BLOG: Examining the Issue of Bias in the Energy Industry

Those who have grown up in a climate in which they were told the oil industry is bad will expect that the oil industry will do bad things, said Epstein. And if they’ve been told that solar and wind industries are noble industries that are going to bring us a better future, then they’ll look for good things from those industries.

Epstein offered the following examples, “there’s an enormous amount of reporting of bird deaths from oil spills, but there’s not nearly as much interest in bird deaths from wind turbines, which are much greater,” he said. “And there’s a lot of interest in coal mining deaths, but there’s not as much interest in the mining deaths for raw materials and solar wind even though that’s a more dangerous mining process.”

“Unless [the media] is really clear about their framework and really commits to being evenhanded as part of their methodology, they’re going to engage in this bias reporting,” he said.

When telling its story to the media, Epstein said by framing the discussion beforehand, the oil industry will do better in making people receptive to the balance of facts.

Rather than the industry saying it’s trying to minimize negative impact, it should say it wants to allow people to flourish. Stating that as the goal and envisioning working in the industry as a way to accomplish that goal is more effective, said Epstein.

“Energy progress needs a guiding principal and that should be every human flourishing.”