You act like industry is all about satanic mills and chimneys spewing bad things when most emit air cleaner that the pollution caused by the general population who complain they don’t have prosperous jobs that were sent offshore.
I suggest that prosperity decline is a worry for most and without a strong industrial base we will continue to worry about prosperity decline.
This article is about one disgruntled guy who cherry picks issues to gain a false situation of reality.
What the heck are you talking about? Where did I imply that the industry is all about satanic mills and chimneys belching poisons? Why are you putting words in my mouth? Get a life, Nigel. I was just complimenting real, good journalism--sorry you can't appreciate that. I recommend you get a copy of Stud Terkel's book Working and read it, and then you'll understand where I'm coming from.
Hey, I've been in trenches, have you? You're the one who is calling them "satanic mills and chimneys spewing bad things" not me. Cast your own aspersions, don't dump them on me, buddy.
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.
I’m not sure if you work for the fossil fuel industry or if you’re otherwise somehow profiting but moving away from fossil fuels is a win-win for everyone: your comment sounded like it was financially motivated?
No.. I don’t work for the FF Industry although I am an industrialist and a concerned citizen, and its certainly not about profit, but it is about maintaining prosperity and the application of common sense and I am more interested in science than religion..
I firmly don’t subscribe to NetZero and a non-FF environment being a win win for most of us in the western world. Its going to be a disaster and those that think otherwise are either very naive or deluded or mis or un-informed by others that don’t look or want to face facts and reality.
Look,…. .Its ok to be an activist, but without the correct facts it becomes a dangerous alarmist situation that does nothing to solve anything.
I see no near-term solutions that can displace FF without doing more harm than good.
W&S and EVs are a total mistake for most nations and the extraction of the minerals needed will do more harm than good.
Nuclear CAN solve the electrical grid, but not avoid all the other essential uses of FF
Our modern world uses FF for most of the things we can ill afford to give up unless you want a society and economy structured on the 1850s…. shall I show you a long list of what we must give up?
I suggest the activists stop bashing the FF industry until they have a better grip on reality.
We will certainly need FF to support the mild level of adaptation to a naturally warming planet which is in the main improving the sustainability of humankind.
No one is saying to go to zero overnight. We need to transition and this article shows those living in those communities are suffering at the hands of FF companies touting benefits and using the talking points you bring up. Someone with asthma, cancer, etc. isn’t benefitting from FF industries in their backyard. You know this.
My bet and hope is that NetZero will be cancelled by future governments. Its already happening....... Reality is kicking in!
Its not at all clear to many of us that NetZero is needed at all… The IPCC argument is full of holes, and based on current metrics climate change is not an emergency.. in fact, the warming planet is good news.
We do not have viable technologies to displace all the uses of FF for many years and it will be suicide to do it before ready, plus we do not have the prosperity to afford it. Many other policy issues far more important.
Plus NetZero is even more useless unless all nations do it at once, and even then its pointless... but we should certainly not start until everyone is on board or those that don’t will have a wealth transfer advantage.
Agreed that pollution is a worthy enemy and we must not let that happen, but stopping industry will be asinine to prosperity.
The statistics in North America do not support any argument that our current industrial complex is a danger. Some isolated situations maybe exist but plenty of legislated controls to manage that. In the last few decades we have improved industrial pollution significantly
I am old enough to remember how polluted our environment was..... when I was young it was bad…Its orders of magnitude improved.. (land.water,air.)
We need more industry not less and plenty of reshoring on its way to avoid imports and provide self sustainability.
If this your vision of the future?... a post industrialized society?.... you are in fantasy land and you can read my book if you don’t know why!
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.
You act like industry is all about satanic mills and chimneys spewing bad things when most emit air cleaner that the pollution caused by the general population who complain they don’t have prosperous jobs that were sent offshore.
I suggest that prosperity decline is a worry for most and without a strong industrial base we will continue to worry about prosperity decline.
This article is about one disgruntled guy who cherry picks issues to gain a false situation of reality.
