A Lie-laden Opposition to Renewable Energy
Saving the planet is, apparently, less important than quarterly profits
The worst winter storm since 2011 is currently hitting California, and I keep thinking about my natural gas bill every time the furnace next to my workstation fires up. January’s bill was nearly twice as much as December’s. Lots of other people got hit harder.
The future of energy production in this country is not about oil, gasoline, or so-called cleaner natural gas. Big corporations serving up dirty energy know this, but are doing their best to slow the transition whilst lining their pockets.
Enough people have solar panels at this point so that the arguments against them –except for land use questions– don’t get much play.
Wind turbines, on the other hand, have a spot high on former President Donald Trump’s hate list, which originates from his opposition to a project in Scotland that he felt would ruin the view from one of his golf courses.
So we get a litany of misinformation, repeated ad nauseam by Trump’s followers on right wing and social media: “disgusting looking,” “noisy,” “bad for people’s health,” “threaten the migration of birds, “ruining the beauty of parts of the country,” “bad for the environment,” “cause tremendous damage to their local ecosystems,” “a scourge to communities and wildlife” and new to the list is a sudden concern about the health of whales.
So much malarkey, so little time to push back against climate change.
Eventually we all will be replacing our gas fired systems with electrical ones. It won’t be cheap, but then again it’s not cheap when your water heater decides to drop its load through my bedroom ceiling. (This actually happened to us on Dec 17) When all the insurance claims are paid, I’d guess that breakdown will cost $14,000.
The good thing here is that ‘big gubment’ will likely help homeowners with these conversions.
The bad thing here is that Carl DeMaio and his clown crew at Reform California are using this (relatively–this ain’t North Dakota) bad weather to further a campaign against renewable energy. Yes, indeed, folks, send your money and your mailing address to Carl; rest assured this campaign will fail, as most of them have.
The really sad part of all this is that while DeMaio, et.al., are small fish, the dirty energy companies are pumping lots of money into efforts to get localities to ban construction of wind and solar facilities. And their disinformation-based campaigns are working, as hundreds of zoning boards and local units of government enact legislation and/or rules banish windmills and solar facilities to somebody else’s backyard. It’s a testament to how easy it can be to stoke Nimbyism in America.
Artificially inseminated “grassroots” citizen groups are popping up in places that have never seen any sort of activism, armed with nearly identical talking points designed to raise “concerns” about renewable energy projects.
One such group, Citizens for Responsible Solar was the subject of NPR/Floodlight reporting. It’s all clear as mud when it comes to discovering the source of their funding, since their legal work is handled by a boutique law firm specializing in distancing donors from their dirty deeds.
Looking into the group’s background, it’s uncanny how one finds so many of the same big name conservatives shilling for dirty energy, along with organizations like Americans for Prosperity, American Legislative Exchange Council, the Manhattan Institute, and the (Koch funded) CO2 Foundation.
In the Southeast US, one PR firm is hired by utilities to fight opposition to rate hikes and renewable energy projects. Its services include circulating misinformation on social media, background searches on sitting officials, and actually funding candidates favoring the positions taken by fossil fuel-based energy companies.
The State Policy Network, created as a local adjunct for the American Legislative Council, is behind carefully crafted disinformation campaigns that use terms common to environmental activist groups to sway voters.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation, for instance, attempts to mislead environmentally conscious voters into supporting a pro-fossil fuel agenda by co-opting the language of the progressive climate movement. Pro-dirty energy’s anti-climate extremism is disguised as pro-environmentalism, a common climate disinformation tactic called “woke-washing.”
From a special joint edition of HEATED and Distilled:
Still, the group’s long history of extreme anti-climate rhetoric speaks for itself. TPPF has called the fight against climate change “deluded and illegitimate;” has decried climate science as “alarmism,” and likened decarbonization to a “crusade.”
Last year, the group released an op-ed titled “Why Nobody’s Kids Need to be Scared of Climate Change,” which dismissed the dangers of warming while also arguing that nothing can be done to stop it.
Many of former President Trump’s environmental appointees came from TPPF; according to E&E News, those officials “overwhelmingly reject climate science, promote more fossil fuel consumption and have run campaigns downplaying the value of renewable energy subsidies.”
In California, The Pacific Legal Foundation (an associate of the State Policy Network) evolved from being apologists for tobacco interests to actively working on behalf of ExxonMobil to oppose environmental legislation. There’s also the Consumer Energy Alliance, which tells people it is pro-solar, but posts materials using fossil fuel company arguments against California climate change landscape.
The biggest upcoming battle will be over the 2024 ballot measure crafted by the dirty energy industry to overturn California’s setbacks law, SB 1137 which would prohibit new oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, nursing homes, and hospitals and require companies to adopt health, safety, and environmental requirements.
Gas & oil companies spent over $20 million via the California Independent Petroleum Organization (CIPA) for signature gathering. It was common to hear signature gatherers for the Stop the Energy Shutdown campaign falsely claim the measure would reduce gas prices and/or protect California jobs.
Given that 40% of the oil industry’s approved permits in California are valid but have not yet been used, and recent price increases are tied to the refining stage of gas production, the claim about lower gas prices doesn’t make sense. The employment argument makes little sense since gas & oil production has a limited future..
PCI Consultants, the same firm contracted by the fast food industry to overturn state legislation meant to improve fast food workers’ wages and working conditions, is in charge of the dirty energy campaign. Petition workers for that anti-labor campaign regularly claimed the law would destroy small businesses, when in fact it applied to companies with over 100 locations in California.
Get ready for 2024; it’ll be here soon than you can believe.
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