Blinded by Bad Science

Blinded by Bad Science

July 28, 2006

Corporations from a variety of industries are funding a coordinated, multi-faceted propaganda blitz attacking global warming science. Some of the details were revealed in a memo by the Intermountian Rural Electric Association (IREA), a small electric cooperative in Colorado that purchases electricity from coal-based power plants, distributed "to the more than 900 fellow members of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association." The memo, written by IREA general manager Stanley Lewandowski, expresses fear that government action on global warming could impact the profitability of coal-based power generation. In response, Lewandowski says it is necessary to “support the scientific community that is willing to stand up against the alarmists.” One problem: there is no "scientific community" that disputes the basic science on global warming. Their solution is to pay climatologist Pat Michaels $100,000 to do their bidding (they are seeking more funding as well). The effort to fund Michaels is described in the memo as part of a larger effort to distort global warming science.

• Pat Michaels’ arguments against global warming are not credible. Pat Michaels is a climate scientist based at the University of Virginia. John P. Holdren, a Harvard scientist, told the Senate Republican Policy Committee that Michaels has “published little if anything of distinction in the professional literature, being noted rather for his shrill op-ed pieces and indiscriminate denunciations of virtually every finding of mainstream climate science.” In 2003, Michaels famously “proved” that global warming was mostly hype by mixing up degrees and radians. In 2004, Michaels told Business Week, “We know how much the planet is going to warm. It is a small amount, and we can’t do anything about it.” This year, Michaels completely misrepresented a study by Curt Davis to falsely claim that Antarctica has been gaining ice in recent years.
  
  
• Tax dollars are paying for propaganda attacking global warming science. The Intermountain Rural Electric Association, like all electric cooperatives, is federally subsidized. So when the IREA gives $100,000 to Pat Michaels, some of that comes from federal taxpayers. The group that is being exploited the most is the IREA's 130,000 "members," who finance the cooperative — and Michaels’s $100,000 payday — with their electricity bills. Lewandowski admitted he did not inform his members, who he supposedly represents, before paying Michaels.
  
  
• There is a broader effort at work to dispute the facts of global warming. In the memo, Lewandowski also described larger efforts to distort global warming science. According to Lewandowski, "Koch Industries is working with other large corporations including AEP and the Southern Company on possibly financing a film that would counteract An Inconvenient Truth." According to the memo, Koch Industries will also finance a coalition attacking global warming science "administered by the National Association of Manufactures." The memo also stresses the importance of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), an anti-global warming science "think tank" heavily funded by Exxon Mobile and other corporations, in these efforts.