By Taylor Kuykendall

Alex Epstein, founder of think-tank Center for Industrial Progress, told a room full of coal industry professionals Aug. 12 that it is time for the industry to fight back against the portrayal of fossil fuels as an addiction and begin to change its way of thinking about what it does.

"I think it's true that their messaging needs a lot of work, but part of what I tried to explain to the group today is that really fundamentally what's going on, there's a wrong understanding by the public, but even by the industry itself," Epstein said. "The industry doesn't truly understand it's full value and it doesn't understand how to counter many of the arguments that say we are addicted to it and need to get off of it otherwise it's going to cause catastrophic depletion, pollution and climate change."

Epstein is the author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, a book scheduled for release in November, which makes the case that from the "big picture" perspective the fossil fuel industry is dramatically improving the planet by making it a safer and richer place. Epstein was the keynote speaker at the American Coal Council's Coal Market Strategies conference in Park City, Utah.

"This addiction idea is totally wrong and it's been totally wrong," Epstein told the audience. "… There's a definite connection between the ability to produce cheap and reliable energy to feed all the machines that make our lives possible and standard of living."

He said the detractors of fossil fuels zoom in on various arguments, often focusing on the negative externalities of coal production and coal burning. What they fail to look at, Epstein argues, is that many metrics of human well-being, from life expectancy to infant mortality, has improved with increased use of fossil fuels.

He said that many environmentalists approach the problem from the perspective of protecting the earth from human development instead of viewing it through a lens of developing the planet in a way that is best for human life. Electricity for heating and air conditioning, he said, are the types of benefits fossil fuels provide in addressing climate issues while also improving quality of life.

"Technology is the solution to the climate problem. The solution to climate problems is not, not using energy," Epstein said. "… Nature does not give us a safe climate that we make dangerous. Nature gives us a dangerous climate that we make safe and that will always be true. We need fossil fuels to make the climate safe."

Epstein said the industry needs to reach out to "champions" for fossil fuels, people who can study the case made in his book and communicate its message. He said people within the industry should be communicating that they are doing something beyond simply taking something out of the ground that is now gone.

"What they didn't see is that thing in the ground was totally useless until your industry found out to make it valuable," Epstein said. "There are all sorts of coal, oil and gas that was totally useless until the industry's ingenuity figured out how to make it useful. … You're not taking a world rich in resources and making it poor. You're taking a world poor in resources and make it rich."

Epstein said with support of the industry, the book, written to "convince a liberal" of its points on fossil fuels could be pushed onto The New York Times bestseller list and begin generating new conversations in only a few months. While there have been similar arguments made regarding fossil fuels as a solution to global energy poverty, Epstein said that alone is not enough. He said that "everything has to fit together" and an argument that centers only on global energy poverty without addressing other core issues about the energy industry may be easily dismissed by detractors.

Environmental organizations have largely shrugged off many of the arguments of fossil fuel's benefits as inappropriately conflating the benefits of electricity and fossil fuels. They often argue that it is possible to replace fossil fuels, especially coal, with other energy sources.

During the conference, Epstein agreed to give a demonstration to one conference attendee on how he seeks to persuade those who oppose fossil fuel use. David Lawson, vice president of coal for Norfolk Southern Corp., went out in Park City with Epstein to witness an encounter.

Lawson said he was able to watch as Epstein talked to a stranger, who quickly raised many of the points Epstein predicted during his presentation.

"While he didn't necessarily convert the guy, he certainly raised the issue and put a whole lot of thought into this individual thinking about the environmental impact," Lawson told SNL Energy. "… I think he has framed a very interesting discussion around that. I think there is some challenge today in the industry where the industry tends to probably more rely on the job creation value and those sorts of things as opposed to taking on those who want more renewables and asking why are they so good for the environment. He does a good job of framing that argument."

The book is available for pre-order through Amazon.