082: The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels

Why do you believe what you believe? Are you a republican or a democrat? Are you pro-choice or pro-life? How about guns? Should guns be outlawed in the United States? Do you ever look at the "other side" and wonder if they are absolutely nuts? "How could they believe what they believe and stand for what they stand?" Do you remember when there were only facts?—Not alternative facts? Do you remember a world without a 24 hour news cycle that argued past each other all day and all night using professional pandits? Intelligent discussions--debates like those from my childhood between intellectual giants such as William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal just don't make for good TV anymore. The problem is that we have a lot of serious stuff going on these days—crazy weather, mass shootings, a short fat North Korean dictator armed with nuclear weapons and a president who tweets our foreign policy. If you are a person who likes a good old fashion debate based on real ideas, you're pretty much out of luck these days. In fact, if you think deeply about your own opinions, how often are they the product of the opinions around you rather than ones you have made through careful thought? Believe me, I am guilty as anyone else. I am often dogmatic about issues that I may not have truly considered the opposing view. One of the more pressing issues of our day is the use of fossil fuels. Now I live in California and, like most Californians, I care about the environment. My knee-jerk response is to say yes to anything limiting fossil fuel emissions. But maybe there is another way to look at the issue. Maybe there is a moral case for fossil fuels. My guest this week on Wealth Formula Podcast wrote a book making just that case. Alex Epstein is the New York Times best Selling author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. Now whatever your biases are going into this show, do yourself a favor and keep and open mind. Alex is a philosopher by training and he is not only going to give you his argument, but he is also going to show you how he constructs it. Make sure to tune in to this episode. It's a unique look at an important issue.