The Shills, Cape Wind & Perpetuating Ignorance!

A few folks are comfortable behaving like sheep following the Judas Goat in their ignorance.....

....accepting and spewing misinformation .....

An article was posted that included an interview with Mark Rodgers of Cape Wind, here:

Offshore winds soon to power Cape Cod: Part 2

 It's important to note that there are companies that actually employ people to write PROPAGANDA opposing or supporting ANY issues.  

 

I call them SHILLS!  Sometimes, as in the case below, they take a KERNEL OF TRUTH, misstate and embellish it.  T. Boone Pickens liked to limelight, was inclined to speak volumes.  Much of it may be found HERE and elsewhere.  

To those who believe we can drill our way out of our dilemma and dismiss Peak World Oil Theory, Mr. Boone, who made his fortune in oil, had this to say:

Pickens is an outspoken believer in the so-called peak oil theory that holds that maximum world production has peaked at about 85 million barrels a day — vs. current demand of about 86 million barrels a day — and will never rise much above that even with lots of new drilling and production.

  

It's important to remember that T. Boone Pickens was a SWIFT-BOATER, which defines his willingness to accept NONSENSE and FABRICATIONS for political purposes.  FROM a NYT article, Pickens Drops Plan for Largest Wind Farm: 

The Texas Panhandle was to be the site of the original wind farm.

 

Mr. Pickens has said in the past that he had to delay his wind plans due to the financing difficulties that have hit wind farms across the country in the last nine months, along with a fall-off in natural gas prices.

The latest scaling back, according to the Dallas paper, is due to transmission constraints. Texas plans to build about $5 billion worth of transmission lines to help carry the wind from the western part of the state, but they will not go where Mr. Pickens had hoped. Originally, he had even planned to build his own transmission lines.

 

  In other words, it would seem that the Oil Genius planned to construct a Massive Wind Farm where there was no DEMAND, NO GOVERNMENT-FUNDED TRANSMISSION LINES.  It doesn't sound like the Epitaph for Wind Energy as much as a BAD BUSINESS DECISION. And then the attack from the CLUELESS JO SHILL:     

Joe

Outrageous LIE'S. [sic]  It been proven over and over that Wind Farms are a farce and don't produce even remotely the energy that these liberal morons profess.

T. Bone Pickens the wealthiest Oil Barren in the U.S. spent over a billion dollars to build a Wind Farm in West Texas where the wind velocity is the highest in the U. S.

IT FAILED and Pickens stated WIND POWER doesn't work and is a joke.

Let not also remember that these morons want to increase your electric bills here on the Cape & Islands by 4 times what your paying now per kilowatt hour.

Cape & Island taxpayers NOW need to be heard immensely to prevent this disgusting fleecing of everyone's wallet to feed there own coffers.



What is always significant in defining SHILLS is their unfounded political attacks and name-calling....WITH EASILY DISPROVEN 'FACTS'....


liberal morons

disgusting fleecing of everyone's wallet to feed there own coffers



 
ANYONE can conduct an internet search and find an article the supports or discredits ANY issue without adequate substantiation.

Such appears to be the case with Cape Wind and Wind Energy.


Wonder what the Dirty Energy Kochs pay for this service?


Posted reply:

You are sadly misinformed about T. Boone Pickens and need to do further research.

T. Boone Pickens sought personal gain without conducting his due diligence.

This from the NYT:

"The latest scaling back, according to the Dallas paper, is due to transmission constraints. Texas plans to build about $5 billion worth of transmission lines to help carry the wind from the western part of the state, but they will not go where Mr. Pickens had hoped. Originally, he had even planned to build his own transmission lines."

In other words, he acknowledged planning a Wind Farm where there is NO DEMAND!

Your Dirty Energy Electric bill just increased 37%. You were just fleeced!

There is additional information available to those who attempt to inform themselves of the facts.

Both Wind Energy and Solar Energy are declining in cost, increasing in efficiency as the market continues to grow.

Instead of believing the right-wing propaganda you are consuming, you might consider Renewable Energy, here's a most recent article:
http://www.renewableenergyworl...

