“If we believe that somehow the market is going to take care of this, that you put a price on carbon and everything will sort itself out, or that we can shame companies into doing it, then I think we’re kidding ourselves. This needs a very significant interventionist approach and all industries have to be part of the intervention.”

– Ben van Beurden, CEO, Royal Dutch Shell. Quoted in Akshat Rathi and Laura Hurst, “Look Who’s Talking About Zero Emissions.” (Bloomberg: June 9, 2020)

Enron’s Ken Lay. BP’s John Browne. Duke Energy’s James E. Rogers. T. Boone Pickens. GE’s Jeff Immelt. And now Shell’s Ben van Beurden.

Welcome to the swamp of political correctness when industry leaders morph into apologists for mineral energies and endorse open-ended government intervention for forced energy transformation from dense, reliable energies to dilute, intermittent ones.…

“With votes at stake that would seem to be at the expense of Biden/Harris (or Harris/Biden), the media does not want to give West a break.”

Yes, as announced July 4th, ‘billionaire rapper’ Kanye West is in the mix for voters come the November presidential election, website and all. Of the 14 targeted states for ballot access, Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah and Vermont are in, Illinois and New Jersey out, and Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana, Ohio and West Virginia undecided.

The Democrat Party does not like West’s entry, hoping to consolidate the Black vote for Biden/Harris. The Republican Party is rumored to be helping his ‘spoiler‘ quest in the 2020 election.

What does West say about energy? And how is the Press treating him?

Environment/Energy Plank

Here is Kanye’s environmental and energy platform in its entirety:

7.…

“Only a relatively large population able to engage in a complex division of labour in the context of trade, industrialization and urbanization can reap the benefits of the feedback loop between technological innovation, increased economic prosperity, and population growth.”

“The most resilient solution for a cleaner earth and better climate, even with the spectre of anthropogenic climate change, is that of intensive growth thanks to, and not in spite of, a large population.”

– Joanna Szurmak (below)

Q. Joanna, you are a new name in the sustainable development field as co-author (with Pierre Desrochers) of Population Bombed! Exploding the Link Between Overpopulation and Climate Change (2018). How did you get to that point?

A. I am new in most areas of scholarship familiar to MasterResource readers. If they happen to have an interest in how amorphous hydrogenated carbon can be made to behave like a semiconductor, they will find my publications from the late 1990s.

“Sen. Sanders calls us criminal and Vice President Biden says he would put us in jail, but it would be criminal not to produce the life-sustaining energy that enables a healthy, safe and modern lifestyle.”

– Kathleen Sgamma, Western Energy Alliance, February 24, 2020

The Western Energy Alliance just placed a full-page advertisement in the New York Times with Super Tuesday in mind in which 54 oil and gas executives challenged those calling their livelihood and industry criminal.

It is high time that the major integrated oil and gas companies, not just the independents, play offense rather than defense. Seize the moral high ground and do not appease the disgruntled, obstructionist critics (those with “termite aspirations”).

A half-century ago, Ayn Rand warned business leaders to lead, not capitulate. Remember Exxon’s great value-creator (1993–2005) Lee Raymond?…