Let’s stop the harshness of our national discourse. We see this in politics every single day. Each extreme side basically says that those who don’t see things their way must be idiots. The fact of the matter is the vast majority of us, as illustrated by a bell curve, are not at the extremes. We’re somewhere in the middle. If our goal is to inform or persuade, telling someone they’re an idiot may not be the best way to achieve our goal. (duh.) Worse, those of us in the middle are so very tired of the extremism in today’s world and tune out people who exhibit such speech.
I’m especially concerned about the hateful things I’ve seen said about people in the oil & gas industry.
This may surprise some of you, but the first ten years of my career were in oil & gas. I started at Gray Tool Company as a drill press operator, in the six month break between high school and college. Within that six month tenure, I moved up to running a computerized numerical control (CNC) lathe. My income increased pretty quickly, as I was working in a booming industry. It was the mid- to late 1970s/early 1980s. I continued to work at the factory, while I attended college and eventually programmed CNC machine tools, designed tooling and wrote an inventory control system for the Tool Crib, using Fortran-77. (Yes, I’m that old…)
Until the mid-1980s, that’s the way it was in Houston. Almost any career you could have was directly or indirectly in the oil business. Restaurants, law firms, realtors, car salespeople, surveyors, aircraft manufacturers and more shared in the prosperity provided by Big Oil.
Today, those of us concerned about climate change, renewable energy, electric vehicles, carbon capture, etc. often disparage people in oil & gas. Let’s get one thing clear: In the past, those people built an industry that powered our nation and its rise to prominence on the world stage and Texas led the way. Texas led the way in oil as it did in cotton, space exploration (The first word spoken from the surface of the moon was “Houston.”), integrated circuit (chip) design & fabrication and wind energy. The people of oil & gas are proud of their contribution to our country’s greatness and they should be. Very few of them were privy to the research that uncovered the mechanism behind climate change and how the burning of fossil fuels powered it. Yes, there were some who knew and actively denied it and there are some who now know but spend their time on social media (and traditional media) trying to instill doubt about it in others. I have no sympathy for them and their denial will bring about their downfall. But the front line oil & gas workers, who’ve served us well should not be demonized. We should be helping them move into the new economy/energy industry that is rising right before our eyes. Instead of leaving them in doubt of their futures, we should be utilizing their skill sets in this new world. Those who have built oil derricks, subsea wells and offshore platforms can build wind turbines and huge solar farms, both on land and in the sea. Those who built electric distribution systems to power oil rigs and refineries over a huge area can build the new, smart grid we’ll need to retain our lead. Those who drilled for oil can now cap the wells to prevent the methane leaks, so common in west Texas, that contribute to climate change. They can contribute to greatness again.
Texas is currently in third place, among the states, in EV adoption. In my opinion, our country needs Texas to lead the way once again. As large as Texas is, there is no better way to illustrate EV’s long-distance capabilities than what could be illustrated here. We can show the world how to build an effective charging network spanning a vast highway system. We can build smart roads that can recharge an EV’s battery as it drives down the road.
None of the goals are about politics or partisanship. In fact, Texas’ big move into wind energy was endorsed by Governor George W. Bush, a conservative. The reason we think they are political is because campaign finance and fundraising have become the life blood of our political system and huge amounts of money flow from the oil industry to our political leaders. In the behalf of those political leaders, it is important to understand that you can’t implement a vision for a better future if you can’t get elected. We, as citizens, are part of the problem. We can’t just listen to the loudest voices, those with funding. But it is what it is. The first step is to come to a consensus and that requires a dialog.
No one wants to listen to someone telling them they’re stupid. So stop doing that.
Our great nation should be leading the world into the new chapter of energy, but we haven’t been. Norway is currently the nation with the greatest percentage of EV sales. China is the nation with the largest number of EVs in use (and being built).
Is this the beginning of the decline of the United States or is it a new dawn?
The spark needed to move forward has to come from somewhere. I may be biased, but I think it’s time for Texas to show the way again. It will be hard work and will entail risk, but Texans know all about that. It’s time for us to show up. Again.
The first step is to not alienate those we are trying to lead.
I’ll end with something my wife sent to me to inspire me to move forward:
