Wednesday's Energy Absurdity: So Much Media Disinformation, So Little Time

Wednesday's Energy Absurdity: So Much Media Disinformation, So Little Time

[Follow me on Twitter at @EnergyAbsurdity]

If you want to know why U.S. policymakers in Washington have such a hard time making rational, intelligent decisions when it comes to energy, all you have to do is take a look at all the ridiculous misinformation and active disinformation they are pummeled with every day from the American news media.

Nowhere is the volume of active disinformation more prolific and its low quality more consistently absurd than at the former news service called CNN. I say ‘former’ news service because we should all recognize the undeniable fact that Jeff Zucker made the conscious decision to turn that platform into nothing more than an intentional propaganda operation about a decade ago.

CNN doesn’t talk a lot about energy, but when it does, its talking heads come up with lunacy you could never make up in a million years.

Tuesday provided a wonderful example of CNN’s unique expertise in the propaganda field, courtesy of its “Chief Climate Correspondent,” Bill Wier.

Have a look:

Tom Elliott @tomselliott

CNN’s @BillWeirCNN: “When you also look at the fact that oil won’t start flowing out of Willow for 6 years & at the current rate of electrification & the price of renewables coming way down, the country won’t need a [SPR] in six years, energy experts would say.”

Transcript:

Interviewer A: The Biden administration did announce some offsets, in effect - other protections for other federal lands. How many lands, and is it actually an offset? I mean, does it even out?

Bill Weir: Anything, I m- some would say anything that protects wilderness at this point. It has goals to set aside 30% by the year 2030 - uh, is considered a huge boon at this point. And, he set aside pretty much all the Arctic sea around Alaska to offshore drilling. But the, what’s interesting is we’re at a transition point where fossil fuels are definitely the villains, and everybody wants to get onto electric vehicles. Well, that means a lot of folks are gonna want to mine the bottom of the ocean for these minerals! Nothing, uh, there are no free lunches when it comes to energy. We gotta decide our trade-offs.

Interviewer B: And also, just really quickly, I know we’re tight on time - even with these protections he put in place, and we talk about the National Wildlife Refuge, vs. that petroleum field, could that be reversed in another administration?

Weir: Yeah. I mean, legally, with everything being tied up, a matter of time, when you also look at the fact that oil won’t start flowing out of Willow for 6 years. At the current rate of electrification, and the price of renewables coming way down, the country’s not gonna need a national petroleum reserve in 6 years, uh, th-, umm, experts would say - energy experts would say.

So, practically, who knows how much damage it would do? If it just goes full-bore and it pumps all the oil that is in there - which is just about a 10th of what we thought it was 50 years ago, well, at that point, it’s sort of like humanity has given up the fight, you know what I mean?

[End]

Um, well, no, we don’t know what you mean, Bill Weir. And it seems as if you don’t much know what you mean, either.

Let’s just go through this stuff in the order in which Weir tosses it out so casually:

• “fossil fuels are definitely the villains” - according to whom, exactly? Be specific in providing us the names of people or groups who do not have a vested financial interest in the alternatives. Thanks.

• “that means a lot of folks are gonna want to mine the bottom of the ocean for these minerals!” How about that? You got one thing right in all of this, Bill. Congrats!

• “everybody wants to get onto electric vehicles.” Really? Everybody? You sure about that, chief?

• “oil won’t start flowing out of Willow for 6 years. At the current rate of electrification, and the price of renewables coming way down, the country’s not gonna need a national petroleum reserve in 6 years" The annals of energy history are littered with the rotting corpses of “experts” who predicted Peak Oil and the impending demise of the oil-based economy. Six years from now, Bill Weir’s figurative corpse will rest among them, as we look back and see that global demand for crude oil is higher in 2029 than it is today.

• “which is just about a 10th of what we thought it was 50 years ago” Please quote specifically from the projection made 50 years ago that more than 5 billion barrels of oil lay beneath the narrow, 68,000 acres of land on which the Willow project will reside. Hint: Don’t waste your time, because no such projection exists.

So, imagine you’re a member of congress. Republican, Democrat, doesn’t matter.

Now, imagine that you are bombarded with rank propaganda like this from CNN’s Chief Climate Correspondent and the climate alarm lobbyists from whom he obtains his talking points on a daily basis.

Now, imagine that, at the same time, you’re also getting hit with conflicting information from lobbyists for the fossil fuel industries themselves.

Now, imagine that neither you personally nor anyone on your staff of advisors possess any real knowledge or expertise about any of this stuff, which is the case in 9 out of 10 congressional offices.

And then imagine that energy is just a very minor part of a vast array of issues that compete for your and your staff’s time and attention each and every day.

How could anyone ever hope to make smart decisions related to public policy in such a disinformation-flooded environment?

It would be one thing if our media did its job and stuck to real reporting based on actual facts and real information. But when our media platforms have become little more than propaganda bullhorns for vested interest groups on either side, there is little room for real information and truth to squeeze their way into the decision-making process.

Bottom Line: If you often think that none of what we’re doing related to energy policy makes any sense at all, well, this is a big part of the reason why.

Thanks for nothing, CNN.

[Hat tip to Steve Everley for linking me to this video clip.]

That is all.