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The way I've imagined it is an orderly winding down. Existing production continues but no expansion. All profits are redirected to aid in the transition with an

The way I've imagined it is an orderly winding down. Existing production continues but no expansion. All profits are redirected to aid in the transition with an emphasis on helping the poor in replacing their fossil fuel use.

konfusinomicon 4y ago
i think that everyone including the FF companies ultimately wants a wind down, its a finite resource after all. it's a matter of how long will that take, and how long will winding up other energy industries take, be it building out the infrastructure, limiting the environmental impact of that build out, or researching the future technologies that will make 100% clean energy feasible. any timelines need to be reasonable. maybe a 50 year plan is doable and in the mean time, there is no sense in kneecapping the world by limiting expansion
notatoad 4y ago
and suing big oil is exactly the opposite of the way to achieve this. if you can successfully drive western oil companies out of business, all our oil will have to come from saudi, russia, venezuela, etc. countries where we have no ability to tax the profits of oil companies and redirect that money to something beneficial.
- OrvalWintermute 4y ago
  I believe that it is likely BigOil that will finally solve much of our renewable energy needs. They have the huge amounts of capital, and the management abilities to do nation-state levels of production around energy. Some of the more challenging ideas like space based power beaming on a massive scale would require the kind of capital and longterm projects current day BigOil can bring to bear. Truly massive solar farms are the same way, they require huge capital.
- thinkcontext 4y ago
  Carbon tariff at the border.
  - notatoad 4y ago
    Yup, great idea and I absolutely agree. But that's not part of the agenda for people pushing the abolition of domestic oil. Which makes the conspiracy theorist in me wonder how much of the north American anti-oil environmentalist movement is actually Saudi propaganda
pdonis 4y ago
And the way for this to happen is for people who want it to happen to start their own companies to do it. That's how free market competition works: if there is a genuine market need that is not being filled, someone starts a new company to fill it. You don't sue existing companies. In the case of fossil fuels, this already is happening; there are plenty of companies working on alternative sources of energy. (And the "Big Oil" companies are among them.) As far as using government and the law to help, the single biggest impact ordinary people can have is to make it clear to our elected representatives that nuclear energy is a thing and we need more of it.
- jthrowsitaway 4y ago
  This is how it works in a free market economy. The incumbent (oil and gas) is directly state sponsored in the US. > the US government alone spends $20 billion every year on direct fossil fuel subsidies. Of that figure, around $16 billion goes towards oil and gas, while the remaining $4 billion benefits the coal industry. https://en.as.com/en/2022/03/29/latest_news/1648510535_730791.html https://en.as.com/en/2022/03/29/latest_news/1648510535_73079...
  - pdonis 4y ago
    > The incumbent (oil and gas) is directly state sponsored in the US. The solution for that is not to sue Big Oil. It's to make it clear to our elected representatives that we want these subsidies to end, and vote them out of office if they don't do it.

konfusinomicon 4y ago

i think that everyone including the FF companies ultimately wants a wind down, its a finite resource after all. it's a matter of how long will that take, and how long will winding up other energy industries take, be it building out the infrastructure, limiting the environmental impact of that build out, or researching the future technologies that will make 100% clean energy feasible. any timelines need to be reasonable. maybe a 50 year plan is doable and in the mean time, there is no sense in kneecapping the world by limiting expansion

notatoad 4y ago

and suing big oil is exactly the opposite of the way to achieve this. if you can successfully drive western oil companies out of business, all our oil will have to come from saudi, russia, venezuela, etc. countries where we have no ability to tax the profits of oil companies and redirect that money to something beneficial.

OrvalWintermute 4y ago
I believe that it is likely BigOil that will finally solve much of our renewable energy needs. They have the huge amounts of capital, and the management abilities to do nation-state levels of production around energy. Some of the more challenging ideas like space based power beaming on a massive scale would require the kind of capital and longterm projects current day BigOil can bring to bear. Truly massive solar farms are the same way, they require huge capital.
thinkcontext 4y ago
Carbon tariff at the border.
- notatoad 4y ago
  Yup, great idea and I absolutely agree. But that's not part of the agenda for people pushing the abolition of domestic oil. Which makes the conspiracy theorist in me wonder how much of the north American anti-oil environmentalist movement is actually Saudi propaganda

pdonis 4y ago

And the way for this to happen is for people who want it to happen to start their own companies to do it. That's how free market competition works: if there is a genuine market need that is not being filled, someone starts a new company to fill it. You don't sue existing companies. In the case of fossil fuels, this already is happening; there are plenty of companies working on alternative sources of energy. (And the "Big Oil" companies are among them.) As far as using government and the law to help, the single biggest impact ordinary people can have is to make it clear to our elected representatives that nuclear energy is a thing and we need more of it.

jthrowsitaway 4y ago
This is how it works in a free market economy. The incumbent (oil and gas) is directly state sponsored in the US. > the US government alone spends $20 billion every year on direct fossil fuel subsidies. Of that figure, around $16 billion goes towards oil and gas, while the remaining $4 billion benefits the coal industry. https://en.as.com/en/2022/03/29/latest_news/1648510535_730791.html https://en.as.com/en/2022/03/29/latest_news/1648510535_73079...
- pdonis 4y ago
  > The incumbent (oil and gas) is directly state sponsored in the US. The solution for that is not to sue Big Oil. It's to make it clear to our elected representatives that we want these subsidies to end, and vote them out of office if they don't do it.