Renewable Energy Is a Subject of Passion — Perhaps Too Much
Occasionally I go off by myself for a “happy hour” drink at a local upscale restaurant/bar — a place that’s almost always good for an interesting conversation with the people sitting next to me. Last evening was no exception: I found an elderly couple that looked like they were right out of the “Society” column of the New York Times — dressed to the nines, very nicely educated, with warm and sophisticated old-money smiles. In fact, she was from Boston, Wellesley to be exact, and her paternal heritage was a line of “Harvard men” that was (I’m not exaggerating) four generations long.
The couple was so cordial and so sincerely excited to meet a fellow transplant from the East Coast that it was hard to imagine that the conversation could possibly turn sour, but it did precisely that when they asked me about my vocation and I explained that I was in renewable energy. The guy, perhaps 80, who, a moment before, was regarding me as if I could have been a rowing mate on the Charles, was at a loss to contain his anger. He demanded to know: What about clean coal? Could I convince him that we won’t be burning oil in 100 years? Did I think people really want these spinny toys (wind turbines), an aesthetic blight, all over the place? After all, we’re not running out of coal and oil; we keep finding more.
At least he had enough class and self-composure to emphasize repeatedly, “I’m not an expert, but…” before throwing out another unworkable defense for the continued extraction and combustion of fossil fuels. That, in fact, is the part I find most interesting with people like this; it’s what I call the “I’m Not an Expert, but… Syndrome.”
It’s unclear to me how people who know quite well that their understanding of the energy industry is limited feel entitled to extremely rigid positions – especially ones that fly in the teeth of the beliefs of the vast majority of scientists – i.e., actual experts. Would this guy have felt comfortable being so doctrinaire if the discussion were on cancer research or criminal psychopathology? Nope. Yet when it came to energy, he didn’t mind latching onto a few sounds bites and blasting them at me as if they had come from Mount Sinai.
I’m normally pretty good getting people to see that there really are tough realities here, that perhaps there are issues that make this subject a bit more complicated than they may have initially realized. In such situations, I try to fashion myself after Socrates (one of my great heroes growing up); I just try to ask good questions. But this gentleman was having absolutely none of it.
The experience served as an important reminder: part of what makes the migration to renewable energy such an interesting challenge is getting the world to back down off of what they think they know, and look at our problems fairly and squarely in the eye. I suppose that’s why the public relations angle is so crucial here. This fellow’s intractable viewpoint is the product of a considerable fortune that’s been spent convincing him of something extremely specific; the problem is that it’s also totally incorrect.
