Friday, October 15, 2010

Does George Will work for ExxonMobil?

In the most recent issue of Newsweek George Will writes a PR piece for ExxonMobile. In fact it's such a "friendly" article I would be surprised if he's not getting something in return. The point of Will's article seems to be to reassure us that there is plenty of oil to be had, we need not worry about running out. I didn't know anyone was worried about running out? Silly me, I thought the problem was the burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of climate change and that is why we should be pursuing alternative energy sources. But then George Will and I live on different planets. My world is based on science and reality and it appears his world is based on the likes of Santa Clause and the tooth fairy. Surely Will and Newsweek are not wasting a full page of their magazine simply to reassure the readers that the world has plenty of oil. No, I think the point of the article to is to reassure us that we needn't worry our silly little heads about climate change. ExxonMolib, and vis-a-vis the entire petromlium industry, will be carrying on business as usual. The company's
"placid CEO, Rex Tillerson, is Big Oil in a blue suit, his serenity grounded in a certainty: His company can continue providing fossil fuels for a world that for the foreseeable future - at least 20 years - will demand them in ever larger quantities.... His foundational fact is that his company will be "not much different" in 20 years because the energy mix over that span "is not going to be markedly different."
Will ends by his piece by stating that ExxonMobil is researching algae-based biomass fuels. But why tout the company's research into alternative fuels if we will "probably never exhaust the world's fuel supply of oil?"

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