Renewable Revolution

Originally published on EVANNEX By Charles Morris


January 6th, 2019 by Guest Contributor

Is this a conspiracy theory that can be dismissed? Not really. The definition of a conspiracy is different actors working together in secret. While the efforts of EV enemies — legacy automakers, oil interests, and “conservative” governments — do complement one another, as far as we know, they haven’t formed any formal cartel (nor do the Lizard People, aliens, or Elvis seem to be involved). And there’s not much secrecy about what they’re doing. The efforts of oil industry–backed groups to hold back the electric tide are well-documented, most recently in a lengthy article in the New York Times.

The Trump administration has been working with auto industry trade groups (openly, not in secret) to water down federal fuel economy standards since before the president’s inauguration. This is a legal process that will take many months to play out, and advocates on both sides of the issue are working to sway public opinion. As the Times reports, Marathon Petroleum, the country’s largest refiner, has devoted much effort and money to ensure that the standards get rolled back. Along with its allies — oil industry trade groups and a network of conservative “think tanks” financed by billionaire bogeyman Charles G. Koch — Marathon argues that the US now has so much oil that it no longer needs to worry about energy conservation.

“With oil scarcity no longer a concern,” Americans should be given a “choice in vehicles that best fit their needs,” read a draft of a letter that Marathon helped to circulate to members of Congress. According to the Times, official correspondence later sent to regulators by more than a dozen lawmakers included phrases or sentences from the industry talking points, and the US administration’s proposed rule rollback relies on similar arguments.

Marathon Petroleum has also teamed up with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a reliable opponent of environmental regulation, to draft pro-industry legislation for state governments. ALEC’s handy guide to the issue describes current fuel-efficiency rules as “a relic of a disproven narrative of resource scarcity” and says “unelected bureaucrats” shouldn’t tell Americans what cars to drive.

Meanwhile, a major Facebook campaign — covertly run by an oil-industry lobby representing ExxonMobil, Chevron, Phillips 66 and other oil giants — urged people to write to regulators to support the rollback. The Facebook ads linked to a website with a picture of a grinning President Obama and the question, “Would YOU buy a used car from this man?” The site appears to have been so effective that a quarter of the 12,000 public comments received by the Department of Transportation can be traced to the petition, according to a Times analysis.

The Times article documents the influence Marathon wields over Trump administration officials and state lawmakers around the country. The refiner was a major donor to former Oklahoma State Senator and Attorney General Scott Pruitt, and its CEO, Gary Heminger, met with Pruitt several times after he became Trump’s EPA Administrator (Pruitt resigned in July, under the shadow of at least 14 separate federal investigations).

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/01/06/big-oil-tries-to-kill-the-electric-car-again/

Agelbert COMMENT: Yep. The math for oil refiners 🦕🦖 is what dooms them when most transportation becomes electric ⚡ powered. So, they come up with all sorts of Orwellian yammering about the "low cost" of petroleum sources.

The bottom line for refiners, that these Hydrocarbon Hellspawn 🦕🦖 just HATE to talk about 🙊, is that you CANNOT refine crude oil without getting LOTS of liquid fuels that Rockefeller had to dump in the rivers of Pennsyslvania (killing horses and cows that were downstream) before he teamed up with Ford to sell the waste product we know as gasoline (and diesel).



The fossil fuelers go BANKRUPT if their only products are lubricants and feed stock for plastics, pharmaceuticals, and so on.

The sooner that happens, the better chance humanity has to survive Catastrophic Climate Change.