Arson

Arson

The world is too big to fail... the fossil fuels industry is not.

By J.M. Hamilton (8-19-2018)

The world is ablaze.  

To drive the point home, we have the following from the New York Times piece: 2018 Is Shaping Up to Be the Fourth-Hottest Year. Yet We’re Still Not Prepared for Global Warming.

This summer of fire and swelter looks a lot like the future that scientists have been warning about in the era of climate change, and it’s revealing in real time how unprepared much of the world remains for life on a hotter planet.

The disruptions to everyday life have been far-reaching and devastating. In California, firefighters are racing to control what has become the largest fire in state history. Harvests of staple grains like wheat and corn are expected to dip this year, in some cases sharply, in countries as different as Sweden and El Salvador. In Europe, nuclear power plants have had to shut down because the river water that cools the reactors was too warm. Heat waves on four continents have brought electricity grids crashing.

And dozens of heat-related deaths in Japan this summer offered a foretaste of what researchers warn could be big increases in mortality from extreme heat. A study last month in the journal PLOS Medicine projected a fivefold rise for the United States by 2080. The outlook for less wealthy countries is worse; for the Philippines, researchers forecast 12 times more deaths.

Globally, this is shaping up to be the fourth-hottest year on record. The only years hotter were the three previous ones. That string of records is part of an accelerating climb in temperatures since the start of the industrial age that scientists say is clear evidence of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

And even if there are variations in weather patterns in the coming years, with some cooler years mixed in, the trend line is clear: 17 of the 18 warmest years since modern record-keeping began have occurred since 2001.

And if climate change wasn't bad enough, the death toll caused by pollutants is astounding, w/ one in six deaths attributed to pollution related illnesses.  That's quite a body count, and largely preventable.  Given the level of renewable energy science, and the ever decreasing costs of deploying same, it’s entirely unacceptable.  That is for the benefit of the Coal and Oil & Gas industries, we continue to poison the planet, and kill millions of humans annually.  The number of animal species, due to man’s interaction w/ the planet, is on a steady decline.  Our seas and oceans?  Rapidly, turning into lifeless, contaminated, carbon & plastic vats.

Climate change' toll upon humanity is catastrophic.  However, there's also considerable property damage associated with climate change, the incalculable harm it does the global economy (by foisting the social costs of climate change on unrelated businesses and already cash strapped federal, state, & local governments), not to mention the hidden tax carried by the world's citizens.

The costs, however, are not as hidden as they seem:  It's been reported that the US pays $20 billion in direct subsidies, annually, to the fossil fuels industries (including recipients, like the libertarian - antigovernment - Koch Bros.).  Factor in the aforementioned health costs, a US military that fights endless wars in occupation of Middle East oil fields, and these indirect/social costs add up - per the IMF, for a subsidy we all pay - to the tune of $5.3 trillion per annum.  You read that right, trillions, not billions. 

Talk about your intergenerational wealth larceny:  the fossil fuels industry represents an absurd transfer of wealth from this - and future - generations to the Big Carbon robber barons, and their shareholders.  Perhaps rivaling the Wall Street banks and a captured monetary policy.

So what is to be done?  

It was widely reported that twenty state attorney generals banded together, in early 2016, in the process of suing Exxon and others for fraud and suppression of key climate science data.  Exxon countersued and w/ the resources, and government subsidies/welfare, Exxon enjoys, we can see that civil litigation has the potential to drag out for a very long time, in a never-ending war of attrition.  Note too, the fossil fuels industry may prolong civil litigation and wait for regime change (or political party turnover) at the state level.

Rhode Island recently announced that they would sue oil companies, for undisclosed damages, as a result of climate change.

The State of NY is also suing Exxon for securities fraud and misleading investors.

But, as mentioned, civil litigation tends to drag, at a time that the earth and its inhabitants are gasping for breath.  

Is there a better way?

Carr Fire: Redding, California on July 26.  Image: Noah Berger/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Clearly, Exxon, et al., rather than take the high road, and very much like Big Tobacco before them, plans to drag out their biz model - no matter the irreparable harm - as long as they can.  After all, billions in government subsidies, picked up by the US taxpayer - not to mention billions in profits, in a largely oligopolistic industry - are at stake.

One possible alternative might be the criminal charge of arson, and the convening of a grand jury, in applicable states.... say in California for starters (where there is likely to be found throughout the state, highly sympathetic juror panels).

The beauty of criminal prosecution is two fold: one, the sixth amendment guarantees a speedy & public trial; and two, if the criminal prosecution is successful, it should make the subsequent civil trials much easier to pursue and WIN.

Now the crime of arson often varies, to some degree, by state and jurisdiction.  But generally, per Black's Law dictionary, it is thought to be:  

Arson, by the common law, is the willful and malicious burning of the house of another. The word “house,” as here understood, includes not merely the dwelling- house, but all outhouses which are parcel thereof.  Aggravated assault, a harsher offense, is outlined in the dictionary as, “arson accompanied by some aggravating factor, as when the offender foresees or anticipates that one or more persons will be in or near the property being burned."

