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

 

Alberta Oil & Gas’ Coup Against Renewable Energy

Alberta Oil & Gas’ Coup Against Renewable Energy

 

A clean energy think tank says Alberta's pause on approvals for new renewable energy projects is affecting 118 projects worth $33 billion of investment.

In a new report, the Pembina Institute says those projects would create enough jobs to keep 24,000 people working for a year.

It says those projects represent what could be $263 million in local taxes and leases for landowners in 27 municipalities.

-       Renewables pause in Alberta affecting 118 projects worth $33B, think tank says, CBC News

 

By Gregg Wall (9-2-2023)

 

It’s odd, downright strange.  

 

Alberta just held a provincial election, and the United Conservative Party (UCP) made no mention of their desire to harm investments, jobs, innovation, and the economy.  And yet, arguably, that’s exactly what Premier Smith & UCP did in early August when they announced the halting of renewable energy approvals for six months.  The natural reaction from investors, with billions on the line, was: we may look elsewhere (and take our jobs, boost to the economy, and tax revenue with us).

 

You might expect government intervention into the economy like this, perhaps from a progressive government, that sees the writing on the wall for fossil fuels.  Indeed, your humble author has called for the American & Canadian governments, on any number of occasions, to nationalize fossil fuels, wind down the industry, with the proceeds going to fund a green grid, reparations, remediation, and clean up.  With North America, indeed, the Northern hemisphere, presently in flames and suffering suffocating blast furnace heat, due to fossil fuels, such a proposal & government intervention makes perfect sense. 

 

And yet, this is, here in Alberta, a libertarian government.  UCP, so I’ve read, is all about free markets, the invisible hand, price discovery, and allowing innovation & jobs creation.  Supposedly, UCP is the party of limited government.  But apparently, there’s a clear departure between campaign rhetoric, libertarian theory, and reality.  And this is something we’ve see throughout Western governments, and particularly from centrists, corporatists, and neoliberals (aka libertarians) … the desire to protect donors & entrenched interests, the desire to crush opportunity & innovation (in the furtherance of a failed status quo).  And if consumers and labor suffer w/ sky high gas and utility prices, and fewer jobs, detrimental to the Alberta economy, that’s simply too damn bad.  If humanity suffers from a burning planet, toxic air, deadly heat, and diminished crop production, that too, is too bad. 

 

Alberta has a deadly fossil fuels industry to protect.  This coup, this hypocrisy, to be sure, is nothing short of catastrophic for Alberta & Canada.  It also tells us something about the fossil fuels industry, an industry that now takes in $7 trillion in direct & indirect subsidies, globally.  Namely, that the industry cannot compete against renewables, and so endless lobbying to shut renewables down.  (No few in number were recently patting themselves on the back that renewable energy received a trillion in investments.  Now, compare the trillion in investments to the seven trillion in welfare the fossil fuels industry receives.) 

 

At one time democracy was said to offer experimentation, innovation, and opportunity.  Governments might try greater social spending or a pivot back to free market principles, and these experiments were something other nations could look towards and learn from.  But Western governments, now controlled by multinationals & oligarchy, seem to have shut that down.  After all, what interest do centrist and corporatist politicians… reporting into bankers, billionaires, monopolies, & utilities… have in a departure from the status quo.  Particularly, when the failed status quo prints out billion and billions in quarterly returns.

 

It appears that libertarians and neoliberals have abandoned all the very principles that made capitalism worthwhile, in favor of greed, monopoly, and profit maximization.  Innovation, competition, price discovery (completely necessary for a free market economy), increased jobs and rising wages have all been abandoned for boardroom & C-suite dictators & despots…  setting captured gov policy, prices, and wages (w/ maniacal control).  And given these same boardrooms' & C-suites' quest for unlimited corporate socialism… including but not limited to, corporate welfare, bailouts, privatized profits – socialized costs and R&D, captured regulatory bodies, control & ownership of political duopolies & due process, free money welfare from central banks, etc, etc… what we are seeing throughout the West is the merger of corporate interests and the state.  

 

What many recognize as nothing less than fascism.  As for the people of Alberta, they’ll pay and pay for this type of crony capitalism & ultra-corrupt libertarian government.  Albertans will pay with lower wages, fewer jobs, grossly elevated prices at the pump & utility bills, a lower standard of living, and an economy that has lost out on investment, innovation, and opportunity.  The resulting drag on the economy will, of course, damage social cohesion and stress families.  

 

And democracy & society will further rend in two… which has, historically, been a key strategy of the highly corrupt, powerful, and wealthy.  Best to keep on eye on libertarians, best to watch both what they say and what they do.  

 

They are not to be trusted.

