49 Comments

"The ruling class denies its opponents’ legitimacy. Seldom does a Democratic official or member of the ruling class speak on public affairs without reiterating the litany of his class’s claim to authority, contrasting it with opponents who are either uninformed, stupid, racist, shills for business, violent, fundamentalist, or all of the above. They do this in the hope that opponents, hearing no other characterizations of themselves and no authoritative voice discrediting the ruling class, will be dispirited. For the country class seriously to contend for self- governance, the political party that represents it will have to discredit not just such patent frauds as ethanol mandates, the pretense that taxes can control “climate change,” and the outrage of banning God from public life."

-Angelo Codevilla

https://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=4725

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You can also say something like “Bill McKibben's insecurities come to the fore in his latest.....”

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These people don’t care about the truth and even less about people not part of their social group. They are focused on winning and at any cost.

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The German version of NPR also does a hit job on Robert, and uses the hopelessly flaky Mark Z Jacobson as an esteemed expert on "misinformation" about renewables.

https://youtu.be/k_Wa7v76k-U

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It would be interesting to know how the rejections compare with the total applications for the renewable rejection database. Especially if you could prove that there is a higher rejection rate in “blue” vs “red” states.

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McKibben lies all the time. Even Michael Moore called his out as a liar

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Robert I am sure if you check any of the green energy claims (such as Ca's 6000 mega watt claim) they all cite energy produced, not energy delivered. I have made an engineering evaluation of the green energy process and can say for certain that green energy cannot deliver any net energy to the consumer. McKibben is promoting a system that will not work and will cause great harm. If he were brought to Court he could be forced to pay Civil damages.

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One of the issues (as I see it, potentially one of the most-if not the most-important issues of the windustrialization of our oceans) that has been ignored is the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) generated by a huge network of electrical transmission cables which will bring electricity from offshore windmills (and the associated infrastructure) to onshore distribution networks. Virtually no research (in a very limited number of cases, and almost entirely focused on the adults of perhaps two dozen economically important) has been done on the impacts of these fields on the various life stages of the tens of thousands of vertebrate and invertebrate species that inhabit the areas where these transmission cables will be located, or on the potential impacts of these fields on the daily, monthly or annual migrations of the various life stages of these animals or their impacts on entire ecosystems, ecosystems which have evolved over eons.

The environmental community has used the so-called precautionary principle (in essence don't do anything until it's been proven that the proposed action will have no negative ecological effects) to tie the commercial fishing industry into knots by stifling innovation for at least the last two decades, but when it comes to building huge networks of electrical transmission cables on the sea floor it is strangely.

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After my Almer Twp, Tuscola County, MI was sued by NextEra in Federal Court, I've dedicated my time at educating others about the lies, half truths, partial truths and misleading and lack of information wind companies offer residents when they sneak into townships/counties in Michigan to spread their snake oil pitch about wind energy. Now, residents and township officials from across the state have asked for my help in fighting irresponsible siting of wind energy.

Need help with referendum or recall procdedure? I can help. Need help with protective wind ordinance language? i can help. No charge. After being sued, I didn't want other communities to go thru what Almer Twp went through back in 2016 and 2017.

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Good piece, Robert. I recommend your excellent book "Power Hungry" for anyone who wants to know more.

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Sad but not surprising, Robert.

In June of this year, we know someone who emailed McKibben to ask about his support for biomass.

They asked him about the scene from Jeff Gibbs "Planet of the Humans" (must see for those interested in the wind/solar/biomass debacle) where he crows over the new biomass plant at Middlebury College (VT) then a few years later ducks questions about biomass at a protest in NYC.

The answer they received was that he came around (flipped) on the issue many years before that film. He linked an article he authored in Grist titled "Burning Trees for Electricity is a Bad Idea".

Like you, we're worried about the impact of all this on the world's poorest..... food, energy, electricity. We address this in our 3 part series "Sacrificing Humanity on the Green Altar?"

Thank you for Power Hungry and for your writing. We think the tide is turning because of work like yours.

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Wow. McKibben was outed in the doc “Planet of the Humans”, and I see he’s still at it. We are in the thick of it, here in Mid Michigan, fighting against Big Solar in our rural neighborhood. Peter Sinclair of Midland, MI is our State’s version of McKibben. He appears at Planning Commission meetings all over the State, preaching all the same lies, while he admits to being a “consultant” to Ranger Power. He has no engineering or electrical expertise, and calls himself “an explorer and videographer”. Jacques Cousteau he is not.

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Same with grassroots efforts opposing mining for "critical minerals" for renewables, EVs, batteries, etc. We get smeared as being associated with the oil industry - it's nuts. All we want to do is protect the land.

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Monroe county Michigan was mentioned in the NYT article and the author spread misinformation about our actions here in Monroe. I belong to a group of grass root activists who are providing townships studies that are counter to the studies that solar and wind developers present to our township officials studies which are financed by the solar and wind industry. Not against solar or wind but it needs to be properly placed and not placed on ag land. The federal government states we haves future food shortages coming so why place these industrial developments on ag land. The author states the Koch brothers are financing some off these groups. Provide the facts, I can state 100% factually that no one is funding our efforts. Yet there is a group with a presentation called Solar 101 with a slick presentation. Interviewing numerous “experts”. I asked about their funding and the videographer sated at times he is paid by solar and wind developers for consulting. Not sure why a videographer would be consulted on this topic.

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Would love to find out if Dr. McKibben is concerned about net metering programs. Perhaps he and Dr. Borenstein could discuss their thought process(s) on the topic on your show.

"California is among the first movers on renewable energy, and the whole world is watching. If we do it right, we can show the pathway to equitable and cost-effective decarbonization. If we make it into an expensive mess, other states and countries will wonder if they can afford to follow. California’s rooftop solar bias is pointing us in the wrong direction."

REF-

Borenstein, Severin, “Rationalizing Compensation for Rooftop Generation”, Energy Institute Blog, UC Berkeley, December 14, 2022, https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2022/12/14/rationalizing-returns-to-rooftop-generation/

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