Wow - we need more of these stories to enact action. This help influence the idea that it's not about maintaining a harmful cocktail of being comfortable and hopeless - it's about action, and that enacting change leads us to a better future, and those need to all be driven by optimism and autonomy in working again the grain of the masses.
"This narrative has really taken hold here, the one that says we must accept the oil and gas industry, because without them we’ll have nothing."
I understand this attitude completely - I lived in the Daytona Beach, FL area for a couple dozen years. You know, the place where people go for wild Spring Break partying, or the annual NASCAR orgy, or of course let's not forget the twice-a-year influx of a half million bikers, each trying to be louder than the next. There were times I had to go to sleep with earplugs just to get a decent night's rest - the biker parties ran 24/7.
Half the folks I knew echoed the usual, "without these events, we'd be nothing." Some loved living in the center of the carnival; others hated the noise and disruptions, but accepted the fact that these "binge tourism" events weren't going away, given the fact that they brought so much money into the area. All I could think of was the hundreds of similar-sized towns all over the country who survived just fine without prostituting themselves to temporary visitors with fat wads of cash.
Mr. Hiatt's story is a tragic metaphor for America's love affair with oil, and the human tendency to accept and even vigorously defend the status quo, even with full knowledge of how devastating it is. "The devil we know" often wins out, for fear of change. And yet we have plenty of examples of coal towns reimagining themselves as centers for renewable energy projects. Since my retirement in 2018 I've lived just a few miles from where I grew up, in West Michigan. What was once a region of heavy industry and pollution is metamorphosing into vibrant communities with clean industries, clean air, and clean water: Pure Michigan.
You're all welcome to come visit - just don't bring your damn noisy motorcycles.
Methane, the main component of LNG, is NOT a clean fuel. When methane (CH4) burns, water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are formed, and pass into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere warms the planet, causing climate change. Human activities have raised the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide content by 50% in less than 200 years.
Thank you for this first hand testimony by an en extraordinary guy, someone who dares to step out, take a stance, and then totally walk the walk. And then to have the integrity to stay in relationship with all those he left behind in trying to pursue environmental justice with real decency. If the world could be just 1% made up of such people, we might be ok.
I have family who work in the oil and gas extraction industry in Texas and the transitory nature of the job is something I recognize. I think that itself fuels (no pun intended) a sense of displacement of community, when you have to sleep in your truck for days at a time at the drill site, and all these sites are spread out by dozens of miles.
And where there are towns, there is no sustainable local economy for them because they are largely supported by wells that are dry or the value of the fossil fuel is less than the cost of drilling.
Really cool to see HEATED put piece out like this though!
In which millionaire land owners (sorry, I mean farmers) have a hissy fit about a transmission line crossing their vast property (that they would be paid handsomely for allowing) because they don't want to look at it. It's told from the reporters perspective but has that just passing it along feel. Where it ends up makes a fairly strong point, but there's complexity around the tension of local control and prosperity. At least I thought so. Worth a read.
Great stories (James, Tony & Kitty). A few years ago Inside Climate News ran a depressing story which included a quote from someone on that part of the Gulf Coast to the effect that, "We had vocal opposition ten years ago, but most anybody who doesn't like these petro projects has just left by now." So it's good to hear about someone still fighting the good fight.
IMHO, global demand for fossil gas may peak soon, due to efficiency, renewables and heat pumps. The EU is on that path, though you wouldn't know it reading MSM. There is even a proposal to build offshore wind power for Bangladesh, one of the places where LNG is supposed to "save" them by replacing coal in power plants. So stopping these export terminals now may be doing the potential investors a favor. There are lots of solar and wind and transmission projects where they can get a reasonable return.
These exports also clearly contribute to gas price inflation and faster depletion. While most readers here probably think fossil fuels should cost more, the average American civilian at this point would really like to hear that some anti-FF action is clearly saving them money. And we'll want our own cheap gas for decreasing quantities of dispatchable/peaker/backup fuel to firm up variable renewables.
Love James’s remark on “our poverty of imagination”—reminds me of one of my favorite quotes: “If we appear to seek the unattainable, as it has been said, then let it be known that we do so to avoid the unimaginable.” (SDS, Port Huron)
I *love* this story!!! Honestly makes me want to pick up my old documentary video camera and go find that guy. Thank you SO much for sharing his story with us -- I don't know what else you're working on, I'm sure it's important too, but this was a very good call. :)
I am not sure what this article is saying?... Is it about jobs or about climate change… sounds to me this guy has become disgruntled and has a problem with industry in general?... Either way, I suspect most people will want jobs and also affordable energy and as clean an environment as possible. Any one of these not met will create concern.
The only way all 3 things are going to happen for the bulk of the population is with the continued use of fossil fuels.
To get all 3 we must vote to ensure we reshore our manufacturing and industries and so have to pay for less imports. This will demand affordable energy and FF based materials for both industry and the consumers, and as said, this will mean FF (fossil fuels). So, instead of legislating away from FF and subsidizing so called wasteful and useless renewables we should be subsidising and improving FF and insisting they are as clean as practical and affordable. Of course we need to ensure all such essential utilities are competitive and that taxation and investment are in balance to benefit the citizen population.
There is no place for the huge distraction of climate change mitigation as its very clear its not an emergency, and that we will need FF to support the mild level of adaptation to a naturally warming planet which is in the main improving the sustainability of humankind.
This is Studs Terkel journalism at its best: thank you for giving voice to the folks living in the shadow of our lifestyle's trenches and refineries.
Wow - we need more of these stories to enact action. This help influence the idea that it's not about maintaining a harmful cocktail of being comfortable and hopeless - it's about action, and that enacting change leads us to a better future, and those need to all be driven by optimism and autonomy in working again the grain of the masses.