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2023

As the world burns…

As the world burns… 

 

First it was the Northwest Territories dealing with wildfires that forced several small communities to be evacuated. The town of Enterprise was destroyed by a blaze while the nearby community of Hay River was emptied, but appears to have mostly emerged unscathed. But by Wednesday evening, officials ordered more than 20,000 residents of the capital city of Yellowknife to evacuate by Friday at noon. 

 

Meanwhile, in Kelowna, residents were gripped once again with fear and uncertainty as a ferocious fire, fed by strong winds and hot and dry conditions, swept to the city’s limits. It was 20 years and two days since a previous devastating fire, started by a lightning spark near Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park, forced 33,000 to evacuate and destroyed 200 homes.

 

-      Western Canada: Unrelenting wildfires threaten Kelowna and Yellowknife as evacuations continue

 

 

By Gregg Wall (8-19-2023)

 

How much longer will world leaders ignore the global – fossil fuels – crisis they are responsible for?  

 

Here in Canada, there is a full-scale meltdown underway, as Western Canada burns in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.  Tens of thousands of citizens have been ordered to evacuate, but to where?  Alberta?  The eye of the fossil fuels terror?  For a country hungry for jobs and economic opportunity, a burning nation - Canada - surely isn’t a good look.  Meanwhile, Hawaii, more specifically Maui and the town of Lahaina, has the look of a city that has been nuked.  Biden insulted the people with $700 checks and a promise to do a flyby.  And apparently, this is all politicians have to offer… the occasional band-aid, thoughts, prayers, a few words with the local mayor, governor, or provincial leader.  

 

And nothing… nada, zilch, zip, and zero.  Certainly no talk of reparations, remediation, and damages paid by Big Oil & Gas.

 

Instead, politicians, Western leaders are falling down in failure right before our very eyes: stammering, deer in the headlights, and nothing. (Check out the look a leader in NWT and Yellowknife gives PM Trudeau.)  No declaration of a climate emergency.  No declaration of war against this unholy terror.  If a foreign power had done to Hawaii and Western Canada what fossil fuels has done, and continues to do, both nations would have declared war.  But no, the Big Oil gangsters and thugs in the C-suites and Boardrooms – and their Wall St investors - get away with mass murder, buying off Western democracies, and hundreds of billions in property destruction. It’s estimated $209 billion annually in property destruction and a Harvard study has said one in five of the world’s inhabitants die, both as a direct result of fossil fuels.  Numbers, both lives and property damage, that will undoubtedly soar over time.  And fossil fuels and Wall St. makes tens of billions as America wages wars of aggression to create contrived shortages, both real & perceived.  Indeed, wars designed to manufacture energy scarcity, so the industry & Wall St speculators have every opportunity to jack up prices globally.   

 

Apparently, the unassailable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (aka property) only applies to the predatory elite.  Everybody else gets a flyby and a pat on the back, while their homes are reduced to ash, their livelihoods are stolen, and their insurance premiums skyrocket.  And the subsequent land grab ensues.

 

We are long past thinking any of this is natural, we know exactly who is responsible for pulling the trigger on a planet in flames.  Just as power companies are sued for fires in California, and maybe Hawaii, and gun manufacturers are finally being sued… Big Oil & Gas and its bondholders & shareholders must also be sued from every angle imaginable.

 

Civil charges are not enough.  And even though repugnant, far-right POTUS Biden had the audacity to tell the children they have no constitutional right to a stable environment… thankfully, there are laws against murder.  There are international laws against: genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.  And let’s not think for a moment that these latter laws don’t apply to multinationals.  We typically think of crimes against humanity and war crimes as applying to nation states.  However, when multinationals buyoff Western democracies & politicians and dictate state policy, there’s little doubt that Big Oil & Gas could & should be held responsible for the crimes of a state or multiple states.  Check out the corruption in the U.S. Senate… is there any doubt who runs the Congress, the SCOTUS, and the Presidency?  That’s right… fossil fuels, the MIC, and Wall St. 

 

It is therefore, imperative, when our elected leaders fail us, for lawyers & prosecutors to wage war against CEOs, boardrooms, investors, the industry, and its representatives.  It maybe daunting… I’m sure taking on Big Tobacco and Purdue Pharma was an ordeal… but at the end of the day, what alternative do citizens around the globe have (besides general strikes & civil disobedience)?  Particularly when Western leaders continue to aid and abet these crimes and funnel endless corporate welfare and largesse in this deadly industry's direction.  Indeed, wage war on this industry’s behalf (see also Iraq).

 

Who knows, perhaps the right attorneys and prosecutors can take down ultra-corrupt political parties and politicians in the process. 

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2023