The Denier Industrial Complex (Click to Enlarge)

Two leading scholars have written an excellent analysis of what I’ve been calling the Denier Industrial Complex.

Riley E. Dunlap, a sociology professor at Oklahoma State, and Aaron M. McCright of Michigan State call it the “climate change denial machine” in their book chapter, “Organized Climate Change Denial,” for the new Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society.

In a note, the authors explain:

The actions of those who consistently seek to deny the seriousness of climate change make the terms “denial” and “denier” more accurate than “skepticism” and “skeptic,” particularly since all scientists tend to be skeptics.

Some try to downplay the central role of the denial machine in U.S. politics, but the fact is that what the deniers have accomplished in this country is unique in the world, going far beyond the spread of disinformation.  They have allowed fossil fuel interests to “capture” almost an entire political party — at least these in national office (see National Journal:  “The GOP is stampeding toward an absolutist rejection of climate science that appears unmatched among major political parties around the globe, even conservative ones”).

In this country, the power of the Denier Industrial Complex is magnified by the absurd extra-constitutional, super majority “requirement” for 60 votes in the Senate.  As long as the machine operates and Republicans in office lack the guts to challenge it, the chances of serious climate action remain severely limited.

Here is the conclusion of this important article:

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On Saturday, our Nobel prize-winning Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, slammed those who want to gut clean energy programs:

Chu dismissed criticism from those who he said “are ready to wave the white flag and declare defeat.”

The United States faces a choice, he said, to sit on the sidelines or try to win the “clean energy race” with China, Germany and other countries.

He said the U.S. “can’t afford not to” invest in clean energy.

“It’s not enough for our country to invent clean energy technologies, we have to make them and use them, too,” Chu said. “Invented in America, made in America and sold around the world. That’s how we’ll create good jobs and lead in the 21st century.”

Chu was speaking at the Solar Decathlon where collegiate teams from around the world compete to build model solar homes.  He didn’t mention the over-hyped Solyndra story by name, but he defended the tremendous value the loan program brings to Americans:

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Price fixing; bribery; safety failures; investigation cover-ups: These are just a normal part of business at Koch Industries, according to a detailed investigative report released yesterday by Bloomberg News.

Koch Industries — the biggest funder of climate science denial and anti-clean energy causes — has a long history of illegal or borderline-illegal behavior that has allowed it to become a major global energy player:

For six decades around the world, Koch Industries has blazed a path to riches — in part, by making illicit payments to win contracts, trading with a terrorist state, fixing prices, neglecting safety and ignoring environmental regulations. At the same time, Charles and David Koch have promoted a form of government that interferes less with company actions.

Koch Industries is a diversified energy, chemicals and textiles manufacturing company with over 50,000 employees in the U.S. As we’ve detailed numerous times on this site, the company has been a leading backer of sham studies, fake front-groups and television attack ads against environmental regulations, renewable energy promotion and carbon-reduction policies.

The pollutocrat Koch Brothers are now worth $50 Billion and are poised to become the richest men in America, as Climate Progress reported last week.  The Koch Industries’ involvement in stopping progress on environmental issues is well documented. But this latest expose details exactly how the Kochs made their money:  Numerous incidents over the company’s history show how far the company will go to get what it wants.  It would make the Robber Barons proud.

The Bloomberg story highlights a series of internal decisions by company executives to circumvent the law and intimidate employees who raised concerns about the company’s actions. One former Koch Industries employee called the practices “The Koch Method” — with managers showing subordinates “how to steal and cheat.”

Koch Industries units have also rigged prices with competitors, lied to regulators and repeatedly run afoul of environmental regulations, resulting in five criminal convictions since 1999 in the U.S. and Canada.

The company’s actions range from toxic dumping to illegal trade with Iran. When reading through the vast list of transgressions, it’s no wonder Charles and David Koch are so ardently anti-regulation — any sensible government involvement would hurt their business model based on the “Koch Method.”

According to the Bloomberg Story, the Koch Method includes deliberately working around a trade ban with Iran — a country that former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have labeled a threat to national security:

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In July, Spain’s Gemasolar concentrating solar power plant became the first solar project to generate electricity for 24 hours straight. The 19.9 MW Gemasolar plant features power tower technology with molten salt storage that allows a steam turbine to run for 20 hours each day on average. The plant will generate about 110 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year — almost triple what an equivalent solar photovoltaic plant would produce.

CNN had a good piece this weekend looking at how the plant works. It’s worth a watch:

Related Post: “Concentrated solar thermal power — a core climate solution“

“Consistently appearing in first place in overall standings throughout the competition, the University of Maryland won the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced the competition results Saturday before an excited audience that packed the main tent in the solar village.” The WaterShed house won by combining affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency. Purdue University took second place in the competition, and New Zealand (Victoria University of Wellington) received the third-place award.

University of Maryland President Wallace Loh offered the winning team his heartfelt congratulations:

The innovation, creativity, skill, vision, cooperation, determination, and, yes, energy displayed by this team is both remarkable and a joy. I couldn’t be more proud of their work and accomplishment. These students, faculty and mentors have dedicated themselves to addressing critical needs of Maryland, the nation, and other countries. They’re the perfect example of what a public research university is all about.

