They call this a scandal, which it is. But I call it a crime.
The United States has seen some whopping mishaps and scandals in the oil and gas industry over the years, from Teapot Dome in the 1920s to the collapse of Enron in 2001, and the Deepwater Horizon, Exxon-Valdez, and Santa Barbara oil spills.
However, the largest, most egregious, and most profoundly damaging scandal is still underway.
The unholy alliance between America’s governments and the fossil fuel industry has been going on for decades, undeterred and unpunished. Federal and state governments subsidize and facilitate the production and consumption of oil, natural gas, and coal despite knowing these products are permanently damaging life on a planetary scale.
Many of our elected officials have participated in a carbon cartel that has blocked effective climate action. U.S. scientists began warning in the 1950s that fossil fuels were changing the climate. Yet fossil fuels still provide about 80% of U.S. energy, and America has become the world’s biggest oil and gas producer.
Destroying the biosphere by burning fossil fuels is the greatest crime ever committed. But the rich and powerful will never be prosecuted for it — because they own and operate the system.
