Rebecca: “God, they’re massive. ”Tommy: “400 feet tall. The concrete foundation covers a third of an acre and goes down in the ground 12 feet.” Rebecca: “Who owns them?” Tommy: “Oil companies. We use ’em to power the wells. There’s no electricity out here. We’re off the grid.” Rebecca: “They use clean energy to power the oil wells?” Tommy: “They use alternative energy. There’s nothing clean about this.” Rebecca: “Oh. Please, Mr. Oil Man, tell me how the wind is bad for the environment.” Tommy: “Do you have any idea how much diesel they have to burn to mix that much concrete or make that steel, and haul this shit out here, and put it together with a 450-foot crane? You wanna guess how much oil it takes to lubricate that f*ing thing or winterize it? In its 20-year lifespan, it won’t offset the carbon footprint of making it. And don’t get me started on solar panels and the lithium in your Tesla battery. And nevermind the fact that if the whole world decided to go electric tomorrow, we don’t have the transmission lines to get the electricity to the cities. It’d take 30 years if we started tomorrow. And, unfortunately, for your grandkids, we have a 120-year petroleum-based infrastructure. Our whole lives depend on it. And hell, it’s in everything. That road we came in on, the wheels won’t every car ever made, including yours. It’s in tennis rackets, and lipstick, and refrigerators, and antihistamines, pretty much anything plastic. Your cell phone case, artificial heart valves, any kind of clothing that’s not made with animal or plant fibers, soap, f*ing hand lotion, garbage bags, fishing boats, you name it. Every f*ing thing. And you know what the kicker is? We’re gonna run out of it before we find its replacement.” Rebecca: “It’s the thing that’s gonna kill us all as a species.” Tommy: “No, the thing that’s gonna kill us all is running out before we find an alternative. And, believe me, if Exxon thought them f*ing things right there were the future, they’d be putting ’em all over the goddamn place. Getting oil outta the ground is the most dangerous job in the world. We don’t do it ’cause we like it, we do it ’cause we run outta options. And you’re out here trying to find something to blame for the danger besides your boss. There ain’t nobody to blame, but the demand that we keep pumping it.”
