The Big Deal about Keystone XL? Moral, Economic, and Technical Leadership

Leaders from across the entire spectrum are screaming alarm about global warming.  Leaders in the scientific community (teams from NASA, NOAA, Academics), leaders in actuarial science (unparalleled outreach from the reinsurance industry), leaders in economics (Nicholas Stern, and the Economist Magazine), and leaders in morality (Jeffrey Black from United Church of Christ, Katherine Jefferts Schori from the Episcopal Church) are screaming alarm.  Now it is time for citizens and political leaders to take action.  The United States now needs leadership from President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry, and Members of Congress. The citizens of the United States need to support those politicians in their leadership. 

Although we didn’t really understand it for most of the 20^th century, use of fossil fuels for energy is morally wrong.  It’s wrong because it harms the earth and depletes the requirements for life.  It’s wrong because its benefits go to a privileged few while its detrimental consequences effect the poorest and weakest.  It’s wrong because fossil fuels represent a finite resource.  It’s wrong because its enticing benefits have lulled people around the world to lose sight of the strength we have to live without dependence on fossil fuels.  The decision on Keystone XL is a chance to do the right thing.

Although the short-term economic benefits of fossil fuels are tempting, those short-term benefits are far outweighed by the long-term costs.  The use of fossil fuels to date and the failure to take into account the externalities associated with fossil fuels has created an enormous economic liability.  The service on that liability is reflected in the current and future costs of extreme weather, resiliency investments, diminished crop yields, water management, population displacement, military conflict over scarce resources, and more.  The economic liability already created is overwhelming.  Adding the weight of Keystone XL and increased use of tar sands fuel to that liability would increase the severity of what is already greatest economic failure in history.  

Although Thomas Edison viewed large scale use of solar energy as a great technological goal, with the exception of Germany, the world has been slow to achieve it.  Solar power offers far more energy than the human population of the planet needs.  Wind power also offers far more energy than the human population of the planet needs.  Solar, wind, tidal, hydro, and geothermal offer an abundant energy mix without the dire effects of fossil fuels. They are waiting to be harvested.  Companies with capital to invest should be managed so that they gain their returns developing these energy technologies of the future, not flogging the fossil fuel energy technologies of the past.

The special interests and financial power of the fossil fuel industry have biased The United States political system.  As a result The United States has become a laggard and its policies are shaped to benefit the narrow interests of the fossil fuel industry.  The bias has made The Unites States and all of its citizens servants of the fossil fuel industry.  It’s time to overthrow that tyranny.  It’s time for the United States to once again contribute to the world’s moral, economic, and technical leadership. 

Daily, and in the mainstream, we are called to reform immoral, economically-irrational, and technically-backward dependency on fossil fuels.  The decision on Keystone XL is an opportunity to heed the call.  The decision on Keystone XL is a test of our ability to respond to the dire threats of global warming, and an opportunity to begin setting new moral, economic, and technical norms, both for policy and for individuals. We need to think boldly, not about what can be done according to political convenience, but what needs to be done.  The Keystone XL is a potential turning point in a critical journey.  For moral, economic, and technical reasons, it’s time to say no to fossil fuel.