A rural electric cooperative based in Sedalia, Colorado, the Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA) has a big investment in coal-fired power plants, according to ABC News. A broad consensus of scientists recognize burning coal as a heavy contributor to dangerous global warming through emission of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
ABC News obtained a copy of a nine-page document that IREA general manager Stanley Lewandowski Jr., sent members of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. In it, Lewandowski condemns carbon taxes and caps on greenhouse gases. He also admits using $100,000 in IREA customer money to fund Patrick Michaels, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia. Michaels, a Cato Institute senior fellow and author, is one of a handful of scientists who deny the impact of global warming and that human emissions of greenhouse gases are the primary cause.
Colorado consumer advocates have condemned IREA's contribution of customer money as a breach of trust and an extraordinary expenditure for a rural cooperative, especially without consulting the customers.
Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. pointed to IREA's action as part of "a well-organized and well-funded effort to undermine the science and cause confusion in the minds of the public," from which a few contrarians such as Dr. Michaels have benefited.
ABC News quoted Lewandowski as defending his expenditure, saying : "I'm trying to keep the low rates for our customers. And I'll do anything in my power to try and do that."
ABC News: Making Money by Feeding Confusion Over Global Warming
According to a March 26, 2006 piece by ABC News, a 1998 memo by the American Petroleum Institute said, "Victory will be achieved when ... average citizens recognize uncertainties in climate science." ABC News: Was Confusion Over Global Warming a Con Job?
These tactics are very familiar to anyone who followed the decades of disinformation tactics by Big Tobacco against public health advocates like the U.S. Surgeon General. Big Oil's memo sounds sadly like the internal tobacco company memo that stated: "Our product is doubt." American Lung Association of Minnesota: "Our Product is Doubt"
Thanks to Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » ABC News: A coal-happy Colorado electric company sends big money to global warming skeptic (July 27, 2006).
Posted by dougsimpson at July 27, 2006 07:54 PM