FossilFreeUMC

When good people have tried everything.

…though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again,
but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.
Proverbs 24:16

It’s been thirty years….

As we see push after push for divestment from citizens, organizations, and people of faith, it is helpful to take a moment with the question, where are we now with the effort to address the pollution and emissions of oil and gas?

For decades it has been known by oil companies and others that the emissions and other pollution from production and use of fossil fuels is causing widespread destruction. Despite this, drilling continues, emissions are higher than ever, and, despite significant consequences to human health and biodiversity, the decades have seen a massive increase in production of pesticides and plastics.

And profits are off the charts: From Global Witness, US & European big oil profits top a quarter of a trillion dollars since the invasion of Ukraine.

Leaking and Abandoned Gas and Oil Wells. Literally, these are everywhere. The EPA has documented 117,00 and estimates are that there are over 4 million abandoned oil and gas wells in the US. Other wells are simply undocumented and unknown, only to erupt spewing well fluids such as salt water across land and into groundwater.

• Read a profile of one such orphaned well in Colorado from The Guardian, Colorado landowners sue oil company over clean-up of ‘orphaned’ well. Group claims oil firms transferred depleted wells to another company which then conspired to avoid clean-up through fraud.
• Another profile, this of a well in Texas that suddenly erupted. From The Texas Tribune, “Nobody really knows what you’re supposed to do”: Leaking, exploding abandoned wells wreak havoc in West Texas

Meanwhile Oil Drilling Continues. Drilling, fracking and extracting continues despite what the studies tell us, despite global scientific reports such as the IPCC that are clear that there must there be no new fossil fuel infrastructure, despite the fact that we are all on a race to netzero and more, despite all that new projects are everywhere; Hundreds of new oil and gas projects approved despite climate crisis. Just for starters:

• Drilling in Azerbaijan: From Oilprice, BP to Drill First Deep Gas Production Well at Huge Azeri Field in H2. Drilling is expected to start in this ‘deep gas reservoir’ in late 2024.
• Drilling in Egypt: From Reuters, BP plans to invest $1.5 billion in Egypt gas projects, drilling for the next “three or four years.”
• Major projects from Shell: From Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, among Shell’s many major projects, a massive petrochemical (plastics and more) plant in Pennsylvania. Shell acknowledges $14 billion price tag for petrochemical plant, more than double street estimates. This venture has faced fierce local opposition, and recently was fined $10 for air quality violations.
• Hundreds of projects locking us in…2025, 2028... From Offshore Energy, Round up: Major multi-billion oil & gas projects greenlighted in 2023, With energy security running the show, multiple new oil and gas projects were sanctioned throughout 2023. Among the top eight are the ones operated by TotalEnergies, Shell, ExxonMobil, Equinor, Woodside, OMV Petrom, and ADNOC.

Who is at fault for all this? Well. It’s complicated—or is it. The oil and gas industry has expended trillions over decades line its coffers, expand its products, lobby against green alternatives and cast doubt on climate change. It has worked aggressively to secure its ability to continue to extract, produce and profit despite everything.

It feels crazy, but it gets crazier. Because apparently, Exxon’s CEO thinks it’s regular people who are to blame, and regular people—the ones who have borne the brunt of all the harms—who must pay. The speech: From Fortune, Exxon Mobil CEO on the ‘dirty secret’ of Net Zero: ‘People who are generating the emissions need to be aware …and pay the price. From The Hill, Exxon CEO blames public for failure to fix climate change.

My guess is that the speech about who should pay was caused at least in part by the CEO’s frustration that carbon capture technologies are going to be expensive and likely won’t be effective anyway. They know the public doesn’t want to pay to keep oil companies rolling in trillion dollar profits. They know their product must be stopped.

We should do something, Right? Yes. Like what? Regular people and the science community have been screaming from the rooftops for decades. The next COP will be COP29, it’s been almost 30 years. Thirty years before Greta Thunberg yelled at us there was Severn Cullis Suzuki. Whole peoples and communities have mobilized against dangerous and unwanted projects such as the Mountain Valley Pipeline, Enbridge Line 5 and Rise St. James. In big ways and small ways, oil companies are invested in the long game. For instance, from The Grist, California towns are banning new gas stations. Big Oil is paying attention.

Even stockholders and investors have tried to move oil and gas companies, and the banks that finance them, with boardroom activism and grass roots protests and yet here we still are. Corporate engagement has been ongoing for years, and for a while it seemed to help at least a little bit.

But still, is it working? Not measurably. And then recently, Exxon filed a lawsuit against its own shareholders: from AP, ExxonMobil is suing investors who want faster climate action. And Exxon has powerful supporters: from Quartz, Exxon just got two big endorsements in its climate change lawsuit against its own shareholders. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable filed an amicus brief siding with Exxon.

What we learned in Kindergarten. I am reminded of the rules of my elementary school years, that ‘before you bring out new things to play with, first clean up the old things.’ And what I learned in Sunday School, to ‘love your neighbor,’ and that ‘God made the world.’ How have we worked at this for so long, yet made so little progress? How do we stop the overwhelming destruction to our earth, its ecosystems and its people from extraction projects like mines and oil and gas wells? This explainer helps a lot, from Vice, How Do Oil Companies Get Away With, Well, Everything? An Expert Explains.

I started this post with Proverbs 24:16. It is a verse that speaks to getting up again, and again. It tells of building resilience and strength each time in rising again to fight. I will end with the verse that comes next,

Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice
Proverbs 24:16-17

First, we are not enemies, we are all human beings–perhaps that makes what is happening all the more painful. These companies are run by people, and the decisions they are making are causing so much harm! There will not be time for gloating when they finally stop. With so much lost, I think the response will be relief. And then the reality will hit us that we are faced with hundreds of years of cleaning up. Humans, we must do better.

Here is my prayer: if we can build a way of life that cares first for air and water and people and ecosystems, if we can get there, that will be where the joy will come.

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This post was originally published on JustCreation.org.

Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is an Elder in the Greater Northwest Area, living in Southern Oregon. She volunteers with the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement and a number of other organizations at the intersection of faith and climate change. Find her at JustCreation.org