Coal-burning [tag]utilities[\/tag] are contributing [tag]money[\/tag] to one of the few remaining climate scientists openly critical of the broad consensus that fossil fuel emissions are intensifying global warming. […]<\/p>\n
Dr. Michaels told Western business leaders last year that he was running out of money for his analyses of other scientists’ global warming research. So a Colorado utility organized a collection campaign for him last week and has raised at least $150,000 in donations and pledges.<\/p>\n
The utility, the Intermountain Rural Electric Association, based in Sedalia, Colo., has given Dr. Michaels $100,000 of its own, said Stanley R. Lewandowski Jr., its general manager. Mr. Lewandowski said that one company planned to give $50,000 and that a third planned to contribute to Dr. Michaels next year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Here’s the kicker: Michaels says he sees “no problem” from the donations. He said the money simply helps him pay his staff. “Last I heard, anybody can ask a scientific question,” Michaels said.<\/p>\n
He does not appear to be kidding.
\n
\nMichaels isn’t just responding to “scientific questions.” If he seriously believes energy interests are rounding up cash for him because he’s available to give objective analysis on climate change, it’s not just naivete, it’s a deep sense of denial.<\/p>\n
Indeed, the Intermountain Rural Electric Association’s Lewandowski, in his letter to other utilities trying to raise funds for Michaels, said, “We cannot allow the discussion to be monopolized by the alarmists.” He also called on other electric cooperatives to undertake a counterattack against Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.”<\/p>\n
This isn’t complicated: Michaels denounces global warming, Michaels takes money from industries that contribute to global warming, Michaels denounces global warming some more.<\/p>\n
As Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, said, “This is a classic case of industry buying science to back up its anti-environmental agenda.”<\/p>\n
We’re left with a landscape in which the vast majority of experts who have no financial interest in the results have reached a consensus on climate change, and an atypical hold-out is getting checks from coal-burning utilities.<\/p>\n
Unless you’re George W. Bush, who are you going to believe?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[tag]Patrick Michaels[\/tag] is a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia — and noted [tag]global-warming[\/tag] [tag]skeptic[\/tag]. When reporters, desperate for unnecessary “balance” need a scientist willing to refute [tag]climate change[\/tag], Michaels is the go-to guy. As it turns out, however, Michaels may have a bit of a [tag]conflict-of-interest[\/tag] problem. Coal-burning [tag]utilities[\/tag] are contributing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8053\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}