Mandatory Disclosures for Harmful Fuels
By: Chandu Visweswariah
Disclosures are good things. A pack of cigarettes must disclose that smoking causes cancer. Pharmaceutical companies are required to disclose side-effects of drugs. Opioids and lottery tickets warn of addiction. Packaged foods need to disclose how much sodium they contain and calories per serving. Chain saws and ladders alert the buyer to personal injury. Disclosures increase transparency and give consumers more information. In many cases, like the struggle to hold the tobacco industry accountable, mandating disclosure was a historical turning point.
Recently, it came to my attention that the New York Public Service Commission issued orders pertaining to the “outreach and education requirements” of Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) programs. A CCA allows a village or town to band together and purchase clean energy in bulk, as well as make this source of clean energy the default for its residents. Should the residents know that if they don’t make an affirmative choice, they get CCA power? Should the residents know that the CCA power will cost a bit more than “dirty” electricity they could buy from some other source? Of course! I am all for transparency.
If “clean energy” requires meaningful disclosure, I think “dirty energy” does, too. We buy gas at the pump, heat our homes with oil, cook with gas, take flights and rely on grid electricity, and receive no disclosures that these purchases cause harm. We repeatedly bemoan that climate change is not in our daily consciousness, and we will never solve this problem till it is. To remedy all of this, I have designed the following five simple disclosures, which have the potential to change the course of events for this planet.
Disclosure #1: Mandatory disclosure for purchase of gasoline or diesel at a gas station
“Burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of climate change, which has killed 575,000 humans between 2003 and 2023 due to climate disasters. The United Nations predicts 14 million climate deaths by 2050, by which time climate deaths will exceed homicides and suicides combined. In addition to human deaths, climate change is causing entire species to go extinct by shrinking their livable habitats. By buying and burning this fuel, I acknowledge my personal contribution to this disastrous suicide and ecocide.”
Disclosure #2: Mandatory annual natural gas contract or appliance purchase disclosure
“Among fossil fuels that cause climate change, natural gas is one of the dirtiest – with a bigger climate impact than gasoline or diesel. Natural gas is mostly methane, a dangerously potent heat-trapping gas responsible for over 40% of today’s global warming. One ton of methane does as much climate harm over a 20-year period as 85 tons of carbon dioxide. Unburned methane leaks at oil and gas wells, transmission pipelines and distribution pipelines that bring the gas to my home. When you burn it, it emits planet-warming carbon dioxide. By buying natural gas or an appliance that burns natural gas, I acknowledge and agree that I am personally responsible for significantly accelerating the harms of climate change. I also admit and agree that my home air quality will suffer, increasing the likelihood that my family will suffer from asthma or other respiratory diseases, for which I will not hold the gas or appliance company liable.”
Disclosure #3: Mandatory annual non-100%-clean electricity contract disclosure
“A significant portion of the electricity I will buy is made from fossil fuels. Nationwide, 43% of electricity is made from natural gas and 13% from coal. In Westchester County, New York, 99% of electricity is made from fossil fuels. All fossil fuels leak unburned methane at the well heads, and natural gas leaks from transmission and distribution pipelines, hastening climate harm to the planet. The earth has already warmed 1.3oC and is coming dangerously close to a cascade of environmental tipping points from which we will not be able to recover – such as loss of polar ice, catastrophic sea-level rise, irreversible bleaching of coral reefs, and carbon-positive forests. I understand and acknowledge that my choice of sourcing electricity through this contract makes me personally complicit in accelerating these disastrous tipping points, and I understand and acknowledge that my personal choice will negatively impact the lives of all future generations.”
Disclosure #4: Mandatory annual heating oil delivery contract or appliance purchase disclosure
“Heating oil is a fossil fuel. Burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of climate change and all the harm thereof. According to the International Monetary Fund, the highly profitable fossil fuel industry receives $7 trillion in subsidies worldwide, including $757 billion in the United States – i.e., your money. The industry routinely disseminates misinformation and disinformation, minimizing the climate impact of using its products and also casting fear, uncertainty and doubt upon clean energy solutions. By using oil to heat my home, I understand and acknowledge that I am hastening climate change and I am supporting the fossil fuel industry. I also agree to suffer worsened air quality in my house and the concomitant higher likelihood of asthma and respiratory diseases for my family.”
Disclosure #5: Mandatory disclosure for all flight ticket purchases
“Flights are responsible for over 4% of greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate change. Emissions at high altitudes are particularly dangerous. I acknowledge that business class, first class and private travel result in far more emissions per passenger-mile than travel in economy class. Less than 20% of the world’s population uses air travel, but the climate impacts are overwhelmingly felt by the other 80%. By purchasing this flight ticket, I understand and acknowledge that I am personally contributing to and hastening the harms of climate change including climate deaths, species extinctions, sea-level rise and climate tipping points.”
All of these disclosures could display a QR code of an educational website that promotes a national program to improve carbon literacy, with access to CURE100’s Carbon Tracker. We will live in a more educated, more aware and less apathetic world if these five simple and truthful disclosures were required by law. Fossil fuels are destroying the livability of our planet and disclosure will be a key turning point in establishing accountability.
On a lighter note, in keeping with the New York Public Service Commission, this program could be dubbed Dirty and Renewable Energy Advisories and Disclosures or even Dirty and Renewable Energy Advisories and Disclosures for Fossil Use Licensees. Both names anagram well, and the https://dreadful.gov and https://dreadful.ny.gov domains are available!
This is an opinion and analysis article. The views expressed by the author are solely his own and not those of any organization he is affiliated with or CURE100.
