You have integrity when what you do matches what you say and vice-versa.

It comes as no surprise that the energy industry has been called out yet again for misleading the public. They aren’t walking their talk, and we should ignore what they say and watch what they do.

A parenthetical note: the Keystone Pipeline had another big leak of about half a million gallons, proving once again that pipelines are dangerous and that we can’t rely on the industry to engineer or manage them to be accident-free. There will always be significant and unavoidable risks that those along the pipeline are exposed to so that the rest of us can have cheap and abundant fossil fuels.

Another observation: OPEC is supporting the price of oil by limiting production, while the US is buying oil when the price of crude dips to replenish reserves previously released to reduce the price at the pump. This has the effect of a subsidy or price support. These actions stabilize the price at the current levels.

We need to subsidize clean energy to encourage the development of alternatives. One wonders what would accelerate the development of fusion energy. Tomorrow scientists are expected to announce that a controlled nuclear fusion reaction produced more energy than it took to start it. That’s a first and a milestone. But practical fusion power generation is still decades away.

Even so, there is a convergence of new energy sources: wind, solar, and, eventually, fusion. We must focus on leaving carbon fuels in the ground, they are destroying us. The money they represent is corrupting our energy priorities. Good energy policy can’t be built on self-serving disinformation.