For decades, it has been popular for politicians and the media to portray the energy sector as a begrimed example of what needs to change in America. All the while, the industry continues to provide low-cost energy and well-paying jobs at times when the country needs both.
Faced with a public and political class that has little appreciation—and in some cases outright scorn—for its contributions, it would be understandable if industry participants felt like throwing in the towel. However, those who give their best everyday would do well to remember the words of Theodore Roosevelt.
Roosevelt was a patriot, a civil servant, a person of action and a conservationist. As a trustbuster, he pushed for the break up of the Standard Oil monopoly, helping unleash the spirit of competition and enterprise that drives the industry today.
He was also a powerful orator who, on a Spring day in Paris in 1910, delivered one of the greatest speeches ever by an American president. The speech recognized that remarkable efforts inevitably, but ultimately inconsequentially, invite strident criticism.
The most notable part of the speech is known as “The Man in the Arena” passage, and it speaks directly to the circumstances the energy industry often finds itself. It is excerpted below:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
— President Theodore Roosevelt, Paris 1910
In a strange way, the unending criticisms cast upon the sector reflect its outsize success. Americans take for granted the high standards of living they enjoy because of affordable, available-on-demand energy the industry and its committed professionals deliver every day. This much is clear.
The energy industry will never be bestowed favorite-son status within the halls of government. It will never be adored by the chattering classes. Its triumphs will never be cheered by the masses. That kind of sentimentality and exhortation is not its to know.
The industry nonetheless deserves respect and credit, both for its accomplishments and resolve. If it can’t garner it from those it serves, let it at least exist within the ranks of its own. The Bull Moose himself would expect nothing less.