The War on Cars

BONUS: Discovering Oil with Amy Westervelt

Added 2023-05-16 14:01:31 +0000 UTC

Hi, Patreoners:

We talk a lot about cars here at The War on Cars (big surprise!). But what about that vast flow of seemingly magical dinosaur juice that makes all of those cars go "vroom?" What about oil?

It can be surprisingly challenging to produce compelling and listenable stories about the fossil fuel industry and all of the environmental, economic, and political damage that it causes. But one person who does an incredibly good job of it is investigative journalist and podcaster Amy Westervelt.

Amy is the host and producer of the podcast, Drilled. And she just came out with Season 8. It's called "Light Sweet Crude."

In it, she takes us to the tiny South American nation Guyana where, in 2015, ExxonMobil discovered one of the world’s largest off-shore oil reserves. Seemingly overnight, Guyana began transforming from an international environmental leader and model of sustainable development to one of the world's fastest growing petrostates.

Why start a brand new oil industry in the middle of a climate crisis in a country that is especially vulnerable to climate impacts? Do wealthy, western, oil-guzzling nations have any right to tell a nation like Guyana to keep their oil in the ground? And once a project like this gets going, is there anything that can be done to stop it?

“Light Sweet Crude” explores these questions and more. And it's a great listen. I reached out to Amy to talk about what drew her to Guyana and what it was like to try to report and produce this series. ExxonMobil and the Guyanese government certainly didn't make it easy.

We hope you enjoy this conversation. As always, feel free to share this with your friends and on social media and let us know what you think in the comments. We very much appreciate your support!

Aaron

P.S.

If you happen to be in New York City this week, please come meet Doug, Sarah and I at Cleverhood's pop-up shop at 247 Elizabeth St. in Lower Manhattan. We'll be there on Thursday, May 18 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm with special deals on War on Cars merch and other fun things. It would be great to see you and say hello.