Over the past few years, I’ve been involved with several different advocacy groups in collaborative efforts to press Philadelphia’s municipally-owned gas utility, Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), to transition away from being a gas-powered heating company, to being a clean energy heating and cooling company through a process called networked geothermal. (You can learn more about this technology by going to HEET’s website – they’re working on a project in Boston.)
We’ve made our case to PGW multiple ways:
First, we’ve shared with them a market perspective. Simply put, the writing is on the wall globally for fossil fuels and the transition away from them is at this point inevitable. Renewable energy sources are cleaner, healthier, much more efficient, much more advanced, and much cheaper. They are simply better technologies – and because of this fossil fuel businesses are on their way out. And so, we argue, it is in PGW’s interest, if they want to have a viable business that employs people 10 years from now, to begin to urgently transition.
Second, we’ve shared with them a human perspective. Right now, new construction in Philadelphia is becoming increasingly electric, heat pumps (which can both cool and heat your home electrically) and rooftop solar are springing up everywhere, and as a result PGW’s customer base is shrinking. However, it is not shrinking evenly across the city’s population. Middle and upper income people are far more often the ones purchasing rooftop solar and heat pumps, and low income people are therefore the ones being stuck behind with gas heat. Low income people in Philadelphia have one of the highest energy burdens in the country – meaning that their utility costs to heat and cool their homes are a very high percentage of their total income. As middle and upper income people transition away from PGW, PGW will have to increase their rates to make up for the lost customers, which will increase the energy burden on their increasingly low income customer base. As the customer base continues to decline and rates continue to increase, more and more low income Philadelphians will go into default, making the rates even higher. More will ask for city programs like LIHEAP to help subsidize their utility bills, but that will fall on tax payers and will eventually become untenable for the city. And so the system will steadily collapse in on itself, with those with the least being hurt the most. This process is what people are calling PGW’s “death spiral,” and it has already begun.
Third (and finally), we’ve shared a climate perspective. We’ve reminded PGW that they are a municipally-owned utility and therefore must shape their own business to fall in line with the city’s robust climate goals, which include reducing greenhouse gases by 50% by 2030 and arriving at carbon neutrality by 2050, in accordance with the recommendation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Continuing to operate a methane-producing power system is utterly incompatible with the city’s – and humanity’s – urgent climate goals. A transition to a clean energy system, on the other hand, would enable PGW to be a meaningful partner in our collective work to fight climate change.
These are the perspectives we’ve tried with PGW, and in the end, they’re all stories. There’s the story of the market, its journey towards new technologies, and PGW’s opportunity to participate in it. There’s the story of the human injustice and suffering that will play out if PGW continues to do business as it always has. And there’s the enormous, global, even existential story of the climate crisis.
We have hoped that some – even just one – of these stories might gain some traction. Yet, despite so many conversations, city council hearings, and gas commission hearings, PGW has refused to engage them. At the most recent gas commission hearing, PGW tried to get the commission to pass a rule that would effectively eliminate the public’s ability to participate meaningfully in their budgeting process. The message was clear – up to this point, PGW is not interested in joining us in a new and hopeful story, but is committed to digging its heals into its own story.
And what is PGW’s story? It’s a story common to the fossil fuel industry. Fossil fuels have built society. There is no better technology for continuing to drive society forward. We know how this technology works – it’s simple and reliable – and we believe the best way forward for everyone is more of the same. As for climate change, it’s fine – we’ll figure it out.
As with all good lies, there are elements of truth in the story of fossil fuels. It has indeed played a major role in the progression of businesses, technologies, and the development of societies. It has indeed been a reliable technology and one that we understand well how to use. However, their story does not engage that fact that fossil fuels have severely damaged the natural world and steadily poisoned the predominantly low income black and brown communities in which they have built their refineries, power plants, and highways. Their story doesn’t recognize the inherent complexity and inefficiency of the technology, particularly as compared to new renewables. Is it simpler, more efficient, healthier, cleaner, and cheaper to power your home by drilling deep into the ground, drawing up crude oil, refining it in a big machine, transporting it to a power plant, burning it to spin a turbine, capturing electricity from that turbine, and sending it along power lines to you? Or is it simpler to install solar panels on your roof and receive free energy directly from the sun to power your home, heat and cool your home, and charge your vehicle? And as for the “climate change isn’t a big deal and it will be fine” story – this is nonsensical, and is in fact a blatant and intentional lie. The fossil fuel industry has known very clearly the impacts of the climate crisis since the mid-1980s – and so this part of their story is just intentional avoidance designed to increase short term profits regardless of the long term cost.
And this really gets at the heart of the PGW story – and the story of the fossil fuel industry more generally. It is a short story – a very short story. It’s a story that is so consumed with getting near term profits that it doesn’t have the capacity to step back from its immediate frantic spinning and consider the long term impacts. What does money mean in a collapsed society? What good does oil do for people if the ecosystem is so damaged they can’t grow food? And is pursing financial gain for oneself while poisoning families and crashing the ecosystem a good and meaningful life?
The short story of the fossil fuel industry is the same as the short story of so much of the capitalist mindset. It doesn’t have to be – and there are a growing number of companies out there that are trying to build their businesses in ways that are ecologically sustainable, that care for their employees, and that benefit everyone involved. But there is still a dominant – and phenomenally perverse – short story out there that believes, quite religiously, in the ultimate good of near term financial gain and the fantasy of growth that never stops.
This short story will turn the human story into a short story if we let it. But we don’t have to. We can tell different stories – stories that prioritize long term health and balance, rather than short term gain and unrelenting growth. Stories that prioritize human well-being over money. Stories that imagine a hopeful journey into a new relationship of mutual flourishing between humanity and the rest of the living system.
Stories change people – far more than facts. What stories have you internalized? What stories are you living out? What stories are you telling to others? Right now, a hopeful and healthy future for people and planet is in urgent need of new stories. What new story can you help build into the imaginings of our collective conscience?
RESOURCES:
“Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall-Kimmerer – one of the best re-tellings of the story of our relationship with creation that I’ve ever read. https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass
“This is Hunting Park” Episode “Nobody Important Lives There” – story about the fight to stop the Nicetown gas plant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WQ3atOv_7U&t=2s
HEET – go here to learn about networked geothermal: www.heet.org
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