Or a personal favorite, Rocky Mountain Institute: http://www.rmi.org/

You will note that RMI also highlights making buildings MORE EFFICIENT.

This isn't a matter of those dastardly liberals fleecing you to line their pockets. It seems to be a matter of your willingness to preserve your own ignorance and create enemies where none exist.


 

Genuflecting to Ignorance

The most recent move by the Republicans Tools to block the nomination of Gina McCarthy defines a Party that has been taken captive by extremism and is imploding. These are no longer 'conservatives,' yet the faithful haven't seemed to notice.  

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offers the best explanation of the Republican insanity that has impoverished us all as a nation, forced us to embark on resource wars around the globe to protect OIL  --

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (photo: unknown)

How Big Oil Uses the Republican Party

By Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Reader Supported News

10 May 13

n a surprise move, the eight Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee yesterday blocked a floor vote on President Obama's nominee, Gina McCarthy, as EPA Administrator. In doing so the Republican senators broke their earlier promisadditione to move McCarthy's nomination if she answered an unprecedented 1079 written questions, a quest she completed. Political observers assume the Republican roadblock is meant to derail or delay the implementation of a new EPA rule, promised by President Obama to finally regulate carbon pollution. The Republican ranking member, Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, orchestrated the double cross. Vitter is an unabashed mouthpiece for the petroleum industry and record breaking receptacle for petrodollars having received $1.2 million in oil company largesse during his public service career. With cash gushers of oily money cascading down their open gullets, the Republican leadership's mercenary devotion to Big Oil shouldn't shock us. However, the boldness of the party's most recent assault on the public interest might cause us to ponder how GOP's honchos' knee jerk slavishness to petroleum interest has infected its rank and file.

The perversity of the modern conservative mind is displayed in two studies published last week. Those studies illustrate the extent to which the right wing has become the ideological sock puppet of Big Oil and the GOP's army of right wing Christian fundamentalists oil industry foot soldiers. A peer reviewed National Academy of Sciences report shows that the label "energy efficient" on a product actually makes it less likely that self-identified conservatives will purchase that product. Why?

 

Because morally twisted right wing orthodoxy has taken the "conserve" out of conservatism. Craven hatred of all things environmental has made the labels "clean," "green" or "efficient" pariah among GOP acolytes. Conversely, dirty energy is patriotic and even "blessed."

 

Big Oil's Orwellian skill at employing the rhetoric of patriotism and emblazoning its enterprises with stars and stripes, has stitched the notion that conservation is synonymous with "anti-American" into the fabric of GOP talking points. In 2006, President George W. Bush's press secretary Ari Fleischer answered a press query about whether President Bush believed in fuel efficiency standards for automobiles saying, "That's a big 'No.'" The President believes that it's an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one. And we have a bounty of resources in this country... Conservation alone is not the answer."

 

After a decade of this brand of oily claptrap from the industry's political toadies and its talking heads on Fox News and hate radio, many conservative Americans now embrace the farcical presumption that buying and burning gas is a patriotic act. In 2008, as the oil industry raked in record profits by raking Americans with record prices at the pump, the party of the petro plutocrats proudly adopted Big Oil's rallying cry as its mantra "Drill, Baby, Drill."

 

By the way, Fleischer's use of the term "blessed" to describe unconscionable profligacy and immoral waste reflect another GOP orthodoxy -- the notion that God wants us to burn oil. A second study published this week by University of Pittsburgh Professor David Barker and Professor David Bearce of the University of Colorado found that a fundamentalist Christian belief in biblical End Times is a significant motivating factor behind Republican voter resistance to curbing climate change.

 

According to Bearce and Barker, 76 percent of self-identified Republicans say they believe in the End Times. "Since the world is going to end at a predestined time anyhow," their logic goes, "it would be heretical to curb our destructive appetites under the delusion that we can do anything about pushing back God's ordained date."

 

Anointing rapacious behavior with religious gloss is an old strategy for both right wing conservatives and the extraction industry. When a House Oversight Committee summoned Ronald Reagan's first Secretary of Interior, James Watt, to explain his caper to sell off American's public lands, waters and mineral rights to oil, mining and timber companies at what the General Accounting Office called "fire sale prices," Watt, a former mining and oil company lawyer, retorted, "I don't know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns." Embracing his party line, along with its hook and sinker, Watt explained that environmentalism was a plot to "weaken America" and dismissed environmentalists as a "left wing cult which seeks to bring down the kind of government I believe in."

