BREAKING: ‘Anti-Lobbyist’ Obama Administration Recruited Left-Wing Lobbyists to Sell Bogus ‘Green Jobs’
When the two studies had appeared, I wrote:
In the face of some recent pushback — for example, from the studies out of Spain and Denmark referenced in this space on numerous occasions — the windmill welfare queens over at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) have been cranking up the snivel volume to eleven.
Reading the group’s press releases it does seem that they even had a hand in getting the president of the United States to sic a taxpayer-funded agency on a foreign academic study about a foreign country’s experience with its own policies, because said academic team and its writings threaten the welfare if the word gets out.
Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, we now know that the assertion was correct. The Obama administration produced this denunciation at the behest of, and with the active participation of, the wind energy’s lobby.
The first sign that something improper had occurred came when NREL responded to media inquiries claiming that the paper was entirely the DoE’s idea, while the DoE’s Office of Congressional Affairs wrote to a Senate oversight office to claim that it was all NREL’s doing.
As I noted in my FOIA requests to both DoE and NREL:
We note that one of two co-authors of the above-cited NREL paper, which paper attests that “This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government,” is on record in an E&E News story announcing of the project, “DOE requested the analysis be performed.”
However, DOE Congressional Affairs is on record saying the following:
NREL initiated the report on their own as part of their on-going analytical role to assess emerging issues and monitor external studies and develop internal memos or external documents to address research that is at odds with DOE/EERE scientific understanding.
We therefore seek documents revealing the origins of the effort and clarifying the alternating, mutually exclusive claims of NREL saying DoE told me to do it and DoE telling Congress that it was all NREL’s idea, fully aware of of DoE’s extant protestations to congressional offices that the above-cited paper is of like kind with other NREL products (noting here that no paper DoE cites is comparable on any level [citations omitted]).
The question “which time are you lying?” came to mind, though it was not at all clear that the answer could not be “both.” The FOIA documents — 900 pages, so far — show great internal concern among high level DoE political appointees when this question was pressed, and a resistance to put the answer in writing.
The provided documents conclude with emails citing late-night phone calls to get the story straight, and calling — with “high importance” — a meeting at 9:00 a.m., September 22, 2009, in the office of Ms. Zoi’s chief operating officer, Steven Chalk. The meeting was called to “huddle up” face-to-face to put things straight.
Congressman James Sensenbrenner wrote to Ms. Zoi two days later, asking five specific questions about how and by whose instruction this NREL paper was produced. On January 6, 2010, Zoi wrote back with a one-paragraph reply which either failed or refused to provide answers to any of the queries.
We now know that the prospect of such answers seeing the light of day was clearly of great concern to the DoE. This raises the question of whether, by refusing to share information sought by the ranking Republican on the House Select Committee on Global Warming, Ms. Zoi lied to or misled a member of Congress exercising his legitimate oversight function.
Over the coming days I will produce specifics of these internal emails and emails between the administration and the windmill lobby (think numerous European companies, not merely a few utilities and GE).
This should not be a suprise to anyone. Cover up to allow unimagiable amounts of theft from the American people.
Obama, Gore, Soros etc. etc. A sad day indeed for the honest hardworking people of this great country.
I don’t see what the problem is. Ms. Zoi is consistently helping green energy businesses. http://spectator.org/blog/2010/01/22/beck-on-obamas-weatherization
This is “breaking”?
More like… broken record…
Windgate? (sorry, had to)
New Headline, then: “Breaking: Windgate”
Chris, thanks for the great work. Cumulatively, the lies, distortions and obfuscations of this administration are truly terrifying.
It’s so blatantly obvious after only a little over a year that Obama and the fellow radicals he has in his administration will do whatever it takes to advance their radical left agenda. Whether the majority of Americans agree with it or not. Rules? Just annoying obstacles to circumvent. Honesty? If you ain’t lying, you ain’t trying. 2012 seems so far away…
How about just looking at the Palm Springs wind energy scam as an example. It’s all about tax deductions and renewable energy credits. They don’t actually provide much electricity.
