Apportioning blame isn't even particularly useful compared to just fixing the problem.
It's one thing to provide a product honestly. It's another to provide a product dishonestly. This entire post is about the dishonesty, so just forgetting about that dishonesty and not addressing is seems odd.
Why would executives put themselves at risk for nothing? Why would they spend so much money for nothing? Why lie if the lie doesn't benefit them?
The truth is that these disinformation campaigns to this day are killing our transition away from fossil fuels. They have spawned a political movement that is far more extreme than the publicly stated opinions of the fossil fuel companies.
One prime example of this disinformation campaign is repeated by you:
> let's not even get started on the ecological footprint of batteries.
This myth that batteries are somehow worse than fuel is exactly the type of disinformation that fossil fuel companies manufacture and that others spread, seemingly willingly, because of their tribal politics motivations. You don't know the footprint of batteries for electrical cars. It's certainly no worse than what we use to make the rest of a car. I've spent hours combing the web for concrete ecological impacts. The only concrete thing anybody talks about are not ecological, but social. Indigenous people in South America not getting compensated for their land. Cobalt mining from artisanal, unaccounted mines using child labor. But the ecological footprint is a tiny shadow of all the steel, copper, etc. that goes into al the rest of society.
Have you heard of open-pit mines? I would call the ecological damage of that much higher than a comparable oil drilling site.
I have nothing against electric vehicles, or progress away from CO2 emitters. But EVs are a half-backed solution.
And EVs might even be net-negative for climate change. What do you think mining equipment runs on? A shit-ton of diesel. The largest cost of a gold mine is energy - diesel. I just think the mental gymnastics people use to justify the smaller ecological impact EVs is ridiculous. Heck, I even own a Tesla.
You have a huge bias against EVs, you call them a "half-baked solution" without any qualifications. This is a very subjective judgement that is contradicted by the large number of EVs that are replacing every day usage for people, for commuting and road trips and every aspect of life that requires a vehicle.
It's beyond ridiculous to claim that EVs be a net negative for climate change. Even the fossil fuel PR machine isn't so bold to make such ridiculous counterfactua claims. At least the people paid to lie for fossil fuel companies say that it takes until many tens of thousand is miles until an EV makes up is carbon impact, but even that is a bald-faces lie.
So I'm short, you are manufacturing ridiculous claims, without any substance, that force people to deal with extra BS and counter your lies in the public sphere. Your comments here are a drain on the discussion, fact free accusations without any merit that you are using to naysay EVs and simultaneously out of the other side of your mouth say that you have nothing against them and even own one.
This is classic FUD from the old days. If you are not paid for your efforts, you are underselling yourself. Spreading such misinformation earns many people a paycheck.
It’s widely known the environmental impact of EVs. If you want to make a real difference, look elsewhere.
If I am mistaken, please point out the statistic, or any concrete real world damage that is worse than the alternative.
We punish the corrupt in order to make the decision to be corrupt in future more expensive for the people considering it. A culture of total impunity doesn't help with "the problem."
If you drink water from a corrupt company, by all means try to get the corruption fixed but don't blame them that we live in a water based society.
They also actively lie about oil usage effects on environment, and lobby governments to not only to allow them to continue destruction, but also give them subsidies for it.