{"id":406576,"date":"2025-10-04T17:04:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T15:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=406576"},"modified":"2025-10-04T17:04:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T15:04:44","slug":"an-energy-trojan-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=406576","title":{"rendered":"An Energy Trojan Horse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Kevin Kilty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week an editorial in our small town newspaper was brought to my attention. It was entitled \u201cEnergy opportunities ignored, rate payer will pay more\u201d<\/a> and is most likely behind a paywall. It was, simply put, an awful editorial. It promoted all manner of unsupportable notions about energy generation and delivery. Just to give you a flavor of the editorial, I will quote one short section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost cities could get a majority of their power from solar and battery storage at a price similar to new gas plants. The costs of solar and batteries are coming down fast.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No data backs up any of these or similar claims. I mentioned in response that the authors missed that our utility bills have risen 46% in two years already, much of which is rising gas usage and cost related to balancing wind\/solar, and also to market purchases of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The piece focusses most of its energy, though, attacking the most recent Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) of our local utility for backtracking on promises made years ago to abandon fossil fuels. It urges people to write to our Public Service Commission (PSC) and ask it to emphasize ratepayer cost and public health in its decisions about energy generation. Somehow this will help them abandon fossil fuels or force the utility to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This opinion piece is unremarkably similar to an uncountable number of opinions expressed in the media each day. But my attention was not drawn to the piece itself, but to the writers\u2019 affiliations.  Both are members of the Citizen\u2019s Climate Lobby<\/a> and one additionally to an entity named republicEN.org<\/a>, which one of the writers of the opinion piece suggests is a \u201ccommunity of conservatives dedicated to free enterprise actions on climate change<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free enterprise I am generally all in favor of. However, what has conservative or progressive, or any other political orientation, have to do with energy generation and delivery? As Margaret Thatcher said long ago, \u201cthe facts of life are conservative\u201d<\/em><\/strong>, and the fact of life that most supports this statement is the very nature of energy. It is determined not at all by human affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, I was drawn into a closer examination of both Citizen\u2019s Climate Lobby and republicEN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citizen\u2019s Climate Lobby<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This group\u2019s website advertises two main initiatives: 1) Permitting reform, and 2) Nonpartisan Climate Advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Permitting reform is the idea that besides receiving hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies, clean energy (wind, solar, batteries) really could use the permitting rails greased for them as well. We can\u2019t do enough for clean energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonpartisan Climate Advocacy looks like vanilla flavored lobbying \u2013 better to label it advocacy of course. The \u201cnonpartisan\u201d label here is false as a person can see by the advisory board members. A few of these, like Dr. Silvia Earle, are minor environmental celebrities. I recall her being a spokesperson for Rolex, but she has founded or is connected to many other environmental advocacy groups as well. Dr. Steven Chu is a Nobel Prize winner. Michael Gerrard is a Director of Climate Change Law and Chair of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Climate Change Law, of course, provides advisory support for climate litigation and the writing of climate related regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow the path to the Earth Institute and what one finds is a long list of members who are, themselves, directors of other institutes, including NASA Goddard. What one learns quickly is how higher education can spend billions of dollars not educating anyone, but providing good paying jobs.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a very large web of connections. Pretty powerful ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RepublicEN<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This group\u2019s webpages<\/a> devote a lot of space to promoting their \u201cright wing\u201d advocacy \u2013 thus the play on the word \u201cRepublican\u201d in the group\u2019s URL. Anonymous testimonials speak of the members being Christian or Right-wing, but deeply concerned about climate change, and not science deniers, by the way. One might interpret the pitch crudely as \u201cplease join us in advancing progressive goals on climate change, and we will put you in an environment where we promise not to mock or harass you for your other beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out that republicEN is not an isolated group or a grass roots organization. It is a project of the\u00a0Center for Climate Change Communication<\/a>\u00a0at George Mason University (CCCC). Following the path to this group reveals another of their initiatives is something called\u00a0Climate Matters<\/a>. A headline project here is helping TV weathercasters and journalists report local climate change stories. Apparently, surveys done by CCCC have\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201crevealed that TV weathercasters are highly trusted sources of information about global warming. They also have unparalleled access to the public, and superior science communication skills.