So, the administration says ‘lack of rigor’ and ‘consensus economics’ make this study flawed. But, those same qualities in the IPCC report are just fine.
I am shocked, shocked, I tell you.
A “breaking” wind story, er, “breaking” wind-power story.
Appropriate, somehow….
Breaking Windgate. The corruption is settled.
I’m sure that the SEIU’s Andy Stern – as a newly appointed member of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform – will sort this out in no time.
“The Spanish paper applied “consensus economics.””
Consensus science good, consensus economics bad.
Bravo, Mr. Horner! Thank you for your efforts on behalf of the republic.
Would that you had an army of citizens at your command to shine lights on the roaches swarming through this administration.
And where are a few good journalists on this? sigh.
Godspeed.
Soros’ involvement confuses me. Given his extreme holdings in oil/gas (see http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=66288 ), what would he have to gain from helping steer America into unproductive ‘Big Wind’?
Thank you Mr Horner, If we can fight long enough to beat back this presidents agenda by at least taking back the house we might win yet. More Americans are waking up thanks to sites like this. I still have faith. Not everybody writes in but a lot of people read. Who knows in time, like the man said in the movie ” somebody’s got to go to jail “
This can’t be true since I have not seen it reported on NBC,MSNBC , CNN, CBS, ABC, NY Time, Wash Post, and the rest of the “real” media…..
I look forward to reading the outcome of this New Age wind of lies. Soros, Goracle, and the One on the same team does not look good for the American tax payer.
So what is the real agenda behind the wind farms? Is it so that the government can easily confiscate the land when they eventually take over energy? The environmentalists who would normally be outraged about the interference with bird flight are ominously silent. Why? There are parts of this picture that are not adding up, and yet there has to be a purpose that goes beyond “clean energy” since they have not proven to be a sufficient source of power.
When my family that owns much farmland in the mid-west were approached, they were told to never come back and ask again. No matter how many greenbacks they were holding up before their eyes.
#4 spiffo – Clever, but you have been upstaged.
I saw a shirt with the logo sWINDled on it. I presume you agree with me – BOTH terms apply to crooks and swindlers perpetrating the “green” revolution.”
I like to think the “green revolution” means that Tea Party Patriots will take back greenbacks stolen out of our wallets every day by the political class – primarily Democrats, and certainly ALL liberals.
Liberalism is a disease that must be eradicated, and SOON.
We need to use WIND Power to replace imported petroleum.
Since automobiles use so much refined petroleum (gasoline) … the solution is obvious:
Replace automotive internal combustion engines with SAILS.
Sorry I was late this morning. Had to drive against the wind.
So? You may think you are living in the United States of America, but it has been transformed into the Democratic Peoples Republic of Farce, and farcical energy policies are the rule. Windmills were an astounding technical innovation — during the Middle Ages. Let’s recall Don Quixote did not tilt at internal combustion engines or nuclear reactors.
Another former lobbyist for several big utilities and energy projects, DAvid Hayes, is Obama’s # 2 man at Dept of Interior where he has lots of influence on the Bureau of Land Management where millions of acres are being processed on a fast track for virtual give-away to foreign and domestice sWINDlers. Some of these projects are the same that he promoted as a lobbyist. They swear he quit lobbying two years before his appointment, but you know his old clients get easy access to his office and his influence.
The feds are busy changing land use zoning to allow for these industrial uses and new utility corridors through designated critical habitat for endangered species, forest land, recreation areas, and rural communities. They know that most of the big enviro groups are blinded by the greenwash and are supportive of these big wind rip-offs. That leaves our grassroots groups trying to raise enough money to force the federal and state agencies to comply with the law on these monster projects of 6,000, 15,000 or more acres–each! We are attempting to fight-off half a dozen projects in our rural area. If only we had the money to hire an army of investigators to root out all the muck for disclosure on these backroom deals and tax and rate payer rip-offs, and the attorneys to back us up. Most folks are not even aware of the magnitude of the problem in Southern California,across the nation and the globe. We will be paying for this scam for generations in a variety of ways including the loss of beautiful public lands and our property values.
