The clown show perpetuating the climate crisis

February 3, 2021

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee perpetuated the lies supporting
combustive technologies today in a show1 hearing propped by ‘experts’ focusing upon why we
need to continue burning coal, oil, and gas. This is not surprising, unless one keeps pace with
the energy industry itself, which is leaving these dinosaur technologies in the past as economies
of scale move toward greener, renewable technologies2,3,4. Thank goodness greed drives
economic behavior in this case! Investors are moving their dollars to the future greener
technologies while the Senators (Manchin5, Murkowski6, Barrasso7, Wyden8, King9) from the
caves of pre-history desperately cling to re-election financial support from these moribund
industries.

Questions not asked by the petro-combustion-in-perpetuity coalition included:

 What ways can energy be stored (aside from battery technologies)? Ever hear of
potential energy due to elasticity, or gravity, or LASER, or so many other means?
 Why do you think bold action addressing reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the
United States should depend upon actions by other countries? Leadership by
example has a somewhat successful track record.
 What logic supports lengthening the inevitable transition time to renewable energy?
Perpetuating the damaging profiteering by the invested non-renewable industries?

False narratives voiced by the supposed ‘experts’ and Senators included the export of American
jobs (completely denying the possibility of their transition to the renewable industries), the loss
of American technology/energy sales to other countries (revealing in the valuation of capital
over health and safety of the providers of labor value requisite to capitalism), the supposed low
energy recuperation from battery technology10, and the insistence other countries will
completely duplicate the polluting behavior we give up to capture markets we abandon.

Todays’ hearing was the prayer of a dying industry. Amen11.

1
https://www.c-span.org/video/?508556-1/senate-energy-natural-resources-committee-hearing-climate-change
2
https://renewablesnow.com/
3
https://www.rechargenews.com/
4
https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/
5
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/joe-manchin/industries?cid=N00032838&cycle=2020&type=C
6
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/lisa-murkowski/summary?cid=N00026050
7
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/john-a-barrasso/summary?cid=N00006236
8
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/ron-wyden/industries?cid=N00007724&cycle=2020&type=C
9
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/angus-king/industries?cid=N00034580&cycle=2020&type=C
10
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4943270/user-clip-angus-king-questions-mark-mills
11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62kxPyNZF3Q