My late father told me the old story about oil companies buying up patents has been around since he was a teenager - the 1930s! Back then, it was the miracle carburetor that could produce a 100 mpg car. The oil companies bought it and prevented its manufacture. Of course this was all hogwash. If GM had the miracle carburetor, they would have produced it and wipe out Ford and Chrysler. Or if Ford had it, they would have wiped out GM and Chrysler. I asked my dad about the carburetor story back in the 1970s because I was a naive kid back then and believed the anti-oil industry propaganda. My dad said that fake story dated back 4 decades. In the 1970s there was a political push to nationalize the oil industry. And silly stories like the patents were fabricated.
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Climate Change Denial
- Thread starter mspohr
- Start date
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- climate change
Because you are more willing to blame the producers of fossil fuels than the users. The entire world demands fossil fuels. It is much easier to castigate the few who produce fossil fuels than the hundreds of millions who use fossil fuels. My point is we are all to blame. But we are transitioning, which is a good thing.
Baron investments were early big-time investors in Tesla. Ron Baron said battery technology was around in the earliest days of the automobile. However, the cost of electricity was considerably higher than gasoline back then. So the internal combustion engine became the favored motor.
Nowadays, the cost of gasoline is higher than electricity. So this opens up a great opportunity for the middle class to start buying BEVs. And we are seeing substantial growth in the past few years. All you have to do is just look around while driving, and you’ll see a Tesla or two every day. Hopefully, the environmentalists zeal to squelch coal and natural gas from power generation won’t shoot the price of electricity sky high. This will retard the growth of BEVs.
Nowadays, the cost of gasoline is higher than electricity. So this opens up a great opportunity for the middle class to start buying BEVs. And we are seeing substantial growth in the past few years. All you have to do is just look around while driving, and you’ll see a Tesla or two every day. Hopefully, the environmentalists zeal to squelch coal and natural gas from power generation won’t shoot the price of electricity sky high. This will retard the growth of BEVs.
I didn't blame anyone .. and in fact if you had actually read my posts, you would see that I said quite clearly that it was unclear how much responsibility the producers bore. Doing something which unintentionally causes harm is not something to blame anyone for .. this was certainly true of tobacco producers before any clear connection to lung cancer had been made. But, once such a connection has been shown, to actively campaign against the evidence and/or conceal it to protect your business interests is indeed culpable .. which is certainly what the tobacco industry did for several decades. It's not clear to me, as I have already stated, that this is true of big energy .. and only time will tell how this plays out.
As for blaming consumers, that is null and void if the producer goes out of their way to conceal and/or distort the risks/damage to protect their business interests. Today, imho, if you smoke heavily and get hung cancer no-one is to blame but yourself .. the risks are well known (at least in the US). I'm not in favor of a "nanny" state .. but I am in favor of honesty and transparency.
Now you are a naive adult and believe all the pro-oil industry propaganda instead?
I don't believe any propaganda, regardless of where it comes from or whether it is pro or con to my opinions. I also don't extrapolate from one silly story (that was dismissed as nonsense at the time) to a grand conspiracy by anyone.
Oil companies did actually buy battery parents and prevent manufacturing.
The entire world hates fossil fuels but is forced to buy them because they have no alternative... Until now. Fossil fuel companies are working hard to force people to keep using their deadly products.
Merrill
Merrill
Unfortunately we have very little control over the fossil fuel industry to many people that could help change this are making lots of money from them. I have solar, only electric cars, no gas powered yard equipment I refuse to support an industry that seems not to care about the environment. But like most things in this country money talks.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
You're completely uninformed if you don't know about the Ovonic NiMH battery patents bought up by oil companies.
Some more "great" work done by your oil company friends:
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Not as much as the misinformation you're spewing. Either you're completely ignorant of the history and the technology or you're purposely lying. Neither one is going to work well with this audience.
Baron investments were early big-time investors in Tesla. Ron Baron said battery technology was around in the earliest days of the automobile. However, the cost of electricity was considerably higher than gasoline back then. So the internal combustion engine became the favored motor.
Nowadays, the cost of gasoline is higher than electricity. So this opens up a great opportunity for the middle class to start buying BEVs. And we are seeing substantial growth in the past few years. All you have to do is just look around while driving, and you’ll see a Tesla or two every day. Hopefully, the environmentalists zeal to squelch coal and natural gas from power generation won’t shoot the price of electricity sky high. This will retard the growth of BEVs
Nowadays, the cost of gasoline is higher than electricity. So this opens up a great opportunity for the middle class to start buying BEVs. And we are seeing substantial growth in the past few years. All you have to do is just look around while driving, and you’ll see a Tesla or two every day. Hopefully, the environmentalists zeal to squelch coal and natural gas from power generation won’t shoot the price of electricity sky high. This will retard the growth of BEVs
I don’t know what “battery parents” are, but I am sure it is only an unfounded accusation. If the oil companies bought such a thing, they would want to profit from it - not just sit on it. By the way, who sold the “battery parents?”
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
You're copying and pasting the same nonsense. Bot confirmed.
Well now you are getting personal. If you can take the emotion out, you will be able to think rationally. Yes there are better alternatives to fossil fuels. And they are being developed. In fact, the fossil fuel industry is involved with it. And they, more than anybody wants a piece of the renewable energy pie - a big piece!
First, as you well know its "patents". Second, this is well documented. Go look it up before you continue your oil industry apologetics. Oh, and go lookup the oil companies well-documented and disgraceful defense of leaded gasoline as well. (Leaded Gas Was a Known Poison the Day It Was Invented)
The fact is, every business will act in its own self-interest .. that's the free market for you. But it is the responsibility of governments to regulate the market sufficiently to prevent abuses, especially when businesses get large enough to challenge (or, worse, control) the government. You seem to think the oil industry is some kind of benevolent and wise exercise in philanthropy, while accusing those you disagree with as painting them as devils.
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nwdiver
Well-Known Member
That's not the correlation he was making. You can separate demand for the product with the lies each industry told to protect demand for their product. The tobacco industry was sued not on the basis that they sold a harmful product but on the basis they lied about the harm for decades. How is the fools fuel industry any different in that regard? They both did the research.... then hid it.
You hate fossil fuels. Not the entire world. You are substituting the world for your own hatred of those involved with producing petroleum products. Spouting off vitriol against a vitally important industry is destructive, not constructive.
nwdiver
Well-Known Member
It's only 'vitally important' in the same way heroin is 'vitally important' to an addict and the dealer keeps spouting lies about how a life without heroin is impossible. There are plenty of other ways to get energy than burning ancient hydrocarbons.
A friend and colleague of mine told me his dad was involved with producing leaded gasoline during WWII. The leaded gas allowed fighter plane engines to operate much longer without maintenance. We were at war. The environment was not high on the list of concerns back then. After the war ended, we eventually got rid of it as the chemical engineers developed alternatives.
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