After nearly 100,000 votes were cast, Appalachian State University won the Solar Decathlon People’s Choice Award for its Solar Homestead house. This award gives the public the opportunity to vote for its favorite house. This year, 92,538 votes were cast. Appalachian State also won second place in the Communications Contest and third place in the Architecture Contest. Appalachian State University is located in Boone, North Carolina.

by Lee Fang, in a Think Progress special report

Republicans have seized on the Solyndra controversy to go on a witch-hunt against all clean energy programs authorized by the Department of Energy. Instead of narrowly scrutinizing the loan that subsidized Solyndra, a company that utilized a Republican-created program and had initially gained approval from the Bush administration, Republicans are on a war path to defund all clean energy programs — despite the fact that these Republicans previously were proponents of the program when it helped clean energy companies in their districts. As Climate Progress’ Stephen Lacey has reported, Republicans are now expanding their inquisition to include killing a program that employs veterans to install solar panels.

As Lacey and others have reported extensively, Republicans have exploited Department of Energy clean energy programs for years without complaint. Some senators and representatives who voted to slash funds for ATVM (Alternative Technology Vehicle Manufacturing) loans previously urged the Department of Energy to speed up its approval process. Above, ThinkProgress compiled pictures of Republican lawmakers taking credit for DOE clean energy and green jobs grants:

– Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) congratulating Aqua Pennsylvania Inc. on winning a Department of Energy grant for a 1.1-megawatt solar farm.

– Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) attending the groundbreaking for Sustainable Energy Options for Rural Nebraska, a project funded in part by the Department of Energy.

– Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) speaking at the opening ceremony for the Center for Advanced Energy Studies, a clean energy research laboratory funded by the Department of Energy.

ThinkProgress has also compiled a report showing 62 Republicans filing letters requesting money from the Department of Energy for a range of clean energy programs, from the loan subsidy program tapped by Solyndra to other related programs disbursed by the agency. Many of the following lawmakers have since either taken transparently political votes to cut clean energy programs or have denounced all clean energy grants as fraudulent:

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TransCanada Pipeline Foes Allege Bias in U.S. Emails

With the Obama administration about to decide whether to green-light a controversial pipeline to take crude oil from Canada’s oil sands to the United States Gulf Coast, e-mails released Monday paint a picture of a sometimes warm and collaborative relationship between lobbyists for the company building the billion-dollar pipeline and officials in the State Department, the agency that has final say over the pipeline.

Environmental groups said the e-mails were disturbing and evidence of “complicity” between TransCanada, the pipeline company, and American officials tasked with evaluating the pipeline’s environmental impact.

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TransCanada, the company seeking Obama administration approval to build the Keystone XL pipeline to bring Canadian tar sands to Texas refineries, has used a former Hillary Clinton campaign official to lobby the State Department, in a “cozy and complicitous relationship.”

New emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Friends of the Earth refer to “multiple meetings between TransCanada officials and assistant secretaries of state,” while that access was denied to environmental groups seeking input. In one exchange, a State Department official tells her friend Paul Elliott, the TransCanada lobbyist who used to work for Hillary Clinton, “at the end of the day it’s precisely because you have connections that you’re sought after and hired”:

“We are committed to a fair, transparent and thorough process,” State Department official Wendy Nassmacher told the New York Times, noting the State Department had conducted hearings along the route of the proposed pipeline. The hearings were managed by a private company that works for TransCanada. The final public hearing on the pipeline is taking place in Washington, DC on Friday.

by Bob Inglis, via Bloomberg

Normally, the country can count on conservatives to deal in facts. We base policies on science, not sentiment, we insist on people being accountable for their actions, and we maintain that markets, not mandates, are the path to prosperity.

When it comes to energy and climate, these are not normal times.

We’re following sentiment, not science, we’re turning a blind eye to accountability, and we’re failing to use the power of markets.

The National Academy of Sciences says, “Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks.” Several recent studies have found that 95 percent of climate scientists are convinced that the planet is rapidly warming as a result of human activity. But a George Mason University-Yale University poll in May found that only 13 percent of the public realizes that scientists have come to that conclusion.

You would expect conservatives to stand with 95 percent of the scientific community and to grow the 13 percent into a working majority. Normally, we deal in facts, we accept science and we counter sentiment — as we do when we stand for free- trade agreements, for entitlement reform and against minimum- wage increases. Each of those positions gets us in trouble with sizable constituencies, and yet we stand for the truth as we know it — that free trade increases our nation’s wealth, that entitlements are consuming the federal budget and that minimum wages create unemployment.

Courage fails us when it comes to energy and climate. Fearing our economic circumstances, we’ve decided to channel the fear rather than to confront it.

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Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and bête noire of climate change activists around the world, has been told that the incoming Danish government will cut off his £1m a year funding.

It’s not been a good 12 months for the Danish delayer.

About a year ago he flip-flopped his core belief, asserting “Climate change is undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today.” Presumably  he did that to widen his appeal before  the launch of his big effort at mass miscommunication, Cool It.

But the documentary still went down as one of the great box office bombs.  According to Box Office Mojo, after grossing a whopping $58,179 in its debut month of December, it grossed $4, 534 from 12/1 to 12/24 before it was pulled from theaters.  That would be $189 per day, or roughly $24 per theater.

Ouch!  You don’t have to be a statistician like Lomborg to figure out that nobody watched and somebody has lost a bundle of money.  Still, it managed to be the 435th highest grossing documentary of all time, edging out such classics as “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” (444) and “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front” (439).  Hmm.  If a documentary film is made and nobody watches it, does it make a sound?

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