Brunell's endorsement of fossil fuels is irresponsible

Don Brunell’s ‘Guest Commentary’ on fossil fuels happened to appear in the Cheney Free Press on my son’s birthday, March 26, 2015.

The chronological milestone — he turned 50 — made me consider just how irresponsible Mr. Brunell’s commentary was. My son, as old as he is, will still live to see the day when the folly of man’s stubborn refusal to address climate change will have dire consequences effecting everything from agriculture to zoology.

Why would Mr. Brunell, who at last count, had 14 grandchildren, promote fossil fuels, when scientists tell us unequivocally, that the greenhouse gases they create are irrevocably warming the planet?

Scientists warn us of disastrous sea level rise, ocean acidification, extreme weather, crop failure, fierce wild fires, loss of biodiversity, and an altogether less habitable, even hostile world for those coming after us. Why would Brunell wish this on all those grandkids?

Brunell served as the president and CEO of the Association of Washington Business from 1988 to 2014, and then joined the lobbying firm of Gordon Thomas Honeywell.

At GTH, Brunell specializes in “strategic positioning, coalition building, and messaging.” In other words, he develops the propaganda GTH’s clients require to promote their agendas. So, we can assume that Mr. Brunell promotes the fossil industry because he’s paid to do so.

I suppose I can’t blame Brunell for wanting to make a living doing what he does best, although someday looking back, his grandchildren may feel differently. I can and do blame Brunell however for parroting Matt Ridley’s views on how the “benefits” of oil, gas, and coal “are beyond dispute.”

As a well known, one could say, infamous, climate change skeptic, Matt Ridley is hardly an unbiased observer.

Furthermore, as the website Skeptical Science points out, Ridley’s assertions regarding climate change have again and again been proven disingenuous, wrong headed, and just plain wrong.

Ridley has been wrong before — big time. As chairman of Britain’s Northern Rock Bank, he was criticized for not recognizing the risks of the bank’s financial strategy resulting in the first run on a British bank since 1878, requiring a government bailout of 27 billion pounds ($42 billion). He was accused of “harming the reputation of the British banking industry, and forced to resign. So, Ridley’s claim that the risks of climate change are greatly exaggerated have to be taken with more than a bushel or a peck of salt.

In an interview with Mike Flynn near the end of 2013, Brunell said, “The American people are tired of being manipulated and lied to.”

I agree with that, which is more than I can say about anything in Brunell’s CFP Guest Commentary.

Richard Badalamente was a senior analyst at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, WA, from 1981-2006. During this time he was detailed for two years to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria. Before joining PNNL, he was a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force. He has his BS from USC, and MS and Ph.D from Texas Tech. He is currently a member of the Citizens Climate Lobby.