Katz Steps in the Litter Box

Copied from the Vail Resorts Facebook page…

“We are deeply saddened by the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. As a global company, Vail Resorts believes we have a unique responsibility to protect the incredible natural landscapes and environment that surround our mountain resorts and those across our planet. Climate change is a global challenge that requires global cooperation, and it is disheartening to see the United States pull away from working with the other 194 countries that were part of the Agreement. Vail Resorts will redouble our efforts to find significant ways to minimize our carbon footprint through reducing our energy use to help address one of the most serious challenges facing our worldwide community.” – Rob Katz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vail Resorts”

Before I launch into the rest of this rant, let me offer full disclosure. I LOVE lift-served snow sports and I intend to keep on using the hell out of the mountain environments as long as I can. I simply refuse to be a hypocrite about it. Meanwhile, Rob Katz, CEO of Vail Resorts, seems to have no problem exposing just how hypocritical he can be.

We know it is fashionable for catz to Dump on Trump. Just make sure your own shoes are out of the way!

 

First, let’s get the math out of the way. Roughly half of voters just voted for Trump. It is statistically probable that half of Vail’s customers voted for Trump. Katz just told half his customer base that he doesn’t like what they stand for. THEN he turns around and tells the other half of his customers, who might be receptive some Trump-hating, that Vail Resorts hasn’t been doing all it can to save the planet. Bad math, bad optics Rob.

Second, here is where I stand. Whether or not man is causing climate change is completely irrelevant to the job at hand. We each and every  one of us ought to be PERSONALLY doing everything we can, every day to reduce our impact on the planet. Only a change in personal habits make a difference. Use less gas. Recycle, re-purpose reuse..

It is beyond comical to say one will change man’s impact on the planet by waiting for someone to create a global governing body that then builds a massive bureaucracy, that imposes new taxes so they can write, promulgate and enforce mounds of laws and regulations that then come knocking on YOUR door to tell you that you must now do what you have ALWAYS known you SHOULD do but have NOT done. It’s frigging moronic.

The problem with subsidized “green” energy is that it does not MOTIVATE companies to develop technically, economically effective products, only politically effective, fashionable technologies. Government involvement, only and always, serves to make things much more expensive than they need to be.

On with the rant…Without giving it any critical thinking, Vail Resorts’ CEO Rob Katz just stuck his foot in the political doo-doo. Rather than thanking President Trump for giving him a 4-8 year reprieve from predatory environmentalism, Katz excoriated the President for his decision on the Paris Accord.

It is like tying a rope around a sapling and the noose around your neck and then watering the tree. It may take a while but, eventually you are gonna hang.

There simply is NO individual recreational sport with a larger carbon footprint than lift-served skiing & riding.

Math Quiz:

How many gallons of jet fuel does it take to fly 10 million people an average of 1,200 miles with 200 people per flight? How many tons of CO2 and particulate matter does this produce?

 

Every day in the winter, all around the world, tens of millions of people get into cars and buses and trains and airplanes and travel. They get into rental cars and trains and buses and planes to get to a resort. There, they walk down streets lit 24/7 with millions of twinkling lights. They climb into boots made from carbons.

They strap boards to their feet made of carbon. They slather carbon waxes all over the bottoms of these boards and get into chair lifts run by a LOT of carbon to ski on snow that uses even MORE carbon to make artificially…some even add getting into helicopters or cats…then they reverse the process and go home.

It’s completely ridiculous and intellectually dishonest to go after the President for stepping out of an agreement that may well have spelled the end of Mr Katz run. Trump just saved your Friskies Mr Katz. Be grateful.

The Paris Accords would have placed heavy burdens on the US, Canada, Australia and Europe to dramatically..DRAMATICALLY reduce emissions. The ski industry, as represented by Vail Resorts and, now Aspen KSL, makes a very easy target for predatory environmentalism.

To boot, the cost of compliance would have meant spiraling, nearly unbearable financial burdens on that portion of the middle class that may well make or break the lift-served snow sport industry.

Factor in the ski industry’s poor record on diversity and it’s a cauldron full of social and political trouble. Like the old COPS theme..”Whatcha gonna do when they come for you…?”

A 1500 acre ski resort uses as much fuel in a day as a WWII US Navy Destroyer, at cruising speed…just to make the snow. The US ski industry, as a whole, uses enough carbon- based energy to power the navies of  several nations..And Katz wants to attack the President? Katz is a carbon guzzling capitalist, serving capitalist investors all while doing the absolute minimum for the “environment”. I am fine with it! I just detest a hypocrite.

Do I know I am not doing the planet a favor when I ski? Sure I do,but like any well meaning sinner, I do my best to make it up.

Katz just announced that, up until now, Vail hasn’t been doing all it could do to reduce it’s emissions. Just now he vows to “redouble” his efforts. What took you so long? Did you think that if Trump decided to stick with the Paris Accord you wouldn’t have to “redouble”, that you could just cruise along doing less than your best? Only now, when you feel you could make some marketing hay by jumping on the hate wagon, you suddenly become fully committed? That is the ultimate in hypocrisy…and disgustingly obvious.

It’s like putting up signs everywhere asking your customers to tip more so you don’t have to pay better wages. It gets old.

Let’s face it. There are hundreds of millions of “environmentalists” out there. Only a relative handful are snow sport enthusiasts. As “Corporate Skiing” grows into “Big Skiing”, it makes the entire industry an ever larger target for predatory environmentalism. Activists LOVE going after deep pockets and VR’s pockets are deep and bulging.

All that glitters may not be gold, but it DOES burn a heck of a lot of fuel!

