William Clay did not realize that the intentionally selfish actions by fossil fuel billionaires would lead to his death on a weekend in late December, but that was what happened. He died in Buffalo on his 56th birthday, Christmas Eve, and was found frozen to death about a mile from his house, attempting to walk home from the store.

While Buffalo is famous for the intensity of its winter storms, the December blizzard was worse than anything in recorded history – both there and across much of the rest of the nation. It seemed Biblical: in Texas, bats were freezing and falling from trees; in Florida cold-stunned iguanas were raining down from palm trees onto unsuspecting pedestrians.

Fossil fuel industry barons win no matter what. They all know accountability for corporate executive decision-making is nonexistent in today’s America, corrupted as we have been by five conservatives on the Supreme Court legalizing political bribery.