What the heck are you talking about? Where did I imply that the industry is all about satanic mills and chimneys belching poisons? Why are you putting words in my mouth? Get a life, Nigel. I was just complimenting real, good journalism--sorry you can't appreciate that. I recommend you get a copy of Stud Terkel's book Working and read it, and then you'll understand where I'm coming from.
"living in the shadow of our lifestyle's trenches and refineries"..... looks like a knock on industry to me...
Hey, I've been in trenches, have you? You're the one who is calling them "satanic mills and chimneys spewing bad things" not me. Cast your own aspersions, don't dump them on me, buddy.
forget it... enjoy your life.
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.
I lived in Ormond Beach from 2013-2014, and I worked in Daytona Beach. I HATED Bike Week, the Daytona 500 and the spring breakers!
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.
Open your eyes, not your wallet.
Not sure what this means?...
I’m not sure if you work for the fossil fuel industry or if you’re otherwise somehow profiting but moving away from fossil fuels is a win-win for everyone: your comment sounded like it was financially motivated?
No.. I don’t work for the FF Industry although I am an industrialist and a concerned citizen, and its certainly not about profit, but it is about maintaining prosperity and the application of common sense and I am more interested in science than religion..
I firmly don’t subscribe to NetZero and a non-FF environment being a win win for most of us in the western world. Its going to be a disaster and those that think otherwise are either very naive or deluded or mis or un-informed by others that don’t look or want to face facts and reality.
Look,…. .Its ok to be an activist, but without the correct facts it becomes a dangerous alarmist situation that does nothing to solve anything.
I see no near-term solutions that can displace FF without doing more harm than good.
W&S and EVs are a total mistake for most nations and the extraction of the minerals needed will do more harm than good.
Nuclear CAN solve the electrical grid, but not avoid all the other essential uses of FF
Our modern world uses FF for most of the things we can ill afford to give up unless you want a society and economy structured on the 1850s…. shall I show you a long list of what we must give up?
I suggest the activists stop bashing the FF industry until they have a better grip on reality.
We will certainly need FF to support the mild level of adaptation to a naturally warming planet which is in the main improving the sustainability of humankind.
More at Take Back Manufacturing – Climate Realism (brainzmagazine.com)
https://www.brainzmagazine.com/post/take-back-manufacturing-climate-realism
Pixie_Wndrlst
No one is saying to go to zero overnight. We need to transition and this article shows those living in those communities are suffering at the hands of FF companies touting benefits and using the talking points you bring up. Someone with asthma, cancer, etc. isn’t benefitting from FF industries in their backyard. You know this.
In response to your comments..
My bet and hope is that NetZero will be cancelled by future governments. Its already happening....... Reality is kicking in!
Its not at all clear to many of us that NetZero is needed at all… The IPCC argument is full of holes, and based on current metrics climate change is not an emergency.. in fact, the warming planet is good news.
We do not have viable technologies to displace all the uses of FF for many years and it will be suicide to do it before ready, plus we do not have the prosperity to afford it. Many other policy issues far more important.
Plus NetZero is even more useless unless all nations do it at once, and even then its pointless... but we should certainly not start until everyone is on board or those that don’t will have a wealth transfer advantage.
Agreed that pollution is a worthy enemy and we must not let that happen, but stopping industry will be asinine to prosperity.
The statistics in North America do not support any argument that our current industrial complex is a danger. Some isolated situations maybe exist but plenty of legislated controls to manage that. In the last few decades we have improved industrial pollution significantly
I am old enough to remember how polluted our environment was..... when I was young it was bad…Its orders of magnitude improved.. (land.water,air.)
We need more industry not less and plenty of reshoring on its way to avoid imports and provide self sustainability.
If this your vision of the future?... a post industrialized society?.... you are in fantasy land and you can read my book if you don’t know why!
https://www.amazon.com/Take-Back-Manufacturing-Imperative-Economies-ebook/dp/B0BB17G32V/