Stock holders of VR ought to be truly concerned about a CEO who doesn’t understand the very basics, who so seriously misreads his constituency. This is nothing more than the global version of Chuckie Cheese Whack-a-Mole. Katz didn’t just stick his head out of the hole, he JUMPED out with a bulls-eye on his nose.

People ski and ride to get AWAY from all the madness. If you turn participation in the sport into a political statement you will find that a lot of people don’t care to make the statement. Others won’t care to confront their own hypocrisy.

Ask Kapernick where he will be working next year, or the laid off employees at ESPN. You are always free to be as political as you choose. You are NOT free from the consequences of your choices.

His post on the VAIL Facebook page got HAMMERED with negative responses. Share holders ought to be damned concerned about  a CEO who so seriously misreads his social media base.  He might want to give that some thought next time before he texts.

One would at least hope that the leader of skiings’ global-corporatist movement would be a bit more wise. You don’t stand up and condemn Trump for his Paris Accord decision while happily taking money from Trump’s kids (Ivanka skis Whistler) and polluting the hell out of every resort town you touch as you expand its carbon footprint and strain its infrastructure.

Or, if the suspicions are true and Katz is really care if he drives out the “middle income riff-raff”. Does he simply believe that his interests will always be protected from intellectual honesty and people will always be available at the Vail milking stool? Who gives a shit about Joe the Plumber and his family when Leonardo and Al are due in on their separate private jets? Hey, Ivanka dropped 30-40 grand at Whistler. Who needs a truck driver from Houston?

I recall a rant on LinkedIn recently by a Food and Beverage manager complaining bitterly about all the people who buy an Epic Pass but bring their own lunch. How ungrateful! Oh the temerity!

One person responded that in the first YAA (“year-after-acquisition”)the 25% increase in food prices made him decide to bag his lunch. He could easily afford to buy his lunch on the mountain but they just made him mad, so he won’t.

Years ago, the catch phrase was “Think Globally, Act Locally” meaning, think about the planet but change YOUR personal behavior. Here, Katz takes the toddler approach, “Think selfishly and cry loud enough and long enough for an adult to solve your problem for you”

 

It is not up to Trump or anyone else to change VR’s soiled diaper or anyone else who wants to strike some moral equivalency. If you want to save the planet, grow up and stop using lift served resorts..period..or make some kind of sacrifice. Katz makes no attempt beyond the cosmetic “green washing” and from the other side of his rant, admits that VR hasn’t been doing its best to reduce its footprint.

But, now…NOW waving his mighty Excalibur in one hand and a severed head held-on-high in the other, our hero bravely sallies forth to do battle with the evil Orange Dragon. What pure twittery.

 

There was a saying when I was in the military. “If you wait for the drill sergeant to find something for you to do, you probably won’t like it”

So Rob, as you kick your arms and legs and hold your breath and cry and whine about Trump, be aware. Be aware that demanding the government do something that you can easily do yourself may have consequences you have not considered.

 

Should the Trump administration save the planet? You say yes so, you must be willing to accept any or all of the following;

Are you willing for a government to tell you the Epic Pass is only good for 15 days a year per customer?

Or, that you may not travel more than 100 miles to ski?

Or that your resort can only be open 4 days per week?

How about opening on January 1st and closing on March first?

How about a mandatory 50% reduction in snow making?

Multi Resort passes incentivize more carbon guzzling travel. Those should be made illegal. You know, to save the planet. Think globally, Ski locally!”

No, you won’t take any of those steps to save the planet, will you? You think grabbing a keyboard and frothing at the textual mouth is sufficient to the moment.

Like every other self serving child you demand that someone else take action, someone else make the sacrifice. There is no courage in your alleged convictions, no moral clarity, no action, just more solar cells and green paint.

Well screw that. If you believe in saving the planet so much that you are willing to alienate customers, close one resort next season or each resort one day per month..or something..or shut up about it.

The US goal was a 25% reduction in energy consumption so tell us how you are going to do that. You better have a plan. If you supported PA you must have already planned a 25% reduction, right? That crazy bastard Trump just might make you do it anyway. Right? Just because he pulled out of the PA does NOT mean he won’t do something unilaterally. 

 

Of course you won’t do any of those things voluntarily, but when you leave it up to a government to solve your problems for you, when you put the decision in someone else’s hands, those are only a few of the obvious solutions governments can implement. You put yourself in the position of the lazy recruit and the drill sergeant. You may not like the outcome. You put the entire industry at risk.  

 

As I said previously, perhaps Katz should be thanking Trump for sparing his enterprise for another 4 or 8 years from the ravages of predatory environmentalism.

 

If I were him, I would shut it down to a whisper and enjoy skiing while I can. Stop talking and DO something meaningful. Flying around talking about what OTHER people should do is not a productive action. Posting on Facebook is not productive either. It’s just one can of green paint in a world that needs 10 million solar panels…

Only about a third of the nations that signed the accord have lift served snow sports. The other 130 could care less about the ski industry. The global powers envisioned by the authors of the Paris Accord put the industry ONE edict away from shutting down the Alps or Whistler or…..ONE edict…one moment of brain gas….one bribe from a foreign government

If we look at the recent tumble by the NFL, and ESPN, the catz may well have just stepped in the litter box. Share holders in Vail Resorts have to be concerned that their CEO may create that “Dixie Chick” moment. Time will tell.

In the mean time wipe your paws and leave them off the keyboard. You aren’t doing anything positive for yourself, your shareholders, your customers, your employees, the industry, the country or the planet. I know that now because you just told the whole world on Facebook that you haven’t been doing your best.

America has been busily exporting it’s middle class and it has already had a negative impact on the numbers. What middle class that remains is quickly being priced out of lift-served snow sports. Pissing off a large chunk of the remaining available market makes no sense.The King may be handsomely dressed, but from here it just looks like another naked ass…