Kate Aronoff — Is “Responsible” Fossil Fuel Production Possible?
Between the Ukrainian crisis and the resulting fossil fuel shortages and price surges in Europe, compounded by the intensification of climate change terrifyingly visible all around us, the U.S. seems stuck in an impossible conundrum: More domestically produced oil and gas is needed in the short term, but the science couldn’t be clearer that production needs to rapidly wind down in order to avoid catastrophe. Drillers claim that over time new technology will allow them to decarbonize hydrocarbons, but there’s absolutely no reason or evidence to believe them. Fossil fuel companies have long sought to confuse and mislead the public and have intensely lobbied against any meaningful climate action. They need to be stopped, but business-as-usual climate policy offers few good options.
As one of the nation’s greatest investigative journalists and experts on climate politics, Kate Aronoff explores how policymakers’ toolbox will have to be expanded so that we can carry out a managed, orderly decline and ultimate end of the fossil fuel era, while giving us all a stake in our energy future.
This talk was delivered at the 2022 Bioneers Conference.
Kate Aronoff, a Brooklyn, NY-based staff writer at The New Republic, and a former Fellow at the Type Media Center whose work has appeared in The Intercept, The New York Times, The Nation, Dissent, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian, among other outlets, is the co-editor of We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism, American Style and the author of Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet — And How We Fight Back.
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