people know it's an expensive model.
I'm not jesting about this. many people in urban areas buy cars to show status. If they want a high status car (BMW,Porsche, Audi, Mercedes, Cadillac), they'll be buying something that gets so-so mpg. If Tom Ford and Ford collaborated on a Focus TF (TF standing for "Tom Ford"), it could sell for 60k and get 38mpg. The price would be for the Tom Ford styled interior.
The inefficientSUVsare for "going to the beach" and for driving through streets flooded by high tides, plus the fantasy of driving through and around storm-damaged roads with downed trees and power lines during and after the more and more frequent and strong hurricanes brought by global warming. Toyota 25 years ago in TV ads justified purchase of an SUV to go get coffee while driving through streets with potholes and muggers. Safety for the family! The "light truck" exemption from the CAFE standards was a legal crime on the order of the "depletion allowances" given to petroleum companies in the 1920s.
5
“We believe in a level playing field so all Americans have the equal opportunity to succeed,”
“This is a step in the right direction to protect consumers and workers against government mandates that would limit choice,”
Succeed at what? What choice?
Koch, Marathon, et al., publicly justify their pitch for lower standards in terms of free-market platitudes, as if these were the only story, the whole story, the end of story. One consequence of this particular free-market choice is increased air pollution, which will affect many Americans who want to succeed in maintaining health. That is their preferred choice, to live in a healthy environment. To Koch, what others prefer, with reason, is another story of no relevance, of no importance, of no consequence to him.
3
In time our cars will be electric and our homes will be heated and cooled with solar energy. Progress moves us on and we will either catch up with it or be left behind. By the way, one of the selling points of my Subaru Outback was better gas mileage. It lives up to the promise. 28.9 per gallon and better when I'm on a long trip.
2
I would guess most Americans are genuinely concerned with the accelerating pace of climate change and the existential threat to survival of life on Earth if no actions are taken. Yet there is a huge disconnect between this sincere concern about the environment and gas guzzling SUV's and Light Trucks dominating auto purchases to such an extent that Ford plans to discontinue sales of all sedans.
"By 2022, LMC Automotive estimates 84 percent of the vehicles General Motors sells in the U.S. market will be some kind of truck or SUV. Ford's ratio of domestic SUV and truck sales will hit 90 percent; Fiat Chrysler's will notch a whopping 97 percent. "
American buying habits compliment the efforts if Marathon and the rest of the oil industry.
5
@Paul Cohen I agree. How many people show up at save the earth rallies as the sole occupant of a gas guzzling SUV?
I continue hoping that with the ongoing shenanigans of the Republican Party at all levels, activists will continue working to have a greater impact on the 2020 elections than they did in 2018. I think it is our only hope to save us and the world.
3
I love trucks. I have three of them, the best tools in a contractor's arsenal.
Currently, diesel is the only choice for working power. They get more powerful every year, and sales continue to climb. So here's a thought: hybrid electric heavy duty trucks. A train with rubber tires.
Tesla has proven there is a market, locomotives have proven their ability. The most disappointing thing about this policy is that it will further suppress the electric vehicle program. Electric cars, SUV's, and trucks of all sizes... we should have entire fleets of them by now.
Why does no one else talk about this?
9
@Butte Because there is no way to get the pulling power and range of a diesel in an electric vehicle at this time. If and when there can be, I have no doubt that they will be on the market.
Yes there is.
Locomotives. Cargo ships.
End of story.
1
@mikecody Umm.... Tesla has a big rig on the market right now? Read the stats, it has plenty of pulling power. https://www.tesla.com/semi
1
It's not really a secret. You can pick any rollback you want and guess and be correct what industries lobbied to have the rules changed. That is how our system works. Money buys access and change or favoritism. If you don't have money too bad for you. This is not a democracy.
3
Oil and gas companies not having to pay for polluting is a GIANT government subsidy that distorts market signals.
8
Are we allowed to use the word "evil" yet? If not, what will it take? How about the Koch brothers campaign to thwart public transportation initiatives? Does that qualify? Excellent article. I really only wish it would appear in the WSJ.
6
Perhaps the Trump slogan "Make America Great Again" means a return to the 1950s when US automobile manufactures could bribe the local government in Los Angeles to cripple, rip out and discontinue a good public transportation system and suffer no consequences other than increased auto sales. The expanding and strengthening of the circles of graft and corruption are staggering.
3
Climate change is a false premise for regulating or taxing carbon dioxide emissions. Political or business leaders who advocate unwarranted taxes and regulations on fossil fuels will be seen as fools or knaves. Climate change is NOT caused by human fossil fuels use. There is no empirical evidence that fossil fuels use affects climate. Earth naturally recycles all carbon dioxide.
Fossil fuels emit only 3% of total CO2 emissions. All the ambient CO2 in the atmosphere is promptly converted in the oceans to calcite (limestone) and other carbonates, mostly through biological paths. CO2 + CaO => CaCO3. 99.84% of all carbon on earth is already sequestered as sediments in earth's crust. The lithosphere is a massive hungry carbon sink that converts ambient CO2 to carbonate almost as soon as it is emitted.
The Paris Treaty is now estimated to cost more than $100 trillion -- $15,000 per human being. A colossal mistake. About humanity's cumulative savings over recorded history. And will not affect climate at all. A modern coal power plant emits few air effluents except water vapor and carbon dioxide. Coal remains the lowest cost and most reliable source of electric energy, along with natural gas.
Coal & gas dominate electric energy generation because they are cheap and reliable. Without the CO2-driven global-warming boogeyman, wind and solar power will be relegated to the niches they deserve. Using renewable energy is like paying first-class airfare to fly standby.
CO2 increase in air is well documented. Ocean acidification is a well documented phenomenon (yes, much co2 goes into the oceans but ability to buffer it is limited. Ice caps are melting. The vast preponderance of climate scientists around the world agree there is a climate problem but it sounds like you’re depending to an industry paid lobbyist for your science. Suggest you read the report our own govt put out the day after thanksgiving (in obvious attempt to bury it).
8
Beliefs are not facts. CO^2 ends up in the atmosphere when burned. There is no longer a dispute.
1
Man-made climate change deniers should put their money where their mouths are and buy property next to these "modern" coal plants.
1
This makes me ill. Oil companies trying to make more money at the expense of future generations. In the words of our "great" president: Sad!
1
With all of their machinations in every level of politics there could probably be a case made that the Koch brothers have been attempting a coup d'état.
Okay, so we switch to electric cars, will that help our environment?
Answer: Widespread adoption of electric vehicles nationwide will likely increase air pollution compared with new internal combustion vehicles. You read that right: more electric cars and trucks will mean more pollution.
Reason 1: Electric cars are only as clean as the Power Plants that produce power!
Reason 2: As more people purchase Electric Vehicles, more power plants will be needed, which equals more pollution!
Reason 3: From mining material for the batteries and the vehicles frame, to the production and delivery to the consumer, the damage to the environment is significant.
Reason 4: Even with large increases in wind and solar generation, it is estimated that only 30% of our power would come from renewables and air quality would get worse. Look it up on Google for yourself!
Reason 5: With more and more electric vehicles on the road, electric use and rates will increase. All those turbines and solar panels... and they are not so great for birds and wildlife!
Reason 6: Subsidies for electric vehicles only benefit people who can afford to buy them. Subsidies have not benefited the poor and who are least likely able to afford the cost of replacing the batteries!
Reason 7: If electric vehicles are so great and good for the environment, why are you, your spouse, your children and your neighbors not driving one now!
Turn off your computer, junk your gas guzzling vehicle and buy a Tesla now!
1
@The Critic Cradle to Grave, electric cars are cleaner over their operational lifetime, even in areas where the electricity is sourced from coal operated plants. In the dirtiest part of the US, driving an EV is at least as clean as driving a 43 MPG vehicle. Union of Cornced Scientisd a great report on this with updated statistics. As the grid gets cleaner, so does the EV. Not true with traditional ICE powered vehicles.
6
@ Critic, 30% electricity from renewables is easy, California is the largest state in the US & we're already there:
https://www.energy.ca.gov/almanac/electricity_data/total_system_power.html
We're moving on rapidly to 50%, which is required by our Renewables Portfolio Standard by 2030, but we'll hit that mark early, as we did with the other RPS.
3
I am very familiar with the report by the Union of Concerned Scientists. I am also very familiar with the advances that California is making.
None of this changes the fact that the majority of our nations (and worlds) electrical supply is fossil fuel based, that as a whole, it is a long way off from even coming close to 30% coming from renewable. Plus the fact that my post specifically mentioned 2030 and the problems we will be facing at that time.
The next thing is the fact that that over 4 million EV's are on the road world wide and growing. So despite claims of helping the world, lets look at what is going on now...
With 4 million EV's (plugins), has the electrical grid been cleaned up with renewables? Nope! Coal fired plants are being built at a record pace - many by China.
With the growing numbers of EV's, Solar Panels and Wind Turbines... is our air getting cleaner or is it getting dirtier? Is CO2 Emissions falling or are they climbing? Is atmospheric levels of CO2 falling or are they rising at record paces? With the growing number of EV's (4 million plus) is world wide oil production rising or falling?
If electric vehicles are so great and good for the environment, why are you, your spouse, your children and your neighbors not driving one now?
If you bothered to go through the comments, you would see that I have already posted on several subjects and would discover, that unlike most people, have actually taken action to reduce my carbon footprint!
1
When the next climate enhanced natural disasters hit, Trump and all his cronies should participate in witnessing first hand the destruction, cost, suffering and loss of life brought about by their greed.
3
Robert, They don't care who they hurt. They don't even seem to care about the futures of their own children and grandchildren. These shallow people appear to possess no moral compass or compassion. They care only about their short-term gains. They judge their own value as human beings - and the value of others - by one thing: net monetary worth. If this upsets you, I hope you are (or will now become) an engaged citizen who calls and/or writes to his legislators about important issues, who votes in every election for those who will stand up to the oil and gas industry, and who works to convince others to get out and vote. And, as many other readers have pointed out, most of us could work harder to reduce our fuel consumption.
2
We should be able to sue the oil companies for destroying the planet like we sued the tobacco industry for destroying our bodies
6
Thank you, NYT, for this great reporting!!
6
Ah the seedy underbelly exposed! Beautiful reporting. Thank you.
2
The monstrosity that is Trump just continues on and on.
2
Collusion of the Secretary of Transportation and Leader of the Senate (marriage tied deeply with each's conservative stand). Curious to know if Mitch got funding for his last race from Koch and the oil companies.
3
I hope everyone remembers that we owe our modern life style to fossil fuels. Fossil fuels have raised the standard of living for people of all strata of society across the globe. If they said, ok, we're stopping the use of fossil fuels tomorrow, everyone here lambasting the oil companies would shriek in dismay. How would you get to Starbucks for a latte? How could you possibly fly to the Caribbean to chill after a tough week at work in your climate controlled office building or your house. How would your grocery store have all those nice green veggies year round? A tragedy would be upon us all. So unless you're living and working in a tent, riding only a bike and not driving,don't use the internet,don't read hard copies of the Times, don't buy food unless it's locally grown, then give me a break from your hypocrisy. Bemoan the mythical climate change monster, feel guilty for your comfortable life style (thanks to fossil fuels) but don't act as if the oil companies are evil for forcing us to use oil.
Until there are viable alternatives, we have little choice. As long as industry lobbies have more power than voters, there will be no viable alternatives.
6
Most people are forced to drive to work because they don't have another option, so yes, changing fuel standards literally forces us to burn more fossil fuels.
1
@Ralphie - much of the US economy got a great start with slave labor, and Rome benefited from lead plumbing (how we got the word plumbing) except for the fact that those weren't good, sustainable things to continue with.
Here's the thing. Times change. New options are available and better. Dinosaurs died out.
Coal plants are shutting down in droves because their economics are awful against the competition of gas plus renewables plus storage, and storage is barely started.
Sure, oil and coal got a lot of things started. They also shorten lives, poison the air and water, petroleum is one of the most politically destabilizing substances in the world right now and has cost the world and our country dearly in lives, money, pollution and day-to-day turmoil.
If you want to remind us of the benefits, then here's the flip side:
- our overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran leads to Ayatollah, hostages, Hamas, etc.
- our caring at all about the Saudi tribes because of what was under their ground led to exported Wahhabism, funding of the other side of the Sunni/Shia feuding
- Oil embargoes of the 1970s
- September 11th, Patriot Act, much longer delay to fly anywhere, Afghanistan war, Iraq war
- Over a million deaths in India, same in China from lax fossil fuel use. Careful fossil fuel use is expensive.
Oh, that's just part of the Joy of Fossil. Then there's the real greenhouse effect, rising seas and the acidification of oceans. Those are bonus no matter your denial.
2
what this shows is that a very necessary part of the agenda needs to be to remove the influence of big money from politics. People like Pelosi may resist this (she's all about raising campaign donations) but it's toxic to allow the Koch's to spread their dollars around and pervert legislation and legislators so that the environment, and by extension the people of this country suffer. Our grandchildren will face summer days in the 120s, flooding of major cities on the coasts, desertification of our food growing regions, collapse of the electricity grid and an inability to find enough water. Millions in the country and indeed across the globe will die because of the Koch bros and their unfettered greed. Restrain the lobbyists and get the big money out of politics or we'll all be doomed
2
@Gary Sclar - comprehensive campaign finance reforms, somehow supported by enough people in both parties, that includes laws that make the Citizens United travesty irrelevant.
I'd favor national funding of all campaigns. People who want to contribute money to a race can, but it goes into a pot and all funds for that race go equally to all qualifying candidates. Loopholes will abound, I'm not trying to write a law right here, but we need to get rid of the fake charitable groups, the billionaire radicals and all the rest from our politics.
But it can't happen when politicians have to spend so much time scrounging to fund the next campaign, esp. since that presents the rational urge to seek the biggest checks, with those big strings attached. (The ones the Supreme Court majority was too blind to see in Citizens United).
Are there actually consumers out there who insist on buying fuel-inefficient cars and spending more on gasoline than they need to (everything else being equal)? Color me skeptical as even the average American is not that stupid. More to the point: if there is a negative externality from burning carbon-based fuels, then impose a carbon tax equal to the externality and let consumers and car manufacturers figure out how best to change their behaviors in response.
1
@Earl W.
I drive a manual Porsche Cayman S. It gets 21/29. It drinks only premium ($3.85 a gallon around NYC). For me, it's a recreation toy. It's a manual with 325hp. So, it gets worse mpg than an automatic with 150hp. However, it weighs 2,950lb, which is about half the weight of a pick-up. I drive it because it's amazingly fun. It's light, agile, and quick. It feels like a fast go-kart. The manual shifter is smooth and a joy to use. I view my car as my main vice. I don't smoke, drink much, or gamble. I use my AC as little as possible. I know that if I were a better person, I'd trade my car for a Ducati or a Triumph and get my jollies with the most efficient mode of transportation on the road (a motorcycle).
2
@richguy Yes, but you missed the all-important phrase "everything else being equal". Exchanging your Porsche for a fuel-sipping Nissan Versa is not exactly an equal trade. And it has nothing to do with being a "better person". You should be able to enjoy your vice as long as you are willing to pay $7 a gallon for gas to do so. Same goes for soccer moms driving mega SUVs because they think they are safer and guys driving big pickup trucks for no other reason than to compensate for a shortcoming elsewhere. To each his or her own as long as they are willing to pay for the costs they impose on others.
1
@richguy Good for you!. I drive a 78 MG Midget which gets similar mileage for the same reasons. I still use less gas per year than my buddy with his fuel efficient Mazda because I walk or bus a lot of places.
The writer buried the most significant point of the story, which is the increase in the amount of greenhouse gasses the U.S. will pour into the environment with this change. That increase will negatively effect all Americans and people the world over.
4
The oil industry chiefs and their enablers are nothing but new age Luddites, doing their self-interested best to stymie new technology and market forces. The silver lining? Well, we know what happened to the original Luddites.
1
Great reporting. It is so very frustrating the smoke and mirrors game that is played by special interests all across the board.
And I say repeal, but lets attach a nice big (and appropriate) carbon tax! Seems that would eliminate the need for the regulation and could accomplish the same result as fuel economy standards if structured properly.
2
I am all for electric cars, but where is the electricity to power them to come from? If it is coal or natural gas, are we any better off environmentally? If it is from solar or wind, then it’s fine, but if it is free m nuclear, then it presents another issue. I won’t buy an electric car until I am sure that its electricity is generated without fossil fuels. Otherwise, what is the point?
I worry about energy loss in transmitting electricity. No one wants a fossil fuel power plant close by. The best solution for all would be for homeowners to have their own solar electric panels on their rooftops generating electricity that could be stored during the day and used to charge vehicles at night. But then, not everybody is a homeowner and has a rooftop. Solar panels are expensive too.
Lots of complications and complexities in all of this.
1
Robert,
Put solar panels on your house, save on utility bills with a payback period of 6-8 years, and use some of the excess electricity to fuel your new electric car. Problem solved. It’s very liberating.
1
While it's true that most electricity in the US is generated from coal, right now to drive your gas powered car you release considerably more CO2 than an electric car because of the process to find, refine, and burn oil/gas. Cutting out the exploration, movement of oil, refinement of oil, and combustion in an engine is a huge win for the environment. Plus you CAN produce energy in a clean manner to charge the car, and we should! And it should be encouraged. But regardless, electric cars are a win for the environment.
1
US generation 1 TW of electricity of which barely 50GW is solar. Fossil fuels still contribute to 600 GW of it. The growth rate is very slow compared to countries like India and China. China already produces 130GW. India, at 30GW, is still behind US; but it was at 3GW in 2014 and is targeting 100GW by 2022.
There is real danger of US adapting the Nokia story due to political pressure of oil lobby
The motivation for China and India is that they import almost 100% of their crude oil whereas the US doesn't. Hence you have coal power plants being rejected and those companies getting into solar power.
Motivation is a strong factor
As great and as scary as this article is, the power play described by the riches is not new.
People need to stop describing US as Capitalist Democracy. The nation is effectively Capitalist Oligarchy where the nation is run by politicians that are puppets being danced around by handful of billionaires.
The only way out is possible by educated, aware and politically active society. Sadly, as 2016 elections showed, we are generations away from that.
6
In the late 50's, the smog in LA would be so bad the high school track team had to stop practicing and go indoors. Most days, if there was a temperature inversion, a thick cloud similar to the ones now occurring in China, would be prevalent throughout the whole basin.
Today, just about every day you can see the foot hills, you can breath easily and everywhere high schools are practicing sports on a daily basis.
What changed? For one, the southland Air Quality Management District was instituted and later, the State took up the cause. No more smudge pots to keep the citrus from freezing, no more burning in your back yard and most importantly auto emission control.
It was a slow process resisted by many large corporations. But it was REGULATION of auto and factory emissions that did the job.
There is still work to be done but rolling back regulation on auto emissions controls and probably changes to refining rules have the potential of rolling us back to the 50's. California has the right idea in resisting these changes.
4
We should not need the government to tell us to conserve oil and gasoline. People who drive gas guzzlers as family vehicles have more cash than sense. What is with the American obsession with indictment and excess? Our culture is militantly wasteful. Let's get more low fuel economy vehicles on the road and see what happens in a few years when gas goes to $6, $7, or more per gallon and all these people with 60 mile commutes are paying more for gas than groceries and are stuck in an upside down car loan on an SUV they can no longer afford to drive.
7
@arusso
There's a problem with your scenario. As oil consumption decreases the price will go down, offsetting some of the decreased consumption.
If we want consumers to do the right thing we need to price carbon at a level that at least accounts for its damage to the environment as well as covering for our military commitments to unstable regions like the Middle East. The tax could be adjusted as needed to achieve overall CO2 emission reductions.
Given the oil industry's malign behavior over recent decades, I'd also add a substantial penalty. This could be in the form of federal seizure of oil company assets that would be capped or mothballed.
A side note. If we are awash with oil and we are in a "free market" why aren't prices tumbling?
13
@sbanicki Have you bought gasoline lately? Remember the $5.00 a gallon prices we had not so long ago? They have tumbled.
@sbanicki
From October 8th 2018 to date, price of fuel dropped from $6.77 per US Gallon to $6.14 per US Gallon on December 10th 2018. (Prices in US Dollars.)
During the same time, average prices in the US went from $3.21 on October 8th to $2.75 on December 10th 2018. Naturally, if people are in NY, Alaska, California or other high cost of living states, prices would be higher than my numbers!
We are already paying a low price for fuel!
https://www.globalpetrolprices.com
You can choose US Dollars, Euro's, or any other currency. You can also choose gallons, liters and scroll your mouse on the graph for the prices!
I'm actually okay with much of what the oil guys try to do to protect their industry, recognizing that it will be a useless and expensive exercise at the end of the day.
1
we need to recognize just how vicious the oil barons are, they not only want to disregard climate change threats or the ordinary pollution there activities create, they go out of their way to show their hatred for nature and beauty, insisting on drilling n the Arctic and the Alaska Wildlife refuge where they know they can't control pollution and they can barely make a profit, its to spite those who care about beauty, polar beats, walrus, caribou etc And they want to do seismic testing off the coast in part to show their contempt for caring about whales. Similar for the sage grouse.
Those who care about nature, animals, beauty have to reduce and even stop buying petroleum products, even if they have to walk more and drive less.
18
Every drop of oil you save will put these lowlifes in their place faster.
20
This article burns me up It shows that the Koch Brothers and the organizations they fund, along with the oil producers and the Republican Party are a criminal organization, who will trash the entire society for personal profit. Vote with your dollars and in the voting booth. Buy only electric or other high mileage cars, or no cars at all, and vote straight D on election day. The sooner these lowlifes are put in their place the better. Every drop of oil you save will put them there faster.
20
Of all the political crimes of Trump and the GOP (and they are too numerous to enumerate here), their greatest will be seen as their willingness to sacrifice the futures of their own children and grandchildren for money and power today.
20
We’re they not also involved in 100% deductibility of a business vehicle in 2018–but only if it’s on a truck chassis and weighs more than 6,000 lbs? It’s the most outrageously cynical incentive to lock in high fuel consumption ever.
10
My Prius Plug-in; Stands right now at 109.7 mpg. I will never go back. If our big three can't deal with that, I'll never go back to them again. And as for Charlie, isn't it time to put the "KOCH" back in the 'mine?' Mr. Koch, you're way past your sell-by date.
13
I had a Prius for 13 years, loved it. Bought a Nissan Leaf last year, & I'll never go back to a gas-burner. So clean, charges in the garage, imperceptible change in the electric bill.
Zack,
It is unconstrained Capitalism that is destroying Democracy, by corrupting Government for it's our purposes. There is such a thing a good government, and as a concept there always will be, but it is up to citizens to be active in their Governments activities or Capitalist (Corporate ) interests will overwhelm Citizens interests. Let's roll!
11
Aw, c'mon, are you kidding? There were and continue to be Koch people at the top and in middle positions in every single branch of government that involves anything to do with any Koch product, fossil fuel or paper including people bent on erasing National Parks. And the koch brothers profited through their non-profit network of misleadingly named mob network. In plain sight.
5
Time to stop filling up my Prius at my nearby Chevron station. Supposedly Shell is more concerned about greenhouse gases, so I'll spend my money there instead.
5
Higher emissions standards primarily support oil pumping countries with leadership that exerts extreme control over their own citizens: Russia and Saudi Arabia and Iran are at the top of the list. Trump wants extreme control and he will do anything to
get it.
5
Can we trust anyone in the GOP to do the right thing? No!
California will not let this happen. The feds can scream all they want but unless manufacturers want to sell cars in California following standards we decide is best for our state, you might as well be beating your 50-foot yachts against a brick wall.
terrible gas mileage is... terrible.
7
Yes, Albuquerque has a problem, ringed by mountains that hold the air around the city and make a dirty haze over the city. This city does suffer from any releases of pollution into the air. It is a canary in the mine for the rest of us.
3
I will NEVER buy a Trump Standard High Emissions Vechicle.
5
“I’m shocked, shocked! to find gambling going on in this establishment.”
1
As I pointed out earlier, Marathon has a legal and fiscal responsibility to their share holders to maximize profit. I am not saying that what they did is morally right, just that under our current system, they can not be blamed!
If people are so upset about this, instead of posting comments, why are they not voting with their checkbook by divesting businesses involved in the oil industry from their 401 k's and stock portfolios?
Next point: SO WHAT - the oil company's want people to drive SUV's and other gas guzzlers. Do people really think that this is going to matter in the long run? I ask this because fuel economy simply does not matter when it comes to Climate Change!
The reason why I am correct has to do with Jevons Paradox!
Jevons Paradox has been driving engineers, economists and accountants nuts for the past 100 plus years. Basically, if you increase efficiency, consumption rises!
So a vehicles economy goes from 21 MPG to 35 MPG. The end result is that people drive more!
The next fact is even more shocking. Does anyone really think that, when it comes to CO2, todays modern vehicles pollute less than a 20 year-old vehicle? Well the answer is NO... burn a gallon of gas and about 20 lbs of CO2 is produced.
If people really want to save the planet - encourage Newspapers from flying reporters to Greenland, Arctic or Antarctica - the trips alone produce tons of CO2!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/how_toxic_is_your_car_exhaust
3
Blatant criminality, aided by big oil.
It's sad to see how far America has fallen.
4
My God, Big Oil, and shadowy Koch influence-buying entities like the American Legislative Exchange Council (always with the words American or Freedom in their names!) are right up there with Bog Tobacco and arms merchants in terms of buying government and perverting the public will. And why? For yet MORE money in tn their own pockets?
Do greedy people like the Kochs never have enough? Even if it means destroying the world they too live in?
True evil, I guess. And a clear and present danger to our world and our government.
5
Where is Ralph Nader? Where is the zeal to do what is right?
2
Typical special interest nonsense:
"Americans should be given a “choice in vehicles that best fit their needs,"
Americans are more and more being given, and buying, gas hog SUVs and pick-up trucks instead of cars. But that's not good enough for the fossil companies selling fossil fuel.
It's so intellectually bankrupt to believe that efficiency of any kind is a bad thing. What could be motivating this...?
1
@Stevenz Efficiency varies depending on the goal. An SUV is more efficient than a Prius at impressing the neighbors, for example.
Our species made a terrible error by building its entire civilization on fossil fuels, whale oil, industrialization, technology, and other materials and processes that inherently destroy life on earth.
Now we're in a terrible trap. There's nothing that can replace petroleum in all its many uses (not just energy).
And our grid has enabled us to create a massive population overshoot that can't be supported any other way but by using deadly materials and biosphere-killing sourcing of those materials.
Trump of course is always happy to sell out to profiteers, as are m any politicians.
