PV Gap

Francis Said:

Why is it always claimed that people oppose AGW dogma for personal financial benefit?

We Answered:

Speaking strictly at the corporate level, the profit from burning fossil fuels is where it's at. These companies have specialized in getting oil, natural gas, coal, whatever from the ground, packaging, treating, and shipping these products in very particular ways, evolved over decades. What these companies have in the production, preparation, transport and sale of fossil fuels is a sure thing. The investment, trillions of dollars easily, has already been made. And the system has worked for so long that the rough edges have been worn off.

Alternate energy is speculative. It requires investments, and much learning. We have to, in some form, reproduce the entire production, distribution, and delivery network the world will need. Even if it's all electricity, we cannot push that much power through our current grids. Everything has to be re-built from the ground up. And we don't even know what our alternate energy forms will be, so we cannot even begin to organize a new industry now. Where's the profit in that?

Energy profits are easily a billion dollars a day now. Some people think that sort of money, power, and influence is worth protecting. That's the theoretical aspect of the answer to your question. The practical answer is that Exxon was caught doing just that, paying people to lie. The Koch brothers - Koch Industries, the biggest company you never heard of - still pour massive amounts of money into denialist sites. This is all a matter of public record.

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EDIT: Pegminer is likely at least mostly right in saying the deniers here are not paid, but are politically motivated. However, I have to wonder at the psychology of someone who isn't paid running sockpuppets on this site. It seems to me there should be at least one paid operative hitting this site from time to time because this at bottom is now becoming a purely political argument, and the denier side wishes to sway as many votes as possible. Look at the tenets of the US Tea Party. This site caters to those who can be swayed by social media. The denier side needs them.

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EDIT: Ottawa Mike, your defense of Exxon is touching. You've said they are using between 1 and 2 weeks of profits to try to gain control of alternate energy sources, and have given several minutes worth of profits for the Iditarod. And while I really appreciate the Iditarod, and all it means, you are right - I cannot express how I feel about this example of Exxon's generosity to humanity ... certainly not on a family-oriented site.

Let's look a little closer at some economics claimed; ie: the gov't is pouring far more money into proving CO2 is causing AGW than the energy interests are putting into disinformation. I'd love to see some numbers on that, as everything I've seen is the opposite, by orders of magnitude. Can anyone back up this statement? Especially considering that the chemical fingerprints of fossil fuel-generated CO2 is all over the atmosphere.

Janet Said:

If you support the bailout, can you please defend your position?

We Answered:

I agree . . . we should have recapitalized via bond purchase like Sweden . . . that said . . . the largest issuer of short term debt is The Federal Government of the United States . . . the largest holder of mortgage securities outside of the U.S. is China . . . the largest purchaser of short term debt from the U.S. Government is . . . do I really need to say it . . . China.