Editor’s note: This commentary is by Ross Saxton, of Calais, who is a consultant and contractor on issues such as climate change, water pollution, wildlife/fisheries conservation, and ecological resilience.
[W]hile we cheers our Vermont micro-brews to fossil fuel divestment, it’s time to focus on our next momentous climate action: collaborating with nearly half of all U.S. states (and counting) to bring fossil fuel companies like Exxon to court for allegedly misleading the world about the vicious influence of burning fossil fuels on our world. Let’s not underestimate this opportunity. It’s likely a pivotal moment in climate change progress. However, we need to acknowledge that humans wouldn’t be as advanced as we are today without fossil fuels. For that we should all be grateful. We are past the time of depending on fossil fuels, though. Oil, natural gas, and coal may still have a role in society for years to come, but that role promptly needs to be merely a secondary energy source in a new era in which renewable energy is ruler.
According to recently surfaced emails going back to the late 1980s, Exxon and other companies in the fossil fuel business intentionally misled the public about their scientists’ findings on climate change — those findings being that burning fossil fuels in great quantities leads to a warming climate due to increased greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, trapping in excess energy from the brilliant sun. Exxon and other fossil fuel companies subsequently spent millions of dollars to run misleading campaigns that opposed their own scientists’ affirmations. They’ve been trying to trick the mass public for more than 20 years, and now it’s game over.
As a small yet influential community, Vermonters can again lead the charge on a matter that will define our current generation.
We have the obligation to transform Exxon’s multi-decade lapse of judgement into life-changing climate protection actions. How might we accomplish sweeping progress from a lawsuit? Assuming victory, the settlement dollars should be secured in a fund that finances an aggressive transition of America into a clean energy economy. This fund can be used to invest in new technologies and subsidize innovative clean and reliable energy projects. Furthermore, a successful lawsuit should shift the public’s perception of fossil fuel companies to less favorable, increasing the percentage of Americans who are ready to do something real and meaningful about climate change. The markets for solar and wind are already crushing fossil fuels in terms of growth partly thanks to decreasing renewable costs. Now that the market is on the side of renewables, all we need to do is nudge the transition along.
Attorney General Bill Sorrell met with nearly 20 other state attorneys general on March 29 to launch a national coalition aimed at making headway with climate protection. This coalition can be the unyielding wind in the battleship sails of climate progress. As a small yet influential community, Vermonters can again lead the charge on a matter that will define our current generation. We need to urge our attorney general to stay engaged with the national climate coalition, and we need to have his back. He needs to know that we have his back. The lawsuit against Exxon and its corporate counterparts will be a turning point for climate action in America and the world, and Vermont needs to be a prevailing wind to make it happen.