And it's easy to hate the energy corporations for their lies and corruption.
But every single one of us is a slave on the petroindustrial plantation, and we are ALL guilty.
4
Of course, of American consumers only purchased vehicles that were better for the environment, or made use of available public transportation, or demanded better public transportation options, the whole issue would be moot. But, most of us don't, Anna have little interest in doing so. Perhaps some of the blame lies with us?
4
Who wants a car that is more expensive to run AND bad for the environment? With Big Oil in the driver’s seat we’re not getting anywhere. Automakers do not allow that 20th century dinosaur to yoke you to them on a suicide mission. Safer cleaner transportation; even if it wasn’t necessary for survival, it’s better; isn’t it? The Koch Brothers equals self-interest trumped by misanthropy equals Trump. Now solve for Y.
4
@Miz Rix
Who wants a car that is more expensive to run AND bad for the environment?
Anyone who owns an M3, WRX STI, Mustang, Boxster S, 911, Focus RS, RS5, Corvette, R8, Maxima, Camaro, Viper, CTS.
2
@Miz Rix If people do not want such a vehicle, they will not buy it. It is not like there are not, and will continue to be, fuel efficient cars for those who want such.
Let's revisit the anti-fuel-efficiency view when gas is $4/gal again. I'll never own a vehicle that doesn't get 30 mpg on the highway again. The only people who complain about gas prices are the ones who drive giant trucks and live 20 miles from their place of work.
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@Jaylee Not everyone can afford to live within 20 miles of their workplace and public transportation is not widely available in many parts of the country.
2
Totally agree. But it always makes good financial sense to drive the most fuel-efficient car that you can.
And what planet do they plan on spending their profits on in 40 years? When a fraction of a percent control 80% of our wealth, what more can they buy that they don't already have?
4
Oil has devastated nearly every location that it as been found all over the globe. It almost always causes wars, destruction of the environment, poverty alongside massive wealth, lies, spin and other big money related deceits. Only strong protections in law can control it. Left to its own devices it has tremendous potential for ruin and damage to the environment and siphoning off of money and land from the locals. Don't expect anything from big oil but blind pursuit of money at everyone else's expense, and lots of spin.
2
Many years ago I was watching one of the "news magazine and television programs" interview a CEO with a major oil company. The CEO was asked that since the oil company was international in structure "if the companies interest were in conflict with that of the United States, which would you choose?" Without hesitation the CEO responded "my company". Patriotism, it appears takes a back seat to profits and nothing has changed in the intervening years.
2
If I can buy a US made SUV that gets 18 miles to the gallon or a foreign made SUV that gets more than 30 miles to the gallon and has better overall performance as well, which one am I going to buy? I’ve already made that choice, as have several of my family and friends. It’s highly unlikely that any of us will ever again buy a vehicle from a US based car manufacturer. My foreign made SUV gets 32 miles to the gallon and sells for a very competitive price. On the path that the US car manufacturers and oil industry are following sooner, rather than later, they’ll collapse. Technologies continually advance, the auto and oil industries have decided not to be part of that.
4
@Jack Bush Isn’t Tesla a US Based auto manufacturer? There are a few other startups working on all electric vehicles. The current US market leaders are also working on all electric power trains. We are still a ways away from all electric becoming the dominant technology but we are getting there.
1
If auto industry is all that noble, they can stop making polluting automobiles irrespective of relax or no relaxation of rules. Oil shock in 70s got us efficient Japanese cars. Next will be electric shock that gives us non polluting efficient cars whoever makes them will win. If American auto industry learned any lesson from 70s, they better invest heavily to develop reliable and efficient electric cars and compete instead of trying to diversify in defeat.
1
@Kodali What does nobility have to do with it. They are providing the products that consumers are demanding. They are working on future products but it has to be something that people show they will purchase.
Meanwhile, the car companies still have all that expensive equipment and tooling to depreciate, and it’s going to trash their bottom line if it’s written off early. Like St Thomas Aquinas, they want to be good, but not just yet
@Kodali Yes. The auto companies should make unprofitable cars which few people want to buy. They will then go out of business, causing a few million people to lose their jobs.
Companies and consumers respond to economic incentives more than they do to calls for nobility.
The very best thing we consumers can do is to be serious about our choices in our means of transportation. As a very large consuming group, the over 300 million of us need to let Big Oil, their lobbyists and our government know that our wallets will be demanding products that no longer contribute to the mess the environment and climate change has become due to our fossil fuels consumption. The health and welfare of all life on this planet going forward depends on one thing. MONEY. Plain old capitalism. Don’t purchase the product, the product will be replaced by new innovation and entrepreneurship. Of course, this will need to happen at a faster pace than the snails pace we have all been on since the 1970’s.
7
Agency interests will always “Trump” the common good. Oil companies are in business to make money. Their duty is to their shareholders not humanity or the environment. Elected officials on the other hand are responsible to adjudicate for the common good. However in America the notion of democracy is dead as the business of government panders to big business for monetary support. Leadership is missing and what we see is a free for all that will destroy the country. In the end no amount of money will save America or the planet. We are said to be Homo Sapiens or Homo intelligent, but as our 9 predecessors can tell us, extinction is nature’s process for renewal. In the interim maybe the electorate can vote for more ethical candidates.
1
@Ernest This is far overstated. I have yet to see any scientific data indicating that extinction is a likely impact of global warming.
I will never understand this. It seems to me to be just one indication of how focused on itself and unaware of or disinterested in the rest of the world the United States is.
The Trump administration complains repeatedly and loudly that no one wants to buy American cars, in Europe and around the world. I wonder why? Everyone else has gotten the message, is trying to mitigate global warming and has gas prices that remotely reflect the social cost of driving fossil fuel powered cars.
5
Americans have been played by the oil industry. Does anyone really believe gasoline prices are going to remain at this level?
The oil companies will raise prices and do you know why? Because they can!
People will be saddled with cars/trucks that have poor gas mileage because that is exactly what the oil companies want.
3
@Peter Brzostowski It’s What consumers have demanded. How is anyone duped when they choose to buy a less fuel efficient vehicle when efficient vehicles are available? We all make choices and we have to live with those choices.
3
We love our hybrid car. It is a better engineered car, costs less to run, less to fix mechanically, more power, quiet, does not have to shift, no transmission to burn out, the brakes are better, the car will very likely run much longer. These are the cars of the future, as well as pure electric cars.
2
@joyce Absolutely agree. Unfortunately, hybrids are not proving to be popular with consumers and 100% electric vehicles are not widely available or particularly affordable. I think it won’t be long though and electric will take over the market.
1
When will the US write an amendment in the Constitution for Separation of Corporation and State Many of these lobbying coalitions are GDP wise bigger than other countries who seek to influence and buy favour in the Beltway. End Citizens United and get money and legalised corruption out of politics. One is supposed to enter public service for We the People, not to line their pockets, their party, and their patrons.
6
@James Wallis Martin That’s the problem with large, powerful governments. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The US government was intended to be a limited government of the people, However government has increased its power over many generations and we now see the consequences of this.
It is extremely unfortunate that the oil companies do not want to participate in the conversion from oil/gasoline to electric vehicles and other engines - they are turning down a lot of profit and will probably lose a lot of business. They could make a significant contribution to the saving of the environment, but they do not have the intelligence to do that. Their greed will fail. djm
4
If it were secret how it nyt reporting on it?
2
It’s called investigative reporting. Thank goodness for it. I see many journalists as public servants. Not all of them but the majority.
2
The "Sixth Extinction" is just getting underway.
According to Elizabeth Kolbert's intelligent and well-researched book by that name, one of the main principles of species extinction over the past 500 million years or so has been the inability of dominant species to evolve (adapt) as fast as geologically "sudden" changes in environment.
Global warming is such an environmental change. But humans cannot adapt genetically, only rationally. That means that unless we use reason, science and good sense to halt and reverse dangerous climate changes already underway, humans will ultimately perish from this Earth, perhaps along with many species of insects, birds, amphibians, and most fish.
But, not to worry, it's not the end of the world.
Some species will be able to survive the extinction and ultimately will adapt to the new conditions on our planet...the Earth will survive, and life in some form or other will continue and become dominant.
We humans will simply not be around to lament our failure of intelligence, or to conclude that human rationality was not, after all, an adaptive quality.
9
@SA Actually, by most accounts, humans are very capable of mitigating many of the negative impacts of global warming and the idea of extinction is a gross misreading of available scientific data. Certainly, humans would need to adjust, but it’s not likely to eliminate us.
2
We are not exempt from the forces of nature that all the other species on the earth are facing. We are devastating species all over the globe, all the time, every day. This is very easy to see and understand. Anyone who does not see that only needs to do impartial research on this subject. Humans are no different than any other species, we all need the same basic sustaining ingredients on earth. We may be able to protect ourselves for a little while but we are already seeing wars and famines and floods and wildfires and desertifications that are decimating humans and wildlife all over the globe now. Climate change is making it all worse.
3
@joyce Actually, desertification happens most rapidly on protected lands. Managed herding has been proven to reverse this trend, making land useful again.
These big companies are criminal enterprises--as is the White House now. A big free for all and money grab for those who have never bled a single drop or sweat a drop for this country's freedom. What a bunch of elitist fools. We will hold you and your family lines accountable. There will be a reckoning.
2
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@Daniel, the reckoning is long overdue -- lets get to it
.
1
A secret campaign against fuel efficiency sounds like treason.
3
@jon sachs, it IS treason vs life; and it is ALSO Standard Operating Procedure in US politics & economics :
Bribery
.
1
The US working class would benefit the most from lower fuel costs. Fuel is a larger percent of these people's budgets than any other group. Even if some of the savings were somewhat offset by increased initial car costs, there are still savings for working Americans.
The US auto industry will become less competitive worldwide if these fuel requirements are relaxed. Not only will California many other states not buy American cars, Europe will also refuse. Ford, given all that you sell in Europe, you are idiots not to SUPPORT the stricter fuel standards. Your own self-interest is to be more forward-looking.
1
@Will Hogan The future isn’t Ford, Chevy, Mercedes, Honda, etc unless they are able to follow the Tesla model to 100% electric vehicles. Yes, a US company is the major leader in bringing capable electric cars to market.
Dirty Donald isn't just hiring the worst people out there, he's also MADA, Making America Dirty Again.
We HAVE to take responsibility here. This has to stop.
Vote!
3
@Ana Luisa, we did vote. Now we have to be sure to retain Special Counsel, and w/ adequate funding.
Trump should be made to resign the pres ASAP, and Mueller can do that w/ a Nixon-like resignation offer [ that he cant refuse ] to him.
I think DT has only a few mos left in the pres
.
2
"Unelected bureaucrat" = Republican speak for an EPA climate scientist
Republican Congress person = Koch Industry employee
4
@joe, this is one of the most plutocratic eras of US history,
very much like the Gilded Age around the 1890's when the monopolistic Trusts reigned supreme,
and the progressive Teddy Roosevelt gathered his Trust Busters and broke much of their power using Fed Govt Regulations
.
1
This is so frustrating and it is easy to fee powerless in the face of this type of coordinated purchase of our government. We are left with determining what exactly can be done that will result in actions that can correct this betrayal of rationality. Because the Republican Party in particular is nearly wholly controlled by the fossil fuel industry, Republicans must be voted from office. The Republican Party must be crushed in the next election, and then crushed in the following election afterward. It will not be enough to drive Trump from office, fossil-fueled corruption must be driven out of the House and Senate. Begin planning now to make climate change action a big part of the next election.
2
Sickening...
The most irresponsible administration in history....
5
We live in a plutocracy. Our government is corrupt and is now being run by the con man in chief Donald Trump. Trump is a wannabe dictator and his blind faith supporters fail to see he is filling the swamp, not draining it. You can't blame Trump, he is an opportunist and operates in his own self interest. What has Donald Trump ever done for anyone other than himself?
2
Another investigation by the acclaimed NYT of the influence of the "oil" interests in this "Individual -1" Administration. We voters need to weed out all these lawmakers that are influenced and act on Bills to protect the Koch and Marathon interests. These lawmakers are not representing us, the voters. They don't care about climate change. They only care about themselves.
NYT did a very good job to get to the bottom of it.
3
Today in Albuquerque we have Turquoise skies and pristine golden sunshine! Clear air to breathe! Please DO NOT take it away! Please! There are people in India and China who have never seen a blue sky or a yellow sun! Only grey skies and burnt orange suns! No fossil fuels! No removal of Emission controls! No, please, no!
4
What idiocy. If automotive technology were always “achievable and based on existing technology”, we wouldn’t have airbags, anti-lock braking systems, collision-avoidance systems, and a host of other features which enhance vehicle safety. Let alone, say, hybrid or autonomous vehicles. Heminger is the typical fox guarding the regulatory henhouse.
We live in an area with persistent winter inversions resulting in days of unhealthy air due in large part to vehicle emissions. We’d rather be able to breathe.
2
Of course. Do what Missouri did (by petition that passed) in their state government - outlaw money influence in state politics. Yes, let's over turn the falsely named 'Citizen's United'.
3
Big oil is like heroin, we detest it, but can't kick our addiction to it.
2
.
@Ralph braseth, but elec cars and solar roofs
.
How are automobile emissions any different from second hand smoke? Has it become fashionable again to put nails in your fellow American's coffins?
3
Auto emissions dorectly affect the environment. They contribute to greenhouse gases, which affect climate change, which affect weather patterns, which result in more and stronger storms in some areas and increasing drought in others.
Cigarette smoke does not. The biggest hazards related to the smoke are to the individual. However, the cultivation and manufacture of cigarettes does affect the environment. Tobacco plants use land and water that could be used for food production. The making of cigarettes requires a great deal of energy. Depending on the source of that energy, it could affect the environment. And the energy used could be redirected. Unfortunately, the utility companies are well paid for that energy use and have little incentive to encourage more environmentally sustainable practices.
So to answer your question, second-hand smoke and auto emissions are completely different in their effect on the environment. The effects of second-hand smoke are seen on an individual basis. The effects of auto emissions are seen on a global scale and have nothing to do with restricting our neighbors' choices.
4
Lots of money to be made from healthcare stocks. “No need for public safety.”
These people are sinister.
1
Anyone who doesn't know this has been going on for decades is willfully blind and deaf, functionally illiterate (I'm thinking of you, Fox isolationists), or corrupt.
But, unfortunately, Americans won't count the cost of their taste for bigger cars. With gas prices low, that's not helping.
The gilets jaunes argue that Macron is thinking of the future but they're caught in the present, trying to feed and house themselves and their children.
"Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change" https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html
Tragic!
2
This Californian is buying an electric car next year and installing solar panels. The behavior of Trump, his greedy climate denying followers, and the oil companies they empower is disgusting. Time for us all to hit them where it hurts.
5
@Erik Schmitt, any corps that sink to this level of destructiveness must therefor be taken over by US citizens.
This brings to mind the astounding corporate criminality of the VW corp and its global rigging of its highly polluting vehicles to pass emissions tests.
I think VW agreed to a $50 billion fine, the sacrifice of some expendable execs, and dint miss a step.
.
The planet won't care about any of this. The planet doesn't care about Donald Trump or Marathon or Exxon. She will wipe us out and we'll all be panicking and scrambling and reacting as though we didn't have any warning. Mar-a-lago will go the same way that all of Palm Beach goes along with Zincke and Pruitt's second homes. We need a King Canute now more than ever. A humble person who understands we are a speck on the planet and she can burn, freeze or drown us all at her will and the only thing we can do to prevent it is by being a little less greedy, right now.
1
@MartinC
Yours is a false narrative that includes lack of understanding about science.
The planet is a spinning globe in space. Unless we unleash nuclear weapons, we're likely to not destroy "the planet."
What we are destroying, because we're a mass extinction event, is the current cohort of species and ecosystems that comprise the biosphere.
The biosphere can't fight back against us, except in the very end phase, after we've killed almost all the other creatures and beauty that evolved here with us.
Let us all teach a lesson to these oil companies and their lobby group by ensuring they pay for it by purchasing EV or Hybrid automobiles - if you are in the market to buy new automobile.
Any small difference we can make, it will hurt the oil industry.
This is the least we can do to save our planet.
3
@AB, yes that kind of direct action will help,
so will the self-politicization of the mass of the US populace --
for decades we'v been de-politicized; the US has had some very low election turnouts.
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"Get informed, get organized, get tough."
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One wonders, in a world driven by love of money, whether the oil industry, Republicans, Russians and Saudi's were all operating in the 2016 election under the notion that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Given the oil industry's attitudes across the board, one gets the idea these multinational organizations may have colluded amongst themselves to take down the liberal governmental order that is obviously seeking to address the challenges of carbon pollution.
Folks do know that if you can neuter the US government and the western liberal governments of the EU in general, you free the oil industry to operate with minimal restraints.
Could McConnell, when he refused to alert the public of the threat from Russian involvement in the election in September 2016, have been protecting the oil industry's efforts to rig the election?
One might read the conflict between Secy of State Tillerson and Trump as a rupture in the conspiracy between the international oil industry and the Putin-Saudi faction?
My analysis of the 2016 contest is that the oil industry, led by folks like the Koch brothers as well as MBS and Putin, saw the election of Hillary Clinton as an existential threat and colluded to give Donald Trump the victory.
Putin and the Russians, BTW, crashed the existing GOP plan to rig the election and added the stolen emails and contributed to the social media manipulation ... and put Trump over the top.
2
Well, as dismal as this story is, there is one wonderful thing going on here--the Times' and Ms. Tabuchi's reporting. Many commenters are reading this news as another step down the road to perdition. Maybe, but I'm going to choose to look at this in a cup-is-half-full way, and view at least the reporting part of this as maybe a small step back toward righting our ship of state.
2
Another good reason to never, ever trust corporations - especially oil companies that have a long and sordid history of corruption and lying to the American People.
2
Big oil is a cancer. This monopoly must end! Anyone who is an American understands market competition is good. Big oil has had years of doing away with its competition. Their unchecked greed must end.
Who watches a 1950s style black and white TV with rabbit ears when the tech is large, flat screen high def? Well, gas guzzling autos are ancient tech, like owning and watching a 1950s TV set. This approach to cater to big oil is killing America and it must stop. The term “Maga” is in direct reference to the oil industry and it being given free reign. Why? Big oil has had every chance in the world to reinvest its fortune into newer and better tech. TV companies either evolve or fall to the wayside! Why then is big oil protected by our politicians to NOT advance and evolve. We are a free market system, that is unless our politicians stand in the way of advancement! America is great because we explore, develop, change, reinvent. Big oil is counter to everything we are as a people!
1
Was this hidden? I thought it was obvious when I first heard about it.
This should help exports. After all, the whole world is clamoring for low mileage, pollution spewing American cars.
1
Facebook helped elect Trump with Fake News Ads and now they are helping to destroy the planet for big bucks. Boycott Facebook or be complicit in their evil doings.
5
Can we please have our country, and our future, back?
Vote. Vote in every primary, every special election, every local, seemingly unimportant election - and vote these venal, rapacious, self-interested people out of every office in the land.
I want America - the idea and the tradition - back!
In light of decades of scientific research on climate change—including the damning report released by the Administration recently—it's humiliating and agonizing that Americans don't stand up as strongly to fossil-fuel interests. The mostly Koch-backed groups behind the chicanery described in this report deploy the most basic, and perhaps effective, strategy of them all: deceit. By promoting the idea that regulations should be rolled back because "conservation" is no longer an issue, they deliberately ignore the regulations' primary thrust, to put the brakes on potentially cataclysmic climate change.
Campaign finance laws are likely complicit. These shady groups are, no doubt, awash with dark money, which heedless and opportunistic congresspeople and state and local political actors more than giddily take in exhange for their reckless service to the industry.
Perhaps California and the thirteen states behind it can prevent the realization of these malicious efforts. Their strict efficiency regulations, if not toppled by the federal government, can ultimately push the car industry into producing more efficient models for the entire country. Come January, Democrats will have more power, particularly investigative, to mitigate the corruption of American (and global) progress. Hopefully something comes of it.
It's time to build a wall, like the Vietnam memorial wall. Inscribe the names of all the powerful people like Gary Heminger who use their economic and political power to hasten the deaths of innumerable, unnamed people past, present and future, from breathing dirty air and succumbing to heatstroke, additional wildfires, stronger hurricanes, floods and blizzards, food shortages and mass migrations. Let future generations know their names.
1
The Koch brothers and their allies are the real "enemies of the people." Like Trump, the Koch brothers will be dead by 2040, so they won't face the consequences of their environmental crimes against humanity.
2
I have to say this is about the LEAST surprising thing I've heard in quite some time. If it's just dawning on anyone that Big Oil has 'owned' a large stake in the US government for a long time....they've been asleep for decades.
Do you really think that the war in Iraq was about WMD and terrorism ? Do you really think Trump won't dis the Saudi's 'cause under it all, they're 'good people' ? The Bushes, Dick Cheney, the current energy secretary Rick Perry...all oil and gas people. The Koch bothers, Neugebauers ....lots of GOP money comes from oil and gas industry.
...and not just oil....Big Pharma, Big Agriculture....
The little people of the US don't get the 'say' in their own government, corporate money and 'Big' special interests are driving the bus.
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The corporate takeover of America chipping away at our democracy day by day.
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And the SCOTUS opened the door for them with their Citizens United decision. The SCOTUS is right in there with the corporations and the politicians in an effort to take away the reins of government from "We the people."
1
all Trump knows how to do is shred regulations with no knowledge of consequence. for example, with lower fuel standards, overseas sales of american-made automobiles will worsen. remember when Ronald Reagan, the patron saint of the GOP, removed solar panels from the White House. imagine where we would be today if government got behind renewable energy instead of selling out to the oil industry lobbyists. fortunately, I think renewable energy is now beyond the point of no return. I personally have not purchased a gallon of gas in 5 years. thank you New York times for this article.
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If Americans were serious about reducing oil consumption we would collectively agree to a $3-4 / gallon tax on fuel. These regulatory approaches are incredibly suboptimal, any econ 101 textbook wil tell you that. And don't blame Washington gridlock for this, states are free to impose their own taxes. The bottom line is Americans as a whole do not want to give up their 6 and 8 cylinder cars. I know I don't.
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@Mike People are all too eager to blame companies for the behavior of consumers. Consumer choice drives this issue completely. Technology will eventually solve this issue, but in the interim, people are free to choose the products that best serve their needs.
1
Arguing that rollbacks will help Americans is ridiculous. Consumers benefit the most from these because they save money at the pump. Only the oil companies benefit from this. These regulations hinder progress, not promote it. And the argument by Energy4US that cutting regulations makes cars safer is absurd. It's not one or the other; both can be achieved. If one simply looks back to the 1970s, even during the oil crisis when carmakers were forced to invest in increasing fuel efficiency, cars were still being advanced in terms of safety. In fact, the 1970s was when air bags were beginning to become implemented in automobiles
1
Yes. Unchecked capitalism does the right things for investors and executives at the expense of it's customer base
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No surprise here as Big oil has a long history of opposing regulations. When MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether), a fossil fuel derived oxygenate required to meet the 1995 standards for reformulated gasoline (RFG), was found to have contaminated ground water, Big Oil was slow to switch to ethanol, a non-toxic, corn-based renewable source of oxygenates for RFG. Much of the delay resulted from Big Oil’s efforts to get legislation passed shielding them from MTBE liability. Prior to the industry opposed 1996 ban on leaded gasoline, so much lead had been deposited in the environment that an estimated 68 million children would register toxic levels of lead absorption and some 5,000 American adults would die annually of lead-induced heart disease.
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Problem: Oil industry power to subvert the will of the people.
Solution: Nationalize all major facets (exploration, production, refining) of the oil industry and wind it down over a number of years; 5 or 10. Use all oil industry profits and capital to jump start a green energy future.
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@rls Sorry. That was too restrictive. Replace "oil industry" with "fossil fuel industry".
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Trump is killing this planet with the help of his corporate fascist buddies.
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yes, climate change, if only it were really happening. then we could bash big oil and the Kochs to our hearts' content.
BUT -- the data is screwy. Here's an example: I've been playing around with data at Berkeley earth (which provides data through Oct/2013). Because I'm familiar with the area, I looked at data for North Central Texas -- roughly the area around DFW about 200 miles both north to south and east to w est. There are a bunch of temp stations there, most in either GHCND or GHCNM -- part of the official global net. There are 36 stations that have data on at least 1000 months of data since the late 19th or early 20th centuries: Geographically, this is a a pretty homogeneous area. BUT -- of the 36 stations, 25 have temps that trend down, 11 up. The largest decline is -1.53 C per century, the biggest increase is 1.83. The avg is -.32 with a stdev of .63.
How is that possible? I can understand daily or monthly differences -- but over a century for almost 70% to show a decline, the others up -- seems impossible in an area this small.
And by the way, NOAA says Texas temps have increased in the state and in this area.
Can you really trust the data? I can't. Not when it i s that weird.
@Ralphie
Who would have though that cherry picking bad data from one very small spot, which climate models filter out, would be a proxy for the whole planet?
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@Glennmr I didn't cherry pick data, Glenmr. The climate models simply adjust the data to conform with their desires But there is no conceivable way that in that small an area you can have stations that are close together but conflict with each other -- not just conflict, but radically conflict -- for temp trends over a century or more. And while this is a lot of work, I've looked at all of Texas --- and guess what, same pattern. I've started looking across the US and I'm seeing similar contradictory data from long term stations that are in reasonably close proximity. Now, I don't know about you, maybe you're comfortable with long term data that appears to be highly variable from within a small geographic area -- but, gee, I think any sane person might be.
The US is supposed to have the best data. More stations, more systematic data collection methods across its network. It has had one agency responsible for maintaining the network but other countries, maybe not, and no single entity in charge of large regions. So if the US shows data like this, that's a huge problem. If you don't understand that, then I suppose you'll just keep spouting alarmist hooey. Open your mind, breathe deeply, and slowly repeat, you can't base science on data that appears to be highly questionable.
@Ralphie
You are drawing conclusions for the planet based on limited selections of data from a portion of the planet. An open mind will always reject such a premise.
See the link…if you can keep an open mind…you will see that the temperature records are robust. And that is something the Berkeley earth group determined.
https://skepticalscience.com/how-data-adjustments-affect-temp-records.html
Since the sun has been cooling for decades—and most of the warming has occurred during that time period—what is the cause if not CO2 and CH4? Basic physics dictates that the planet should cool when the sun does…and that is not happening for decades now.
The fact that the ocean levels are increasing provides direct evidence of the planet warming since due to land ice melting and thermal expansion of the oceans.