Post - grand jury or criminal charge, haul in Exxon, its Board of Directors, and Exxon’s C-Suite on the charges of arson & aggravated assault, and the prosecution would have to prove, basically the following:

"The accused must intend to burn a building or other structure.  Absent a statutory description of the conduct required for arson, the conduct must be malicious, and not accidental.  Malice, however, does not mean ill will.  Intentional or outrageously reckless conduct is sufficient to constitute malice.  Unless a statute extends the crime to other property, only a house used as a residence, or buildings immediately surrounding it, can be the subject of arson."

"And, generally, the actual presence of a person within a dwelling at the moment it is burned is not necessary.  It may, however, be required for a particular degree of the crime.  The fact, and not the knowledge, of human occupancy is what is essential.  If a dwelling is burned under the impression that it is uninhabited when people actually live in it, the crime is committed."

That Exxon, et al., knew for decades that climate change was real, and sought to cover it up over the same time frame, is already known.  That behavior - in the quest for profits (in essence, placing monopolistic profits before the lives of individuals and their property) - arguably, defines "malicious behavior."  Moreover, Exxon had to know that turning the planet into an enormous convection oven (or a tinder box soaked in jet fuel) would create the powder keg/inferno the earth has become.

The burning of homes & commercial enterprise, and the taking of lives: check and check.  

Again, in the right jurisdiction, the pursuit of a swift criminal conviction seems like a layup shot.  In this manner, a two pronged legal attack - criminal & civil – maybe the best strategy attorney generals and state prosecutors, serious about fighting climate change, might pursue.

The world is too big to fail... the fossil fuels industry is not.  Is it time for prosecutors to roll out arson charges?

PS:

Interestingly, one very useful ally that is finally coming around against the oil majors is Big Business, itself.  And JMH suspects more corporations and multinationals - aligned w/ state and local government - will only further add to the chorus in the near future.  Bloomberg ran a piece recently where California utility, PG&E and others, had spoken out against the billions in legal claims that it now faces, due to the California fires.  Moreover, the CEO for PG&E is placing blame squarely where it, comparatively, belongs: that is on climate change and the fossil fuels industry.  Could insurance carriers, and reinsurers, be far behind?

Publicly traded insurance carriers, in particular, may have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to litigate, & subrogate, in the recovery of billions in property damages against the oil majors.  Moreover, carriers are well known for pursuing criminal complaints against parties that are responsible for insurance claims & fraud.

As Big Agriculture finds once fertile farmlands turned into desert & scorched earth, it too, is likely to join a rising chorus of corporations & multinationals calling for a swift conclusion to an industry that is a direct threat to life, liberty, & happiness (not just for Americans, but the world’s citizens).

Perhaps felony convictions – meted out to Exxon  - will change a few reactionary minds.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2018 

Games Oligarchs Play

Games Oligarchs Play

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Mark 8:36

By J.M. Hamilton (8-5-2018)

Alas, greed and an unquenchable lust for power makes the world go round.

Maybe a more modern version of the aforementioned Bible passage would be as follows:

What profit it a man, if he shall gain all the money in the world, and economic & political domination, at the risk of losing: his bank account; his government & country that protects him; and even the world, itself?  And w/ a nod to believers … perhaps, one’s very own soul?

These are no longer mere idle speculations, or prognostications of doom.  We are seeing, throughout the West, the limits of untrammelled greed - as an economic & political model - play out in real time, before our very eyes.

Billionaires and multinationals own and operate our democracies for their own gain, at the expense of many and future generations.  Call it Oligarchy, call it Kleptocracy… but the impact is the destruction of our economic and political system, and more importantly, the world itself.  Nihilism - among the elite & oligarchy - appears to be in vogue.

As a result, citizens are losing faith in democracy, and mainstream political parties, which have been wholly revealed as malignantly corrupt, and entirely owned.

Here’s three very recent examples of multinationals & oligarchs gone bad:

The NY Times ran several pieces on climate change last week, outlining how insufferable, and uninhabitable, parts of the world are rapidly becoming, due to fossil fuel emissions.  And yet, the elites, multinationals, and oligarchs have zero plans to deal with the issue, in earnest.  As with seemingly every other problem, our politicians – operating at the behest of their masters, the donor class – kick the can down the road (setting interminable deadlines for various Climate accords, agreements, & protocols, while the world bakes). Everybody pays lip service to it: The DOD calls it a national security threat; Exxon swears it’s on the same page, that climate change is real (in the face of litigation from several state attorney generals); and in the ultimate acknowledgement, citizens around the globe are dropping dead from the heat.  Meanwhile, the first official trip POTUS Trump made – w/ many US CEOs in tow – was to the Oil Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (perhaps the most morally bankrupt country on the planet, and that’s pretty hard to achieve).

At the current rate of contamination and resulting climatic devolution, how long before the world gives out?  That is if Monsanto – and their new owners, Bayer – doesn’t destroy our farmlands & natural resources first.

