I think you've hit on the heart of the issue here. Framing the issue as if there is some kind of ethical/moral obligation to refrain from utilizing fossil fuels

I think you've hit on the heart of the issue here. Framing the issue as if there is some kind of ethical/moral obligation to refrain from utilizing fossil fuels is completely nonsensical. As you said, when you have a legal, available profit opportunity in our economic system, you take it. If you don't, someone else will. Blaming the people who "got there first" is like blaming Samuel Colt for all gun violence. Our system by design operates at the lowest-common-ethical-denominator. If you want to change it, you need to change the economic incentives of the all the actors involved. This includes straightforward measures that are already exist but need to be tuned up, like forcing them to recognize the negative externalities they introduce through operation more directly (carbon tax). Of course, to the extent those actors have tried to downplay or mislead the general public as to the extent of those negative externalities, they have full culpability I'm happy to condemn them for that. But let's not pretend they are immoral for simply existing.