OPINION:
Students are going back to college, but this time, administrators are prepared to tamp down the antisemitism that roiled universities this past spring. The University of California president has banned encampments, even temporary ones. Columbia University is restricting access to campus to ensure pro-Hamas agitators don’t again take over the campus and shut out Jewish students.
Administrators learned that free speech doesn’t mean they have to surrender their campuses to outside groups with an agenda antithetical to the free exchange of ideas and search for the truth. Ideological bullying and physical intimidation do not have to be tolerated. Similarly, we in the oil and natural gas industry see another opportunity for lowering the temperature.
Like colleges, the country doesn’t have to surrender to those who shut down debate and ignore fundamental realities about energy and climate policy. For years, extremist environmental groups and some politicians in their sway have accused the oil and natural gas industry of contributing to the destruction of the planet, called us criminals, and demanded the country cease all use of oil, natural gas and coal.
Yet ending the very sources of energy that provide over 80% of global energy would have immediate, catastrophic impacts on human health and flourishing. Until there are abundant, affordable energy sources that can meet all the world’s needs, demonizing the industry and shifting moral responsibility to the producers rather than all the people who consume that energy is counterproductive.
Conversely, “drill, baby, drill” rhetoric falls flat and gets us nowhere. Production can responsibly move forward here in the United States while protecting the environment. Oil and natural gas companies continue to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their operations. Increased natural gas electricity generation has done more to reduce greenhouse gases in the United States than wind and solar power combined. We’re proud to contribute to decarbonization, but we know more work needs to be done.
Just as we in the industry have come to the table to find real solutions for climate change, we call on activists to de-escalate the rhetoric on energy issues. But don’t do it for us. Do it for the movement. Evidence shows that radical climate change tactics, such as spraying fake blood on buildings, blocking traffic, disrupting sporting events and damaging works of art, are actually harming the cause.
Research from Stanford University and the University of Toronto finds that such protest tactics decrease popular support for a cause and reduce feelings of identification from the public. A 2022 survey from the University of Pennsylvania found that 46% of respondents decreased their support for climate change policies in the face of these stunts, while a mere 13% reported greater support.
Further, it’s not just workers in the oil and natural gas industry who are at risk. Radicals in the environmental movement tend to split off when they feel change isn’t happening quickly enough for their tastes, leading to “radical flanks” that push for even more extreme action. Such fanatics claimed that President Biden is “threatening the future of humanity,” despite his committing a record $368 billion to fight climate change in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Climate Defiance protesters got into an altercation with then-Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, giving him no credit for his pivotal role in passing the Inflation Reduction Act. In light of the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, the risk of future confrontations turning violent should not be ignored.
The media must also help turn down the volume. Besides giving voice to radical activists and emphasizing the most sensational climate change claims, certain biased journalists actively work to shutter countervailing information, labeling perspectives from the oil and natural gas industry as disinformation. By seeking to shut down voices that support oil and natural gas, they dehumanize those in the industry and cut off debate, often leaving only the most shrill.
Supposedly “experienced” journalists go so far as to accuse my industry of dirty tricks to spread disinformation. Those “dirty tricks” include such reasonable information as the uses of fossil fuels, the economic consequences of banning them and the impact on humanity if reliable, affordable energy were no longer available in a “net-zero” world. Let’s have a conversation that tests that information, not just dismiss it as irrelevant.
Despite the demonization of oil and natural gas, American companies are producing 13.2 million barrels of oil per day, a milestone that no other nation has ever achieved. In the absence of an alternative energy source that does everything that oil and natural gas do, producing it here under strict environmental controls rather than in other countries leads to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Demonization of the American industry is counterproductive to activists’ own goals and carries the chance of protests turning violent or another attack on a pipeline with the risk of explosion. Now is the time to jettison extreme rhetoric, wherever it’s found.
• Kathleen Sgamma is president of the Western Energy Alliance, a Denver-based oil and natural gas trade association.
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