A License to Steal

A License to Steal

 

The state of California sued several of the world’s biggest oil companies on Friday, claiming their actions have caused tens of billions of dollars in damage and that they deceived the public by downplaying the risks posed by fossil fuels.

The civil case, filed in superior court in San Francisco, is the latest and most significant lawsuit to target oil, gas and coal companies over their role in causing climate change. It seeks creation of an abatement fund to pay for the future damages caused by climate related disasters in the state.

The lawsuit targets five companies: Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron, which is headquartered in San Ramon, Calif. The American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group based in Washington, is also listed as a defendant.

Seven other states and dozens of municipalities have filed similar lawsuits in recent years. But the California lawsuit immediately becomes one of the most significant legal challenges facing the fossil fuel industry.

 

-      California Sues Giant Oil Companies, Citing Decades of Deception, NY Times

 

By Gregg Wall (9-16-2023)

 

Vulgarian Peter Thiel once famously quipped, ‘Competition is for losers.’  However, what has become increasingly clear to the majority of North Americans is that cartels and monopolies are for thieves.  Per a recent Bloomberg piece, some 82% of Canadians believe greed is behind sky-high food prices.  The food industry in Canada is dominated by three major retailers, who are raking in record profits.  Canadians are also savvy enough to figure out that a suppressed Canadian dollar, held down by the Bank of Canada, maybe good for exporters and for multinationals repatriating foreign earnings (from say, fossil fuels); but a weakened CAD (Canadian dollar) does serious damage to Canadians’ purchasing power (particularly on food imports). 

 

And that isn’t the half of it.  The prices of essentials are through the roof throughout North America: food, fuel, housing, rents, and in the United States medicine and doctor visits.  Monopolies & Cartels not only damage consumers, they crush & squeeze labor, and do irreparable harm to ‘democratic’ governments (by buying out our elected officials and often unelected judges).  Some industries are so repugnant they commit serious loss of life, significant property damage, and egregious harm to the economy … here, I’m pointing directly at you, fossil fuels industry.  

 

This summer has been replete with an endless stream of news stories about record temperatures, burning forests, flood after flood, waves of human migration, and tremendous loss of life.  The link to all these events has come down to fossil fuels, the OPEC cartel, and the oil majors.  This nefarious cartel, Big Oil & Gas, with unprecedented pricing power, backed by Wall St banks (yet another nasty cartel with unprecedented power) & shadow banking… these cartels are directly responsible for trillions in damages to property, life, the economy, and the steady erosion of faith in democratic government.  And don’t forget wars.  The O&G industry’s link to rising gas & fuel prices, during wars sponsored & curated by the United States government, is indisputable.  

 

That’s why it was completely refreshing to read about the State of California’s lawsuit against the Oil & Gas majors in this morning’s news flow.  The stated aim of the litigation is to recover billions and billions in property losses and damages to the environment.  But why stop there?  What about litigation over the significant loss of life, damages to the economy, damages to democracy and sound government, as the JM Hamilton blog called for.  Politicians are now allegedly scrambling (or is it more foot dragging), in some instances, to tighten up competition language and antitrust wording.  

 

But why not use the laws already in place?  Where’s the criminal charges?  If we consider that one in five dies early, due to fossil fuels, why not arrest and prosecute entire boardrooms, C-suites, and politicians that accepted bribe money (ahem, campaign donations) from this industry?  (The WSJ just did another piece about how the industry has been lying since the 1950s, on the lethality of its products and the catastrophic damage its products cause to the environment.)  Does anybody, allegedly, in charge know what a lift that would give to democracy and the public to see the high and mighty brought low and cooling their heels in a prison cell?   All this is to say, sure tighten up antitrust and competition laws, if you must… but there are far simpler laws already in place, concerning murder and theft, that will do just fine.  The fact that politicians and prosecutors have done so very little, in this regard, speaks to the power the Oil & Gas industry holds over Western government, politicians, and judges.  It gives credence to the belief, increasingly prevalent, that so-called Western democracy is merely a front for oligarchy & multinationals, entirely captured, and politicians and heads of state merely run interference and stall on desperately needed reforms & justice (reforms & justice necessary to rein in cartels and monopolies). 

 

Remember, cartels & monopolies, concentrated economic power is a license to steal, from children, consumers, families, government, and labor.  And stealing, last I checked, is illegal. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that was the other good news this week.  The UAW is taking on the auto majors, the auto cartel that has been stealing from labor for years.  The auto workers gave concession after concession to keep the big three automakers afloat, during the 2008 financial crisis.  Now, the UAW and union workers are just looking for long, long overdue payback.  

 

Which begs the question, why didn’t management preemptively step up to the plate and offer increased pay, benefits, and retirement pay?   Why is the solution, from billionaires, multimillionaires, and C-suite crime lords always antagonistic?  What’s with the layoffs, the plant closings, the threats to offshore yet more jobs?  Why hasn’t congress - or parliament - stepped up and created a floating tariff that immediately offsets any labor, regulatory, or tax arbitrage play executed upon by shipping yet more jobs & plants offshore?  That is to say, a tariff that immediately eliminates any and all incentives to crush North American workers.  To wit: Management & ownership can send another plant offshore, but any savings by exploiting foreign labor will be directly offset - dollar for dollar - by an increase in taxes. Why are such tariffs not already in place?  Why does it take a crisis to get governments to act?  Why is the presumption or government favoritism always in capital’s and management’s favor?   In favor of the failed neoliberal paradigm? 

 

Why? 

 

The verdict is in: CEOs are worthless (their exclusive value appears to be to manipulate stock prices), management is worthless… Wall St execs add no value, and as is increasingly apparent, the same can be said of the Congress of the United States.  They add no value.  They are overhead. 

 

That’s why it’s extremely important for all Americans to support labor during this strike because it’s abundantly clear that Western governments are entirely captured and operated solely for the benefit of cartels, monopolies, utilities, and the oligarchy that owns all. 

 

And what is concentrated economic power and monopolies, but a license to steal. 

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2023