Two weeks ago, I wrote a piece suggesting that the clouds of war were gathering within the United States against its solar industry. I warned that opponents of the industry were gathering together, joining forces and were planning to wage war against the industry. I warned that they would fight us everywhere — from the national level, where they would cut funding, to introducing legislation in every state to continue their scorched-earth policy.
That piece generated a little, um, controversy (you have to go read the comments to find out how people reacted). I was labelled a Communist, a Socialist and a Marxist (by people who didn’t seem to have actually read Marx or understood the context of when and about what he was writing. I developed my addiction to coffee doing just that — but I digress). I was accused of using overblown and alarmist language.
Well, you may not like it, but you know what? It turns out I was more right than even I imagined.
The Guardian, a British newspaper known for its excellent investigative reporting, published an explosive expose on concerted efforts of some of the most well-known conservative groups in the United States to sabotage President Barrack Obama’s clean energy strategy with coordinated subversion through dirty tactics, including setting up dummy corporations to launch anti-wind and anti-solar campaigns (you can read the entire memo for yourself if you can stomach it).
From the Guardian:
A number of rightwing organisations, including Americans for Prosperity, which is funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, are attacking Obama for his support for solar and wind power. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which also has financial links to the Kochs, has drafted bills to overturn state laws promoting wind energy.
The Koch brothers, in case you’re unaware, own the largest privately held oil company in the world, so you can imagine that their funding of these groups is not philanthropic — it’s in their best business interests to fight against renewable energy. And ALEC, well, you can read about them here.
Separately, these armies would put up a good fight, but their strength would be splintered and less effective. But now, according to the Guardian, there’s a new group that will help coordinate the effort:
The strategy proposal was prepared by a fellow of the American Tradition Institute (ATI) – although the thinktank has formally disavowed the project.
………..
The proposal was reviewed by John Droz Jr, a senior fellow at ATI, for discussion at the Washington meeting, which he also organised. ATI’s executive director, Tom Tanton, said Droz had acted alone on the memo, although he confirmed he remains a fellow at the thinktank.
………..
ATI is part of a loose coalition of ultra-conservative thinktanks and networks united by their efforts to discredit climate science and their close connections to the oil and gas industry, including the Koch family. Those groups include the Heartland Institute, the John Locke Foundation, and Americans for Prosperity, the organising arm of the Tea Party movement.
ATI is a relatively new entrant, coming to national attention only last year when it filed lawsuits against climate scientists including Michael Mann and James Hansen.
The right-wing is not just fighting renewable energy on all fronts, but they’ve sworn to do it in unethical and dirty ways.
(As an aside, this is not a new strategy for conservatives. It dates back as far as Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign. There’s a special name for these tactics, but we’re a family magazine, so I can’t say it here. But if you want to know what I’m talking about, you can click on this link to find out).
With this clearly organized, coordinated attempts to destroy the solar industry, it becomes increasingly important for the solar industry to unite and fight back. If we allow them to gain momentum in this underhanded manner, then we will lose this fight and our industry will be destroyed.
I take to my commentary again today, as I did two weeks ago, to — plead, beg, demand — that those of you who aren’t already involved in this fight get ready — because the battle for the future of your industry is in your hands. As I wrote then:
You must hold your federal and state representatives accountable. Be evangelists for this industry everywhere you go — block parties, offices, churches. Wherever you have a chance to talk to people about the advantages of solar, do it. Urge your Facebook friends and Twitter followers to call their representatives to demand they stop this attempt to destroy your livelihood — and then after that, urge them to vote in November. Yes, it’s that important.
I’ve been called a partisan before, and it’s true. I’m a partisan for the best interests of the solar industry. I will always defend this industry when it is under attack, and this battle is just about to get more fierce. I will continue to fight the forces that would like to suck the life out of this industry by calling them out and asking all of you to help me hold them to account. We must do this — our livelihoods are at stake.
I’m ready to do battle with every fiber of my being — are you?
Chocolatini says
I remember using solar-powered calculators back in the mid-1980’s in class. I believe there were even hybrid calculators that used both solar and a battery. You would think today there would be tons of little products using solar as a hybrid energy source, even if it wasn’t the main source. Gadgets like cellphones and ipods could sure use them.
Perhaps someone could have invented a little solar-powered recharger for small devices such as cellphones and ipods by now?
You’d think with such old technology, this would have already been developed. But it’s like solar is nowhere to be found.
I was thinking about that today, and that’s why I did this search and found this thread. I do believe there is some corporate politics at work to suppress this technology to save the cherished fossil-fuel industry from competition.
andrewstreit says
Let’s not call them conservatives anymore. To Con Serve is to preserve, to steward, it can even be tied to gardening. We would be better off branding them for what they are, greedy, Godless/unethical, Ayn Rand followers. I don’t think we should engage in these RF tactics but calling them out is essential.
Charlie Bartlett says
Quite the opposite, I’d say. I don’t believe in entirely Randian principles myself, but one of the cornerstones of her ideas was free markets, and the rights of the individual business owner. The Conservative government is the opposite of Randian – it meddles and intervenes in matters that are none of its concern in exchange for money. This isn’t free market capitalism; it’s not even capitalism at all.
