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State oil companies dwarf the international producers like Exxon by a factor of 10-20, depending on how you count. All the wonderful carbon free schemes ignore

by fwungy 4y ago

State oil companies dwarf the international producers like Exxon by a factor of 10-20, depending on how you count. All the wonderful carbon free schemes ignore the fact that these state owned oil companies hold trillions in oil wealth in reserves. How do you get these states (e.g. Putin/Russia) to walk away from that money? This is why we need to think about mitigation strategies a lot harder.

tablarasa 4y ago
Offer a cheaper alternative and you don't have to worry about what they think
matthewdgreen 4y ago
If you look at historical cumulative CO2 emissions: the US utterly dominates, with (Western) Europe coming in second place. It’s only in the past few years that other countries begin to catch up. At the time these early climate studies were done, the US and its European allies had the wealth to consume and burn that oil; we also had the wealth and scientific capability to develop lower-emitting technologies. We, as a society, chose not to do either of those things. We made that decision during a time when it might have made a huge difference to our lives today. This decision was largely influenced by the actions of US non-state-owned oil companies, who were instrumental in preventing such policy decisions via lobbying, withholding evidence, and deliberate strategies to muddy the debate by funding climate denial PR. I’m sure the state-owned oil companies of Venezuela and the USSR/Russia deserve some blame as well for pumping and selling the oil (mostly to the West where our economies burned it), but I think pinning the blame right here in the US is pretty accurate. PS This is the second or third company in this thread that tries to blame the deeply unethical actions of these oil companies on “foreign state-owned oil companies” and it’s such a specific and bizarre defense that I tend to wonder if some Exxon-funded PR office has been pushing that line.

by fwungy 4y ago

tablarasa 4y ago

Offer a cheaper alternative and you don't have to worry about what they think

matthewdgreen 4y ago

If you look at historical cumulative CO2 emissions: the US utterly dominates, with (Western) Europe coming in second place. It’s only in the past few years that other countries begin to catch up. At the time these early climate studies were done, the US and its European allies had the wealth to consume and burn that oil; we also had the wealth and scientific capability to develop lower-emitting technologies. We, as a society, chose not to do either of those things. We made that decision during a time when it might have made a huge difference to our lives today. This decision was largely influenced by the actions of US non-state-owned oil companies, who were instrumental in preventing such policy decisions via lobbying, withholding evidence, and deliberate strategies to muddy the debate by funding climate denial PR. I’m sure the state-owned oil companies of Venezuela and the USSR/Russia deserve some blame as well for pumping and selling the oil (mostly to the West where our economies burned it), but I think pinning the blame right here in the US is pretty accurate. PS This is the second or third company in this thread that tries to blame the deeply unethical actions of these oil companies on “foreign state-owned oil companies” and it’s such a specific and bizarre defense that I tend to wonder if some Exxon-funded PR office has been pushing that line.