Behind the Carbon Curtain: The Energy Industry, Political Censorship, and Free Speech

302 Pages·2017·16.035 MB·English

by  Jeffrey A. Lockwood

POLITICS • ENVIRONMENT • AMERICAN WEST L
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Behind the
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“Courageously and unapologetically exposes the silencing W
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effect of corporate influence on academia, the arts, and Carbon Curtain
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government agencies. No doubt this book will shape public D
discourse on the destructive influence of corporate censorship
on democracy for years to come.”
The Energy Industry, Political
—Duncan Purves, coeditor of The Ethical Underpinnings of Climate Economics
B Censorship, and Free Speech
“A persuasive and stark portrait of a state, and by extension e
a nation and a world, whose public institutions have been h
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dissuaded from taking climate change seriously because of n JEFFREY A. LOCKWOOD
the power accrued by the energy industry.”
d Foreword by Brianna Jones
—Daniel Worden, coeditor of Oil Culture
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Exploring censorship imposed by corporate wealth and power, this book focuses
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on the energy industry in Wyoming, where coal, oil, and gas are pillars of the
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economy. The author examines how governmental bodies and public institutions r
have suppressed the expression of ideas that conflict with the financial interests
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of those who profit from fossil fuels. He reveals the ways in which university
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administrations, art museums, education boards, and research institutes have
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been coerced into destroying artwork, abandoning studies, modifying curricula,

and firing employees. His book is an eloquent story of the conflict between private C
wealth and free speech. u
Providing more of the nation’s energy than any other state, Wyoming is a r
sociopolitical lens that magnifies the conflicts in the American West. But the issues t
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are relevant to any community that is dependent on a dominant industry—and
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wherever the liberties of citizens and the ethics of public officials are at risk.
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Jeffrey A. Lockwood is a professor of natural sciences and humanities in the
Department of Philosophy and the Creative Writing Program at the University of
Wyoming. He teaches environmental ethics, philosophy, and creative nonfiction writing.
He is the author of The Infested Mind: Why Humans Fear, Loathe, and Love Insects and the
coauthor of Philosophical Foundations for the Practices of Ecology.
ISBN 978-0-8263-5807-3
University of New Mexico Press 90000
800-249-7737 • unmpress.com
9 780826 358073 >
Behind the Carbon Curtain

Behind the
Carbon Curtain
The Energy Industry, Political
Censorship, and Free Speech
JEFFREY A. LOCKWOOD
FOREWORD BY BRIANNA JONES
University of New Mexico Press • Albuquerque
© 2017 by Jeffrey A. Lockwood
All rights reserved
Published 2017
Printed in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5 6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lockwood, Jeffrey Alan, 1960– author.
Title: Behind the carbon curtain : the energy industry,
political censorship, and free speech / Jeffrey A. Lockwood,
foreword by Brianna Jones.
Description: Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press,
[2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016024728 (print) | LCCN 2016037660
(ebook) | ISBN 9780826358073 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780826358080 (electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Energy industries—Political aspects—
Wyoming. | Business and Politics—Wyoming. | Arts—
Censorship—Wyoming. | Intellectual Freedom—Wyoming.
| Freedom of speech—Wyoming. | Wyoming—Politics and
government.
Classification: LCC HD9502.U53 W856 2017 (print) |
LCC HD9502.U53 (ebook) | DDC 333.8/209787—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016024728
Cover: painting of the Jonah Field gas well by Travis Ivey
Designed by Lisa C. Tremaine
Composed in ITC Cushing Std and Veneer Three
To the people of Wyoming:
No severance tax can compensate for cutting off a people from their stories.
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store.
—“sixteen tons,” written by merle travis and
most famously sung by tennessee ernie ford
An attack upon our ability to tell stories is not just censorship—it is a crime
against our nature as human beings.
—salman rushdie
v

CONTENTS
Foreword ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction: Wyoming as a Lens into America 1
THE CASE OF THE SCUTTLING OF CARBON SINK
1. The Art of Making People Think—and Industries Mad 19
2. Destroying Art to Preserve Political Privilege 31
3. Paying the Price for Free Speech 43
THE CASE OF SHOOT THE MESSENGER
4. Science Fails to Mind Its Own Business 59
5. Reloaded and Fired Again 71
THE CASE OF THE CARBON COUNTY CONTROVERSY
6. Silencing Dissent in Coal Country 87
7. Corporate Coercion and Public Courage 99
THE CASE OF AN EPITAPH FOR PHOTOGRAPHS
8. A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words—or a Million Bucks 115
9. Give Us Liberty or Give Us Oil 131
THE CASE OF AN ATMOSPHERE OF FEAR AND SILENCE
10. Where the Skies Are Smoggy All Day 145
11. The Calculated Absence of Evidence 159
FROM WYOMING TO THE WORLD: THE FUTURE OF CENSORSHIP
12. The Death of Free Speech: Finding the Killer 173
13. For Sale: Free Speech 183
Epilogue 191
Notes 195
Index 271
vii

FOREWORD
What’s past is prologue.
—william shakespeare, The Tempest
My beautiful home state is torn by a long legacy of abundant resources, natural
beauty, and the challenge in accessing either. Tourists from around the world
travel to our nation’s first national park by the millions, unwittingly loving
Yellowstone to death. New methods and uses for natural commodities bring
booms and busts to our vast state. And somewhere in there are the people of
Wyoming, fighting for the past we cling to and the future we hold dear.
In Behind the Carbon Curtain: The Energy Industry, Political Censorship, and
Free Speech, Jeffrey A. Lockwood tells the stories of Wyoming’s recent past
to set the stage for our near future. Now is an apt time to examine our shared
history and individual stories to help us better plan for the next chapter in
Wyoming’s story. The same might be said of all communities across our coun-
try and around the world.
I recently learned about the tiny island of Nauru in the far-flung Pacific.
Nauru was a beautiful island teeming with an abundant rainforest. The key
to the lush landscape was soil so rich it turned out to be the purest phosphate
found in the world at the time. The story of Nauru is an old one, a story of
colonialism, industrialism, political corruption, and limited resources. You
probably already know the conclusion. Once the phosphate and the money ran
out, the people of Nauru were left, literally, with a desert island rather than
a tropical paradise.
Nauru’s story isn’t over, but as I thought about the plight of the people of
Nauru I couldn’t help but think of how it paralleled the choices facing Wyo-
ming today. The plot—extreme reliance on extractive industry for revenue
coupled with volatile booms and busts, disregard for environmental protec-
tions to the detriment of the future, and leaders with a vision that history
shows to be shortsighted—felt all too familiar.
Wyoming is not Nauru, though, as much as our economy can feel colonial. I
don’t know if there were dissenting voices that spoke out in Nauru, although I
suspect there were, but I do know there were (and are) in Wyoming. The stories
Lockwood shares here are important, not only for the results they achieved but
ix