Energy without Conscience: Oil, Climate Change, and Complicity

209 Pages·2017·7.18 MB·English

by  David McDermott Hughes

ENERGY WITHOUT CONSCIENCE
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ENERGY WITHOUT CONSCIENCE
Oil, Climate Change, and Complicity
David McDermott Hughes
Duke University Press Durham and London 2017
© 2017 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ♾
Cover designed by Matthew Tauch
Typeset in Arno Pro & Meta by Graphic Composition, Inc.,
Bogart, GA.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Hughes, David McDermott, author.
Title: Energy without conscience : oil, climate change, and
complicity / David McDermott Hughes.
Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2017. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2016035965 (print) | lccn 2016037765 (ebook)
isbn 9780822363064 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn 9780822362982 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn 9780822373360 (e-book)
Subjects: lcsh: Energy industries—Environmental aspects. |
Energy industries—Moral and ethical aspects. | Slavery—
Trinidad and Tobago—Trinidad—History. | Petroleum industry
and trade—Colonies—Great Britain. | Petroleum industry and
trade—Trinidad and Tobago—Trinidad.
Classification: lcc hd9502.t72 h84 2017 (print) | lcc hd9502.t72
(ebook) | ddc 338.2/72820972983—dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016035965
Cover credit: Close-up of pitch at the world's largest natural pitch lake,
Trinidad, 2007. Photo © Robert Harding.
FOR JESSE AND SOPHIA
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
PART I. ENERGY WITH CONSCIENCE
1. Plantation Slaves, the First Fuel 29
2. How Oil Missed Its Utopian Moment 41
PART II. ORDINARY OIL
3. The Myth of Inevitability 65
4. Lakeside, or the Petro- pastoral Sensibility 95
5. Climate Change and the Victim Slot 120
Conclusion 141
Notes 153
References 165
Index 183
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As a scholar of southern Africa, I came to Trinidad and Tobago rather un-
prepared. Individuals, rather than institutions, took me under their wing
and inducted me into the secrets of the country and its oil sector. Among
these friends, I want especially to thank Gerard and Alice Besson, Joan
Dayal, Dax Driver, Simone Mangal, Jeremy and Michelle Matouk, Patri-
cia Mohammed, Krishna Persad, Marina S alandy- Brown, Mary Schorse,
Eden Shand, Teresa White, and Mark Wilson. My informants, who include
many of these people, assisted the research and, obviously, made it possi-
ble. These women and men are too many to name, and more than a few
wish their identities to remain confidential. In the course of the research
and writing of this book, four of my informants passed away: Norris Deon-
arine, Rhea Mungal, Denis Pantin, and Julian Kenny. In all but the last case,
these environmental activists died young and unexpectedly. Their loss im-
poverishes Trinidad and Tobago of voices that could grapple critically with
hydrocarbons. Some of the protagonists in this book will disagree violently
with its tone and conclusions. I hope they will find their views fairly repre-
sented, if also sufficiently refracted to teach something new.
In the United States, colleagues and student colleagues helped beat
the manuscript into shape. With gratitude, I acknowledge Hannah Appel,
Jacob Campbell, Isaac Curtis, Daniel Goldstein, Angelique Haugerud,
Dorothy Hodgson, Judith Hughes, Enrique Jaramillo, Mazen Labban, Ar-
thur Mason, Melanie McDermott, Benjamin Orlove, Peter Rudiak- Gould,
Marian Thorpe, Michael Watts, and Paige West. For images, primary doc-
uments, critical commentary, or pivotal conversations, I am indebted to
Andrew Matthews, Gerard Besson, Selwyn Cudjoe, Marlaina Martin, Mike
Siegel, Genese Sodikoff, Steven Stoll, Humphrey Stollmeyer, Anna Tsing,
and Richard York. I benefited from speaking engagements at Bard College,
Brown University, Carleton University, Columbia University, Dartmouth