Brenda, Soros knows something that Obama and Gore don’t. Wind will never, ever be a significant factor in our energy budget. Therefore, his oil and gas investments are solid as a rock. Likewise, T Boone PIckens. They know that this is a scam but there is money to be made.
In economics, it’s called “rent seeking.” They can sidle up to these fools and grab a piece of the action while the rest of us subsidize it with high energy prices. Soros has always been about #1 and is completely immoral. He will make money from the left wingers while they are throwing around taxpayer money. When that scam collapses, he will find something else.
So look where Van Jones ends up…
Unfortunately, penicillin will not cure liberalism.
I’m in the oil & gas exploration business, I occasionally run across a farmer who was scammed into letting these crooks set windmills on their property. The sales pitch is slick,,, what they don’t mention is that there is a concrete slab foundation about the size of a football field under each one of those ugly monsters, rendering a large amount of land virtually unusable forever.
Not very green in the long run, but very profitable in government grants and tax credits. I’m also sure that in the life expectancy of a windmill it probably will never show a profit from electricity produced.
This implies that, according to the DoE, wind industry lobbyists and Soros’s Center for American Progress are — for legal purposes — extensions of the government.
I think it would be more accurate to say that the DoE, as part of the Executive Branch, is an extension of Soros’s organization.
Have a friend who used to put up power sub-stations. He says that wind energy is a bad joke and he knows what he is talking about.
Brenda, another reason Soros and other big investors in natural gas like wind is that it will be the fuel of choice for conventional plants that must be used to backstop and balance wind power on the grids. In simple terms, the more wind power on the grid, the more gas will be used to cover it. Mike K is also right in saying that wind will never produce a large percentage of the country’s electricity (just enough to ruin millions of acres of landscape and enrich wind developers). So Soros wins on both counts.
OR
BREAKING wind, for fun and for profit, by Van Jones.
Why we’re not marching on DC with pitchforks and torches is beyond me!! Any elected official or appointed bureaucrat who tries to thwart or impede any FOIA request not related to national security should be immediately fired and criminal charges pursued. If there is not a law on the books making it possible to charge them in some way, there ought to be!!!!
‘Green jobs, Santa Claus and Unicorn Land’
http://bjdurk.newsvine.com/_news/2010/02/26/3954003-green-jobs-santa-claus-and-unicorn-land-
W. Eugene Goodrich,
You’re absolutely right in your wind assessment being unable to harbor, store electricity on a mass scale.
In Unalaska/ Dutch Harbor 2 different wind research companies came to the island to test their products.
The Aleutian Islands are one of but a few Alaskan areas who can boast of low mosquito populations due to nearly always being breezy, windy.
Both companies pet projects bombed to produce any substantial results.
I’ve colleagues in Cheyenne and Casper, WY as well. Windy areas as well. Suffice to say Wyoming’s wind energy pet projects are an utter failure also.
Until wind technology is PROVEN able to take the reins of oil, gas industry – it should stay in the experimental phase and improved upon.
“green jobs” like algae harvesting and boiling of biomass pay how much? Minimum wage? That can’t be – so the gov’t will ahve to subsidize those fields as well.
As Rush Limbaugh has so succinctly said on many occasions: “Liberalism is a lie.” It’s proven over and over again.
I continue to be amazed by the wide-ranging number of ways this administration so tirelessly pushes its society-destroying agenda. Its tentacles are everywhere.
It’s really rich that the BHO administration trashes the Denmark and Spanish wind energy studies because of “lack of rigor” and “concensus economics [i.e., science]“, which is exactly what the EPA used for their CO2 endangerment finding. Apparently, it was OK then, but not now.
“This raises the question of whether, by refusing to share information sought by the ranking Republican on the House Select Committee on Global Warming, Ms. Zoi lied to or misled a member of Congress exercising his legitimate oversight function.”
Isn’t that “burying the lede?”
