Cummins’ latest newsletter reeks like a back-alley deal gone sour. They’re peddling this “3-minute Power Up” as some kind of enlightenment pill – over a billion bucks sunk into low and zero-emissions tech, they crow, like that’s supposed to make us forget they’re the same outfit that’s been choking the planet with diesel fumes for decades. Bold innovation? Please. This is the energy equivalent of a chain-smoker swearing off cigarettes while lighting up another pack. Let’s peel back the layers on this glossy turd and see what’s really rotting underneath.
First off, that HELM™ platform they’re flogging – Higher Efficiency, Lower Emissions, Multiple Fuels. Sounds slick, right? Like a Swiss Army knife for the apocalypse. But dig a little: it’s built on a “common engine base” that guzzles diesel, natural gas, and yeah, throws in hydrogen for the eco-cred. Diesel? The stuff that’s been Cummins’ bread and butter, the very poison that’s landed them in hot water before. Remember that $2 billion fine they coughed up back in 2023 for rigging emissions tests on millions of trucks? Yeah, that was the – cheating the system to spew more NOx into the air while preaching reliability. Now they’re repackaging the same old internal combustion crap as “fuel-agnostic,” like slapping a green sticker on a coal mine makes it sustainable. It’s not revolution; it’s evolution at a snail’s pace, keeping one foot planted firmly in the fossil fuel swamp while dipping a toe in the clean pool. And hydrogen? Sure, it’s “green” if you ignore the massive energy suck to produce it, often from dirty sources anyway. Cummins talks big about reducing emissions by 90% in their Indian gensets, but that’s compared to their own outdated junk. Pathetic benchmark, fellas.
Then there’s the India puff piece, painting the country as this heroic underdog charging toward net-zero by 2070. Give me a break. India’s still 80% hooked on coal, chugging along as the world’s second-biggest consumer, and Cummins is right there, enabling the addiction with their “advanced diesel” tech. They boast about partnerships with Tata Motors for hydrogen engines and fuel cells, but let’s call it what it is: a PR bandage on a gaping wound. The government’s Bharat Stage standards? Tightened, sure, but enforcement’s a joke in a place where rural folks – 65% of the population – are still scraping by without reliable power. Cummins waxes poetic about green hydrogen hubs and smart grids, but who’s footing the bill? Taxpayers and international loans, while corporations like them rake in subsidies under schemes like the National Hydrogen Mission. And those public-private collabs? Just code for privatising profits and socializing the mess – job losses in coal mining, retraining programs that sound great on paper but leave workers high and dry. India’s energy demand is exploding, yeah, but Cummins’ “multi-faceted approach” is just a fancy way of saying they’re hedging bets, selling cleaner toys to the elite while the masses choke on imported oil and coal dust. Net-zero by 2070? That’s code for “kick the can down the road while we cash in.”
Oh, and don’t get me started on that Barbie podcast episode. “Power Onward: S1E6 – Barbie dreamhouse? More like powerhouse.” Jesus, what fresh hell is this? Accelera by Cummins – their zero-emissions arm-spinning yarns about hydrogen electrolysers and batteries turning Barbieland green. It’s cute, I’ll give ’em that, like a toddler’s finger painting of climate salvation. But underneath the pink veneer? A desperate grab for relevance, using pop culture fluff to mask the grind. They gab about reshaping industries with fuel cells and e-axles, backed by Cummins’ “secret weapon” of scale and funding. Secret weapon? More like a loaded gun pointed at the planet’s head. Accelera’s all hype about zero emissions, but they’re still tethered to a parent company that made $34 billion last year mostly off engines that belch CO2. The podcast hosts yammer on about policy incentives and infrastructure relays, admitting it’s a chicken-egg mess where tech’s ready but nobody’s buying in. No shit – because shifting to batteries means mining rare earths that devastate ecosystems in places like Congo, and hydrogen production guzzles water in drought-prone spots. Barbie’s dreamhouse running on this? It’d collapse under the weight of supply chain exploitation, from sweatshop labour in global manufacturing to the environmental carnage of lithium extraction. And that “resilient team” shoutout? Sounds like burnout central, pushing frontier tech that’s “not cheap” while the C-suite pockets the gains.
Cummins wraps it all in this “Power Onward” mantra – independence, scale, global reach – like they’re the lone rangers of energy transition. But independence? They’re knee-deep in government handouts, from FAME schemes in India to U.S. tax breaks for “clean” tech. Scale? Yeah, big enough to amplify the problems, with a history of emissions scandals that eroded trust faster than a monsoon washes out a dirt road. Global reach? Just means exporting pollution to developing nations while virtue-signalling at home. That $1 billion investment? Peanuts next to their profits, a drop in the ocean of the trillions needed for real change. They’re not leading; they’re lagging, throwing crumbs at sustainability while clinging to the status quo.
In the end, this newsletter isn’t a power-up; it’s a power grab, dressed up in eco-buzzwords to distract from the grime. Cummins wants you to believe they’re the heroes, but scratch the surface and you find the same old villains – profiteers in a dying system, peddling half-measures as miracles. The world’s demanding cleaner power, alright, but what they’re delivering is more of the same smoke and mirrors. Power onward? More like power outage.
Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project