Thanks a million for this one, Emily!
"This narrative has really taken hold here, the one that says we must accept the oil and gas industry, because without them we’ll have nothing."
I understand this attitude completely - I lived in the Daytona Beach, FL area for a couple dozen years. You know, the place where people go for wild Spring Break partying, or the annual NASCAR orgy, or of course let's not forget the twice-a-year influx of a half million bikers, each trying to be louder than the next. There were times I had to go to sleep with earplugs just to get a decent night's rest - the biker parties ran 24/7.
Half the folks I knew echoed the usual, "without these events, we'd be nothing." Some loved living in the center of the carnival; others hated the noise and disruptions, but accepted the fact that these "binge tourism" events weren't going away, given the fact that they brought so much money into the area. All I could think of was the hundreds of similar-sized towns all over the country who survived just fine without prostituting themselves to temporary visitors with fat wads of cash.
Mr. Hiatt's story is a tragic metaphor for America's love affair with oil, and the human tendency to accept and even vigorously defend the status quo, even with full knowledge of how devastating it is. "The devil we know" often wins out, for fear of change. And yet we have plenty of examples of coal towns reimagining themselves as centers for renewable energy projects. Since my retirement in 2018 I've lived just a few miles from where I grew up, in West Michigan. What was once a region of heavy industry and pollution is metamorphosing into vibrant communities with clean industries, clean air, and clean water: Pure Michigan.
You're all welcome to come visit - just don't bring your damn noisy motorcycles.
Methane, the main component of LNG, is NOT a clean fuel. When methane (CH4) burns, water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are formed, and pass into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere warms the planet, causing climate change. Human activities have raised the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide content by 50% in less than 200 years.
Thank you for this first hand testimony by an en extraordinary guy, someone who dares to step out, take a stance, and then totally walk the walk. And then to have the integrity to stay in relationship with all those he left behind in trying to pursue environmental justice with real decency. If the world could be just 1% made up of such people, we might be ok.
Thank you for the interview/story!
I have family who work in the oil and gas extraction industry in Texas and the transitory nature of the job is something I recognize. I think that itself fuels (no pun intended) a sense of displacement of community, when you have to sleep in your truck for days at a time at the drill site, and all these sites are spread out by dozens of miles.
And where there are towns, there is no sustainable local economy for them because they are largely supported by wells that are dry or the value of the fossil fuel is less than the cost of drilling.
Really cool to see HEATED put piece out like this though!
Daaammmnnn! This is good stuff. I think everyday Americans need this kind of perspective on these issues. Keep it up.
I also couldn't help but read this and think about it in relationship to a great New Yorker peice I just read.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/dept-of-energy/the-holdouts-in-the-quest-for-a-better-power-grid?
In which millionaire land owners (sorry, I mean farmers) have a hissy fit about a transmission line crossing their vast property (that they would be paid handsomely for allowing) because they don't want to look at it. It's told from the reporters perspective but has that just passing it along feel. Where it ends up makes a fairly strong point, but there's complexity around the tension of local control and prosperity. At least I thought so. Worth a read.
This is a really powerful piece, Emily - well worth the 8 hours. Thank you for doing it.
Great stories (James, Tony & Kitty). A few years ago Inside Climate News ran a depressing story which included a quote from someone on that part of the Gulf Coast to the effect that, "We had vocal opposition ten years ago, but most anybody who doesn't like these petro projects has just left by now." So it's good to hear about someone still fighting the good fight.
IMHO, global demand for fossil gas may peak soon, due to efficiency, renewables and heat pumps. The EU is on that path, though you wouldn't know it reading MSM. There is even a proposal to build offshore wind power for Bangladesh, one of the places where LNG is supposed to "save" them by replacing coal in power plants. So stopping these export terminals now may be doing the potential investors a favor. There are lots of solar and wind and transmission projects where they can get a reasonable return.
These exports also clearly contribute to gas price inflation and faster depletion. While most readers here probably think fossil fuels should cost more, the average American civilian at this point would really like to hear that some anti-FF action is clearly saving them money. And we'll want our own cheap gas for decreasing quantities of dispatchable/peaker/backup fuel to firm up variable renewables.
Love James’s remark on “our poverty of imagination”—reminds me of one of my favorite quotes: “If we appear to seek the unattainable, as it has been said, then let it be known that we do so to avoid the unimaginable.” (SDS, Port Huron)
I *love* this story!!! Honestly makes me want to pick up my old documentary video camera and go find that guy. Thank you SO much for sharing his story with us -- I don't know what else you're working on, I'm sure it's important too, but this was a very good call. :)
Thanks Emily. Nice piece. Please pass along, if you are still in touch, my thanks to Mr. Hiatt as well. You’re both doing good work.
Oh... I’m pretty sure I have ODD as well. 😉
I am not sure what this article is saying?... Is it about jobs or about climate change… sounds to me this guy has become disgruntled and has a problem with industry in general?... Either way, I suspect most people will want jobs and also affordable energy and as clean an environment as possible. Any one of these not met will create concern.
The only way all 3 things are going to happen for the bulk of the population is with the continued use of fossil fuels.
To get all 3 we must vote to ensure we reshore our manufacturing and industries and so have to pay for less imports. This will demand affordable energy and FF based materials for both industry and the consumers, and as said, this will mean FF (fossil fuels). So, instead of legislating away from FF and subsidizing so called wasteful and useless renewables we should be subsidising and improving FF and insisting they are as clean as practical and affordable. Of course we need to ensure all such essential utilities are competitive and that taxation and investment are in balance to benefit the citizen population.
There is no place for the huge distraction of climate change mitigation as its very clear its not an emergency, and that we will need FF to support the mild level of adaptation to a naturally warming planet which is in the main improving the sustainability of humankind.