Kzipp says
This stuff makes me sick. Nice call out.
Ron says
Frank,
First, using “The Guardian” as an unbiased source is like me using Rush as an unbiased source. I wish you would address what the right wingers are really doing. We want to stop using tax dollars to build up solar or any type of energy source. It is up to your industry to make it affordable. When any energy source is more economical than oil, natural gas, coil or any other, than it will have all my support. I and the rest of consumers of energy in the United States need the most affordable source of energy. When we choose an energy source that is more expensive, it damages all the consumers and worse yet makes U.S. manufactures less competitive. I work for a small OEM that manufactures devices that work with cranes to lift and carry loads. This means we use electricity for welding equipment. Every additional cost that goes into making our equipment makes it more difficult to build here in the United States. My desire as a right winger is to get rid of all corporate taxes and all subsidizes. Let companies make a product that people want to buy and sell it.
Ron
HCTS says
So Ron, you are a confessed right winger, you’ve enjoyed decade upon decade of incentives for gas, oil, and coal and now you want to do away with all subsidies? That isn’t fair Ron. As a country we have underwritten the price of fossil fuels for so long people think its cheap, its not. The social costs of extraction far outweigh the cost of renewables. Solar is the best way to go and in order to make it get a good start it needs to be incentivized and as costs go down it can slowly be phased out.
Ron says
Frank,
You are not telling the truth when you say that the United States Government has given incentives for gas, oil, and coal. Every industry has expenses. As such, every industry wants to avoid paying taxes on the money received as revenue but spent on these expenses. Lefties do not like it that some of these expenses that big oil gets to write off are drilling new wells as research and development. They call these oil subsidies. There is no guarantee that that well will work, but we still want the company to try and find new resources of oil. That is why they get to avoid paying taxes on drilling wells. Solar gets to write off attempts of making more efficient or cost effective panels. They even get to do it at a higher percentage than oil companies get to write off drilling for wells. I’ve stated before that I actually support solar and wind for what they are good for so far. My step-father’s ranch uses them because it is not cost effective to get on the grid where they live. Solar Farms and Wind Farms are a complete waste of money and are only driving up the cost of power delivered to my home and the taxes I pay. Pressuring government to force up the cost of fossil fuels or giving incentives to alternatives is bad policy for the United States. It is even bad for you. It drives business out of the United States.
You should be an evangelist for cheaper energy, because that is what has fueled the ability for our country to make investments in alternative sources. These investments in R&D should continue, but the industry should not be propped up. When it has a product people want to buy, that is when the industry should take off. Solar and Wind have problems that they cannot supply energy 24 hours 7 days a week. Development of good storage systems need to mature along with these systems in order for them to work. Thermal storage, Zinc-Air, and others possible solutions are getting close, but they are not quite there yet. I am looking forward to a time when I can have an affordable solar system on my home and go off of the grid, but I will not do it when my state or my federal government is propping it up.
Ron
andrewstreit says
I AGREE WITH RON, The guardian is biased. Doesn’t matter though, the fact that there is momentum to undo the renewable energy industry is true. I have a conservative friend who was just instructed to move away from RE.
Also Ron why would I buy your crane equipment when the Chinese one is cheaper? The one from Vietnam is even cheaper. So if its always about money, (which is an artificial compact for two people to trade something of value) I doubt I would buy anything but movies and missiles from the US. I also agree that energy needs to be cheap. How do you propose we get there? Nuclear has 65 years of TAX PAYERS money and its still ain’t cheap. We invest in it because when fossil fuel runs out we don’t want to go back to eating what we kill. If we don’t start now when should we start?
Ron says
Andrew,
Would you buy our crane equipment or not? I do not know, our customers find value in what we build and therefore they purchase from us. We are not in a mass production equipment type business, so I do not even know if you could get it cheaper from overseas. Some items probably, but most of the items, no. We do have to compete with companies across the United States, and being in California is an advantage and disadvantage. The advantage is fewer competitors are here so we have a draw for more local businesses. The disadvantage is the high energy costs because of rules by our state.
We have cheaper energy available right now. Use it. As they run out or as other advances occur in other sources switch to them. The spigot for oil is not going to just turn off at day 5,165 from now. The production of crude oil will slow driving up the price making other energy sources better values. We just cannot afford to make energy in the U.S. higher because it does drive industry out, which takes jobs with it.
As far as nuclear power goes, it is expensive because enough of our citizens and therefore our government turned against it. Europe and Japan did not go to nuclear power becuase it was expensive. It is regulations that make it expensive. Just like the current administrations promise to make coal plants too expensive to operate. It is a desire of the left for the United States to use less energy because they do not think it is fair to the world. President Obama said as much when he was campaigning for president and said that we need our thermostats higher during the summer. As long as I am willing to pay for the energy, what business is it to the federal government what my thermostat is set at.
Ron
HCTS says
Thanks for sounding the alarm Frank. In WV we have a senator who also has ties to ALEC and is a Democrat who replaced dearly beloved Robert Byrd after his passage. He mentioned Solyndra the other day at a reception and I read him the riot act, he feigned innocence but now I know that it was scripted, thanks alot and I will be on the front lines of this so-called war.