1
I thought the free market was about diversity and the better product selling, winning out. If our markets are not free and oil is able to politically strangle the market, and our choices- what is to become of the American way? It sort of endangers our freedoms- in a discreet, backhanded way. To me, this is about compromising American ingenuity and advancement- the very things that make America great. Why Marathon thinks it’s cheaper to strangle the market, year after year after year, rather than reinvest in new technologies and fuels is brain numbing. That in itself seems self-defeating- like a broken model for any business.
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@Tidal Wave Who says new products won’t win out as soon as they become practical and affordable. Electric vehicles are not yet a mature product that is capable of replacing the gasoline vehicle market. Once it is then we should see movement in that direction.
Except they are.
@Robert They are what? As far as I see, there are only a handful of all electric vehicles that have limited ranges and limited uses. Additionally, they are costly and many have no access to charging stations where they work or travel. It’s also a major upgrade to add a charging station to your home.
As a Houstonian, I am surprised any of you think this was "covert."
Oil and gas is following the tobacco playbook, and has hired the same companies for their disinformation campaign. This is well known, and published in many books.
Cigarettes killed hundreds of thousands of people after we all knew they caused cancer. Check out the companies (and even some of the 'expert witnesses' or 'scientists') that helped them deny the science by saying we didn't know the causal link.
When it got harder to sell cigarettes in the U.S. big tobacco worked to 'open up' the foreign markets. That is just what coal has been up to.
To expand a bit on the level of corruption that Texas has on the country: I think Beto was the clearly superior candidate for the Senate. But he is quite middle-of-the-road politically, much like Obama. He is good on climate change, but if he says anything too strong about the oil and gas business, he will lose Texas in the Presidential campaign. Yet winning Texas is the one reason to consider him the best possible nominee. Hence, sad to say, I think oil and gas money and power in Texas means he should not be the party choice.
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For instance, they have cut emission on a outboard motor that works on a boat, they use to smoke a lot and now they don't smoke but like a fraction of what they use to if much at all and there still cutting back, how much is enough. Most likely the future will be electric cars anyway with no emissions!
@Jeff Electric vehicles can have emissions, they're produced at the gas or coal fired power plant that generates the electricity used to charge the vehicle; however, charging a vehicle using solar or wind power would be truly zero emissions.
As soon as SUVs and trucks are easily available and relatively affordable in all electric versions then this should become a non issue. In the interim, consumers are the ones pushing has use up through their purchase choices. It’s the oil industry’s job to meet that demand.
What's good for oil CEO's wallets isn't necessarily good for human lungs, or polar icecaps! When will we ever learn?
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@Gene Pil companies aren’t shoving oil down consumers throats. Consumers are demanding the product. If there were no demand then there would be no issue. It’s just easier to blame corporations than it is to blame the consumers.
@John
Wrong.
The only reason why the government is forcing consumers to demand oil today is because year after year it uses hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to keep oil prices artificially low, whereas on the other hand, a clear majority wants us to stop having the highest carbon footprint per person in the entire world.
So this IS the government's fault, which of course means that it's voters' fault, because if 90% instead of 50% of the American people would vote, such a horrible corporate welfare would never have happened in the first place.
@John My original statement is still true.
I find the fact that federal law enforcement never proceeds against this type of big time organized crime, instead making political points going after public figures. I guess just like cops treat the rich, the wealthy are fairly immune to actions. The federal cops know who has the money. The "Occupy Wall Street" clamp down on demonstrators is a good example.
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@Shakinspear I am not exactly sure that promoting your product and/or promoting favorable regulations are criminal activities.
Are the Koch Bros insane?
It's difficult to believe that a couple of guys who run such massive companies are ignorant enough not to recognize the reality of climate change. So to state the obvious: the Koch Bros are aware of the reality of climate change and of the consequences for humanity.
So what do they want? More money? What does that even mean? Perhaps they want more power. What kind of person wants more power at the expense of the death and massive suffering of pretty much everyone else? It's easy to name names, but I'd be criticized for doing that. Let's just say that if one is unable to believe in their ignorance, once is forced to conclude that they're simply evil.
Regarding our legislators, I don't dare say that all of them aren't so ignorant as to deny climate change. But our lives depend upon what they do. It's easy to say that money controls who gets elected, but in the end, most of us do get to vote.
If we continue to vote for people who steer us down the road to self-destruction, perhaps that's the fundamental nature of our species. Yes, I do fear the violence we see around us every day, but I dread more the next generation's gasping for breath, starving for food, suffering through fire and flood, and all the other things we fully know they're going to experience if those like the Koch Bros run the planet.
This is a great article, NY Times. It describes a war bigger than WW II--more death, more agony, burning to death and drowning in our own homes.
3
Trump’s current EPA head is a former lobbyist for the oil association. Trump opened ANWAR for oil exploration. He only appoints climate change deniers! Trump’s pro-oil agenda has been out in the open from day 1. Big Oil knows a gift horse when they see it. 12,000 signatures for a pro-oil petition is hardly significant when environmental ones easily get 100,000 . The lobbying is inconsequential compared to the Trump administration’s corruption and willful destruction of the American public’s natural resources.
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" “However, you have another side who doesn’t want to pivot away” from the stricter rules, Mr. Heminger said. “So we have a lot of work to do to keep this momentum going.” "
Well said, Mr. Heminger. Your wickedness is beyond measurement.
Corporations now are deemed as people. What do we do as society when people violate the norms? We imprison them. Can we expect a similar fate for these entities that are practically modern-day savages? No, obviously not. Remember that they a sizable chunk of lawmakers in their pockets. I'm not understating when I say these corporations are disemboweling our planet while their ambitions remain unchecked. With the profit they make for one day out of a year, they can fund clean energy proliferation research for the entire year. They despise R&D and forge ahead with mindless resource extraction.
Look up the results of Initiative 1631 in WA state. It was rejected by a 12 point margin. With the recent reports indicating a precipitous decline of multi-year arctic ice and the eastern seaboard being opened up for off-shore oil reserve exploration, I believe we'll reach a stage of severe environmental degradation in another decade. War for freshwater resources will commence! Great times ahead.
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Corporations are persons, but they never go to jail. They have First Amendment rights that are multiplied by billions. No matter how bad their behaviour, their rights are left intact, unlike the poor sod who's labeled a felon for far less and is stripped of his right to vote. Corporations don't vote, they simply buy the politicians. Maybe there should be a law that forbids corporations to lobby for a LONG time if they are found to have hidden the truth, let alone lied. I'm thinking of Exxon who has known for at least 25 years about Climate Change. They should be stripped of their rights for the same amount of time. Goose? meet gander.
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No surprise really. But you are not powerless. Drive less. Buy a fuel-efficient. Remember that oil companies sale oil products ... if you buy them.
2
Technology will continue to evolve and as a result vehicles will continue to improve despite the oil industry. Just look at the incredible improvement in emissions, power, reliability with the use of computerized engine management systems. No more carburetor, and no more points and condenser ignition. Variable valve timing electronically controlled. Engine design advancements are continuing at a rapid pace. The PN junction has brought us a long long way.
3
I truly fear for the future safety of the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the owners, board members and executives of the oil, natural gas, coal and pipeline companies and their sponsored political “leaders.”
As living conditions on our planet become unbearable due to the severe, relentless impacts of Climate Change, generations of devastated citizens around the world will ask: “Who is most directly responsible for this existential catastrophe?”
When these citizens look around, they will find many of the culpable carbon barons and carbon-sponsored politicians have already passed on to whatever afterlife awaits them. But the direct descendants of the carbon barons and the carbon-sponsored politicians will still be here. And there will be no escape – not even behind their gated communities – from the wrath of billions of incensed citizens on every continent.
For the carbon barons, it all comes down to one essential choice to be made right now: harvest their carbon assets and sacrifice their descendants – or – strand their carbon assets and save their descendants?
For the carbon-sponsored politicians, it also comes down to one essential choice to be made right now: continue to dither on Climate Change legislation and sacrifice their descendants – or – pass sweeping and meaningful Climate Change mitigation legislation and save their descendants?
The time on the clock is quickly running out...
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For those who reject climate change, this all makes perfect sense as a business strategy and is morally and economically justified. For those who go with most climate scientists, this is evil, more evil than Purdue Pharma (which, from a free enterprise point of view, is a gigantic success story).
Governments chose winners and losers when they built the Erie Canal or the interstate highway system. They chose winners and losers when they regulate cigarettes or tax alcohol or prohibit the importation of ivory or ban marijuana. They also choose winners and losers when they force financial reporting to adhere to certain standards, turning practitioners of creative accounting from winners into losers.
Any enforced law makes losers of those who break it, so government choosing of winners and losers is inevitable. Governments often choose winners and losers on the basis of bribery or propaganda campaigns from interested parties rather than scientific evidence or the general welfare, but that is not an argument for not choosing winners and losers, just for doing so wisely and temperately.
1
All the major car companies have committed to ending the production of cars with internal combustion engines by 2030 or so. Most of the refined petroleum goes to transportation and the oil companies are looking at very big reductions in demand starting in less than a decade, phasing out the bulk of current refined fuel demand in less than 20 years.
They and Trump are just playing grab and run.
3
In her book "Dark Money", Jane Mayer describes how the Koch brothers (among othet billionaires) have had politicians in their pockets for decades.
We have to get legalized bribery out of politics for good. Lobbying, dark money and Citizens United all have to go if we want to call our country a democracy.
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We can start with overturning Citizens United. That would be a very good place to begin.
The current members of the SCOTUS are so politically motivated, that they must be considered co-conspirators in this trend.
Next time, vote for Democrats down the line so we can add to the number of SCOTUS justices and put the reins of government back in the hands of the people.
3
When SCOTUS ruled in favor of Massachusetts, et al v. the EPA that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could be regulated by the EPA [the "endangerment" finding] under the Clean Air Act but that the EPA was not obligated to regulate greenhouse gases, the SCOTUS did not authorize the DOT to regulate greenhouse gases via the CAFE standards.
The talking points criticized in the article with respect to CAFE standards are correct. CAFE standards were imposed explicitly to address a specific problem, US dependence on foreign oil.
The CAFE standards issued during the early Obama years as well as the ones he issued after Hillary lost the election, do nothing to reduce dependence on foreign oil, because they substitute electricity fired by coal, natural gas and oil for gasoline. They also do not reduce CO2 for the same reasons.
If Obama and Democrat states want to reduce air pollution by substituting EVs for ICE vehicles, they should pass legislation to that effect, rather than creating the fiction that CAFE standards impossible to be met by ICE vehicles reduce US dependence on foreign fuel, an objective no longer needed. Their autocratic use of the CAFE standards is illegal.
If California wants to improve their air quality, there is nothing preventing them from using a stick and carrot combination to discourage the purchase of EVs without using the heavy hand of the federal government to force states with excellent air quality to subsidize the purchase of EVs via CAFE.
The effective argument for increased CAFE standards is not environmental or health related. Sadly.
It's economic.
The new car that I leased in March has averaged 26.3 miles per gallon and used 276 gallons of gasoline at an average cost of $3.18 per gallon so far this year. The total fuel cost has been $831.18.
Were that same car to get 35 miles to gallon, it would have used 80 gallons of gasoline less and the total fuel cost, at the same rate, would have been $576.78 for a savings of $254.40.
As an added benefit, CO2 emissions would have dropped from 2.77 tons to 1.96 tons.
While the car industry and car dealers may complain that increased fuel economy standards raise the price of new cars, that complaint is disingenuous. Air bags, ABS brakes, traction control and other mandated safety equipment also raise the price of new cars but where are the dealers complaining about the effects of those systems on the price of cars? For that matter, where are the Koch brothers spouting their libertarian nonsense about how these systems remove consumer choice?
The message here should be simple. Republicans and the Trump Administration want hard working Americans to pay more at the pumps. It doesn't matter if fuel prices are low... a more efficient car means less of your budget goes toward transportation costs.
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To be fair, they also complained about those requirements, and just like fuel efficiency, later marketed them as product features.
3
It falls to us as consumers to send a message by buying all electric cars next time we replace a vehicle. Stop waiting for corporations to do the right thing. The problem, and solution, is us.
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@slo007
Corporations, or the government. With too many problems today we want the government to solve them. That is what is killing us with climate change. People think they need not act individually, that their only power is through their government in turn regulating industry.
That is far from the case. Change your personal behavior. Take personal action. The inaction of governments and the greed of corporations will not matter if people take personal responsibility and "vote" with the way they live their lives.
There is a glaring flaw in the argument that fuel economy should be rolled back because the United States is presently awash in oil:
The decline of Energy Return On Investment (EROI) means that even though there is more oil on the market from unconventional sources (tar sands, shale oil, etc.) it is folly to build vehicles and infrastructure which depends on fossil fuels.
Particularly in the United States, the housing market has expanded on a disorganized, traffic and sprawl-inducing ethic of "Drive 'til You Qualify" which will suffer tremendously during the next energy crisis.
The US especially ought to be moving full speed towards a decarbonized economy which doesn't rely on fossil fuels, while we have an electrical grid which still functions!
9
Lots of comments on everything is going electric in the auto industry...but If everything goes electric, what is the power source for this electricity to charge the batteries? Coal powered plants.
Aren't we just shifting the carbon source from oil to coal?
Maybe I'm wrong...Just thinking out loud here.
3
@Todd Interesting point Tod. Let's say your average all electric car goes 200 miles fully charged. Now let's say you have a fuel efficient car that gets 30 mpg. So, how much CO2 does 6.67 gallons emit vs the amt emitted to fully charge an e-car. Anyone know the answer?
@Todd, yes, you're wrong. Coal is declining by leaps and bounds, and it's gotta go to zero in a few years for us to stand a chance of avoiding Climate Hades. New solar and wind is cheaper now than operating existing coal plants. Your utility should be dumping coal from its portfolio and buying massive amounts of new wind and solar, per the federal law PURPA.
For one specific example, at home, if you have an electric vehicle, you can charge it off your rooftop solar system's production. Many people in states that don't have politicans and utilties with irrational hatred of renewables are doing this now, today.
1
I would suggest that solar and other renewable energy sources will recharge car batteries for starters. Lithium batteries are getting more efficient every day. We can do this.
So many souls sold for a bag of shekels. From the justices who decided Citizens United to fossil fuel company owners, shareholders, and executives. Another example of why capitalism calls for strong regulation, and regulators need strong protection from industry influence. We need campaign finance reform and we need to shut down the so-called "free speech" of corporations.
Vote the complicit (mainly Republican) politicians out.
Buy an electric car.
Support renewable energy. Install solar panels.
Or give up and write off the future of the human species (and most other species as well). Let Mother Nature sort this out. It ain't gonna be pretty.
8
There's actually a good suggestion from Marathon in this. Duck ponds. Turn every gas station in America into a duck pond. This wouldn't have to happen all at once. Say, 1/3 of them could be converted next month, another third the following month, and ALL of them by the end of three months. Zero emissions, with the U.S. leading the way, is the only effective way to reverse global warming climate change, and in transportation it would be easiest to do with cars/suvs. The technology and manufacturing capacity already exist.
If you know the science, the warming that we have is already causing additional warming. Urgent action at the government level is needed to reverse this, including a Carbon Tax with every penny going to switch out of fossil fuels and into renewables. Everyone would benefit. Not only would the planet be healthier, the air would be cleaner, and electricity would be cheaper.
Send these fossil fuel robber barons the way of the dinosaurs.
6
If the elimination of CAFE standards is achieved, it's impact will be primarily on the US -- and US auto makers. EV vehicles will still win the market as soon as the economics dictate, but the industry will be dominated by Europeans and Chinese makers.
5
The oil industry has the resources - budget, staff with relevant skills and abilities, and sufficient information as well as understanding- to plan, effectively implement and to assess their efforts to achieve their agendas.This article documents what they have done and are doing. We can surmise much of what is yet to come.Bottom line, their goal for profits, carried out in a general culture which enables, and may even foster, individual and organizational unaccountability, will harm the wellbeing of people and our environment.Harms which range in types, qualities, levels. Temporary as well as more permanent damages. What resources do each of us need, as individuals, families, neighborhoods, communities, etc., in order to prevent these harms, in the long run, and to limit them, in the short run? What are the available and accessible sources, where each of us live, work, study, shop, ״ leisure,”pray, etc., just BE,for becoming aware of the necessary relevant skills, abilities, information and levels of analysis and understanding needed to protect ourselves from toxic alt-facts? Documenting a toxic process in a culture of complacency and personal unaccountability, in which many choose to live, cope, adapt, and function by being wilfully blind, deaf and ignorant about what IS, which should not BE, and what does not exist which is essential for equitable wellbeing for all is just a beginning.Not to go beyond this very small step all too easily transmutes into passive complicity.
4
The article alludes to but skillfully avoids mentioning clearly that the targets for fuel economy were put in place to avoid oil shortages, nothing to do with carbon emissions. Then they were high jacked by the left to use them as a tool to dictate what kind of cars Americans should drive. The standards were increased with the deliberate purpose of reaching the point where only electric cars would satisfy them. Typical example of rich people wanting to be righteous too, by dictating to poor people what kind of expensive transportation they need. If they don’t have bread, let them eat cake (Tesla).
2
No, fuel economy regulations were also (and especially in CA) designed to minimize the occurrence of smog. Reducing CO2 emissions is an added bonus, as climate change is a real thing. As for "freedom of [car] choice": drivers of ANY efficient vehicle class spend less on fuel over the lifetime of the car. Automakers have shown the ability to build more fuel efficient cars, and people still happily buy them. This deregulation is nothing more than a transfer of actual Americans' money to the shareholders of a few large oil concerns, for whom you are disingenuously shilling.
7
Splendid, scary photo of Marathon dystopia in Detroit. There is a billboard on the left side of the photo proclaiming “I AM MORE THAN ME.”
Not sure to what this refers or what it means, but given Marathon’s creepy, dissembling ways it is probably some suck-up ploy to demonstrate their support of some awful disease or some progressive social program, which is ironic and awful. In any case, as far as the composition of the photo goes, that billboard and its phrase and especially its depiction of a human face among all the anti-human, forbidding refinery pipes and towers and the swirling Hell-like vapors, is such a perfect, absolutely perfect, Orwellian touch. It elevates the photo above the merely reportorial (though it’s certainly great at that) to a literary, narrative place, endearing us to the photographer’s gift and slapping us hard with alienation and with Marathon’s mockery and contempt of humans (and the future of all humans on earth). Who are these tone-deaf and frankly evil executives and managers? Keep shining the kleig lights on their incomprehensible decisions and scams.
10
Americans are slow learners and quick forgettors. Bush/Cheney plus big banks, and big business brought our democracy to the brink of collapse in 2008 due to high risk lending, loose regulatory practices and corporate concern only with escalating executive pay. Dodd Frank bank regs are now diluted heavily, Consumer Protections are now gone under Mulvaney /Trump, our 2 saviors Bernanke/Yellen are now gone thanks to Trump, courts are packed with judges protecting the rich only.
Climate change controls have been dropped and we have huge storms battering Texas, Florida, MS, AL, NC, SC, CA, . Boston's new Trillion dollar seaport development was flooded and uninhabitable for parts of last winter.
GOP leaders like Eisenhower, Saltonstall, Herter, and even Nixon worked hard to protect less well off citizens from harm
thru creation of he EPA, CLEAN WATER ACT, CLEAN AIR ACT etc. When Obama tried to help low income citizens from huge health risks, selfish GOP leaders repeatedly and knowingly lied about Obamacare. Chief among them was Sen Mc Connell r-KY who told his KY citizens no one is going to harm your Kentuckcare while I am your Sen and Kentuckcare was wholly tied to Obamacare which when re-elected, McConnell set about to kill Obamacare.
Big business and the GOP are intentionally and unintentionally are ruining our democracy by focusing exclusively on profits and increases to executive pay.
9
Gee, and just about the time you begin to forget why the Koch's are such a bad group of people.....
Someone has to tell the truth, as it's clear Big Oil and the present Administration won't. Thank you NYT!
9
Laughable that the author and all of the riled up commenters ignore the elephant in the room with regards to electric cars. 95%, at least, of the electricity to power them comes from fossil fuels and nuclear.
Anything that increases the overall electrical demand increases the likelihood of more coal burning at the margin.
When the inefficiencies of electrical transmission are accounted for, energy use by electric cars is less efficient than gasoline powered cars.
Feel free to continue your delusion, but electric powered cars are less "green", not more.
3
95%?? Where does that statistic come from? Provide a source, and that might make your comment believable.
10
Not only is the above information incorrect, it's also the flagrantly regurgitated propaganda of the oil industry. In 2019, the national grid will average nearly 20% generation from renewable forms of energy with that number estimated to increase to 35% in the next 10 years. It differs by region, but as it stands, the average electric battery-powered vehicle accounts for approximately 25% less pollution than the average ICE-powered vehicle (assuming 29 mpg. ave.). This number will only continue to tip in favor of electric vehicles with more efficient batteries and system architectures, more renewables feeding into the grid as well as the introduction of different electrochemical systems like fuel cells.
To be sure, electric vehicles are not free from pollution but they are by and large cleaner than traditional ICE-powered vehicles.
2
95% is a misleading exaggeration. Electricity by source is 63% fossil, 17% renewable and 20% nuclear. Both the latter are cleaner than coal or oil. Half of fossil is natural gas, also less troublesome than coal or oil.
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3
1
When you combine unchecked capitalism with a world of alternative facts and populist rage you get all the makings of fascism. We have indeed lost our way and are barreling toward our own ruin in a runaway train. I’m glad I didn’t have children.
6
The Kochs are as much a danger to the stability of the country as the Russians. I'm glad to see them on the front page, they should be there every day as they are calling the shots in Washington. As such, they need to be held accountable.
16
"Working Americans" need cars with poorer fuel economy?
So that they can exercise their freedom to go broke paying for gas?
And that trumps the freedom of my children to continue to live on the planet?
Excellent, in-depth reporting.
No wonder this administration hates the press so much.
Keep it up, NYT, and hopefully they'll be gone soon.
17
I'm sorry, but I fail to see how this could be surprising to anyone that isn't brain dead. Trump would also like to see nuclear waste reclassified so it can be disposed of more easily at the same time he's saying that mankind has had and will have absolutely no impact on earth, air and water.
Making money is his religion, and his agenda is a form of worship: to mammon. And what about humanity? "I really don't care, do you?"
5
In case you haven't noticed, American politics is a fight between old money and new money.
Old money from dirty industries stand behind the Republicans. New money from the older and newer media are behind the Democrats.
Which side are you on? Because neither of them are on your side.
4
Thank you for finally drawing the connection between the oil industry and these initiatives, not the auto industry. This was very obvious to those of us in the auto industry when Trump's proposed CAFE changes came out--it was full of naïve and ignorant assumptions about the way cars are bought and driven, and blind to the disruption this would cause for global auto industry investments already made. It's not that the auto industry doesn't want to design vehicles for the 13 CARB states vs the other 37, we will no longer design vehicles for the remaining 37 states vs the entire rest of the world (CARB states+EU+China). Anyone who believed this had to be an American oil person--that's the only industry that would have benefitted. Rest in peace, Scott Pruitt, and long live the Democratic House.
9
This story perfectly characterizes the moral compasses of the Trump Administration, The Republican Party and Big Energy. The forfeiture of the planet's health for the sake of money and power is their game. If anyone affiliated with any of these groups tells you they care about future generations.....laugh in their face.
14
Do oil company executives not have children or grandchildren?
9
@John Stroughair yup and they want them to never have to work a day in their lives.
5
Now it's America's time and it is absolutely here to stay. This new, eternal find in energy is not at all like the middle eastern's 80+ years of the bubbling black (finite) pits in the Arabian deserts. This is a 180° change. A techtonic shift that through American ingenuity could and did find a way to harness one of the most technological achievements of our time.. complete energy Independence. To use the word oil is simplistic we have energy reserves that are beyond oil enough to export surpluses not seen since world war II but unlike that time it was just that little bit of surface material the black crude. This energy can be forever not just one hundred years not until the year 2213 or whatever time table with set by people 50 years ago. We must embrace the new now and into the future embracing all its technological possibilities and modern achievements that even now seem may seem incredible will be unfathomable and in the future. We are almost three generations away from the movement that thought it was over, done with and we're told we were defeated and energy defeated..the Wells were dry there was no more to extract in any place but I guess no one figured or very few, on future technololgy mind-boggling to say the least and move forward as societies have done for millennia. Technology has given us a whole new timetable a boundless and limitless one an unstoppable force & we should embrace it and we should exploit it. The energy industry is here in a limitless capacity.
2
It is not “unstoppable” John. Rising seas and temperatures with their flooding and fires and political unrest will eventually stop it. By then however, it may be too late.
2
@John
Technology is not magic and does not create energy...the pesky laws of thermodynamics.
The middle east has over 10 times more proven reserves of oil than the US.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-world-s-largest-oil-reserves-by-country.html
1
So beyond sickened by this greedy, dirty, planet-killing industry...
What a farcical, self-congratulatory PR bubble these oil people live in—those hefty Marathon men smiling and applauding themselves, intent on lining their pockets at the expense of our future. No, there's 'no longer a scarcity of oil,' only a continuing surfeit of pollution and insatiable greed.
7
How could anyone take pride in selling more barrels of gasoline?
6
In the same way that one: separates children from parents; arms Saudis crimes against humanity in Yemen in which children die from starvation;enables a WE-THEY culture which violates, by words and deeds, daily, created, selected and targeted “the other(s);” enables policy makers, at all levels, locally, regionally, nationally to be personally unaccountable!Choosing not to know, what is knowable, is so easy! As is being blind to what is going on which harms and even kills.And being deaf to the existential, unnecessary pains of others- family, friends, neighbors, strangers-some already muted from exhaustion.There are flu shots. There are shots designed to protect us from pneumonia. No shots against human complacency and complicity.I wonder, daily, how many people OD on either of these toxic, undiagnosed, social- “diseases?”
Now you know why Mike Pence is V.P.
5
This article is infuriating and terrifying. When you realize that Marathon and the Koch Network, et al are waging a battle against all of humanity, to make more obscene amounts of money, as opposed to saving the Earth, one is overcome with despair. To know that the GOP congress and Trump's administration have piled on against us is simply unconscionable. We all must be calling congressman and senators to inform them, that we will not stand for this assault. Our lives and our futures depend on resistance. We cannot allow 'dark money" tp prevail.
7
Always good to see the TARP bailout supporter Charles Koch pretending he doesn't support corporate welfare.
9
I berate all the people I know for having a SUV, a pick up truck that has never carried anything beside groceries and those that think they are outdoorsmen because they drive a Jeep. I would gladly support a law that limits the weight of vehicles and require anything above that weight be required to carry more than one person as they do for HOV lanes. That anyone thinks that they need a 3 ton vehicle to transport their children is a fool.
