Climate letter was P.R. for oil industry

I read with frustration and more than a little disappointment that the Daily Herald published as a letter to the editor the intentionally misleading propaganda from Chris Ventura of the Consumer Energy Alliance that should have been printed as paid advertising.

Mr. Ventura neglects to point out that Consumer Energy Alliance is effectively a Public Relations firm funded principally by the American Petroleum Institute and the American Natural Gas Alliance, whose headquarters are in, wait for it…. Houston, Texas.

Mr. Ventura correctly points out that any direct increased energy costs resulting from moves to cleaner energy disproportionately impact lower-income families harder than high-income households. Well, duh….. Disproportionately almost all costs are more painful for poor people than rich people, whether it's drinking water, traffic tickets, the dentist, road tolls, filing fees, a box of cereal, etc. So, legitimate concern.

But as an oil industry P.R. agent, Mr. Ventura is also more aware than most and carefully avoids pointing out the external/broader costs of climate change are also being disproportionately borne by low-income people, both here and abroad.

That includes growing external costs such as more frequent and damaging storms, coastal flooding, longer and more severe heat waves, wildfires, etc. And of course those external costs will, if they haven't already, outstrip the "burden" of high gas prices. Not just for poor people, but for the entire population.

Ask your poor friends in Florida and California how their homeowners insurance is doing, how much their air conditioning bill has increased or how much of their tax money went to fighting wildfires.

I spent 30 some years in B2B credit, 20-plus of which was working in the oil industry, and rarely saw anyone spew as much self-serving, intentionally misleading, phony empathy as Mr. Ventura.

Paul Bruno

Gurnee