Who would've guessed it? New York City, the harmonious hometown of the chief litigator himself, Donald Trump, is planning to sue. By no means any more courteous or humble than its prodigal son, following divestiture of the $5bn in fossil fuel investments its $189bn pension fund holds, New York City plans to use what are possibly the only ridiculously deep-enough pockets in the entire world capable of ridiculously deepening themselves even further by actually suing five of the largest oil companies. That is, the very oil companies that over the years have enabled New York City to be so jacked up that it's earned the moniker of "the city that never sleeps".
Gulp. Reminds me of working w/ power line crews on Long Island ( New York City extension…) right after supahstorm ‘Sandy’. Not just the angry gas station customers ( rationed 3 days /week on the basis of the last digit of your license plate no. I think … ), but the excellent money managers, too. Sometimes they were the same people.
Mostly screamers they were, not pistol wavers , but I remember one guy using his Lexus to pin my truck against the curb so he could berate me for not getting to his mansion yet…
Of course, LIPA ( Long Island Power Authority ) like all utility companies I’ve worked for, deploys storm repair crews directly to the ‘better areas’ first, shore side enclaves looking out on Long Island Sound in this case, so as soon as you show up to work you have to immediately deal w/ the worst behaved folks .
It’s only LATER, when it’s thought prudent to allow any remaining resources to dribble down to the places ‘where the ragged people go ’ ( reside ) that some relief may be afforded to the exhausted electrical worker, as in people bringing home-made cookies or plates of food, offering you water & a place to wash up etc. Meanwhile the local cops start rolling by at about 4:00 PM advising/ordering you to pull up stakes & come back in the morning … you don’t wanna’ be around HERE when it gets dark etc.
Well, fair is fair , so we decided to live on the land , staying on duty for 18 -20 hour days like we had done for the hedge funders, meaning we had to dodge cops & take truck naps in alleys or driveways ( foregoing the nightly 60 mile migration to our temporary bivouac area at an abandoned insane asylum where we joined 2,500 other roaming utility hydraulic bucket -style trucks w/ crews …) disturbed only occasionally by cruising gang-banger kids with loud cars who would yell over the rumbling mufflers…‘Hey , John…You guyz wanna’ drink some orange juice… we gotcha’ you guyz some O.J. man …you eat BBQ ?’ And if we gamely peeked out from our crooked prone position draped over our ladders & gear we’d see a couple of neighbors w/ newly purchased hi-viz fluorescent safety vests on, wielding flashlights & directing traffic around our idle truck " Hey ,go back to sleep. We’ll keep an eye on youse & the truck.’ ( Long Island accent )
On the first morning, we were challenged by a plain -clothes minister from an adjacent store front church we were partially blocking, who said , " I know you’re not from around here." Is it my nasal Detroit, Michigan accent says I, trying to be funny. “Nope,” says the reverend. “Normally when the power goes out, we don’t get no utility people back down around in here.”
Priceless pic of Bill & Amy having an interview !!! -John A. Joslin , IBEW Local # 58 ( Detroit, Michigan just South of Canadian borderline )
Thanks for the story! And glad to hear they were screamers, not pistol waivers, particularly when you’re getting pinned in (by the excellent money managers no less). Geez.
Well yes, it all sounds silly. As if there were some legal way to atone for all the carbon emissions needed to keep something like NYC habitable, much less all the embedded carbon in the concrete it is made of. If they win their suit, everyone else can follow on with their own legal actions and all our problems with carbon emissions will be solved.
On the other hand, at least they are pushing the needle in the right direction (however feebly) and seem to have good intentions. Overall, their strategy is like a dog walking on its hind legs. As Samuel Johnson quipped, “It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.” Even so, I’d guess that a dog on its hind legs is closer to God than NYC will ever be.
Yeah, I suppose it’d be better to have all that money in “the people’s” hands – who could do something worthwhile with it – rather than in the bank accounts of Big Oil and all them. However, I’ve got my doubts as to how well NYC would use it all themselves. I imagine it’d utilize the booty for ultimately futile (in the grand scheme of things) solar panels and such, as well as for walls to hold back the encroaching sea (which I imagine will eventually overwhelm the place). But if it were to take its spoils and donate them to outlying towns and villages, well, that might be interesting.