 

Watt was an early proponent of Dominion Theology, the authoritarian Christian heresy that cites cherry-picked phrases from the book of Genesis to advocate man's duty to subdue nature. His carbon industry alliances and Apocalyptical Christianity inspired Secretary Watt to set about dismantling his department and distributing its assets to his pals. His disciple and former employee, Gale Norton, another energy industry lawyer and lobbyists, would continue the chicanery when she succeeded Watt as Interior Secretary during George W. Bush's administration. As Shakespeare observed, "The devil can quote Scripture to serve his own purposes."

 

In reality, there is nothing patriotic, moral or religious about Big Oil. A storied history of perfidy and greed has distinguished these companies among the most treasonous and piratical of all American business enterprises. Halliburton's decision to relocate to the Cayman Islands after fattening itself on $9 billion worth of inherently crooked no-bid, cost-plus contracts during the Iraq War is only one of many examples of their shaky loyalty to our country. Before it vaulted onto the bandwagon of patriotism, Texaco flew not "Old Glory" but the "Jolly Roger" over its Houston headquarters, proudly adopting the pirate flag as the emblem of a pirate industry.

 

The threats from global climate change and ocean acidification are only the tip of a melting iceberg.

 

Not satiated with simply destroying the planet, the oil industry's relentless greed has eroded American's economic independence, imperiled our national security, and ruined our global economic leadership and moral authority.

 

America's national security is rooted in a strong economy at home. As Republican oilman T. Boone Pickens has acknowledged, our deadly addiction to oil is the principal drag on American capitalism. Our nation is borrowing a billion dollars a day to purchase a billion dollars of foreign oil, much of it from nations that don't share our values or that are outright hostile to our interests.

 

Our oil jones has us funding both sides of the war against terror! Big Oil has embroiled us in foreign wars supporting petty dictators who despise democracy and who are hated by their own people. The export of $700 billion dollars annually of American wealth has beggared our nation, which, a few short decades ago, owned half the wealth on Earth.

 

Add to these cataclysmic numbers, the $100 billion annual military cost of protecting oil infrastructure in the Persian Gulf, trillions spent on various oil wars over the past decade, billions more in economic injury from oil spills in Valdez, the Gulf of Mexico and in American rivers from the Hudson to the Kalamazoo to the Yellowstone, the massive damage done to the coast of Louisiana from local drilling companies which aggravated New Orleans' destruction by Katrina, not to mention the hundreds of billions annually in externalized health care costs from illnesses caused by the oil industry.

 

If the oil industry had to pay the true costs of bringing its product to market, gas prices would be upwards of $12 per gallon at the pump, according to economist Amory Lovins, and most Americans would be running to buy electric cars.

 

With low cost disruptive technologies like cheap, fast and efficient electric vehicles, and solar and wind technologies poised to displace Big Oil, the industry is using its hold on the Republican Party to permanently embed itself in our economy while subverting science, American democracy, free market capitalism and our sacred belief in an ethical God.

 

 

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/17362-focus-how-big-oil-uses-the-republican-party

Footnote: I have shared with Republican friends the connection between the extremist Dominion Theology and the Republican Party and been dismissed because of the what rational person would believe it?

Jeff Jacoby, Just Another Think Tank Loon

The ability of the Think Tank Loons to present their lunacy credibly inspires admiration and if not gales of laughter, at least stifled snickers. And confession is in order: Jeff Jacoby's one sided propaganda was so conspicuous, I ceased reading long ago, about the time he laid out a well-reasoned argument for invading yet another Sovereign Nation, Iran, as we were/are mired in two other invasions/occupations. So much for the ChickenHawks. But I digress.

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Today's column, Skepticism on climate change, focuses on Heartland Institute as if somehow, it was a valid scientific source, instead of a Right Wing funded Think Tank, narrowly focused on perpetuating an ideology. And some of their scientific conclusions are irrational.