\u201d   <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your local weather personality is the Marcus Welby of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a link on this Climate Matters page, takes a person further into one of CCCCs other partners, Climate Central<\/a>. Here stories are produced for dissemination to local news organizations. There are only two things of particular note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, they promise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026We defer to our partners on most final editorial decisions, but insist upon scientific accuracy and context. If we can\u2019t reach agreement on the science in a story, we agree in advance that we will halt the project.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the opinion piece that started this effort is any indication, then accuracy falls short of this stated goal. The opinion piece was full of the usual flapdoodle about clean energy, prices, energy rates, and fossil fuels being horribly out of date as energy sources. OK; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) says otherwise, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, in terms of identifying for the public the origin of these stories they say\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe share bylines with print partners and ask broadcast partners to mention our partnership in their coverage.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This surely undermines trust between a media resource (print or TV) and its consuming public who have been conditioned to believe that news sources are independent. The general population are rapidly learning not to trust anything coming from the media. Climate Central\u2019s effort in this case is probably hurrying this erosion along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two organizations, one espousing its nonpartisanship, and the other promoting itself a \u201cright-wing\u201d or Republican, are revealed as increasingly progressive leftist as one peels away layers of other affiliations and partnerships. We may be the world\u2019s most viewed site about climate change, but we aren\u2019t nearly so organized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bigger lesson learned, though? Nullius in Verba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week an editorial in our small town newspaper was brought to my attention. It was entitled\u00a0\u201cEnergy opportunities ignored, rate payer will pay more\u201d\u00a0and is most likely behind a paywall. It was, simply put, an awful editorial. It promoted all manner of unsupportable notions about energy generation and delivery. Just to give you a flavor of the editorial, I will quote one short section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":406578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"Explore the complexities of energy advocacy and the political affiliations influencing climate narratives in today's media landscape.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Unveiling Energy Bias: A Closer Look at Climate Advocacy","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818564,691838554,691838552,691818056,691838551,691838553,691823217,691818728],"class_list":["post-406576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-batteries","tag-center-for-climate-change-communication","tag-citizens-climate-lobby","tag-climate-change","tag-integrated-resource-plan-irp","tag-republicen","tag-taxpayer-subsidies","tag-wind-and-solar","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQNuhUg9u9JphMA93cznyGJdmL0OgMpiNro9N07_Ve8AedYeg4WlRlRIgt8yZO6D-3fUs1wjEO_Tvjvatri2e1PkNLp4nW6kRyarpJlYpzzu_n1feIdeZOVafRPAei1T-1.png?fit=1440%2C810&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1HLG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":423404,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=423404","url_meta":{"origin":406576,"position":0},"title":"Facts Over Fear: Newspaper Editorial Shift shows Climate Realism Breakthrough in the UK","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/27\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"An article in the Carbon Brief (CB), \u201cUK newspaper editorial opposition to climate action overtakes support for first time,\u201d documents a clear shift towards climate realism in the United Kingdom: for the first time since CB began tracking editorials, more UK newspaper editorials are expressing skepticism towards the climate alarmist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Carbon Brief\"","block_context":{"text":"Carbon Brief","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-brief"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQOsefr3yDqN-vrNNk3-67S0PFnpHZTq7ZQilGZ-rIn3Mc9vagdXSkUa_0Roc81LQ5nSNQVE5MhgPHzEt0UL0QUphxUmJblZA3MIg3k5xez7aXv-5FuPruXRTtaJBuKq.jpeg?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQOsefr3yDqN-vrNNk3-67S0PFnpHZTq7ZQilGZ-rIn3Mc9vagdXSkUa_0Roc81LQ5nSNQVE5MhgPHzEt0UL0QUphxUmJblZA3MIg3k5xez7aXv-5FuPruXRTtaJBuKq.jpeg?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQOsefr3yDqN-vrNNk3-67S0PFnpHZTq7ZQilGZ-rIn3Mc9vagdXSkUa_0Roc81LQ5nSNQVE5MhgPHzEt0UL0QUphxUmJblZA3MIg3k5xez7aXv-5FuPruXRTtaJBuKq.jpeg?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQOsefr3yDqN-vrNNk3-67S0PFnpHZTq7ZQilGZ-rIn3Mc9vagdXSkUa_0Roc81LQ5nSNQVE5MhgPHzEt0UL0QUphxUmJblZA3MIg3k5xez7aXv-5FuPruXRTtaJBuKq.jpeg?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQOsefr3yDqN-vrNNk3-67S0PFnpHZTq7ZQilGZ-rIn3Mc9vagdXSkUa_0Roc81LQ5nSNQVE5MhgPHzEt0UL0QUphxUmJblZA3MIg3k5xez7aXv-5FuPruXRTtaJBuKq.jpeg?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":289301,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=289301","url_meta":{"origin":406576,"position":1},"title":"L.A. 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\u201cInstability of Fossil Fuels\u201d Grossly Distorted","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/27\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The L A Times long campaign of\u00a0politically driven and flawed climate\u00a0alarmism propaganda editorials which includes the Times incompetent and misrepresented claims for the year 2022 climate\u00a0outcomes as exposed in a\u00a0recent WUWT\u00a0article\u00a0(shown below) has now moved on to another contrived editorial falsely attributing the recent high\u00a0natural\u00a0gas prices in California to \u201cinstability\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1186.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1186.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, 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