I don't care about your arguments of crash survivability, they are bogus. Perhaps if you put the phone down much less accidents would occur. When I see a single person occupying a huge SUV the thought that goes through my head is what a disgusting, selfish idiot.
FYI my primary transport is a motorcycle and in inclement weather I drive a car with a tiny engine. I do own a 20 year old Nissan pick up but it is only used to move bulky items, otherwise it doesn't move.
To all of you that think your SUV bus is cool, you have no idea what cool is. Fools, every one of you.
12
please don't lump us all together. my SUV limo carries up to 6 passengers and 25 cars off the streets every week.
1
Charles Koch has his fingerprints all over this travesty -- just as you would expect if you've read "Democracy in Chains" (National Book Award). Believe me when I say that Koch and his acolytes and sycophants at The Heritage Foundation, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the Institute for Humane Studies, Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, etc. (all greedily consuming Koch's billions), absolutely do not care whether we have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, safe cars to drive, safe foods to eat, Social Security, Medicare, and so forth. The removal of any restrictions whatsoever on business people and businesses (read: rich, white, racist males) to do whatever they want, whenever they want, is his/their goal. They absolutely do not believe that every vote matters -- indeed, it is precisely the opposite. They want government by the few, for the few, and they have lied, cheated and stolen to make that happen.
This plan to dial back pollution controls on cars is just the latest in a long string of Koch-sponsored efforts to trash our country in order to enrich powerful business interests -- in KochSpeak, that's referred to as "freedom." And indeed Koch's plan, like so many of his plans to shift power to the minority, has been executed stealthily, because Koch and his cronies know that if they were open and truthful about their goals, the American people would be utterly repulsed.
Thanks, NYT, for this fine article.
8
Another eye-opening read is "Dark Money" by Jane Meyer. I highly recommend it.
1
We don’t need a foreign adversary to undermine our country. We have American automobile manufacturers and the fossil fuel industry for that. Disgraceful! They put profits over the health and security of our people.
3
Hey, NYT, see how you have this #climatechange #globalwarming #12years article at the TOP of your newsfeed for once?
Let's see you do that with every single article about climate inaction. Every. Single. One. Because the environment? That would be the pitch upon which the rest of what you cover plays out.
You MUST make it front and centre, and help push climate inaction into the forefront of political campaigning and debate. You are beholden to the scared office that is journalism to do so.
We're running out of time. Get to it.
3
It's not just big oil. Big steel has been doing all it can to remain relevant as a structural material - keeping cars thousands of pounds heavier than they need to be. Weight has a massive effect on fuel efficiency.
1
Car and truck buyers are indirectly complicit with the oil industry in this attack on regulations. We don't HAVE to buy vehicles that are bigger and get lower mpg, but WE DO. Cheap oil and cheap gas are nudging us all to decisions that ultimately don't help the environment.
3
"beneficiary", not "hidden beneficiary"
The fossil industry has been more willing than other industries to buy influence. The GOP Congress has had their for-sale sign up since Obama's victory and especially since the inept Supreme Court majority decided that Citizens United wouldn't lead to influence peddling.
All it needed was a klepto in the White House - and we got a President who'd bragged that he'd even make a profit off of the campaign.
"Oil scarcity no longer a concern" is what we should be saying when electric transportation puts a stake in the heart of the petroleum industry and all the sterling citizens it creates. In the meantime, don't be surprised that Trump is ensuring his family enterprise won't keep profiting from campaign donations, and from eager Russian and Saudi investors.
The answer is to nationalize the oil industry, and all polluting industries, figuring in the real costs of their damage to the environment and to our health, and little by little reducing their use (actually, rather quickly, please.) Real science should be our guide to ending the power of big oil and other industries that are leading us to ruination. Individuals and corporate boards should be held accountable and their wealth confiscated and distributed to clean up toxic effects to the air, land, and ocean, and to advance the use of alternative energy sources.
1
At the same time that promoting electric cars seem to be the perfect solution to adress emissions gases, we have to consider that energy companies like So Cal Edison burn fossil fuel like coal to feed the power grid.
And coal is still the number one energy source.
Clearly, without major restructuring towards renewable energy sources, and self sufficient cars (auto rechargeable), pushing only one side of the agenda becomes a pious vow.
1
The problem isn't the oil industry or the Koch brothers. It's that we allow billionaires. If ever there was an argument for taxing 95% of the inheritance of the uber wealthy, this is it. If we don't control extreme wealth, we can't have a democracy or functioning capitalism
9
There is another thread to be followed in this familiar tale of collusion being written by the oil industry. GM's recent announcement of major plant closings, with attendant large layoffs, mostly was focused on its need to shift toward advanced technology, carbon footprint-reducing, and more automated vehicles.
GM annotated an important footnote to its explanation. It observed that it has experienced a significant shift in consumer preferences from smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles like small sedans and crossover SUV's to larger gas-guzzlers such as full-size SUV's and large pickup trucks.
Presumably, this partly is the result of reduced gas prices from their peaks a decade ago, before the full impact of fracking changed the US oil supply equation. Despite the publicity of the widespread cost of fossil fuel-induced climate change, Americans apparently continue to vote for convenience with their wallets rather than allow long-term consequences of their actions to influence their consumer behaviors.
Such reactions play into the hands of an oil industry whose history continues to be one of playing exclusively to its own interests and paying heed to the public interests through clever PR campaigns only when it perceives a harmful impact to itself if it does not.
It will be quite helpful in educating the public if the NYT chooses to highlight Big Oil's duplicitous behavior by following this relevant investigative news article with some well-informed Op-Ed Opnioin columns.
1
@Peter G Brabeck - an interesting fact about Ford's recent announced layoffs is that many of the white-collar staff who are going are those with expertise in the internal combustion power train. Lots of moving parts, complexity and expertise that all goes away when cars have a battery and four motors.
Our car companies are shamelessly profiting from the biggest, most wasteful vehicles, but even they can see that the future is not going to involve thousands of moving parts, expensive emissions controls and an always-hungry fuel tank.
Kudos to Hiroko Tabuchi for this exposé on the manipulation of democracy by Koch and the oil industry. A free press will be essential in the battle to preserve our planet. Free choice is not what Koch and oil industry want - they want a manipulated system that overwhelms free choice and honest democracy.
6
If I had any outrage left, I would direct it at this story.
7
“Freedom” doesn’t mean much if you house is underwater, or a pile of ashes.
3
We ARE awashed with petroleum on every level and for hundreds of years to come. Technology has given us a whole new timetable one undreambt of in the flacid, weak 1970's all dependent on every tin pot dictators whims.
Now it's America's time and it is absolutely here to stay. This new, eternal find is not at all all like middle eastern's 70+ years of the bubbling black (finite) pits in the Arabian deserts. This is a 180° change. A techtonic shift only American ingenuity could have and did find a way through the most technological achievement of our time. I hate to use the word oil but for the layman's that read here I will say it is oil forever not for a hundred years not until the year 2213 or whatever 40 year old cardboard signs written in felt tip "markers" gathering dust in long-forgotten basements. We must embrace the new and then now and the future embracing all its technological possibilities and modern achievements that even now seem incredible will be unfathomable and in the near future. We are 2 almost three generations away from the movement that thought it was done the Wells were dry there was no more to extract on Earth in any place but I guess no one figured or very few on technology that would be mind-boggling to say the least...so we should move forward as societies have done for millennia. Technology is an unstoppable force we should embrace it we should exploit it at every turn. We're not moving back with President Trump's agenda we're blazing new trails.
1
@John - so Saudi Arabia has finite reserves, but ones that they can extract by basically poking holes in the ground and applying a pump. They can sell oil at a profit with prices barely over $10 a barrel.
Our "endless" supply is based on going where we used to be able to just poke a hole in the ground. That's nearly all gone. Now we have to poke hole, force down millions of gallons of water we have better uses for, mixed with various chemicals and with sand (that we also have better uses for).
When our "eternal" oil, currently needing prices well over $30 a barrel with the best conditions, is gone, the sun will still be shining and the wind will still be blowing.
And our innovation will keep dropping the cost of renewables and storage, and people will be using electric (or fuel cell or hydrogen) transportation, and Saudi Arabia will probably still be making a profit with their oil whenever they want to turn the spigots up to push prices below profitability for frackers.
2
@John
If oil and natural gas were so plentiful, the industry would not be fracking as it is expensive and has a lower energy return. Deepwater horizon was drilling in mile deep water because sources are getting scarce.
US oil reserves are 39 billion barrels (1P--proven) and 55 billion barrels (2P—proven plus probable). When consumption is over 7 billion barrels per year, there is the equivalent of a less than a decade of oil. Even adding in ANWR only adds about 4 billion barrels.
Natural gas reserves are about 400-450 trillion cu ft., but the US uses about 27 trillion cu ft., per year…
Citing actual data from the overly enthusiastic EIA
https://www.eia.gov/naturalgas/crudeoilreserves/
2
My first letter to the editor on this significant political/economic and social issue of corporate abuse of power was to “Business Week” in 1992, and in which I pointed out that the only hope of the combined auto and oil industry duopoly being disciplined would occur when a “strategic difference in business incentives between auto industry and big oil, had the auto industry pulling away from unredeemable big oil”.
It’s finally occurring ‘only’ 26 years later.
1
It is truly depressing to realize that greedy, mindless corporate greed is going to destroy us.
4
In a saner society, these clowns would have done the perp walk already: this is literally a war crime.
9
Humans--all animals, really--will forever seek to get something for nothing. And that is what burning fossil fuels is at the moment: the ability to get something (disposal of waste--especially, but not only, CO2) for nothing.
A carbon tax is a mechanism for the users of fossil fuel to pay for what they get. To pay to dispose of the waste they are creating, instead of dumping that cost on everyone else.
Pay for what you get. To not do so has a name: stealing.
5
"When the Trump administration laid out a plan this year that would eventually allow cars to emit more pollution, automakers, the obvious winners from the proposal, balked. The changes, they said, went too far even for them."
Trump takes great pride and joy in sickening our planet and our people.
Thank you, Ms Tabuchi, for shining a light into one of the darkest of Trump corners.
11
Considering the amount of money that the Koch brothers have, it is almost impossible to go against them. They are pouring millions into agencies, “non-profits,” “grass-roots” organizations. All those agencies funded by the brothers are pushing their agenda all over the world. In Brazil they were able to change the government, who knows what they are doing in African countries. Now we know what they are doing in the United States of America.
8
We ARE awashed with petroleum on every level and for hundreds of years to come. Technology has given us a whole new timetable one undreambt of in the flacid, weak 1970's all dependent on every tin pot dictators whims.
Now it's America's time and it is absolutely here to stay. This new, eternal find is not at all all like middle eastern's 70+ years of the bubbling black (finite) pits in the Arabian deserts. This is a 180° change. A techtonic shift only American ingenuity could have and did find a way through the most technological achievement of our time. I hate to use the word oil but for the layman's that read here I will say it is oil forever not for a hundred years not until the year 2213 or whatever 40 year old cardboard signs written in felt tip "markerss gathering dust long-forgotten basements
@John
As long as we have our very own tin pot dictator.
3
@John - technology gives us all the tools and processes we need to finally leave the oil and gas and coal in the ground. It will take decades, but we can stop with the pollution and the corruption in politics that concentrated fossil energy produces.
Set up a little shrine and burn some petroleum in it for your own enjoyment. But don't pollute our air, thank you.
This isn’t just about the environment. There are basic pocketbook issues here as well. If you drive a 20 mpg car 200 miles a week with gas at a cheap $2/gallon, you’re buying 10 gallons of gas and spending $20/week. If your car gets 40 mpg, your gas bill is halved to $10/week. Big oil wants you to spend more of your hard earned cash on gasoline. Saving $10/week over a year is $520. Imagine what would happen if a Democrat proposed raising taxes $520/year to pay for infrastructure or education! But it’s ok for big oil to make you pay hundreds of dollars more per year for gas—just to line their already fat pockets. How stupid can you get.
12
@Burqueno - and if you have solar panels and a car charger and an electric or hybrid car, you can wave at the people at the gas station. You won't need oil changes, catalytic converters, transmission fluid, all sorts of emissions tests. All-electric vehicles are far less complex and already cost less to fill per mile than gas or diesel cars.
1
Absolutely disgusting! Great investigation and reporting by Ms. Tabuchi. No depths to which Koch, Marathon, and the corrupt DJT administration will not go, not to mention the morally bankrupt GOP. Light is the best disinfectant. Keep up the pressure.
3
Sad, not surprised. Trump doesn't need Russians to collude with when he has Americans who would sell out their country for a quick buck now, and who cares about the future....
2
Thees oil company proponents of the free market are only half right. At this point, they are not paying the full cost of their product. Under the economic principle of negative externalities, pollution and all the other attendant evils that go along with burning fossil fuels, is not factored into the price of their product. We should give the oil companies their wish, and let the free market dictate the actual cost of their product. This one simple thing, would turn the whole prospect of cheap fossil fuels on its head.
7
@Kjensen, I totally agree. If we can somehow get people to understand this concept of externalities, sound energy and environmental policies currently not politically possible would become possible. If we actually paid the full cost of gas--including the health cost of pollution and the contribution to climate change--you would not see so many solo drivers of huge SUVs.
Why are the Trump Administration and congressional Republicans ignoring the imminent threat of global warming, caused by burning oil, coal, and other carbon fuels?
Why are we not seeing expansion of known, affordable, reliable non-carbon-fuel technologies including solar, geothermal, wave?
Why are we not seeing nation-wide water conservation in home design?
Will we find out the Trump Administration made deals with oil producing and or coal producing countries to buy, sell, promote oil, coal, gas and refining by-products?
2
All of this no surprise, all of this right before our eyes. Democracy dismantled while folks wave flags for the Apprentice. The manchurian has no clothes, while his dupes only see MAGA. So much winning, so much “Great”, oh my. Mitch speed crams the courts, Pence waits his turn, the prince buys a new bone saw, the ice melts, yes, the swine have had their way. Sold down the river for a photo op for the criminal narcissist in chief. Ok, all you dismantle all regulation folks, enjoy the tax cut, but remember 2008, it could get much worse than that. Putin smiles and high fives Bin Salman. Happy Holiday’s Ya’ll.
7
The Union of Concerned Scientists is a reliable leader in the fight to hold Big Oil accountable. They began in the 1970s to fight against the spread of nuclear weapons and misuse of nuclear energy. They are very experienced, offering a treasure trove of information for your own efforts to work against climate change and other social and environmental injustices. Mark Bittman, of New York Times cooking fame is a Fellow of the UCS now, if I am not mistaken. Undoubtedly adding depth to their agricultural sustainability efforts.
2
If big tobacco paid enough money to this administration the Marlboro man would be hacking up phlegm all through the evening’s television shows.
Heck these jerks would have everyone hooked on bath salts if they could turn it into profit.
No scruples or class.
4
I always assumed the oil companies were behind both the killing off of the original EV made in the USA in the mid 1990's and also the terrible, awful, clean air destroying decision in Europe to push for so called "clean" diesel engines rather than electric vehicles. Why do they continue to get away with this?
2
If you think these companies' efforts were "covert", you haven't been paying attention. Their suicidal efforts to destroy the only known planet on which their shareholders can live is both insane and incomprehensible. I predict that at some point, the shareholders gated communities' walls and fancy home security systems will not be enough to hold back starving masses of people just trying to survive and get back what's "theirs."
3
Well done article by Hiroko Tabuchi. Thank you. Such knowledge is power to those who love the planet and will fight for it.
I’m struck by how government staff and representatives climbed aboard with the oil industry to the point of quoting its position papers. Maybe it was just easier to cut and paste when the day’s to-do list is so long.
But, somewhere along the way, one or two of them remembered the childhood adage to, “Give a hoot. Don’t pollute.” and agreed to serve as a source.
How sinister that Americans can shift away from energy conservation and environmental concerns as if the last 50 years never happened. Shouting “We’ve got oil to spare!” and insinuating overreach by “unelected bureaucrats” sits well with Trump’s crowd.
Just another nail in the coffin of modern life, making America backward again. Having Elaine Chao at the bidding of this industry is no surprise. For this administration, money is flowing their way, but we are all the poorer.
2
Trump only cares about Trump. He cares less of how it harms others.
70% of Americans buy SUV's and trucks, gas guzzlers.
They vote with their $.
4
@ R R
Blame the victims, ignore the wide ranging conspiracy. Nice convenient narrative for ya!
@Corbin
In the US everyone is a victim.
And they do what they want even if you and the Times don't like it. Too bad.
PS: I do not have a gas guzzler.
3
@Corbin - R.R. has a point. There aren't guns pointed at customers going into car dealers. The companies advertise the heck out of their more profitable product, but they don't force them on the customers. Same as the shameful fight against wind farms off Cape Cod a few years ago - you can't blame industry all the time for failures of individuals - even liberal ones.
And like R.R. I don't have a gas-guzzler. No car at all, which is practical for me because of where I live.
2
Putting aside the stunning nihilism on display here that most people are (rightly) focused on, this is terrible for our country's economic future. At a time when the rest of the world is learning to and innovating with renewable energy and cleaner cars, we are doubling down on dying technology.
In a decade or two, when no one will even think about allowing fuel-intensive cars - like our current trucks and crossovers - to exist as they do now, where is the American auto industry going to be? Far behind their competitors, struggling to catch up.
2
The oil industry as a "hidden beneficiary" of gutting increases in gas mileage standards??? "Secretly Pushed for ... emissions rollbacks"??? That's a laugh - there's nothing secret here. They've very obviously always been at the front line, visibly or not, in pushing and benefitting more directly than big auto from any legislation and developments since Reagan that limited or rolled back anything that promoted better gas mileage. They also have large stakes in car companies for a very selfish reason. That said, it is useful to see the details of what and how they do it, but unfortunately, those who get suckered by their arguments are the least likely to read this or see the light. E.g., being awash in oil, rather than a reason for no longer promoting gas mileage, could just as easily be used to say we don't need to keep drilling, OR, to conserve what we have for strategic reasons, in case there is a crisis that results in lower oil production elsewhere or embargoes.
2
The solution is very simple. Those of you that have Marathon gas stations and other choices simply go to the other station. Every time. Nothing so concentrates the mind of a capitalist as losing money.
5
@Miguel Cernichiari
That's not how gas stations work. An Exxon station may sell gas from an Exxon refinery, or it may sell gas from any number of other refineries. Refineries sell to whoever will buy, the gas doesn't just go to the stations with the company's brand. Unfortunately, boycotts of stations only hurt the local owners, not the large companies.
But I like where your head's at.
5
If car manufacturers create more fuel efficient cars, people will have a reason to buy them. Telling me that your new car is just a shiny $30,000 version of my old one doesn’t make me reach for my wallet.
If little things like the fact that they’re cheaper to run, safer to drive, more comfortable, and don’t choke the planet can’t convince you...
The oil industry and the Koch brothers can do whatever they want it's really what the average consumer wants. That's what will determine that average mileage per car. Who knows with interest rates raising and the cost of buying a car increasing lower priced cars that get better mileage might just win out. Besides are you really surprised that our elected officials can be bought.
In a statement, Bill Meierling of the legislative exchange council said that mandating fuel economy was a rule that “many state legislators believe doesn’t make sense for working Americans.”
He's right. It doesn't make sense for working Americans. Why should we care about our environment, greenhouse gases, a cleaner world for our children and grandchildren, the continuation of life on the planet? We should listen to and obey the Koch Brothers, their Americans for Prosperity, and ALEC, all of whom have so much in common with the average working American that they advocate for policies that hurt us.
Any legislator or legislature that believes what these people/organizations/entities say when it comes to greenhouse gases should be forced to learn exactly what global warming means and is doing to the planet. Then they should be forced to participate in cleaning up a contaminated site. Last of all, have them live where the sea level is rising or where the air reeks from industrial waste. Perhaps then they'll experience some sudden epiphany of what life might be like if we don't attempt to keep our planet clean and livable for all.
6
More American exceptionalism.
3
Covert? Only the naive believe otherwise that big oil was not behind this policy!!
Khashoggi slaughter was ‘collateral damage’ to trump’s kiss up to the Saudi’s because of big oil!
Next, follow big oil’s handouts to Kusher’s failing real estate ventures!
How many hundreds of million$$$$ will be given by big oil to the fraudulent super PACs that will support trump’s reelection campaign??
5
As long as the refiners are working on this, it's obvious it's time to bring the lead back! Wipe out wimpy pinging!
2
Gee, this is so shocking! (NOT!)
1
I believe the following statements are self-evident and irrefutable:
1. The planet, the only one on which humans can live, is heating up.
2. There is not a shred of evidence as to the cause of the increased heat except humans' choice to place a variety of emissions into the atmosphere.
3. There is no benefit to be derived from increasing the use of gasoline (and increasing emissions) other than increasing already huge corporate profits.
4. The most likely end of all this is another slow moving chaotic Permian-type extinction (us included).
5. People are actively choosing to risk that end for no reason other than increased corporate profits.
I am Trump's age and neither of us will be around for the final act. However, my preference is that we act rationally and alter our course so that the final act (and elimination of everyone else) does not occur.
6
Yesterday I divested myself of all oil related stocks. Replaced with responsible, forward-looking investments in cleaner air, water, ocean, healthier forests and foods.
8
That'll make the difference.
1
The future is bleak for these folk. The coming of the electric vehicle will kill some of them off in one decade.
Many folk do not understand the stunning benefits of electric transportation. Let me explain:
Being a former engineer for a large power company and having earned a Master of Science in Energy and the Environment, I had PV panels installed three years ago, with my estimated payback of 15-17 years, . . the right thing for an eco-freak to do. Before they could be installed, we acquired a VW e-Golf electric car. The savings in gasoline alone took the solar system payback down to 3 1/2 years. So, we added another electric car, and that took the payback down to less than three years, which means we now get free power for household and transportation.
If we paid for transportation fuel, the VW would cost us 3 cents/mile to drive, and the Tesla Model S P 85 would cost 4 cents/mile, and a Tesla Model 3 would cost to cents/mile with California power prices.
No oil changes are a real treat along with no leaks. And since it has an electric motor , it needs NO ENGINE MAINTENANCE at all. We do not go "gas up", or get tune-ups or emissions checks, have no transmission about which to worry, no complicated machined parts needing care. THAT is what will sell the EV.
15
Make no mistake. It's ostensibly the job of (capitalist) companies to maximize return to their investors/owners.
Proper environmental regulation is a part of good government.
It is our job to make certain that government does its job. This ain't happenin' real good at this juncture. *sad*
12
We should be jailing these people; they're actively fighting for accelerated climate change to make more money for people who already have more than they could possibly spend. Nationalize the energy sector; do it in the name of national security if you want, but the profit margin can no longer be allowed to dictate energy policy in the US
6
The oil industry does not care at all if climate change makes Earth uninhabitable, so long as it doesn't happen in the next quarter and disturb their financial reports and earnings calls.
8
When does denying, and subverting efforts to combat man-made climate change become crimes against humanity?
6
We, the people of this nation, have to collectively be active in changing our broken government. All 3 branches of the government are not working together, and in the extremely rare instance they do, it is mostly pork. Yes, this is easy to say, and very hard to do; however, we have to start somewhere. Some might call the mid-term elections a start. While this may (or may not) be true, the fact is this is too slow. I am not suggesting a coup, or anything like this. That noted, we must do more, and do it faster. Contacting our respective senators, congressmen, etc. are a good thing, but nothing is as helpful as very, very large peaceful demonstrations. This is what we did in during the Vietnam War/Nixon/Watergate years. We tend to remember mostly bad things, like Bobby Kennedy and the Reverend Martin Luther King being assassinated, along with students killed at Kent State and the insane 1968 DNC in Chicago and many riots. There were countless demonstrations which were peaceful and they helped. I am not suggesting sticking flowers in police or soldier's rifle barrels; I am not naive. Plus, with so much more division in Congress now and (worse), a country divided, it can still be done. I believe we, the people, will make them hear us.
1
@Easy Goer Come on now, that's not fair. Over the past 30 years this country has built some of largest, best and one might even say greatest prisons in the wold. Yes, sure we've let out roads, bridges, hospitals, schools and pretty much everything else fall into decay, but our Prisons are best.
2
we should allow our elected representatives to sample the best jails ever@
Oil lobbyists are certainly the kings of sophistry. Rolling back fuel economy standards will not only be destructive to the planet but for American consumers, especially the middle class. Assuming $2/gal gasoline and increased use of 400,000 (42gal) barrels PER DAY that will cost consumers $12,264,000,000 every year. Anyone who has been driving more than 10 years knows how quickly gas prices can rise, so at $4/gal we would be paying a $25 billion per year FEE into into big oil’s already overflowing coffers for nothing in return except more pollution and less money in our pockets. I find it despicable that elected officials are falling for the plentiful oil ruse. The byproduct of burning fossil fuels is poison gas and if the Koch brothers don’t believe it they should go to their garage, get in the car and start the engine for enlightenment.
11
If we were to demand mandatory public campaign financing, our elected leaders would work not for the money, but for the people.
Clearly, the gross amount of money spent on American elections attracts criminals. Look at the evidence.
7
This is only one skirmish in the long game played by the hard right libertarians funded by Koch. Their anti-democracy, anti-government ideology co-opts and distorts the language of freedom and liberty in their effort to enrich the 1% and beggar the rest of the planet.
I hope they can be stopped.
5
That duck pond is doing a heck of a job, Marathon! Thanks for doing your part.
3
Are these nihilists capable of even feigning to care for their children?
1
Simply great reporting by Hiroko Tabuchi. This should be the top news story on every channel.
4
It's time we destroy these Oil Companies ..Put Global warming liability on their book. They will be singing a different tune before you bat your eyelid
2
We know; Big Oil is self serving. Of course.
It's time to report something we don't know enough of: Congress' complacency, how Big Oil gets its way, who owes Big Oil what. How about a letter grade a la the NRA grades for how favorable politicians are to industry interests. Let's have a weekly column on who went through that revolving door in the past week. The news is there will be a rush for those revolving doors as a crowd on lame duck Republicans leave office this January.
It's not enough to wag a finger at industry. They are predators by nature. It's Congress that betrays us.
4
Let us know when the oil industry DOESN’T lobby for lower emissions standards. That would be news.
2
Unfortunately not a surprise but great reporting by the New York Times. in these dark days of ALL institutions under fire. The CEO of Marathon along with other big oil companies will not be around in 30-years when climate change and its impacts are being felt by their offspring.
When my auto lease comes due next year, it will be time to look at a hybrid/electric and will certainly avoid Marathon or any of the majors. That using an independent may still come from the same source, it is how I can put pressure and use my dollars against the people and companies which would rape the land and our environment.