You’re the attorney, Chris. Whate are the possible penalties for lying to congress, again? Maybe Scooter Libby would know.
Thank you Chris Horner and CEI for your diligence in this matter. Please do go on to understand and report on the technical and environmental fallacies of the wind business. Without all three chapters of this book, the prudent policy changes may not occur.
Penicillin won’t cure liberalism, but “hydrogen-barrackside” kills conservatism!
http://unconstrainedtruth.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/hydrogen-barackside-political-cartoon/
I figured wind was a loser. After doing some research I was surprised at just how much of a losing proposition it really is. It hasn’t been successful anywhere that I’ve seen. When I now see a windmill (excuse me… wind turbine) I think of it as the libs’ pagan monuments to Gaia. The wind born boon in “green jobs” will come in about 20 years when they finally figure out that it’s time tear these by then delapidated monstrosities down.
As far as Obama & Soros (BHO’s boss) “rubbishing” the Spanish and Danish studies if Wind was a reliable, efficient, and profitable enterprise it would be manifestly evident to all. Dreaming up justifications wouldn’t be necessary.
Georges Soros and Al Gore are beloved names of the environment industry. Soros funds Moveon.org, Sierra Club and other alarmist environmental groups. The name, Al Gore, speaks for itself: corrupt and a failure. These two men really don’t have anything good to say about anything if it obstructs their profiteering. Several weeks ago, Soros, the popular hedge fund investor, said that the “price of gold is in a bubble state,” hoping that the price of gold would fall. After the announcement, he was actually investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold and gold ETFs. Manipulation at its best!
No surprise that either man would denounce the Spain and Danish studies.
There should be plenty of real green jobs.
The “carbon trading markets” are projected to reach $1 trillion turnover in short order, and 16 of the 20 partners at Al Gore’s Generation Management LLP are from Goldman Sachs.
Follow the money.
The development on midwest farmland is not getting enough attention. In Illinois we are facing intense wind development near rural residences. People assume the “farmers” live on the land. The truth is 65% of farmland in Illinois is owned by absentee landowners (Farm Bureau statistic). Farm families successfully educated their heirs who have escaped TO suburbia. The homesteads were sold to folks escaping FROM suburbia. Then the owners of the remaining larger parcels did a switcheroo on the unsuspecting homeowners by signing wind farm leases. Half of our rural residents are seeking somewhere else to live. The homes will be sold to folks with lower standards and lower incomes and lower education levels than our new neighbors from the burbs. It is very sad. I’m also concerned about who will wind up owning the farmland once the wind farms go bankrupt and the mandatory “decommissioning” begins.
There should be plenty of real green jobs.
For example ?
Amazing…
Consensus Economics is BAD
“– The Spanish paper applied “consensus economics.””
But consensus Science (ala IPCC etc) is ‘good’
It’s really funny to watch this crook Obama work.
We might not know his citizenship, but we sure do know he has no character.
Christopher Horner, thank you for keeping your persistence in this huge scandal the media continues to ignore. You’re a real hero for keeping us informed. I appreciate your work immensely.
You failed to provide a link to this “five-page talking points memo” or give any means of finding it. This makes it hard to judge the veracity of your claims. I did find a link to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and its list of publications. I cannot determine if any of the research articles there are related your claims. But people can at least read these studies for themselves and decide their value.
http://www.nrel.gov/wind/pubs_issues.html#impacts
A bit of hot air from downunder:
Save your city from a ruinous development. Here you will find information to protect the equity and saleability of your property, and at same time the environment you live in:
http://palmerstonnorth.blogspot.com/
In deference to Bob Dylan, can we refer to this as ‘IdiotWindGate’?
I read one comment above that couldn’t understand Soros’ involvement because of his big oil….etc….
Soros is as committed to the downfall of America as Obama himself is…and is a big funder in that regard…no one buys that green energy crap as a means to sustain a vibrant America….
These people are not interested in sustaining anything about capitalistic America….ya’ll simply need to awaken from your blue pills and grog….
As for me…they all stink…