Of course, one cannot talk about Big Oil, and planetary contamination, w/out bringing in the Koch Brothers.  The Kochs inherited a fortune, compounded it via Big Carbon, and going huge into financial services, namely derivatives and swaps.  The combined net worth of the Kochs is estimated to be north of $100 billion.  They are not content to own: governors' mansions, state legislative bodies, the Federal government, think tanks, and academia… the Kochs must control and rule all.  And despite POTUS Trump placing w/in his cabinet Koch cronies, dismantling the EPA, and enacting a GOP led tax-cut law that only an oligarch could love, et al.… it’s still not enough for the Kochs.  Charles Koch recently spoke out against Trump – like Reagan before him – for having the audacity to defy him on free trade.  What constitutes “free trade” to Mr. Charles Koch are closed door/crony government deals, whereby multinationals dictate the terms and divide up the spoils, in a never ending game of global labor, regulatory, and tax law arbitrage.  You guessed it: this brand of free trade is great for our rulers, the oligarchs, and bad for just about everyone else.  It’s no accident that the rise of free trade, as presently practiced, from the late eighties forward, saw the rise of wage stagnation and an exponential increase in wealth inequality.

Perhaps one of the few decent things the Trump administration has done - for the long neglected American worker - is to push back on failed free trade dogma, that has crushed: US labor, the tax base, and clearly demonstrates how neoliberalism, w/out proper guardrails & management, metastasizes into cartel, monopoly, and ruinous rent-seeking utilities.  Charles – with his brother, David, ailing – pledges to fight on, in search of the Holy Grail, the POTUS who will be the perfect supplicant.

Mr. Pence stands at the ready.

One cannot talk about free trade & insatiable greed, w/out talking about Silicon Valley and Big Tech.  Apple reached a milestone last week, by having achieved a trillion dollar market cap.  The first company to achieve the trillion dollar benchmark.  Apple achieved this mark, not only by providing great products & services, but through strategic acquisitions (blocking competition) & organic growth, and thanks to free trade, as presently practiced, exploiting highly inexpensive Chinese labor.  Apple is the classic example of what free trade has become: abusing subcontracted labor, via Foxconn; exploiting tax loopholes, around the globe; and cozying up to dictators, like China’s communist leader, Xi (China, ironically --- despite its fondness for protectionist measures, history of currency manipulation, engaging in commercial espionage, and operating a highly repressive regime that has zero respect for human rights, and is presently engaged in genocide --- now claims to be the free trade champion).

There’s your first trillion dollar multinational, America… the poster-child for everything that is wrong w/ free trade today.

Hot on Apple’s heals, in terms of market cap, is Google.  And we learned last week that Google was willing to sell its soul to Dictator Xi, by creating a search engine for China (complete with all the oppressive totalitarian editing features to better keep China’s citizens and journalist in the dark). 

In support of the communist government, Google will perhaps have to shorten its motto to: Do Evil.

Interestingly, there was a time where American corporations wouldn’t do business with communist or totalitarian regimes.  There was also a time when both Dems and GOP administrations had robust antitrust enforcement… it was part of the social contract.  But avarice, corruption, myopia, and oligarchs rigging elections w/ dollars have eliminated all that.  And so retrograde industries, like Big Oil, and behemoths, like Big Tech, threaten the social order & our economic and political systems, back despots and tyrants, and particularly in the case of Big Oil, contaminate & destroy the planet.

This, my fellow Americans, is what it is like to be ruled by quarterly statement.

As much as the term “industrial policy” is reviled by the C-Suite class, America has had an industrial policy for the last thirty-eight years: it’s called the jungle, or laissez faire, which has created an Ayn Randian wasteland (throughout the Midwest and America’s once great industrial centers).  And we are seeing the fruits of that neoliberal industrial policy in: a poisoned planet; mass migration away from the equator & war zones; the rise of dangerous nationalist & right-wing populist movements; and dictators, & their authoritarian/totalitarian reign, further strengthened by US multinationals.

Clearly, America needs a new industrial policy, with a foundation based upon: consistent and expanded antitrust enforcement; leveraging US economic might and markets, not just for fairer trade, but insisting upon democratic reforms w/in authoritarian/totalitarian regimes; an industrial policy that places human rights, and fair & equitable global wages, above monopolistic profits; and we need to dump Big Oil & Coal, not in a matter of decades, but within a matter of years.  (Rolling back the financialization of the economy, where seemingly many companies are all too often leveraged to the hilt, so that shareholders can obtain immediate gratification, should also be high on the list of reforms.)

The next recession is, likely, around the corner, and what better way to pull the economy out of a slump than by creating an alternative energy grid across the nation (and rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure).

Couple a nationwide renewable energy infrastructure w/ the introduction of a universal basic income, so as to mitigate the loss of Big Carbon jobs, and who knows, America just might contain the populist revolt, the scapegoating of immigrants & minorities, and become a role model for planetary sustainability.  Now that's leadership.

Some might call this saving capitalism from itself.

Finally, the argument that the stock market needs Big Oil equities for the sake of 401Ks, pension & retirement plans… simply does not hold water, if these very industries are turning the world into an inferno. 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2018