3
Thank you Hiroko Tabuchi for research well done! Interesting to see that Republicans again ignore national security by continued dependence on Middle East oil.
1
"What a surprise"- absolutely no one in the US, 2018
1
Charles Koch: the real Scrooge.
4
These people from oil industry have kids and grandkids, or I'm mistaken?? What can you say about such parents and grandparents? …
4
So unfortunate that there seems to be little concern about what is best for the people and the country. Trump is running his own Tammany Hall at the federal government. The guy just seems to be a spoiled, thin skinned megalomaniac. It is good to see him finally starting to lose it.
Unfortunately politicians in both parties can't do what is best for people and the country because the public won't re-elect those who are truthful. We are in a very bad place as a country.
4
Good people, this article only proves that corruption goes far beyond Trump.
There are quite a few toilets to clean in America.
Too bad a chemical litmus test can't be developed to reveal the amoral and immoral. But then half the country would be exposed.
2
Thank you for reporting this important story! I wonder how these people can look at themselves in the mirror.
3
The oil guys are desperate to keep us using gas guzzlers for as long as possible.
In the end, the internal combustion engine will go the same way as the horse and carriage. Tesla has already proven that electric cars can be faster, more efficient, and even more desirable than gas cars. The only part that remains to be proven is if they can be mass produced at a reasonable price. Once we have electric cars in the $20-30k range, there's going to be a revolution.
I for one will not be sorry to see our dependence on oil wither and die. Apparently our government disagrees and thinks it's perfectly OK to be at the mercy of OPEC.
4
Interesting that Exxon Mobil had issued a report back about 2007 that suggested that current North American reserves would last to about 2075 (60yrs from now) before significant extraction costs would start impacting global supplies as existing fields run dry. Sorry, grandkids...
It is doubtful that price per barrel will stay at current levels as China & India ramp up automobile usage.
3
Oil companies know transport is moving away from oil. After that, power generation. They see their big future long-term market in plastics, the same stuff that is destroying the planet's ocean life.
Lovely.
4
The big oil/gas industries need to slowly change themselves from oil and gas to environmentally friendly industries solar and wind to become the dominate energy systems producing nation wide. The government needs to help and encourage this to save ourselves. Its outrageous and infuriating we are so close to loosing the arctic ice pack as well as everything else due to a few billionaires and huge companies cynicism and profits. Dont these people have children and grand children? China and India are also at fault of course but we are number 3 in the amount of green house gas output world wide. Unacceptable. And we only have a decade of so to change before its irreversible.
3
@Mother I totally agree with you, but sadly, the new data coming from climate scientists is saying that we no longer have a decade to deal with this. In fact, we are likely already in the "it's irreversible" category.
3
The oil industry is casting this issue as giving consumers more choices. Why would a consumer choose to take away the fruits of their work and give it to the oil industry? Their argument also, only works for climate change deniers such as those policy makers that populate the Trump administration and Republican Legislatures. A more fuel efficient vehicle keeps more of a person's earnings in their pocket to choose how to spend it. That provides the ordinary American more financial security and freedom of choice. And just as important - helping reduce carbon emissions. Improving auto and truck efficiency is a win-win for American. Sorry oil industry you need to adjust to changing times.
3
So the Kochs and Americans for Prosperity (read: Americans against a clean and safe environment) want to restrict consumers from buying fuel efficient cars by opposing California emissions rules, and restrict consumers from buying electric cars by denying gas stations the right to install electric chargers? The oil industry needs to go the way of the coal industry! My next car will be electric!!
8
And this is a surprise, how? The whole thing with climate change deniability and rolling back regulations is one thing, pure and simple, when you roll back environmental regs and lower CAFE standards, you increase demand for oil and gasoline, and that helps people in the oil patch that are big clients of Trump nation. Not to mention the car industry, who can now basically ignore cars and concentrate on very lucrative SUVs. Add that to cheap gasoline, and you have a very nice boost to the SUV craze.
Of course, what the people buying SUVs who probably cheer this don't understand is oil prices aren't set by Donald Trump or by government fiat, and if you increase demand for oil the price goes up, and then people whine about the cost of filling their tanks.
8
When General Motors' EV1 appeared in 1997, the Kochs and the petroleum industry, with 20th-century foresight and timeless greed, recognized electric vehicles were the way of the future - that the market for gasoline had an expiration date.
So they set about "developing" a market for natural gas (methane) by a covert and successful PR attack on nuclear energy, portraying its carbon-free generation as dangerous and uneconomical. By providing the fuel to generate electricity, transportation would remain dependent on their products; their profit stream was secure. They promoted sales of "clean" hydrogen fuel, but not the fact 95% is distilled from the same source - natural gas.
In 2015, for the first time in history, global revenue from sales of natural gas eclipsed that from gasoline.
Left to their own devices, the oil industry will not stop until every drop or cubic foot of fossil fuel has been extracted from the ground and sold, sealing the fate of Earth's climate for our descendants. By any measure their covert campaign has been a resounding, if catastrophic, success.
2
Desperation by the oil companies. The people will not buy cars that have deliberately rigged their gas mileage for the profits of oil companies. Sell your stock in any "American Car Company" that becomes complicit in this scheme because Toyota and Honda and the rest are not stupid enough to go along with this.
4
I wonder if Koch Brothers and Oil companies executives have children and grandchildren? I am sure they do.
If these people are putting money before their family members, it shows the morality of these people.
Unfortunately, Trump and his cronies have the same thinking to ruin our planet.
7
Surprise! Will anybody ever take on Big Oil? Even the liberal press is afraid to do it, let alone politicians at any level. Sad!
5
If corporations want to petition the government, then do it OPENLY and be transparent about it, and let the rest of us in on the debate.
The only reason this is secret is to hide the payoffs and the corruption.
9
Immoral businesses need uneducated consumers and corrupt politicians. The U.S. has too many of both.
11
Trump is actively promoting the destruction of our environment and morale. We must all rise up, educate ourselves and take the time to use due process to impeach him and restore moral order.
Keeping your head in the sand with passive compliance is not a solution.
8
Oil industry a "hidden beneficiary" of all this? In what sand have you had your head buried?
2
DUH! How stupid are Americans to not know that already. Land of quid pro quo
3
As a New York Times subscriber and educated person, this is not even surprising. This is only one of the many issues resulting from all that was done by Americans and a few Russians to get trump elected. Now we have to live with the results and hope a little bit of the country will survive.
5
I am aware that some states and cities are making tort claims against big oil on the grounds that the oil company did not accurately report impact of excessive use of oil to investment and to environment.
This article provides grounds to add Marathon Oil and Koch family of investors to the defendants in said tort claim.
5
Only 'Big Oil' has enough capitalization to produce the trinkets the Climate Cult uses in its worship rituals and pagan ceremonies. That is if the cultic rites are to be funded by capitalism and or related taxation.
1
Of all the Trump administration's damaging policies, this rollback of emission standards for cars and trucks is probably at the top of the list of catastrophic plans.
As a recent report from NOAA has pointed out, the effects of climate change are with us now, as can be seen all over the globe.
Heidi Cullen, a climate scientist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, stated concerning the report:
“Burning fossil fuels is making our weather worse right now,” with greater likelihood of deadly heat waves, wildfires, droughts and floods, she said. “And the more we burn coal, oil and gas, the worse it will get.”
13
Efficient engines developed to meet regulations are one of the reasons gas prices are so cheap. They are the main reason US consumption has leveled off even as the number of vehicles has greatly increased. Reducing engine efficiency will only raise the price of gas. A win win for the GOP and their corporate friends a big lose for consumers. You know the working people you pretend to represent and champion. We should be preparing for the reality of 2030 not 1980. The GOP and big oil tactics will guarantee we are not prepared for future disruptions, Afterall scarcity means profits in Oil, national security never trumps profit.
5
And now in the first model year since this change in CAFE standards the new 2019 Chevy pickups get fewer mpg than this years 2018 models. Sad.
2
My first reaction was not nice. I fantasized about sticking those smug, overpaid, greedy Marathon executives posing at the NYSE in front of tailpipes from energy inefficient vehicles for 8 hours a day for a week to see how they like it. Many Americans are demanding cleaner and more energy efficient cars. It's the propaganda from Koch and company that prevents more of them from jumping on the efficiency bandwagon. I suspect many of them are in denial about climate change or the impact of their bad consumer habits on their children's and grandchildren's futures.
9
Contributing to a major increase in greenhouse gas emissions solely for a short-term boost to profits for a few companies and their investors is evil in the literal sense of the word. Kudos to NYTimes for this reporting! Now please share how we can best fight this and make sure the fuel standards stay in place.
9
The automobile manufacturers wouldn't have to build 2 models. Just build them to the California standards and sell them in the whole country.
13
I am so tired of all this. They don't seem to realize the planet goes, so go the people, the animals and OIL executives. Or maybe they are building underground condos to save themselves? When the piper comes for them, they better be ready to walk the plank.
5
Repulsive, but this isn't a Trump problem - it's a Republican problem. Any other Republican that might have been elected, would have done the same.
The oil and mineral extraction industries are clients of the Republican Party - plain and simple.
To be fair, Hollywood is a client of the Democratic Party - but that will not lead to the irreversible fouling of the only planet we have to live on; and if you don't like what they exude, you don't have to watch it.
To summarize, Trump is a "swine for all seasons", devoid of any moral purpose whatsoever, but if he had a heart (?) attack tomorrow, I would not expect Pence to do any better.
Note: For a long time, the famous Republican, Dick Chaney, had a pump for blood, which was totally appropriate. Can't help but wonder, if after he got he got his transplant, the pump - some how or other - ended up in the Donald's chest. But we will never know, since Trumps doctor makes stuff up.
4
It is extraordinarily ironic that the auto industry opposes this extreme gutting of fuel economy standards which Trump plans to do. You'd think that they would rejoice at being able to sell bigger vehicles with more power and higher sticker prices. But it seems the motor vehicle manufacturers seem to recognize the foolishness of such an approach. Under this plan, cars and trucks would waste more gas, increase the level of unhealthy pollutants in the air and speed climate change. The greedy gasoline producers who are fueling this effort are trying to convince American motor vehicle owners that "freedom" requires less efficient engines. I hope that in 2020 American voters will demonstrate that the freedom to pollute won't trump the freedom of the rest of us to have a habitable planet.
6
Does anybody know if there is a website somewhere, wherein there is a list of names - with accompanying pictures - of those people most responsible for continuing to encourage climate destruction? If there is, can we add the names and faces of trump, the Koch brothers, Scott Pruitt, Gary Heminger? In 10 to 20 years, when millions upon millions of people are dead and/or climate change refugees we might want to know who to hold responsible. Perhaps we can have them arrested, tried and hung as the criminals that they are.
5
Spoiler alert! I'm happy this investigation occurred and was published but one look at the headline and first couple paragraphs and everyone's reaction should be, "yeah....obviously". How are more people not aware to the obvious role that fossil fuel interests play in determining policy?
6
Almost all GOP Congressmen, mainly the senators, are either traitors or too uneducated (degrees do not matter) to allow Trump administration and GOP's corporate lobby to destroy not only our country but also the whole world due to its greed and/or stupidity.
No wonder GOP is desperate to destroy public education, mainly STEM education, in USA in so many ways (that include infusing religion into everything- including in education), so that American public and its core vote bank remain oblivious to such serious issues and more motivated by lies and hereditary political and religious allegiances.
5
Vote with your wheel's buy electric cars its that simple.
Indirectly this will support an alternative lobby.
6
who is surprised? Anyone?
2
Maybe I'm missing something. If the petro industry has their way, and mileage standards are reduced, just for talking, say your new vehicle gets 15 mpg, vs. 20 mpg. under the old guidelines. You're going to be buying gas more often, which is of course their objective.
Nowhere in their argument do they address how this would affect price per gallon, such as decrease in same. So, assuming true to history, there will be no beneficent reduction in $$/gallon. Therefore, you will have the freedom to contribute more to their bottom line, less to yours and add to our already carbon overloaded atmosphere.
To those who believe this is a good idea, please do the following quiz. Of the four choices below, choose the one that doesn't belong:
God
Guns
GOP
Greed
Genius
4
This industry focus on preserving choice is like someone complaining that murder laws should be rolled back because it restricts their choice of ways to win an argument.
4
Instead of putting the burden on the everyday consumer, people should be fighting back against the all encompassing corporate welfare our society has developed that allows for something like 71% of global emissions to come from 100 companies. Tax those who can pay for it.
6
This article is an example of one of the key reasons I value my subscription to the NYT. Well researched investigative journalism is as important to our democracy as fair and balanced reporting of the news.
Thank you Ms. Tabuchi and NYT for bringing the facts out of the shadows. Now it's up to the rest of us to speak out and insist that our national policies aim for this country's (and the world's) long term benefit.
27
I have been talking and warning people about climate change long before it became trendy and popular with politicians!
Okay, so the Oil Industry has been campaigning for more favorable rules, regulations and laws. So what... they have a fiscal responsibility to do so for their stockholders. I am not saying that it is morally right... just that it is their job to do so!
Now if that upsets readers, rather than posting comments expressing outrage, why don't they take a good look at the portfolios and 401k's and dump their shares in oil industry?
If you are really that outraged, then take a good look at your retirement plans and protest by getting rid of the banks that fund the oil industry!
The problem is that people only give lip service and, other than voicing an opinion, don't really do anything!
Okay, so everybody wants to vote for politicians who support a green tax on carbon and the industry. In fact, a recent UN report suggests that a $27,000 dollar per ton of CO2 tax would help... sounds great until people realize that it would add $270 dollars to each gallon of gasoline. It would also raise the price of Natural Gas, Diesel, Coal, Hydrogen, Solar Panels, Wind Turbines, Food, Clothing, Rent and Transportation. Companies would go out of business or there would be layoffs. The price for everything would skyrocket and hurt those who can't afford it!
So the goal is to come up with a plan that won't hurt people... so far, nothing proposed will do that!
@The Critic Well said. These are some points I have been struggling to reconcile. If corporate officers ignore their remit of maximizing shareholder returns these officers will be out of their jobs and maybe some, in jail.
From my perspective, any which way we go, there is going to be pain. The question is, which of these pains can be walked off and which are indicators of either present or future structural damage?
It is often said that we vote with our checkbooks in our elections. It will be interesting to see if the 'green' people (I am avowedly one), vote with their investments.
@ChicagoMaroon
I don't know if the moderators will post my reply, but if they do, I want to thank you for your comment!
I have spent over 50 K to reduce my carbon footprint. Solar panels, insulation, LED lighting, Ultra-High Efficiency Air/Heating. Timer on Water Heater for 4 hours a day, Low volume toilets... turning off lights, ultra efficient vehicles, less meat, no cruises, less purchases. People don't realize that using less is not easy and it isn't cheap!
They also don't realize that for every $10 per ton CO2 tax, fuel will rise by .10 cents per gallon... 27 K = $270 per gallon.
FYI: One gallon of gas weighs about 6.3 pounds and when burned in an engine will produce about 20 lbs of C02... one part carbon, plus two parts oxygen.
Determining how much Natural Gas, Heating Oil, or Diesel would rise if a $10 tax for each ton of CO2 produced is easy. It is basic math and basic economics... and the results are not good.
Again, the math is simple and can be verified by anyone willing to look.
Put in a carbon tax and slowly raise it to 27 K as the UN report suggests?
Over 40 years-old? Kiss your job goodbye. Working at UPS, Amazon, Delta, United, Ford? Kiss your job goodbye.
Making less than 100 K? Welcome to poverty because... Natural Gas, Diesel, Coal, Heating Oil, Electricity - prices for everything, including Solar Panels, Wind Turbines and Hydrogen, Rent, Food, Clothing, Transportation will skyrocket!
All for saving the planet?
Expect pain!
It's just business now. There's no debate about ethics. These guys have evolved beyond democracy. They weren't sure that they could frighten and enrage enough to outnumber the apathetic left, but they did. They recently toasted their victory over a carbon tax in liberal Washington State. Big money was spent. The masses can be bamboozled, swindled, conned. A fake business success can be made to look like a potential leader via a reality TV show. So what's the solution? Get everyone registered to vote. That's our job now. You get it? That's your main job now. Then when each election comes along (such as Virginia in 2019) we get out the vote and stand up for truth. For example, very cold winters in the northeast US will be caused by the sluggish jet stream, and that sluggishness is caused by global warming.
6
In the article, the editors link to the Marathon Twitter account.
An upload photo shows a 'Pollinator Garden.'
Scrolling down the Twitter screen shows a 'Support Our Veterans" promotion.
There is a grand guignol irony in the corporate demands of the oil companies guiding American government policies.
Do readers know of the April 2001 'Energy Summit' of the Bush regime? In that meeting closed to journalists and the public, Bush appointees and oil industry representative discussed the conquering of Iraq and the division of the oil resources.
Do the several million veterans of the Iraq invasion know the actual motivation of George W. Bush et al to destroy Iraq? Do the thousands of American families know why their sons, fathers, brothers, sisters died? What is the death count now for all the Iraqi men, women, children killed in that invasion and occupation?
Consider that the leaders of the ISIS / D'ash met and organized in the Bremer-era prison camps. They launched their war after the American forces finally withdrew. And now the war continues, in Iraq, Syria, Europe. And threatens the United States.
Will the oil companies pay for the consequences of the demands imposed on the United States?
When will the people of the United States recognize the true and continuing cost of American addiction to gasoline and diesel?
If our nation priced oil at the true cost, all transportation would be electric.
Oil is death. Renewable energy life. Make cars electric.
5
Vile and criminal. Governance by deception. Evidence buried, science ignored, logic defied. The history books will summarize the Trump presidency with one quote: "I don't believe it."
10
And absolutely no one is surprised that Donnie’s tiny fingerprints are all over this. Because, just like the Koch brothers, he’ll be dead and gone when your grandchildren have to clean up their mess, if that is even still possible .
3
@CD USA - The grandchildren will be dead as well.
It's the same culprits playing the same underhanded game for the same dubious short term gain - every. single. time. And their preferred political puppets are, just as predictably, the same political party. You know what's not the same though? The amount of time we have left.
At a time where we need to be working alongside the rest of the world at an unprecedented level of cooperation to combat the coming climate-driven nightmare - we instead find ourselves alienating our allies, standing with autocratic regimes in the name of fossil fuels, and hamstringing global efforts to face the crisis. Behind this current unprecedentedly incompetent and corrupt crop of Republicans are the very same dark monetary forces of oil and finance - because democracy alone would not see them to power.
8
I look to the Democrats to be keeping a list of everything the criminal in the White House has done and on inaugration day 2020 undo this and all the rest of it on day one.
Humans out; Earth out. Doomed is likely what we all are. The only justice in an unjust universe - these monsters shall also burn, starve and thirst. There is no place to hide or escape to.
1
'In Congress, on Facebook and in statehouses nationwide, .... and a conservative policy network financed by the billionaire industrialist Charles G. Koch to run a stealth campaign to roll back car emissions standards, a New York Times investigation has found.'
Who else is doing these investigative journalism? (Though I have to admit that I do not have the time to read all the other newspapers around.)
Soros cannot write checks to NYT because that will become a weapon for the right wing.
If I had enough money to spare, I would probably write NYT into my will.
Go, NYT, go!
3
"Secretly." Good one. Can you explain to me though, why Santa's handwriting looks so familiar?
If America reduces its emission standards on its cars, how does it expect any other country (with higher emission standards)to buy it's cars or increase its car exports to countries such as China?
Most countries won't accept American cars for this reason alone, and why would Trump or anybody expect otherwise? If American cars do not meet other countries standards, they will not be accepted nor would sell.
2
One of the most impactful things Americans can do to reduce C02 emissions is to switch to electric cars (Drawdown, Penguin Books, 2017). The Kochs and the oil industry want to make this issue of efficiency standards about oil scarcity, rather than climate change and air quality. It is clearly tied to the effort to deny climate science and spread doubt about the human cause of global warming. They also want to phrase the issue in terms of consumer choice. I, as a consumer, choose cleaner air and a reduced carbon footprint. I choose to drive a Prius, and hope my next car will be a Tesla. I am choosing to get my investments out of big oil and other industries that put profit above public good. I choose to make a conscious effort to be less wasteful. Shame on the trump administration, the Kochs, Marathon oil, and their Republican enablers. We must not let them dictate our choices and standards.
4
Thank you NYT for continuing to expose who is really pulling the strings with their the dirty money in politics. While I'm sure this will earn plenty of wrath from Individual 1 as fake news, people need to know about the subversive and sinister plot to remake this country for their own personal benefit by the Koch brothers, ALEC and rest of these corporate cronies.
And those on the right have bought into their carefully crafted version of utopia with their talk of eliminating the big bad government, flag waving and talk of patriotism, but it's all a ruse to destroy any oversight for protection of the environment, worker safety, and living wages - they are supporting the very thing they also rally against. I really think the Koch brothers will only be satisfied when 99% of this country lives in feudal slavery waiting for the crumbs to fall from their table.
6
It still boggles the mind how some people commenting here continue to believe that burning finite resources as quickly as possible is some sort of reasonable policy or some type of inviolate freedom.
The planet is going to free from energy at the rate we are using fossil fuels…and all the false rhetoric coming from the energy sector will not change that.
8
Americans need to wake up to the pernicious attempt (and success at) to undermine our democracy perpetrated by ALEC. They have completely captured most of the Republican members of state houses (see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_American_Legislative_Exchange_Council) and are even gaining ground on very local levels (cities, towns, counties) by writing legislation and getting their members to pass it. The Koch brothers are big contributors to ALEC but so are many of the big American companies (see the same link).
8
Would I buy a used car from a smiling Obama? Yup...but I don't need one now that I took possession of a Tesla. I'm so impressed that I'm trying to convince my wife to dump her 2018 Audi and get a Tesla as well. Granted, not everyone is in the position of being able to do this, but I'm proud to be seen as a threat to big oil.
13
@Larry replacing your car every year is a boon to Big Mining
1
I can appreciate your love for the Tesla but just a reminder. Getting rid of a brand new car that has created a huge global footprint in its creation to trade for an electric car does the environmental cause a disservice. Unless you have solar the charging of that electric car still pollutes. I too will be looking into electric but only when my 2008 Honda Fit finally bites the dust.
3
Where do you think batteries and by extension electricity is coming from? Don't fool yourself by thinking Ecars are clean. I have no solution either but I am aware of the burden that 'green' new cars place on our climate as well.
3
Remember this story when you see the ads on MSNBC and CNN and wherever else (I can't bear to watch FoxFiction nor do I imagine any sentient being does but I guess they are even worse there) with Brazilians and whomever else in their work Dickeys touting how much they do for the environment when they are on the Koch brothers' payroll. What will these employees say to their asthmatic, choking grandchildren— "I was just following orders"?
Maybe it is time that non-profits stop taking Charlie & Dave's blood money, and buy back their naming rights— I will donate to that. Oh yeah, drive by Marathon gas stations while you are at it too.
7
A good reminder of the "values" of the Republican Congress who will gladly sacrifice an entire planet for the oil industry. Trump and the oil industry aren't where the buck stops. We MUST hold Congress responsible for keeping our planet safe. Right now all they pray to is the God of money.
7
This is another reason to minimize petroleum use.
Corruption to further pollution, can it get any more cynical?
My reply to them: I drive a Honda hybrid sedan.
I look forward o the day I can get a hydrogen fuel cell powered car.
4
@Robert FL
Hydrogen production is overwhelmingly (95%) sourced from fossil fuels. The production of hydrogen in this manner releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Hydrogen production is not currently sustainable.
@Robert FL - I recommend you bypass hydrogen and just go straight to an electric car. The primary feedstock for hydrogen production is methane anyway, so it’s not like using hydrogen means you’re cutting out the oil companies (who now control much of the natural gas industry). At least electricity can be generated from solar, wind, and hydro.
Our air and water quality are not for sale to the highest bidder. Marathon and the Kochs are what are slowly becoming relics. The future is clean energy cars be that electric or something else as yet on the horizon.
7
see jane mayer's book, dark money.
5
This isn't about scarcity, this is about pouring millions more tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. I'm not sure why people in this country are so enamored of 100+ year old technologies like incandescent bulbs and internal combustion engines.
17
What's good for Marathon oil ... is bad for the United States.
9
This seems like a case of Obvious Man (or Woman) strikes again. Was there ever any question who was behind this? And if there was, have you been living under a rock all your life?
8
@Cheryl Yeah but it adds to the case for requiring disclosures of who is paying for influence
1
Build the wall now to protect us against .... refugees, the vast majority of who are not a threat.
Burn baby, burn, since climate change is a liberal hoax. But which is, indeed, a SERIOUS threat.
2
We're so gullible when it comes to Freedom: God, Guns and now the unique symbol of American freedom-- automobiles. What the extraction industries of timber and coal did to Central Appalchia in the timber-crazed 19th and coal-crazed 20th Centuries awaits us all in the 21st--the worsening pollution of our land, air and sky and a hastening of our climate doom. While Democrats are not purely innocent, our Republican-controlled statehouses have, for years, been stepping and fetching for ALEC and the Koch brothers--the real Enemies of the People.
19
I have not owned an American made automobile since the 1970's. I prefer quality, higher gas mileage and the fun of driving a well balanced machine. America is failing and I'm too old to actually much care. For those of you with children, I highly encourage you to, under no circumstance, vote Republican. Let's hope it's not too late. Clean air and water are quite necessary...
18
What was that Trump was saying about draining the swamp? The White House has never been swampier! The restorative work that is going to be needed to redeem the office of the President and rebuild the US's reputation abroad in the next administration is going to be an enormous task for the next President (who can't come soon enough).
8
"Mr. Rice of Marathon said the company did not write the letter, and the company declined to say who did. It did not offer an explanation for Mr. Birsic’s digital fingerprint on the document file."
The parallels to the rampant lying and bribery perpetrated by the tobacco industry are hard to ignore.
And in both cases the effects of the industry's product results in the death of consumers.
Americans: your current government wants you to die. Oh, only after going into financial ruin to pay your medical bills first of course.
8
So the "secret" is Big Oil wants more oil used? Mind. Blown.
3
@Nick Makes me wonder why they don't do it publicly....
1
What's the next step, a new amendment to our Constitution allowing all Americans to drive and pollute at will? Somebody needs to make public the names of the 19 lawmakers from Indiana, West Virginia and Pennsylvania in bed with the oil industry. They are a much bigger threat to our national security than any mother and child requesting political asylum..
11
Thank you for this investigation, NYT. More of this, please. For example: The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), 100X more influential than the twit's tweets.