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Instead of commenting on the validity of Climate Change, for which there is more than overwhelming evidence, like atmospheric CO2 levels, methane releases and ice melts, allow me to focus on arguments that are ignored.

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1. PEAK WORLD OIL

During the recent high oil prices, T. Boone Pickens carefully explained that WORLD INVENTORIES of oil had been exhausted because the world was consuming 86 million barrels of oil each day, but producing only 84 million barrels each day and that we are not going to find the oil to continue to increase consumption.

Books have been written and articles widely circulated in the international media about Saudi Arabia having reached Peak Oil production several years ago.

Those long gas lines of the past were caused by the US having reached Peak Oil Production.

We can continue to destroy our environment and pretend as we choose, but there is no promise that oil is unlimited.

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2. SECURITY AND RESOURCE WARS

Each recent military adventure of the US, each country labelled with 'terrorist' fighting and each country immersed in fighting and unrest has energy or resources as a cause.

The US military is being used as a mercenary force to defend and protect oil/energy companies. As in the case of Afghanistan, it has, at its core, a gas pipeline.

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3. WORLD'S BIGGEST POLLUTER

The US, with 6% of the world's population, consumes 25% of the world's energy and resources. The US has the greatest per capita energy consumption in the world. The US has the greatest per capita production of pollution. The US has the lowest auto efficiency standards, even lower than China. And while the Think Tank mantra is that US production is higher than the rest of the world, t'aint so.

The US has been wasteful of energy because of failed leadership.

The US automakers produce more efficient vehicles for overseas markets, but have whined and complained about increased CAFE standards and helped dig us into our energy hole.

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4. MONEY BETTER SPENT

Had all of the money wasted on defending and pretending the fallacy of Climate Change been better spent, solutions would be readily available.

Had all of the money spent invading and occupying a Sovereign Nation that posed no threat, Iraq, been invested in alternative energy, the US would be energy independent.

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Thanks for listening. I'm going back to my previous policy of not reading Jeff Jacoby, but thanks for the laughs. It's better for the blood pressure and reduces global warming, in my own way, but some of the comments in the Globe are worth reading for entertainment value!

Some Stuff Just Isn't Sexy

Bumpkin on Cape Wind called in to the Coffee Shop Talk program during which Mark Rodgers discussed wind energy and the Bumpkin raised the issues that T. Boone Pickens has raised.

Mr. Pickens, who made his fortune in oil, has exploded the myth of drilling in ANWR since the pipeline was designed for peak Prudhoe Bay production of 2 million barrels a day and no additional pipeline will be constructed. His pronouncements about PEAK WORLD OIL may finally wake up some folks. (A Google search produces endless information.)

YouTube T. Boone Pickens on Alternative Fuel, Energy and Politics

In the second half of the CST program, a representative of the Department of Energy Resources, the arm of state government that will implement and oversee the newly passed Green Communities legislation discussed important provisions that will move the Commonwealth forward in reducing and greening energy consumption.

When asked what steps a municipality should take to reduce energy costs, the response was to have the service provider conduct an energy audit and implement those recommendations.

Energy conservation simply isn't sexy.

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It isn't glamorous and picturesque wind turbines on the horizon.

Energy conservation is about raising your consciousness about the wasted energy usage and about the usage that could be accomplished more efficiently.

Energy conservation begins with the dull and boring stuff of changing your incandescent bulbs to CFLs, buying power strips to shut off the computer, vcr, dvd when not in use, motion sensor lights, energy efficient appliances, and sealing the leaks.

The Town Hall Lawn Concert last evening provided a good opportunity to view lights left on in locked and vacant town offices.

If you leave your home for an evening out, do you turn all the lights on before departing?

Much like our homes, the comment was made that 20-30% of municipal energy consumption can be reduced

No monument will be erected on your front lawn to proclaim your accomplishment of reducing your energy consumption and you will receive no badge, but the satisfaction of not depleting your bank account and wallet with wasted money will warm your heart!

If countries with comparable standards of living consume less than we do, shouldn't we copy them and stop wasting hard earned money?

List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita
List of countries by ratio of GDP to carbon dioxide emissions