4 Responses to Letter to Rex 8/14/2012

1. Martin Lack says:

   August 15, 2012 at 2:03 pm

   Sadly, I suspect Tillerson will pay much more attention to the likes of anti-science propagandists like Cohen, Happer and Lindzen in the Wall Street Journal (14 August 2012). More on this on my blog tomorrow…

   Reply
   • doug350 says:

     August 17, 2012 at 4:46 am

     Thanks for your continued interest and feed back … I read Cohen, Happer and Lindzen … interrupted several times, and my thoughts gelled with finally completing listening to this four-part interview http://bit.ly/InsideExxon. I think Rex Tillerson is doing what is expected of him in the business as usual corporate paradigm. He is a cog on a wheel. But, he will have grandkids very soon, if not already. He just turned 60 and his sons are at the right age. I do believe that giving him a positive vision while the drumbeat outside gets more intense, louder and higher pitch with all that is going on this summer and whatever follows the election, he will eventually see that his support of a carbon fee will lead him to agree that production must decline as carbon-free energy technology ramps up. That is all I am asking him to do: acknowledge the inevitable and make a symbolic gesture that will get the ball rolling, announce a schedule that all refining concerns agree will do the least damage and allow the fastest retirement of the refining capacity. I have hope.

     Reply
     • Martin Lack says:

       August 17, 2012 at 7:19 am

       “all I am asking him to do [is] acknowledge the inevitable “…
       Yes Doug. Exactly. Fossil fuels are history. They will run out one day; and people like Tillerson could have decided 20 years ago to re-invent their industry.

       Sadly, as Bill McKibben points out, they are already trading on the profits from their future burning of fossil fuels, so I don’t see how we can stop them.

       However, you are right, we must hope that we can.
     • doug350 says:

       August 17, 2012 at 10:46 pm

       “they are already trading on the profits from their future burning of fossil fuels”

       Yup, the fundamental problem is that not burning all those reserves will have a significant impact on consumers and shareholders … very complicated, but I am beginning to believe that we collectively (consumers, shareholders, pension plans) will pay the piper — one way or another — for the dismantling and toxic clean up of the infrastructure that must be removed as the industry winds down. Somebody has to pay for the clean up, and if the corporation is forced to pay, the effect will trickle down to the shareholders, pension plans, consumers … and when they file bankruptcy or otherwise close the doors, who will be left to complete the unfinished clean up? Us. U.S. We the people. Stuff rolls downhill. Now or later, does not matter. It’s all the same. We can kick the can down the road, or we can reckon with it now.

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