This story is a vivid reminder that being a "consumer" first and foremost is not freedom, as these liars would have us believe, but an enslavement of sorts. Resist.
8
Do these people have children or grandchildren? Do they care about them in the slightest? I honestly don't understand how such unbridled greed can coexist with any concern for the health and safety of future generations. I am so sick of trump and the Pandora's box of deplorables he has unfettered and set gleefully to savaging our country.
7
Start a fuel-inefficient car boycott? Refuse such rides? Try to add shame to the cost of owning a gas guzzler?
2
It's a cesspool of corruption, and it needs pumping. Now, about that swamp...
1
Take note of how the promotion of public choice is nefariously used to limit or eliminate true public choice. If a Free Market is what they truly advocate then Charles Koch would understand the need to evolve away from extractive, destructive, polluting oil and gas production and towards clean renewables and bio fuels. Instead he stacks the deck in his favor to generate legislation that benefits him and his industry and enslave the American consumer. If you have to buy more gasoline for your gas guzzling car then that is less money for you to have for other things. Like perhaps a book or two on how the Koch operation works and why their liberty comes at your expense.
Caveat emptor.
7
We are all active, willing and able participants in the energy industry (yes, 'big oil' included) every time we turn on a light or hop in a car. Seeing ourselves and our choices as immune to this discussion is perpetuating the problem and incorrectly disassociating it from our daily life.
I am an engineer, who has worked across the energy sector (including oil and gas, renewables and everything in between) and I haven't owned a car in a decade. The biggest discussion I see lacking is anything inward looking. Where is the dialogue about owning one car per household, using less energy by living in a smaller home. If we, as individuals, tax payers, and consumers, consume less, demand is subsequently less and the market with shift accordingly.
Want to make a dent in climate change and emissions? Be conscious of your energy consumption, embrace the power of your own decisions, and start there.
14
@kate Good points about owning just one car, although that is not practical for a lot of families where parents commute to different place. It should be noted the Koch Brothers fought an initiative for mass transit expansion in Nashville because.....you fill in the blank.
5
@John Single car ownership is one of a plethora of examples regarding conscious energy use. I could add car pooling, car sharing (uber, lyft, car2go), cycling, food sourcing, home location, electricity efficiency, etc. Consumers and voters have power if they choose to be informed and engaged. My concern is people don't feel they have any ownership in the energy space nor influence to move the needle.
2
@John - I live in a once car family. I take the bus to work.
1
GM, Ford, and Dodge should remember how they were caught flat-footed during the "oil crisis" of 1973 and lost market share when they refused to increase fuel efficiency. I learned the crisis was part fraud from the purchasing agent for Sacramento at the time who told me oil companies asked him if they had extra storage to hide their crude and keep supplies low, sticking it to Americans once again. European and Japanese automakers filled the void as Americans moved away from gas guzzlers. Americans will do the same, and the automakers should remember what happened to them after 1973 because voting with our wallet affects social and environmental policy, too.
17
@Keith
Excellent point. David Halberstam wrote a brilliant post-mortem about the decline of the Detroit auto industry after that era called 'The Reckoning'. I highly recommend it.
2
@Keith-
Voting with our wallets by reducing our own personal energy demands - is the way to go and will contribute to saving our planet - the only planet we've got.
3
@Keith - And what used to be Chrysler has now devolved into the truck division of FIAT, almost exclusively manufacturing Jeeps and Dodge Ram pickups. They need to offer EV options fast or they could be crushed in an oil crunch. Why not an electric compact Jeep?
1
I'm not sure how secret this content is since 'Dark Money' and other material on the Koch's and fossil-fuel industry has surfaced. It would then only be natural that a kleptocratic administration would be responsive to their overtures. (If one has possibly sold out to Russia, Saudi Arabia, etc-- what harm does one more entanglement do?)
5
The Koch Industries statement that it has “a long, consistent track record of opposing all forms of corporate welfare, including all subsidies, mandates and other handouts that rig the system” is grossly false. According to the Checks and Balances Project, Koch Industries and its subsidiaries received more than $422 million dollars in federal and state subsidies since 2007.
The Koch brothers bankroll a variety of initiatives to promote a libertarian free-market ideology that advocates the elimination of "corporate welfare". Last year, Charles Koch announced that they would spend $300 to $400 million dollars on advocacy and politics to further promote their agenda, a core objective being the elimination of regulations that would hamper their profiteering with the help of corporate welfare.
The Koch brother, whose estimate net worth is $48 billion dollars each, and Koch Industries are profiting off the backs of tax-paying citizens whose lives are, in fact, enhanced by regulations designed to limit the polluting of the air we breath and the water we drink.
27
@William
How else to level the playing field with Koch brothers and their ilk than to vote with our wallets and do everything possible not to buy their products.
The Petroleum Industry was complicit in the dismantling and destruction of the Electric Streetcar Transportation Systems of the nation just prior to WWII with the negative consequences that were and are still being experienced by us all due to their actions. Again, they are setting progress back to gain more profits at the expense of pollution and the degradation of the welfare of the populace and the nation. The greed for money and power truly does corrupt and is a root of evil acts.
19
@experience
true! for an entertaining version of this story, re-watch the classic movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"!!!
I looked at the list of executive/board members for the industry group involved AFPM. Two woman versus dozens of men polishing their resumes and building networks. And the industry can’t figure out why their aren’t more women in the the management pipeline.
2
I have not purchased anything from the Koch brothers in over 10 years. Please boycott all their products:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconno/2012/06/18/microsoft-programmer-turned-democrat-politician-plans-antikoch-brothers-smartphone-app/amp/
10
@MH Butler
This is an empty link. Can you provide a list?
1
MH Butler, I applaud your idea of boycotting all Koch Industries products, but the link you provided doesn't work. Here's an alternative that may not be up to date (it's three years old) https://insteading.com/blog/koch-brothers-products/
1
Why does this feel like the oil version of the opioid crisis? Cheap product, promoted/prescribed by manufacturers and cronies, unwitting addiction, resultant destruction, tragedy. Repeat.
12
@rgnyc: In a nutshell: it is millenarian nihilism.
The number one antidote to malevolent levers of power is voter/consumer education. To become an “informed voter”, you have to be thoughtfully inquisitive enough to fulfill that civic responsibility. Part of that is an expanded view that considers the well being of future generations. I talk to people all the time, especially younger people, who “don’t have a clue”, and have no interest in getting one. Life is just getting by, and a smartphone. In 2016, at a victory rally in Las Vegas, Trump said, “I love the poorly educated”. Our democracy, our global order, our climate health, demands an informed, altruistic citizenry....who live and vote accordingly.
16
Greed, pure and simple! These guys make the robber barons of old look like good guys. They have the perfect guy in office to kill millions of Americans and citizens of the world with more carbon emissions and finally destroy our planet. Look even the auto makers thought this was too much. Pruitt was the perfect guy for them he had, like his boss no moral compass and no love for his country only love for the almighty dollar. Hopefully, the new house will quash this bill and keep the Obama requirements. Does no one in this administration believe the science of our impending doom if we don't chance our ways?
5
No price is too high for cheap energy.
6
Free market capitalism is a godsend. We should all rejoice as the seas rise, the storms howl and the weak perish beneath the blistering sun.
5
A 'hidden beneficiary'? How could any news organization imagine 'big oil' was hidden during this debate.
1
This is a textbook example of why we need HJR 48, which proposes a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which declares that money is not protected as a form of speech and that corporations do not have rights, only people. This is donocracy at its worst, and it must be wiped out.
19
Increasing fuel efficiency of future cars and trucks, and reducing their emissions is simply the right thing to do.
As is changing to non GHG emitting vehicles (electric now and possibly hydrogen fuel cells at some point), as well as renewable, clean energy sources in general.
The oil/petrochemical industry, Big Fossil, traditional mining and other industrial companies will never lead the way on these goals or changes. Greed and propaganda is all that matters. And half the country ignorant enough to buy the lies.
Obama's 2025 fuel standards that tump wants to dismantle are based on common sense, as well as being in accord with the immense concerns of climate scientists.
And they are in accord with medical science that shows lowering pollution reduces lung and heart disease and lengthens lives.
It's crystal clear that the Koch's and their repub toads in general care nothing about these matters. This quarter's profit statement is all that matters.
It's self evident why industry must be regulated on matters that negatively affect us all today, as well as future generations.
Corporations never do the right thing unless in some fashion they are legally required to. Vote accordingly, we need to actually clear the cesspool as quickly as possible.
5
The fossil fuel companies are truly evil, just like the tobacco companies. What a shame we have people running the country that care nothing about the environment or the people.
7
This is the ugly side of capitalism. Profits over the future of our planet. The bottom line is all that counts. Are congresswomen and congressmen sheep? Do people buy that gas guzzler to impress their friends? Is advertisement destiny? Electric driverless cars for hire should be in our future. Not more of our lifetime wasted at the pump.
6
Great article, this type of investigative reporting is why I subscribe to the New York Times.
11
"car freedom agenda" - sickening misuse + manipulation of "Freedom". The word gets tacked on to anything corporations want to sell to us.
8
future progressive administrations can frustrate such clandestine efforts of big oils
4
Marathon et al. are swamp dwellers. The corruption in this country is completely out of control.
4
Well, the duck pond certainly sounds nice.
1
What isn't pointed out here is that the more people who drive fuel guzzling vehicles, the more expensive fuel gets (just as a supply/demand response).
Put another way, for many years the drivers of fuel-guzzling SUVs have benefitted significantly from those who drive fuel-efficient cars. The more people who drive Civics and Corollas, the lower overall fuel demand is, which tends to lower fuel prices. For obvious reasons, Marathon hasn't pointed out how much fuel prices will increase if it gets its way here. Not only will overall fuel use increase, so will prices for everyone.
6
Not one bit surprised, but still illuminating and thank you to the Times for this digging. Now time for a nationwide class action lawsuit against the oil industry a la the tobacco lawsuits of the 1990s. They are literally killing us.
5
@Chris M
every single person expressing disgust with Big Oil posting on this site, who has any investments, needs to contact their broker and pull their money out of all fossil fuel investments. I have done that. then contact some of the entities mentioned in this article and tell them how you feel. we absolutely cannot trust our government on this issue now. Trump and his allies want to turn us into a petro state, and leave regular citizens to pick up possibly trillions of dollars in costs that will come with climate catastrophe, while they cash in. unbelievable.
1
When people truly put the welfare of the whole over their desire to satisfy their egos and corporate greed, perhaps then we will see progress in this area. Until then, automakers and their lobbyists as well as advertising execs will continue to stroke the egos and line the pockets of politicians as well as fool the public into thinking they need a less fuel-efficient means of transportation. It's truly a sad state of affairs.
6
This is unimaginable at a time when climate science is so strong. A livable future might depend on the outcome in 2020. It's hard to understand why more people don't respect science.
6
@Ryan Ryan -- maybe because the science isn't so strong. Have you analyzed the climate data by any chance? I have. It isn't nearly as strong as the alarmists would have you believe. In fact, it is weak.
But let me ask you a science question. Do you believe that IQ is highly influenced by heredity? Do you believe that groups differ significantly on avg IQ? The science there is much stronger than for climate change.
Big Oil's false logic here is that "less-thirsty vehicles mean lower gasoline sales" and thus lower profits for them. U.S. gas prices have swung in the last 20 years between $2 and $4.50/gallon, that swing based partly on supply, while profit margins/gallon remain low. Big Oil can make more $ per gallon, even more profit than they make now, by increasing margins. A combination of improved fuel efficiency and carbon tax phased in over time can help accomplish this by raising the baseline price/gallon. Or we could tax based on emissions. Even if oil is now plentiful, that does not make inefficient cars and CO2 pollution good. The best place for U.S. oil is in the ground, where it can be used later for higher value-add products like plastics.
The object here needs to be reducing carbon use as fuel as we ramp up renewables. My old 10 mpg Ford in 1970 took me 10 miles, my current car takes me 35, thus making that gallon worth 3.5X to me. It is fair to share that value increase between the driver, the car maker, and the fuel supplier. We pay for high-margin products all the time: Starbucks, Nikes, jewelry, Big TV's, fine wines & microbrews, restaurants, etc. The Kochs need to work with U.S. carmakers and DOT to develop the best high-mileage vehicles in the world. Gas is worth more the further it takes you.
3
Trump admin claims drilling in Alaska wildlife preserve in needed for America to be energy independent.
Trump admin rolls back fuel-efficiency standards under the ruse that we have an abundance of fuel.
These statements do not jive.
It is obvious Trump is allowing our environment to be trashed so Big Oil can make big bucks - Not cool.
7
Who should decide what cars and trucks consumers should buy? Most certainly not Charles Koch and the propaganda machine called ALEC he generously plies with money to do his bidding. There's a reason government regulates markets: we don't want tainted food; unsafe consumer products; fire-prone buildings; disease-laden drinking water; or motor vehicles that excessively pollute the environment and cause climate change. I'll trust bureaucrats in Sacramento to regulate motor vehicle standards any day over a power-hungry billionaire whose greed knows no bounds and whose indifference to our threatened ecosystem should have us regard his enterprises as criminally negligent and an endangerment to us all.
20
"Secretly"? When have oil companies ever been subtle in their push to eliminate protections for the environment and humanity's health and continued existence?
6
"The organization will keep fighting “mandates that unfairly pick winners and losers in any industry” -- only problem is if they win, everyone loses.
5
Interesting how the oil industry has no face, no name. We never see those who run it.
4
@Mack King
It's the Koch brothers, remember?
3
@Mack King
See also "Big Tobacco." In order to demonize our fellow Americans, it's often necessary to dehumanize them first with an all-encompassing epithet, in this case "big." Although, in our current anti-intellectual era, direct personal attacks are once again in vogue, aided and abetted by social media. We no longer argue principles and ethics -- we attack diners in restaurants and blame every world problem on individual men -- in this case those reliable whipping boys, the Koch brothers.
In this topsy-turvy world of post-Trump-election, we are here watching the Koch brothers and Marathon Oil seek welfare from the government by rolling back consumption standards, while the environmentalists promote healthy competition and cutting-edge efficiency innovation in the energy sector which would make us become more efficient, which makes us more competitive in the world marketplace. Yet, the very people trying to drag us back into the piggy past are called "conservative". It is the correct clear-eyed business-promoting conservative (and money-making!) decision to demand better efficiency and to be at the vanguard of developing clean energy technology. I mean, duh. Duh! We could be world leaders. We once were.
11
That photo says it all: assault the infrastructure to near death for profit and cackle gleefully as the middle class is left to suffer the consequences: ugly landscapes choked with the stench of greed.
Hideous.
14
Let's stop calling them "Big Oil" and instead "Big Fossil" or "Big Climate Change" or "Big Corruption" or "Big Bad Future"...
13
@Tim Scott
"No Future" is more like it.
When will we stop allowing our government to be controlled by Big Oil? They don't need more and more money at everyone else's expense. Charles Koch has way more money than he could ever hope to spend in ten lifetimes. He doesn't need any more. And, his destructive whims should not be given credence simply because he possesses great (unearned, inherited) wealth. Because the United States is still recognized as a world leader, some irresponsible countries have decided to follow us over the cliff in vigorously pursuing dirty fossil fuels. It is not just our country that is at risk, it is the entire world.
Democrats need to nominate a presidential candidate in 2020 who can be relied on to reverse these deleterious actions, possibly even ignoring attempted court interference, and who can win the general election.
8
@ch
With all respect, that's exactly the mindset that makes the Koch Brothers win time and again.
Since when are Democrats NOT nominating presidential candidates that reject the SC's Citizens United ruling and want campaign finance reform ... ??
Those nominees will only become president the day we understand that a government for the people is a government by the people, in other words, when we make sure that we all go voting and get the 50% who don't to go voting too.
THAT is how such a nominee will become president.
As long as we imagine that it's "the Democrats" who need to find the candidate who miraculously "can win the general election" without each and every one of us engaging, we'll never get anywhere, and de facto live in an oligarchy of wealthy and extremely cynical CEOs.
This is a great opportunity for an auto maker to make an impactful statement. Imagine a marketing campaign like this... "We believe in preserving our planet more so than building less efficient cars...". Any auto maker that would do this would probably capture a ton of market share and would certainly gain my loyalty!!
10
Talk is cheap, Asetz. WE THE PEOPLE want them to take the right actions now.
4
@Asetz
Compare the market share of Tesla to the other automakers. Compare the number of ev's or hybrids sold to the number of pickups and SUV's.
Actions speak louder than words. People don't purchase enough electric vehicles, even with government subsidies for any auto maker to do what you suggest.
No surprises here.
Trump and his ilk are only motivated by greed and money.
Science, conservation, a stewardship of the country and its limited resources mean nothing
10
I use gas and drive a car but unlike these guys, I wouldn't trade my kids or grandkids for +1% stock lift.
10
I'd rather have more oil in my gas than corn if that is what is also about. At some point we are supposed to go to 15 percent ethanol. That would ruin car and boat engines.
On average you get 3 miles less per gallon (compared to straight gasoline) with current E10. It goes to 8 with E15.
5
@Bobby H
Gore initially pushed this, thinking it would be more environmentally friendly and also for political reasons- make the farmers happy.-and later admitted that it was a terrible mistake. we are stuck now because big Ag loves it.
2
The late 1990s saw the development of the internet, which revolutionized our world. I pray that the coming decade will see the development of environmentally-friendly technology, not just for cars but for our entire way of life (building design, waste reduction, etc...). We are an always have been an innovative species that has been able to survive. Eco-innovation will be the only way we can be saved from the destruction facing us.
9
While oil companies lobby to ensure Americans can have their choice of vehicles regardless of emissions or efficiency, auto manufacturers assault consumers with endless advertising for high-profit trucks and SUVs.
I remember in 2008 when gasoline peaked at $4 and filling a tank was painful. For a brief moment SUVs seemed dumb, reflecting poorly on their drivers. Prius were hard to get and nobody was buying hulking SUVs despite deep discounts. Alas, the financial crisis cut gas prices in half and consumers rekindled their love for SUVs.
Imagine where we’d be today if gas prices had remained at $4?
4
@Joe D I agree, "oil" should be cheap and "gas" expensive. This would effectively bankrupt the "oilygarchs" and incentivize consumers to better MPG cars
2
@Joe D
Around this neck of the woods gasoline is still $4! If that price encourages less driving, and thus less pollition, I am all for it.
Here's an idea. How about auto makers and ALL corporations doing the right thing for WE THE PEOPLE and OUR planet - regardless of "laws".
There is nothing stopping them from innovating new technologies to cut down on carbon emissions - except insatiable GREED.
They live on the planet, too. Corporations are nothing but people - individuals working together to offer a good or service.
The problem is BIG investors who get control, determine how the company functions to serve THEM, and suck off the profits of hard-working people - employees and taxpayers. That's US.
It is way past time to put people who control "markets" back into the genie bottle and keep them there. BIG Robber Barons have done enough to try to destroy OUR lives and world.
6
>>> "There is nothing stopping them from innovating new technologies to cut down on carbon emissions - except insatiable GREED."
Yes, well, our worldwide economic system, capitalism, is based upon greed, driven by greed, and has created a set of rules and structures that assumes greed to be a good thing.
Indeed, corporate managers are *required* by law and contractual obligation to maximize profits for owner-investors. The greed and its catastrophic effects aren't going away while the system remains in place.
3
@njglea The only way to accomplish your goal of making corporations respect the planet is to vote EVERY Republican out of office.
3
So, let me get this right - Koch and Trump are conspiring to force the American people to buy more gasoline? Yeah, that sounds about par for the course. I'm just wondering - what's in it for Trump? Can it be he just wants to stick it to Obama, or is there a financial incentive?
Greed is winning, folks. The people with money are paying the people with less money to help steal your mony. America is circling the drain in more ways than one.
10
@Barbyr What’s in it for Trump, you ask? A couple of hotels in Saudi Arabia and Russia with his name on them.
1
I wonder what Phillip Morris, Lorillard, etc are doing to bring back tobacco & smoking? Jobs, ya know....
8
slap in the face...so soon after ipcc / UN report on climate change with dire warnings. what has the leader of the free world become? Nothing short of Idiocracy this administration is all about.
5
No secret- everyone knew who was pulling the strings. Foolish, consumers want more efficient vehicles and people want to breath- breathing particualtes literally takes years off your life, and affects the quality of your last years negatively.
4
It seems that Trump, the Koch Brothers and the Oil industry are the alligators protecting the swamp.
10
This is excellent and indispensable work by the Times. It documents what any one paying attention already suspected with virtual certainty: the the Koch brothers and a small number of ultra-wealthy gas and oil investors are working actively for their own private short-term profit in a way almost certain to do grave damage to human civilization.
This article is a record of literal crimes against humanity.
14
This is really not surprising. Immediate profits and money trump any kind of future environmental destruction. By 2040, there will be mass migrations of people within the United States and from outside. The GOP thinks illegal immigration is bad now just wait 22 years when people are breaking down all walls to flee uninhabitable situations and mass environmental destruction. Floods, fires, massive violent storms, and bizarre tropical diseases will be daily occurrences.
6
If the rest of the nation paid $3.70 per gallon like California, (notice the photo gas price), this ploy would fail. Oil companies would profit on less volume and milage incentives would prevail. The US auto industry has some of the smartest engineers who can design fun fuel efficient vehicles today.
This article is again evidence of an old industry money grab supported by a corrupt administration under the auspices of “representing what the constituents want, choice” Baloney, I know because I work indirectly for the oil industry, in transportation of oil.
I want a fuel efficient, affordable small hybrid pickup today. But there is no incentive to build one because all auto company’s can build and sell big SUV’s with a high profit margin that get maybe 22mpg. I can buy a 1980 truck in good shape today that gets 15 mpg and spews hydrocarbons for $5K, that choice exists.
I am tired of greedy industries dictating what American consumers can purchase and this goes beyond the oil industry but they are the base of the pyramid of greed.
11
@E Fabian Why would I possibly want to pay almost $4/gallon? Are you going to increase my salary or wealth to make up for that cost?
I don't want to drive a little clown car on the expressway. There is no public transit that gets me 45 miles to work.
American's choice of vehicle should include a predominance of efficient and pollution-free options. American's choice of transportation should also include more public transportation that doesn't harm the environment. I don't care about lining the Koch brother's pockets. I do care about my children's children and their future. Basically, the future of all humans is at stake. The world will recover once we are gone, if that's how it has to be. Even the Trump and Koch families will not survive an environmental meltdown. It makes me wonder if they get it. Maybe they just don't care because, as Trump recently said, he/they "won't be here." We must vote like our future depends on it, because it does.
9
A lot of this misses the point. Until consumers are prepared to boycott oil – and I mean, year-long boycotts like the Montgomery bus boycotts that started the Civil Rights Movement – legislation will never contain the money consumers are pumping into the industry.
Sold my car 8 years ago and haven't regretted it a moment... and that while still in the US. So no naysayers here about European public transit and how America is different. It is different because people are more submissive and conformist.
11
It's not difficult to understand the marketing and revenue enhancement mission of Marathon and Big Oil and the Koch brothers. Pushing the market is what corporate America does and should do to not only survive but to exploit value for their stakeholders. But what IS difficult to accept is the lack of balance - the lack of apparent recognition and wisdom by our elected officials that decisions made today - the RISK of which are really not subject to interpretation by anyone who can read basic science - and the impact those decisions have on future generations, not only of Americans, but the citizens Planet Earth are just appalling. Encouraging a politician to be aware of their long-term Legacy, never an easy sell, has only been made more difficult (impossible) with the infusion of Dark Money. Citizens United may wind up hastening the end of our republic, or at least a republic willing to sacrifice for ideals. But don't forget the earlier comment about the importance of being able to READ and/or taking the time to do so.
7
We used to have the tobacco industry telling us how healthy smoking was and denying the evidence that smoking caused cancer. Now we have the fossil fuel industry telling us that carbon based energy use has not been responsible for destruction of the atmosphere and the climate of the entire planet. May the oil and coal industry leaders and all the money-grubbing politicians who support them die horrible deaths from the consequences of their activities today. And may all their children and grandchildren follow them into their graves.
10
Democrats are in control of most big cities.
Where are the Low Emission Zones?
4
@Liz
Don't you know that, under Democrat administrations, all pollution disappears as peace guides the planets and love steers the stars? It's only when Republicans gain periodic control of the levers of government that all the pollution and global warming returns. Mother Earth was actually in a cooling phase during the eight years of the previous administration, and the air was cleaner than it had been since the Neolithic Age. But once those Greedy Republicans took over, the skies once again took on the hue and aroma of a Dickens novel. In 2015 there was no Doomsday. Now we know the exact date. Because of Trump and the Koch Brothers.
3
@Liz
Emissions testing for vehicles is mandated in the urban and exurban areas controlled by Democrats.
Not so in red rural areas.
Pollution controls on power plants are more rigorous in Democratically controlled states. As are building energy codes.
Democrats do appreciate the freedom hard red states give them to dump their toxic garbage trains in Red state landfills. Love that freedom and unfettered capitalism.
If the water from your faucet catches fire, you can be a utube star.
1
So digest this: the "Libertarian" Koch brothers run a mosaic of fake grassroots groups to hide who the money comes from, all in the name of promoting their business interests. What, pray tell, is the liberty of having the tyranny of avaricious men and women thrust upon me and my children?
They have destroyed our nation by polluting our earth and our politics. More than any foreign adversary, the audacious and sick attitude of rich Americans is threatening our foundations: you don't get to tell this country how to conduct its business, you don't know better, and trying to place the mask of liberty on your greed just makes it all the more heinous as you con Americans...want to be a patriot? Vote. Leave social media alone. Stop trying to rig the nation's laws for corporate profit: no part of the constitution is written to establish protection for imaginary corporations--it's here for the citizens of this country.
21
Is this supposed to be a revelation? It's been obvious for decades that the oil industry has been dictating energy policy to the GOP to increase and protect industry profits and that the implications of that policy for national security, public health and the environment were to be ignored. The republicans do what their rich patrons pay them to do but the Trump administration takes that sort of corruption to a new level. November 2020 can't get here soon enough.
10
And there, once again, is Facebook. Oh so very quietly right in the middle of it all "Bringing People Closer Together"
11
@Mark Farr
Unfortunately, many of our friends, said to be liberally minded, are addicted to Facebook.
Planet suicide for a better quarterly return.
Will that buy a gasp of air, a drinkable sip of clean water, or some non poisonous food in 2040?
Look at today's pictures from Yemen. That is our future of a world controlled by oil.
15
2 Things I believe America can declare, officially. The first is, that republicans are the Pro Pollution Party, the second is that America, when you pull back the curtains, what you discover is a kleptocracy. We the people in large part feel that we're just barely participating in this experiment, esp. when republicans are in control. They raid the National Treasury every chance they get and tell us its a tax break for everyone when the distribution has been called, Disparity. Its to a point where I swear its what they exist for. Yes, we're paying attention but like hornets in a jar we have few options and even our votes are run thru a gauntlet of strategies designed to keep them from making any determinations. Captured and kept, we're being polluted in more ways than one.
17
@Ratza Fratza the most corrupt government that money can buy.
I'm grateful Trump became president. (I can hear the collective gasp of people reading my comment.) But here's why:
Trump has done more to reveal the sociopathic mob tactics of big industry and corporation than anyone.
He has done more to reveal the insanity and malignancy of the 1% than anyone.
He has done more to reveal the true nature of men in high levels of government and corporations than anyone.
He has done more to reveal the weaknesses in our democratic institutions and processes than anyone.
We are in the middle of a Constitutional crisis. We are at the precipice of permanent and total collapse -- unless we take back our country from these sociopaths. What we do with these revelations Trump has handed us is up to us -- journalists, citizens, Democrats! We need to fight, protest, demand! Don't let up! Keep the pressure on the Congress!
12
@Misplaced Modifier - he definitely jolted us out of our complacency - this was evidenced by the protests immediately following his election and most recently with the midterms. That is definitely a good thing.
4
The only solution to endless greed is to re-form corporate boards. Instead of only representing stockholders, there need to be board members who represent the environment, the local community, suppliers, customers, and employees. As long as the stockholders are the only group represented nothing will ever change.
6
I don't think it was a secret. It often seems that all the players are connected to the energy industry at the risk of destroying vast amounts of land and contributing to climate change. $ over well being makes no sense.
4
The fact that these corporations are directing policy to line their shareholders pockets is obscene. We should follow Norway’s lead and nationalize a large percentage all oil and gas production in this country. Establish a sovereign wealth fund to benefit our citizens and at the same time manage these resources in a strategic manner that benefits the environment. The threat to the environment is too acute to allow profits and greed dictate policy.
16
@Dave: Orderly extraction of capital from fossil energy to renewable energy can fund conversion.
4
Rexxon Tillerson was the right man in the right place. Obviously, poisoning the country was part of his remit.
So much for the "adult in the room."
6
The amount of blatantly corrupt, quid pro quo, self-dealing behavior by trump is unheard of. House Democrats, let the subpoenas fly.
16
When future generations look back, of the most grievous crimes of this generation- the destruction of the climate will be seen as the worst. And cynics will argue that its principal benefit is the destruction of industrial civilization- no...civilization as a whole. Since it is civilization- untethered from reality, arrogant, greedy and supremely ignorant that has wrought its own destruction.
8
@Lowell Greenberg
Assuming there are future generations to look back.
It's not just controlling the amount of pollution if the population continues to grow as it has in the past 60 years.
When I was in high school the population of the world was 2.8billion, and it's now 7.5billion. a recent article stated that the Chinese economy has raised 300 million from poverty to middle class status. All of the goods and services needed to supply the wants of the population result in pollution when they are produced and with the population continuing to grow pollution will continue to out pace our ability to reduce it.
1
Greenhouse gas policy by sociopaths seeking personal wealth and power. Boycott Marathon. Buy fuel only from producers who provide green energy offsets to balance out CO2 per gallon.
15
Do such producers exist? I’d love to know what options we all have to take our business elsewhere.
5
@Leila L
Walk, and move to a place you can live outdoors, catch and eat fish, wild berries, nuts, and roots. When that was done, life expectancy was less than 1/4th it is today.
What else would one expect in a capitalist system?!?!
This capitalist system makes laws that create artificial entities required to maximize profits for its owner. Complying with this legal duty eliminates any consideration of morality for decision makers in those corporate entities and, more than just sooth their conscience, makes them feel like they accomplished some thing good and of value. Humanity is NOT a consideration, for to place profits below any other objective violates the fiduciary duty of the corporate officer to the corporate entity's owner. Not a good system!
6
@tbs
True. A deadly system. Using their rationale a person should have the "freedom" to choose buying a wig made from human hair gathered from concentration camps. That would give everyone more "choice" while helping to maximize profit for the wig maker. Humanity is NOT a consideration.
I'm so hearten to see the " draining of the Swamp" is going so well. NOT!
1
I agree with the Koch brothers. All government subsidies get gamed. We should get rid of the corn alcohol subsidy which is outrageous. We should get rid of the tax advantages oil companies enjoy including accelerated depreciation. We need to get rid of the military protection of mideast petroleum resources. We need to get rid of the 25% tariff on SUVs so the SUV producers (producing in a large part in Mexico with two dollar per hour labor) eat the costs or pass it on to the consumers so they stop buying them. We need to repatriate all that money to the US Government. And if pulling the US out of the mideast leads to a hot war between Iran and Saudi Arabia and Israel, for example, then let the consumer and the oil industry eat the high prices. And if the fracking companies go BK and take a few banks with them......let the banks go BK. What is not fair is to ask the American taxpayer to subsidize the oil industry. Let it stand on its own two feet. I am all for getting the government out of the oil and agricultural industry.
6
@as
''We need to get rid of the 25% tariff on SUVs so the SUV producers (producing in a large part in Mexico with two dollar per hour labor) eat the costs''
The tariff depresses SUV sales by making them more expensive to consumers. The tariff goes to the treasury and is a consumption tax.
1
@as
If we get rid of the 25% tariff on foreign made SUV's (which currently doesn't exist), it would make them cheaper, not more expensive. More importantly, the SUV's you talk about are mostly made here, the profit margin on them is so large that the cost of labor is balanced by the high margins. I agree with the ethanol boondoggle that benefits only Iowa corn farmers and ADM, but I doubt the Koch brothers are against government subsidies when it comes to fossil fuels, because they benefit from that. The military protection of foreign imported oil (mostly, ironically, not coming to the US, but rather protecting it for everyone else, because oil is traded globally) is not factored into the price of gasoline and oil, not to mention the dirt cheap prices for drilling on US public lands, not to mention the huge tax breaks oil companies get on production. The Koch brothers on the other hand have done everything they can to get rid of government subsidies on solar and window power and the like, for obvious reasons, they are the biggest gamers of subsidies to make sure it benefits them.
Old King Koch calls for his fiddlers three: Trump, McConnell and Ryan (soon to be replaced by McCarthy.)
6
We have successfully sued Big Tobacco, State AG’s, please don’t drop the ball, SUE Big Oil. We all are ultimately paying for damage to our health and environment for lies and damage caused by their illegal conspiracies.
9
@Cliff R
Stop buying any product that uses fossil fuels.
Oh, I see. You know the products are causing harm, you use them anyway, and you want them to pay for your sins. That makes perfect sense.
I’ll tell you what, if everyone one who is commenting on this push by Charles Koch, Marathon, and Frump to rip apart the only real effort to make a dent in climate change (be it a very minimal dent, but at least something) continues to fill-up their vehicles at a Marathon station than you are all hypocrites.
I suggest that you start boycotting Marathon gas stations and every single operation that they run, and encourage your friends and family to do the same, until they are put down.
And really get all over Frump with this lunatic idea to rollback these wonderful commitments made by the Obama administration and the state of California to force all automakers to drastically increases gas mileage in every vehicle on the road by 2025.
I for one will never again buy gasoline from a Marathon station. I never really purchased gas from there anyway, but I will run out of gas before pulling into a station of theirs.
We have to be the ones to put these people in check. We need to stop waiting for our government, who all work for these mega-corporations in one form or another, to do something because they won’t. This is OUR COUNTRY and we need to take it back. The only judicial laws, executive orders, congressional or local actions that should ever be passed should only be by our approval and wishes. They have all forgot they are just employees and it is their duty to comply by our wishes, not their own self-serving actions or that of the oil industry or any other corporation.
7
Don’t worry about where you buy your gas, it all gets transported by a ship or barge and then piped to a tank farm. From there it becomes: Shell, Marathon, Valero, SaveMore etc. The oil companies all work together to maximize profits, yes they have refineries, but from there it goes to the highest bidder, just good business, GREED.
2
I know this article focuses on the oil industry, but I am very suspicious of GM and other automotive companies role in lobbying for this as well. The Chevy Bolt is an affordable EV, which won 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year. Yet has GM capitalized on that prestigious award in any way?? Not one commercial! There is a waiting list of people trying to buy the supposedly affordable (its not when you get it set up the way you'd like) Tesla Model 3. GM easily could've poached some of those customers with an ad campaign touting its new superstar car of the year. They did nothing and are now laying off workers.
8
@Bull Moose 2020 Nobody bought it.
https://electrek.co/2018/10/03/chevy-bolt-ev-sales-slumping-us/
Come 2030-40, when the world is on the precipice of inconceivably destroying itself, remember this article.
It is but one more example of the corruption and influence of big, fossil-fuel money that has not only prevented any action to comprehensively address the crisis but rolling back what little progress has been made.
Mind the Shell ads on this website promoting their plan to get to carbon neutrality by 2070. Its a farce and they bear partial responsibility for not getting us there now, if not yesterday.
Bottom-line interests will always win out within this system we've constructed, which then justify any and all means to protect the sacred end of profit. This is why people are angry with government and democracy is declining: it does not work for the people and actually do what is needed to help and protect them. If you have money, you are king.
455
@Zach H
2030 seems more probable at this point...by then, most of the people that caused the problem and obviously do not care will be dust. The remaining 8.3 billion people will be able to claim a "win"...for a bit.
15
Remember the names as well.
21
@Zach H Democracy doesn’t work when it’s been sold to the highest bidder.
33
Where are the businesses that offer electric conversion kits for existing common gas powered cars?
You can get rooftop solar panels. Why not drop in motors and batteries for cars? 55 mph and 100 m range would cover a lot of commutes - especially if the subsequent travel is almost free.
And think of the number of skilled jobs for converters.
5
The reason that this campaign is effective is that it has some truth. The government should not be telling people what to drive. If the government and outside groups feel strongly about their position, they should convince people that they need to drive energy efficient cars, creating the demand. A top down approach is paternalistic and limits freedom.
5
@DRS
You forget that this is a democracy, and that "the government" is supposed to be "we the people", not a handful of Big Oil CEOs.
When a majority collectively decides that we do NOT want to destroy this country and the world's climate for generations and generations to come - effectively destroying their freedom to live at least a normal live - then that is AMERICA's decision.
It's absurd to continue right-wing hypotheses about the government being somehow "the top", when in real life it's WE who pick our lawmakers and tell them which rules of the game we want in this country.
Continue to believe those hypotheses, and here's the result: now you REALLY have a "top down" approach, where a small minority of not elected, extremely wealthy CEOs are imposing the destruction of America's climate on the other 99,99%...
So your argument doesn't make any sense, you see?
4
When I was a kid, there was a prevalent conspiracy theory that the oil and gas industry had bought up and shelved technological patents related to improved solar energy. As an adult I don't believe it because certainly by now the Chinese would have stolen and be using that technology by now. But ehete there's smoke, there's fire. This story illustrates as truth the diabolical deviousness of the oil and gas industry.
4
@joe
Well the Chinese solar power industry leads the world.
@Ratza Fratza - The Chinese lead in production volume, the US leads in innovation and technological development. As usual.
@joe - Actually Joe, that conspiracy theory probably had its roots in the very real incident where Chevron bought up NiMH battery patents in an effort to crush the embryonic electric car industry.
AFP wants all Americans to have an equal opportunity to choke on oil, and for oil and gas company executives to make piles of money. They are sugar-coating and selling harm - real, physical, violence - on us, our environment, and our country's children, in a break-anything chase for short-term profits. I had no idea this was going on but its just another example, of a thousand examples, how our nation's corporate lobbyist political system sandwich is something rotten.
7
@Todd
Again, republicans have our interests as a by product of the interests of how they stay elected ...trickle.
If corporations are deemed citizens, then they need to be productive and active stewards of the environment, ensuring our children have a world clean enough to live and breathe in.
Hemings, Koch, ALEC... all are vying to be enemies of the American people in service only to lining their pockets and fattening their already fat accounts.
I get the GOP love, now. It’s all about greed and a “who cares” attitude.
6
Totally agree, and if corporations are citizens, when they are guilty of breaking the law they ought to go to jail like citizens.
2
@Samp426\
Legitimately the party in favor of pollution.
1
Why do we allow the interests of the fossil fuel industry to trump the serious risks that climate change will end civilization and possibly even human life on earth?
6
Perhaps the oil industry should have to pay for the damage their products do to our environment. How would that affect the cost of oil? Anyone who is paying attention and is being honest with themselves and the country can see that the oil industry is working over time to save yet another antiquated heavily polluting industry. Ther oil industry has had their time. This administration is all about picking winners and loosers and it is all about Making Loosers Great Again.
3
The irony is that as gas has gotten cheaper, smaller cars have sold less well, leading GM to layoff 14,000 workers and close the plants for several smaller cars. And Koch brothers and their oil industry friends might have to find different vacation homes, once climate change floods/burns their primo locations....Or actually I can't even imagine them participating in anything in the US other than their non-stop push to dictate legislation to the Republicans.
2
A spokesman for Koch Industries, the energy conglomerate led by Mr. Koch, said the company had “a long, consistent track record of opposing all forms of corporate welfare, including all subsidies, mandates and other handouts that rig the system.”
Yeah, right. How about depletion allowances for oil reserves, cheap leases of federal land that are believed to bear petroleum, other tax breaks, and how many other preferences?
Show me a passed and signed bill that discontinues all of those preferences, and THEN (and only then) will I believe the self-serving lies that the Koch brothers and ALEC put out.
Money-grubbing liars and hypocrites.
44
And half the defense budget supporting the Middle East
I used to wonder how people could work for tobacco companies that may pay them well, but kill millions of people a year worldwide.
But here you have people who know that what they're doing is going to destroy the planet we live on, yet seemingly are happy to do that as long as they can make a buck off it in the short run.
I assume most of them have children. I simply don't understand.
25
@Sparky
Eating meat, using plastics, having children, and doing any number of other things that most people find to be either desirable or simply innocuous also could be said to have harmful effects on climate change. People put their immediate interests over the interests of the collective, especially the future collective. It's not a moral failing, but a human trait.
If people want to change behavior they must find a way to help people balance those individual interests against the collective. The problem is that very few people are going to willingly pay more for energy or live as their ancestors did in the 1500s to "save the planet".
1
What's with the current administration doing everything opposite of what needs to be done?
Money money money. Money over health and justice.
A corruption at its finest.
14
Just another example that the GOP has only a single interest in mind. The top 1%. As for the rest of us, "Let them eat SMOG!"
5
Remember the myth about the oil companies buying up the patents for 50 mpg carburetors back when cars averaged <18 mpg? Now it appears it was true! But instead of patents they are buying politicians, and ads worded to fool consumers into supporting poorer gas mileage.
5
This oil industry power grab is a sickening situation for the nation and the world. The oil industry is like matastcised cancer in the world. The oil industry influences everything around us, and even though I am going electric with my vehicle, it requires the use of oil-related products in the manufacture of the car. It's an addiction we can't get rid of in our dying world.
6
Surprise. Not. Not at all. This trashes what little faith I had left in humanity. Especially within our version of capitalism.
“With oil scarcity no longer a concern,” Americans should be given a “choice in vehicles that best fit their needs....”
I see. So this is what's actually important. What if we'd choose to have air get cleaner rather than dirtier? This fits everyone's needs more than what they'd prefer to drive.
nauseating
6
When our economy, and the global economy, tanks due to the many consequences of global warming, the big gas companies will feel a pinch much greater than anything resulting from better fuel requirements. Listen to the science.
2
If the Koch brothers "oppose all forms of corporate welfare", where are the bills and ads calling for an end to the hundreds of billions in taxpayer money that year after year, for decades already, go to subsidies and tax credits for the oil industry ... ?
Those bills and ads don't exist.
Trump didn't invent "alternative facts", the GOP did long before they decided that this time, they needed a reality tv actor rather than a lawmaker to become their leader, in order to still be able to sell these "facts" to the GOP base - and in close collaboration with Fox News, of course, because that's what most Trump tweets are merely copy-pasting.
And then we're not even talking yet about the fact that it's the exact same corporations and lawmakers who try to dismantle social security, healthcare and our education system, and oppose raising the minimum wage to allow Americans to put food on the table all while working hard on ONE rather than three different jobs.
Yesterday I watched the movie "Margin Call". It perfectly shows how part of those at the top have never been democratically elected and yet wield much more power over ordinary citizens' lives - and now even also the entire planet's climate - than most elected officials.
END the SC Citizens United ruling, Congress!!
And stop subsidizing Big Oil! Ask THEM to pay the trillions of damage that their conduct will soon be causing to ordinary Americans, rather than asking us to do so all while massively subsidizing them!
4
For all of its faults, one of California's major accomplishments over time has been tackling the air quality problem that has eased the choking effects of automobile pollution. When corporate interests take on a successful anti-pollution program, will there be anyone to declare victory should they prove successful?
4
As Americans, we are complicit. We purchase giant cars (really trucks) with poor fuel mileage and complain about fuel costs. At the same time, many of these people profess their care for the environment and belief in climate change. Our greed, willful ignorance, and arrogance will be our undoing
12
when real news are not mentioned in TV or if at all in a 10 second blip ,followed by 120 seconds advertise;we end up
getting decisions made for us.
1
Covert campaign? Please. Anybody who's been following the sad story of our inaction on climate change could've told you this. The Republican party was led by the hand away from any kind of pro-environment legislation years ago. The oil/auto/highway lobbies have dictated our doom.
8
The argument of Marathon and big oil is the same one used for medical insurance: Americans want freedom to choose. It is built on a false assumption.
3
@theonanda
Of course it is.
Why would anybody want the "freedom" to choose a polluting car when that destroys the freedom of the American people to be able to put food on the table at a reasonable price within a couple of decades - because THAT is what is actually at stake here. When the amount of food that we can still produce goes down dramatically because of acidified oceans (= extinction of crucial marine species) and heat waves and drought, prices will inevitably go up.
Some farmers today already are telling their sons who will one day take over the farm to learn how to use a gun because they might see the day coming when famine drives ordinary citizens to attack farms in order to survive.
2
@theonanda - it's not a false assumption. I have an SUV, as it's practical for daily use, ski trips, shopping. We always seem to pack it up! I also have a fun car with a big engine that gets around 18mpg. Those are my choices. People like you want to tell me that I can't make my own choices and instead have to agree with yours.
1
This is not a surprise. They don’t care about the environment despite their commercials claiming otherwise. It maybe time to nationalize the oil industry . They crest to many environmental problems and the entire globe needs a new strategy.
2
@Ralph Petrillo
Nationalize the industry? Socialist solution. Next would be to subsidize what poor people pay for gasoline. Has any government program that offers heating assistance in the winter lowered fossil fuel consumption? The best way to lower consumption, is to raise taxes to the point electric cars cost less to operate without government incentives. France has found this very complicated. Governments making decisions for people they think aren't smart enough is destine to fail.
@Jay
Have been hearing this for fifty years as they constant pollute the environment, and pay very little in taxes. Tax subsidies were given to the oil industry for close to 80 years. Wake up and realize that they need to pay more for all the destruction they commit ,
@Ralph Petrillo
Raise taxes, require clean ups, take away subsidies, tax gasoline to the hilt. At some point....... look at Paris. It's not me who denies reality.
The chickens are coming home to roost again. When the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) program was created in 1975, it was explicitly focused on a vehicle's mileage, not pollution. At the time, the nation was experiencing politically induced oil shortages. The CAFE standards were implemented in order to force Americans to buy more economical cars by forcing auto makers to build them, but this coercive extortion was unnecessary, as Americans chose more fuel-efficient cars voluntarily, because it made economic sense to do so.
The (mostly foreign-built) cars they purchased were already efficient, and Detroit responded to the new demand. Again, it had nothing to do with pollution, but rather fuel economy (the "FE" in CAFE), as the CAFE program was initially pitched to Americans. Mission creep in the 43 years since CAFE's inception has made it all about pollution without regard to the cleaner-burning engines of 2018. By selling CAFE as an efficiency standard, its advocates set themselves up for a massive lying campaign later on -- moving the goalposts as it were. See also "bait and switch."
1
@Ed L.
Fuel efficiency and less pollution are not mutually exclusive and are both worthy goals.
There is no bait and switch but instead common sense and healthier lives and a healthier planet!
1
It's time for states like California and New York to step up together and announce that as of 2030 at the latest all new cars and trucks will have to be either EVs (Electric Vehicles) or hybrids. The technology is here; the need is urgent; and the states can and should do what the Trump administration is failing to do--"serve and protect" us all from the environmental catastrophe that has already begun.
3
@Paul Wortman - the last thing any government should do is mandate that a particular technology be used. And most of the country doesn't want to drive those things anyway. I know I don't, either due to lack of range, time to charge, or the big risk that the battery pack malfunctions leaving the car worthless.
1
Any politician who accepts money from big oil will not get my vote. That includes Democrats as well.
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@Ed Watters
That's not a wise decision.
FIRST we need a Democratic House, a 60+ Democratic Senate and a Democratic White House, and THEN they will immediately end the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, and only then will lawmakers once again be able to win elections without at least taking SOME money from Big Oil companies.
Because remember, what we need is a strategy to END these horrible practices, not candidates that organize their campaigns as if we are ALREADY living in the ideal America we can today only dream of ...
This was no secret. One could have easily predicted the direction Donald Trump was pushing this country when he first tapped Rex Tillerson, a former Exxon executive as Secretary of State, only to be followed by the worst possible candidates; Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior and Scott Pruitt for Secretary as head of the E.P.A.
And all this conveniently dovetailed with Trump's pathological need to undo any kind of environmental protection measures enacted by the Obama administration, starting with the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement while shilling for the coal and fossil fuel industries.
The planet is burning up and he is still fiddling.
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Wondering if this legislation had an impact on the closing of those GM plants producing smaller cars... Cause and effect perhaps?
2
I look at the photo of all of those people smiling from the stage with Marathon in the background. Obviously they believe in what they're doing. They are betting their children's lives on it.
I hope they make sure their kids know their position. They need to know their parents and grandparents were to blame.
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@Cayce Callaway
I don't think they're are betting their children's lives on it. They simply, just like Trump and most of his voters, had a life experience that makes them believe that this is a "dog eat dog" world, so you either grab anything you can grab today, or you'll be eaten tomorrow.
As Jeremy Irons says in "Margin Call" (as a big bank CEO): there will always be a certain percentage of the people that will be on the losing end, that's just life. All that matters is that you make sure that you're not one of them, rather than imagining ideal worlds where somehow that percentage could become zero.
It's against this kind of utterly dark, pessimistic worldview that we're up to.
"Oppose all forms of corporate welfare"
Oh, that is rich. Never mind the depletion allowance given to oil extraction, or that it is taxed as royalty rather than income.
Puhlease.
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Working for a company like Marathon seems a be a bit like working for a tobacco company. Knowing that the product your selling contributes to the degradation of the environment must make it hard to go to the office each day.
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@Jim, These companies also know none of this will actually help as long as shale oil is being harvested at a rate so high the prices cannot rise. There is a glut of oil in the world because, like coal before it, people are making the decision to shift to cleaner, renewable sources of energy.
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@Jim
I'm sure you don't buy tobacco products. Do you abstain from products that rely on oil or byproducts? You, and every other righteous consumer judges others, and refuses to eliminate their own use of the products they criticize on a daily basis. There is not a product you consume that doesn't rely on fossil fuels. Fess up.
@Jay You are correct in that oil is still pervasive in our life. That doesn't mean that we aren't all working on reducing the consumption as we can. We moved to a more walk-able part of our city so we are not as reliant on cars. We also try to buy products that are not or are less oil based when possible. Nonetheless, we are still using oil but will continue to work on lessening that reliance where possible.
Forty years ago a friend of my father's had a new Chevy checked for a stuck gas gauge. The mechanic looked at the carburetor quickly closed the hood then said, "this car was never here". A few days later he called the customer and said carb was a prototype that was designed fo 70 mpg. I am not one for conspiracy theories but I don't doubt the technologies have come farther and faster than the public has been told.
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@charlie kendall: These carburetors are an urban legend. Direct injection to the cylinder, common in many current vehicles, is better than any carburetor.
We must carefully promote and welcome the shift to electric vehicles. We must insist that the energy to power those millions of EVs be renewable, solar/wind/hydro, and not come from dirty coal or petroleum.
This global sea change is important, necessary, and obvious. It will happen in every region of the world. We can either lead, or lag behind. There is no reason to erect barriers. We don't need to save an outdated industry based on oil or coal. Don't take our country back to the age of industrial and vehicular pollution. Stop the extraction and transportation of dirty and dangerous energy supplies.
We must move forward with clean electric mobility solutions.
We must remove governmental barriers, and in fact we should put in place the force and power of government to enable, to accelerate, the clean green transportation future.
6
Just think if we limited the length, scope and cost of political campaigns. Politicians would not be bribed by corporations that are ripping our country off with a host of irresponsible behavior. We end up paying for the fixes- health problems, super fund clean ups, storms, obscene pay disparity, etc. The GOP is re-packaging it as " American freedom of choice". The obscene amount of money that is involved in political campaigns is responsible for so much of this, and so many other non-sensical political issues that are not supported by the public such as refusing to legislate gun control and perpetuating high health care costs via political deal making. Unfortunately there is 0 incentive for politicians to reform campaign finance. Until politicians do not gain financially from these lobbyists, we will be forced to live in a system dictated by the self interested super wealthy.
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@Jennifer Ward As far as I am concerned, the Incumbent should not be allowed to "Run a Campaign" for re-election but only give their record of legislation initiated, their voting record, and their statements in meetings concerning certain subjects.
They should not be able to 'raise money for re-election campaign', leaving ALL their time to Legislating for The People by Representing The People..
Likewise, newcomers may not go using negative, attack style advertisement, instead they can detail their own platform: what they are for, what they are against, specific details they would like to see more emphasis on.
No third party assassin ads either, free speech is one thing, assassination by media is another!
However, it needs to stop being a process of High School 'voting' steeped in charisma and back-room deals controlled by the Two-Party Party who, with their own corporate advertising set-up erect insurmountable barriers in the way of Third Party politicians by not letting them participate in the National Debates.
We also need to Two-Party Party to stop pulling dirty insider tricks like how the Clintonistas sidelined Bernie Sanders, who was the leading contender, until Team Clinton and the Democratic Committee decided, DECIDED, to totally back Clinton, and Cheated Sanders out of his rightful nomination.
She was NOT about to let another 'Obama' get ahead of her, no matter the depth of her baggage.
Which is REALLY the main reason we ended up with Trump in the first place.
All the money in the world won't buy us more time if we can't breathe. We need to balance greed with the needs of humanity.
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I have been involved in two industries in my life that were destroyed by technology: Printed newspapers and film based photography. In each case I noticed there were two key products that lead to the shift. The first product introduced that proved the concept was viable, but was really expensive, and then a second product that did almost everything the first one did, but at a more reasonable price.
In cars, the first product was the Tesla Model S, and the second will be the Hyundai Kona Electric. Just as much range but at a much more affordable price.
Big oil can fight and scream all they want, but they are the Kodak of transportation. Their time is up and they know it. EVs are the better mousetrap.
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@Buttons Cornell...Yes, electric vehicles are the best option, the only one that should have been established and used a 100 years ago when we had them then, but a sad fact is that the vast majority of Americans cannot afford an electric vehicle. Too many Americans cannot afford a new vehicle. Either they are like myself, disabled and not even provided a livable amount of assistance even though I worked since I was 13 years old, or they have jobs that don’t provide livable wages. My own vehicle is 17 years old and when it dies I won’t be able to replace it. Many people are in the same predicament. I would love to own an electric vehicle, but it is obvious that they will not be the choice for the vast majority of people for another 20-30 years. And not to mention that there is still no real mass scale technology work to build better and more long lasting batteries or electrical storage systems. Too many people say they care but don’t really do anything to push the efforts to stop using oil and gas.
Not difficult to see the strings that the puppet masters are pulling, to get their little Pinocchios to dance for them. Big Oil talks, and Trump mouths science-denying platitudes for them. The question is how to cut those strings, and I think a very critical part of the answer is the incisive strength and resolve of a free and independent press, like the NYT, WaPo, Guardian, to shine necessary lights on the scene to show exactly who the puppet masters are, and which puppets are dancing for them.
9
The oil industry has lobbyists. That’s a surprise? What is way more shocking then the oil industry wanting the public to use more oil is that the corn industry is in our gas tanks. Now that’s political clout.
2
I have two EVs and solar panels.
Never going back!
The time to make a change is now.
14
Nothing to get upset over.
Daimler (Mercedes), for one, announced yesterday it will be spending $23 billion on procuring battery cells for a rollout of more electric vehicles.
The dogs bark, but the caravan goes on.
9
Our economic system, for a long time, has been dominated by people interested primarily in personal short-term gain, not collective long-term good. They've either turned off those brain circuits that think about other people and long-term effects of their actions, or they never had those circuits in the first place.
27
Day in and day out we see how the free market works---it is all about the bottom line---CEO compensation and dividends---there is no moral or ethical compass in the decisions made in corner offices. While these decisions are capable of earning a lot of money, they are also capable of doing terrible damage to the common good. For this reason, the government just step in balance private gain and public good. We are, however, now govern by an administration whose sole guiding principle is private gain---that's it.
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@ACJ you are experiencing a government whose motto is to maximize private gain by doing evil.
Why should anyone be surprised, or even question the motivation and efforts, here. This corporate effort is huge. Profit is job one, regardless of industry discipline. Lobby access to Congress and state legislatures is corrupt. Our legislators must be the change factors in these free market capital equations.
13
While we presently seem to have plenty of oil, for how long will that be true?
Why the rush to pump and burn every last bit of hydrocarbons in the ground? Whether we have a 20 or 50 or 200 year supply of oil (and natural gas), might it not be a good idea to try to save some for our descendants?
3
What’s more disturbing than the argument about *how* and *why* climate change and environmental degradation are happening is the fact that so many people buy into it, and we remain paralyzed by the “debate.” It doesn’t matter how or why, the fact that both are happening is irrefutable; the fact that economic and health sustainability are under dire threat is irrefutable.
The corporate press is expert at manufacturing consent. It’s past time to change the spectrum of debate from “how” and “why” to “now what” and “these are the viable, profitable alternatives.” Look to countries like the Netherlands for models.
17
If the oil companies want to rig the market to protect their profits, just wait three more years. The market that they claim to love is going to turn on them. Buy 2022, all of the auto manufacturers will be introducing dozens of high performance electric vehicles. VW is going all electric. Ford wants to become a transportation company, where people order a self driving car to take them somewhere and drop them off. Those cars will be electric. I think it was Ford who just announced that they are investing 12 billion in electric vehicle technology.
Estimates are that by 2025, the cost for an electric car will equal that of a gasoline car. These models will have ranges of 300 miles per charge and can be recharged in about 1/2 hour.
Battery technology is constantly improving. Lithium ion still has lots of room for further improvements and by 2030, we may start seeing new formulations with even greater capacity.
E-bikes are coming on strong. They are super for urban transportation when it is dry and over 45.
The markets have spoken and everything is going electric. This is a global shift. Some nations have even passed laws to prohibit the sale of non-electrics at a date certain.
These oil companies know this shift is coming. Instead of investing in the new electric era, they want to maintain the current market. That's Trump! He wants to reclaim the past while the rest of the world moves forward. We will move forward in spite of his backward policies.
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@Bruce Rozenblit - You can already buy a Chevy Bolt with a 250 mile range for $32k after the tax rebate. The car has received rave reviews from EVERYBODY and still has depressingly small sales. I think EV sales will take off only when EVs become cheaper, not equal in cost, compared to gas burners. But when they do take off, sales of gas engine cars will absolutely fall off the cliff.
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Superb summary, even inspiring.
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@Bruce Rozenblit This is the fossil fuels end game. Half the world acknowledges that already. Financial interests in the game certainly know the end is near too. It’s all about keeping it going just a little bit longer and raking in a few more chips.
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Baked into the automotive DNA of Americans are the ideas that anyone can drive what they want, that bigger is always better, and that 20 mpg on the highway is excellent fuel economy. This changes somewhat when gas prices creep past $4 a gallon, but the delusion returns when gas prices go back down. Behavioral change is needed, or at least ways of encouraging a change in people's thinking. Still, maybe one person in ten connects what they drive with climate change.
One solution would be to increase gas taxes so gas is permanently about $5 per gallon, then have the taxes help fund EV and battery development and improve public transportation. Then maybe do as many European nations do and raise vehicle registration costs based on such factors as size, weight or engine displacement. This helps gets the inefficient vehicles off the roads.
Of course this won't happen here because it is every American's right to drive a 6,000 pound vehicle that gets poor gas mileage. After all, even if one's choice of vehicle contributes to climate change, why should it matter?
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I've been wondering why gas prices have been tumbling. I suspected something nefarious. It's too good to be true. My guess is that it's part of the effort to convince consumers that deregulating auto emissions is in their interest.
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@Lauren
There is excess supply. OPEC has lost its' grip. I think USA is now the largest producer? China is moving towards sustainable sources and the Politburo can make it a reality. My guesstimate is that we will switch to various energy sources long before we run out of oil.
If automakers didn't want the roll back to be this big, then there shouldnt be a problem. At the end of the day it's the automakers who will choose how efficient their cars are, and at the end of the day it's also the consumer who chooses where to spend their money based on their priorities.
4
There is another dynamic at work here as well as the greed and short sightedness of big oil. It is the narrow vision of the American consumer and those that enable them.
When the price of gas goes down at the pump due to an excess of oil production the consumer, at least temporarily, gets a break on what they spend for that fuel. This is one of the reasons our economy is superficially booming and one reason Trump supports low prices at the pump.
The crisis of climate change in this seems far away when compared to immediate expediency. A hybrid or electric car right now is more expensive when compared to old technology and for those stuck with stagnant wages this is a big deal.
Will the sky need to literally come crashing down around our heads before we see the long term advantages of conservation? Will the conscience for economic change overpower short term expediency? We need leaders who can support these changes and explain them clearly enough so that people will come together to face squarely the deep threat of climate change and who we have now wedded as they are to winning elections will just not do it.
8
Of course they did. Because we have long understood in the United States that the only thing that matters, above all else, is profit.
10
The climate changing effects of too much carbon & methane in the atmosphere is now spiraling out of control. The oldest, thickest sea ice in the Arctic is warming and melting at an unprecedented rate. 95% of it is gone since 1985. The alarm bells were sounded decades ago, but the Koch brothers used their wealth and power to covertly promote their pro-fossil fuel agenda (through The Heritage Foundation and Murdoch's propaganda stations). Just as the tobacco companies were held responsible for knowingly deceiving the public about the deadly consequences of cigarette smoking, so should Charles and David Koch be held accountable for their deceit. To this day, they and the other fossil fuel profiteers continue to belittle the science and fund disinformation campaigns to protect their personal interests.
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@CC
Well said!
Coincidentally, it was my visit to Ponte Vedra Beach recently that led to the comment I posted here.
My wife and I both drive ultra low emissions Honda Civics. But I gather the more obscenely huge one's SUV is, the more status one is thought to have.
We need to shame people driving the SUVs. The Washington Post recently covered research documenting that drivers of luxury cars are much less likely to yield to people in pedestrian crosswalks than are drivers of economy cars.
It won't solve climate change by itself, but shifting to less emitting vehicles will remind all of us that we are in the midst of a climate change crisis.
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@CC. I expect history to judge them as criminal. I'm not sure who is worse though, the brothers or the paid politicians who continue to do their bidding.
39
And fund politicians and attorneys.
9
America is now and has always been governed by the Gang Of Pirates, a criminal organization supported by those whose responsibility it is to protect us from them. All Pirates love a "Free Market". Trouble is, if we fight back, we are the ones that wind up in jail.
If the automobile manufacturers were smart, they would stand up for America by maintaining production of fuel efficient vehicles voluntarily. Otherwise, foreign manufacturers will dominate the market naturally.
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Problem is, the us auto companies are abandoning their sedans to focus on more profitable trucks and SUVs. The American consumer is a big part of the problem...
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@Shakinspear
How we fight back will depend on who is in jail. Torches and pitchforks probably will lead to jail. Voting for candidates who support a higher CAFE standard won't. Nor will advocating in print and demonstrations and supporting those who do. Also, one can buy cars with fuel efficiency as a top criteria.
The car manufacturing industry is global. China and the EU are maintaining their standards. Car producers will develop the technologies to serve those standards. The urgency with which they deploy them here is the risk.
25
Businesses have one driving motivation - - profit. No MBA paper ever concluded “... I made less money, but look how civically responsible I am”.
The purpose of laws and regulation is to protect us from unconstrained profiteering. The Trumpists, conservatives and Republicans are destroying those protections.
72
The US should mandate all cars to be electric by 2032. The oil industry has a long history of throwing their political weight around. During the Bush 2 administration oil industry lobbyists wrote regulations. When Nashville made an effort to tackle their terrible traffic situation with up grades to mass transit the Koch Brothers showed a put together a misleading campaign to defeat the bond issue. The oil industry has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Supreme Court's Citizen United 5-4 decision.
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@c harris that the Koch brothers benefited massively from Citizens United should surprise no one. They’re in the business of buying government.
13
@c harris The sad thing is, Justice Kennedy (I believe) held the belief that on the whole most Americans would be informed enough to see through corporations attempts to push their agenda through massive political donations. How wrong he was.....
8
@c harris But where will the electrical supply for these cars come from?
5
This is a real revelation. I certainly didn’t know the Kochs were quite so unrepentant. This is ultimately suicide for the US auto industry, but before that happens it means major US efforts to block fuel efficiency standards anywhere in the world.
That seems to be typical of our current policies. It’s one endless episode of stupid bullying. We keep shooting ourselves in the foot to spite the world.
5
Jerry, respectfully, how did you not know that?
It is now clear to me that Trump is not the sickness, he is the symptom. This is not a problem that began with him and it is not a problem that will go away once he is gone.
2
@Jerryg. Spend an hour researching the Kochs, Charles, David, William, Fred. Then take a look at Americans For Prosperity. Then read about ALEC and what it does at the state level. It’s a very smart, strategic conspiracy, and it’s been going on for years.
A temporary problem that will be "rollbacked" once the GrOPers are voted out in 2020, 2022, 2024 ...
6
@PlayOn "rollback" is a way to nowhere.
Obama used one party rule to push reforms. It all ended with republicans one party rule rollback's (or half rollback's). Now Trump is trying to play solo. Guess what will happen next?
Bipartisan work is so important because it preserves results not just for one term, but for many years ahead.
"We're getting nothing done, my friends." McCain said. But noone never listens.
Big oil, like Monsanto/Bayer is poisoning the world for nothing more than unconscionable greed with the assistance of this administration. When will people wake up?!?!
7
Secretly?!! The head of Exxon was Secretary of State! Trump has never been “secret” about being corrupt.
17
And Tillerson mainly took the job to help roll back the sanctions on Russia, which affected Exxon’s bottom line.
They’re shamelessly flaunting their corruption at this point.
For cleaner air, a better planet and to stick it to these oil jerks, my next vehicle will be a hybrid.
3
How can anyone with any morals work for either an oil or tobacco company???
3
What exactly was covert about this. The orange disciple of satan will do anything to make our children’s lives bleak. The dystopian future is ensured, enjoy your SUVs and pickup trucks America. Who cares about the future.
3
This will surprise nobody. Boy do I love my electric car.
2
Least surprising headline ever.
6
Tricksters and miscreants, the lot of them. My blood boils every time I see an Exxon-Mobil ad suggesting the company is on the cutting edge of biofuel development! The hypocrisy in their campaign against Washington State's carbon tax was also breathtaking.
We keep hearing about holding people accountable, but how do we do that? Especially when our votes are too often meaningless? These corporate bullies are in league with the federal government, threatening our lives and the lives of our children.
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@dmdaisy. Bravo!
4
@dmdaisy
Our votes are NOT meaningless. But we need to make sure our votes are not changed by expensive coercive ad campaigns by big money. This takes an equal and opposite effort by many small players supporting the general interest over the special interests. Working class Americans need to wise up and fight for our future, by rejecting Republican cheating and by opposing the rich (individuals/companies). The rich DO NOT care about the working class. The Republicans are controlled by the rich. Why would ANY working class person vote Republican? Answer: they were tricked and manipuated. So, if you are not rich, wise up!
9
You hold them accountable by not buying their products. Buy an electric car. Install solar panels. ASAP!
15
Wondering why US car manufacturers are closing plants, laying off thousands of works and can’t compete with European and Asian car companies?
Look no farther than this article. American car companies don’t want these rules changed and Americans will not buy US cars and trucks unless they are as fuel efficient as foreign options.
Once again corrupt Trump and his bought and paid for cesspool administration “Makes America Weak Again”
Disgraceful.
Vote my fellow Americans, vote.
333
Let’s hope they go the way of the record industry. They acted the same way in the early 2000s and paid the price.
6
@Steven
Voting is not enough. More direct action is required. Protests. Boycotts. Sit-ins. Nothing else will be sufficient. The Dems are just as greedy and their bank accounts are stuffed full of money from these "Corporate Citizens".
4
@Steven. History repeats! Auto industry ignored Demmings Top Quality Management’ process, so he took it to Japan where they produced fuel efficient cars that overwhelmed the US market. Now we have an administration with it’s head in the sand!
10
People need to start going to jail for this and the assets of the companies involved in this feet dragging/wilful destruction need their assets seized to help pay for the transition to a renewable future.
6
I can certainly understand big oil pushing this but an administration that puts dollars and cents over clean air and water, NO.
7
Does GREED know no bounds? So, the U.S. is already "so awash in oil" we don't need no stinkin emission and fuel efficiency standards....and folks don't mind driving 15 MPG vehicles? Why then is GM closing plants that make vehicles U.S. and global consumers don't want?
And....since we have so much oil, why are we getting ready to destroy Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?
Gas-fueled transportation is 19th Century technology, The oil industry will have to accept it's days will come to an end; but it appears it is willing to destroy as much as it can on its way out.
Do we have to wait till greedy old men die or will they just be replaced by younger greedy men?
6
"Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, criticized the industry’s campaign. “It appears as though oil interests are cynically trying to gin up support in Congress for the weakest possible standards to ensure that cars and SUVs have to rely on even more oil,” he said."
Hmm, which countries depend on oil for their economy? Saudi Arabia, Russia and, yes, the U.S. Fracking as an environmental and health hazard?
Go for it. Pipe lines leaking and destroying pristine landscapes, no problem. More oil used per mile, do it. And the Republicans are all in.
I remember the air quality in California cities in the 60's, I would never want to go back to that. Big oil is a global power, we actually need to make the U.S. great by working to wean ourselves from as much reliance on fossil fuels as possible. Clearly, Trump doesn't want to make America great, only the oligarchs. And the Republicans smile while their hands are polished with donations. Never vote Republican.
7
Industry power rules our lives, which is in fact no secret and has never been concealed.
Conservatives who so readily support "states'rights" are being hypocritical if they don't also support California's and other states' rights to adopt their own energy consumption policies.
10
Great article that gives us lots of miscreants who deliberately are harming our citizens' health. Lawyers, sharpen your tools. Lots of people / companies/ federal department of transportation who harm our health who can be sued here. Follow the money and win some victories for us suckers who will die early because of these miscreants' deadly deeds. Oh wait, they also have now stacked the courts with their judges.
2
Koch brothers motto "Freedom to roast" with climate change: "choice of the gas guzzlers is the real freedom; forget about pollution; after all, we are old, and after us "the deluge"...
2
In the US, 70% of the 20 million barrels per day consumed is used to power cars and trucks as gasoline and diesel. Cars account for about 50% of that total. Worldwide, 25% of all energy demand is used for transportation…and the US consumes 25% of that total—about 14 million barrels of oil per day are used by the US just to move people and goods around.
The US will remain dependent on foreign oil unless demand collapses.
The US is not an “energy giant” and will not be in oil and natural gas. US oil reserves are 39 billion barrels (1P--proven) and 55 billion barrels (2P—proven plus probable). When consumption is over 7 billion barrels per year, there is the equivalent of a less than a decade of oil. Natural gas reserves are about 400 trillion cu ft., but the US uses about 27 trillion cu ft., per year…so, selling the natural gas overseas guarantees short term profits and long term expensive natural gas.
Currently, the US has a net import of about 3 million barrels per day. Shale oil is not going to save the day…
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/01/us-shale-cannot-meet-the-worlds-growing-oil-demand-chevron-ceo-warns.html
And obviously, the Trump administration has been totally duped and really does not car.
1
I believe that the Koch's are part of the Cabal, a group of ultra-rich plutocrats that are deliberately suppressing technologies such as zero point energy (ZPE) to keep the money flowing from us to them for as long as possible. The obvious problem with this is that, apart from humanity being held back, there are clear signs that the the Earth can't take much more and ZPE would stop the pollution problem overnight with the side effect that the Koch's would be out of business overnight.
The good news is that there is apparently an alliance that's trying to literally save us from the Cabal, an alliance that has powerful ET supporters.
I'm not the first to suggest this, try the Cosmic Disclosure series on Gaia (although David Wilcock, the program's founder, has now split with Gaia apparently in disagreement at the level of editing that Gaia management were doing.)
Call me nuts if you like but I saw a UFO in the late 70's and it wasn't powered by rockets, it wasn't a balloon, maybe it was from Earth but it was clearly using a form of propulsion that didn't use fossil fuel.
Isn't this a little bit one sided. The evil oil empire does...evil things, right? But there's nothing stopping car companies from making more fuel efficient cars if they want -- if they believe there is a market. And nothing the oil companies do will stop noble consumers from buying more fuel efficient cars. Right?
And nothing will stop enlightened consumers from buying smaller homes, putting in solar panels, turning the thermostats down in winter and up in summer-- just doing without AC like the rest of the world. Come on you noble consumers!!!!!
The Obama targets were very aggressive and the only way car companies could meet them would be to make much lighter cars -- which is great until you hit a much bigger car. Then splat. Why not let consumers make the choice? If I rarely commute -- don't fly -- don't take car trips (use Amtrak) -- why not allow me to buy a bigger heavier less fuel efficient SUV with all wheel drive etc. if I want. If my carbon foot print remains smaller than the person who has a very fuel efficient car but drives 3x as much as I do annually -- why not let me decide what I want to drive?
This is just another example of the left using questionable science to drive the policies it wants.
1
Plenty of oil, no need to conserve.....
Short sighted “thinking”, typically American, no long range planning beyond the next fiscal quarter.
1
How hard was it for the oil industry to sell the Trump administration on reduced emission standards? Not very. The Trump administration is thoroughly corrupt, morally and legally. They don't care about Americans, the future of this country, or global climate change.
They are only interested in helping their friends make as much money as possible before they are kicked out of office. The are the shame of this nation.
How can these people live with themselves? How do they? How do they convince themselves that their short-term gains or worth the ruin they will deliver. How do you sleep at night knowing that you have hurt the children, our children, with your recklessness ?
3
It was not covert. People can easily see thru their greedy, corrupt plotting. As a voter, I am astounded that businesses and the Trump Administration continues to insult my intelligence. Just because the PRESIDENT says XXX does not make it true.
Most of the things Trump and his minions utter about oil and climate change are lies and half truths that have been twisted to suit their agenda.
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@Tony We have to do more than vote, especially over these next 2 years. Volunteer to get out the vote to educate those who don't always vote -- this is needed to overcome the unfair, undemocratic advantage their gerrymandering has given republicans.
7
Another example of having the worst government money can buy. Big oil spent $31 million to defeat a carbon fee in my state and who knows how much bribing Trump and his cronies on this auto emissions measure. The only legacy of this administration besides government by misspelled tweet is dirty air, dirty water and the fouling of our national parks, wildlife refuges and wetlands with oil exploration. Why? Because Trump has put a very large "For Sale" sign outside the White House and openly brags that he doesn care what it does to our planet because he won't be around to clean it up.
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@Christy: There is already enough CO2 in the air to overshoot 2 degees C of warming. The heat balance is far from equilibrium at present.
7
This is a bad move for US workers in the auto sector I suspect.
Ironically, lowering the standards removes an incentive for autos in the US to invest in energy efficiency, which will make these companies less competitive in export markets, where low emission tech is becoming an important differentiator.
15
@Anthony: China is going all out to replace gasoline cars with electrical ones.
How is anyone surprised by this? Trump came into office with no agenda like a deer in the headlights, and the vultures swooped in and gave him one.
The fact that these actions horrify decent and thoughtful people is justification enough for Trump in any case.
17
I'm not an economist, so please forgive the somewhat simplistic suggestion.
It would seem logical to discontinue the subsidies to non-renewables and instead, use those billions of dollars to offer tax incentives to private citizens and businesses who purchase electric cars, utilize solar and wind where appropriate, build and purchase net-zero homes, etc.
Obviously, the main problem would be getting it past our government officials that rely of funding from these oil, gas and coal industries.
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@Patty O
Good point; the issue is less that the "consumer" is buying SUV gas guzzlers (I think because the bigger car makes a lot of drivers' feel safer in case of a collision, and so they want more mass around their bodies), and the bigger issue is that government leadership has been influenced to perpetuate the fossil fuel at the expense of future generations.
Koch propagandists will say this is all about a "liberty right" to choose one's own vehicle but that is a lie. Any vehicle can be retrofitted with an electric motor, big trucks to sleek roadsters.
We need elected officials who are not beholden to vested interests. Vote in 2020.
1
Make America Great Again? The sole US car manufacturer remaining in Europe is Ford, and even they consider selling their operations here. American cars are rare objects in Japan and are no where near as big as their global competitors in China. The reason? Not meeting the local emission standards. How is this going to help them? No wonder the US car manufacturers do not support these proposals.
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It would seem that "ignorance is bliss" for most when it comes to this subject.
Most regular folk would be surprised to learn that ICE's (internal combustion engines) are less than 40% efficient, This means that 60+% of the energy in fossil fuels for ICE's is just wasted as heat and noise.
Combine this with the administration's pledge to forge ahead with more fossil fuel supply, no matter what the indirect consequences in the current stressed environment. while making fuel standards for ICE vehicles less demanding.
Those with a conscience and who understand this situation are already doing their level best to reverse this trend because they are aware of the adverse outcomes which are increasingly apparent.
The catch is that we are all on this planet and breath the same air.
You can bet that fossil fuel companies and vehicle manufacturers know this story but are those who benefit from the direction underway.
However, ultimately we will all be the losers if this trend isn't reversed.
A couple of canaries in this cavern who follow this direction carefully are the insurance companies and increasingly aware investment houses with any strategic DNA in their thinking.
15
@lecourt...Your numbers are really optimistic. 40% efficient on a good day if you drive a hybrid that can capture some energy with regen braking. For most people driving a conventional ICE car it’s more like 15%. 85% of the fuel's available energy goes off as waste heat.
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@wmferree
Thank you and I agree, but I was conservative and wanted to make the point rather than scare people off.
1
If the oil industry is trying to eliminate ethanol, guess what? It is a good thing. Ethanol was a bad idea back when it started and can't get better. Take a look at who gets paid and what it takes to produce.
7
@Mark Lindsey: Cellulose ethanol never got cheap enough to supplant corn ethanol.
The administration’s anti-Amtrak agenda is likely similarly motivated. The environmental destruction being advanced by this administration will take hundreds of years to undo if it can ever be restored. Trumpism is dirtier air, dirtier water, despoiled public land, more polluting cars and less public transportation. The tragedy of 2016 will live in infamy for generations.
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@Todd: Trumpism is all about making climate catastrophe inevitable.
1
Oil companies will never give up trying to get their product out of the ground and monetized. It is what they do.
We have to hit them where it hurts by divesting oil and coal stocks.
19
I'm in favor of getting rid of CAFE standards and renewable fuel subsidies also. Replacing them with a carbon tax is a cheaper more efficient way to save more carbon emissions.
3
The oil companies would prefer to see a nominal carbon tax instead of direct government intervention. They realize that a carbon tax is a market mechanism and that its adoption would stifle attempts for further regulation, like strengthening CAFE. But a milquetoast carbon tax wouldn't be a strong enough price signal in a volatile market to expose externalities and hurt sales.
Tough fuel efficiency regulations, on the other hand, are already a proven method to lower fuel consumption. This is great reporting of an appalling story, but is anybody surprised?
7
@fred02138
How about requiring oil companies, the Koch Brothers and the lobbying groups mentioned to bear the financial costs of storms which are increasing in frequency and intensity, rising seas and accompanying costs, related to Climate Change, rather than the taxpayer bearing these costs through FEMA and other Federal, State and Local Government Agencies? Cigarette companies ultimately bore the costs of healthcare and loss of life related to the use of their products, which they marketed in much the same way as Big Oil is now, which is to tell numerous lies, and to frame the issue as one of Freedom. I say Americans should have the Freedom to hold Big Oil and the Koch Brothers responsible for the damage they have done, and will do.
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@Michael Banks: US courts will never hold the petroleum industry accountable for anything.
1