In Which We Find the CRI Beginning their Astroturf Campaign In Favor of Dirty Energy
First place to go to get up to speed on this is Tommywonk’s place, where he notes that they are retreating to that tried and true tactic of basically just making shit up.
But in addition to the point that Tommy makes — that they are making wild claims without showing how they get there — you can see that the grind starts in the very first paragraph:
- Why just focus on rates charged to industry? Residential rates are higher and residents don’t get a chance for any of the commercial discounts.
- Industries unlikely to locate here? Tell that to Fisker and the folks re-firing up the old Valero plant.
- And where did they get that figure of industries being charged 50% more than the national average? Recent EIA data shows that Delaware’s electricity rates to industry is 38% higher than average and a bit cheaper than our regional counterparts.
Since CRI is relatively new, it has been in interesting to watch them try to establish themselves. They’ve gotten some funding from and are networked with the State Policy Network, which is funded by folks with petrochemical interests (among others). They are trying to be the local Heritage Foundation, without getting much traction for their assigned movement conservative policy ideas. I hope that part of the reason for this has to do with the fact that much of what they are cranking out doesn’t have much basis in reality. Like this crazyness here. (They do better at working specifically Delaware issues, but caveat emptor still applies.)
Energy policy is vitally important to Delaware in ways that the funders of the CRI are probably threatened by. We produce no fossil fuels (this is a good thing) and wind energy will reduce our reliance on fossil fuel and nuclear fuel electricity. And the U of D is ground zero of some very exciting work on alternative energy development AND delivery. These are real long-term assets for this state, with great promise for us to be at the forefront of the alternative energy business. What we can’t afford is spending time re-debating what we already know — moving forward to capture what we can of this business is the job now.
We’ll see what the rest of this series has in store. Maybe the work will be more lucid than this. I’m not holding my breath though.
I see where John Kowalko is the chair of the energy committee. That’s a bit of good news, but it still would be nice to have a reality based version of something like CRI working in the public interest.
Cassandra rocks a post, as usual.
reality based version of something like CRI working in the public interest
How hard would this be, really? CRI is a handful of people, a website and a bunch of received ideas. They probably spend more time on:
1. Fundraising
2. PR (getting themselves on reporters’ rolodexes, cranking out crazy stuff for editorial pages, trying to get the local sympathizers to parrot the points)
than they do on actual Think Tanking.
Let’s set it up. I’ll be the one who hits up rich liberals for money. I’ve been practicing that for 44 years.
Dirt rules!
It sure would be nice to have a liberal think tank locally. Where’s our sugar mama or daddy?
I’ll contact Barbra Streisand. I’ll lie to her and tell her I just loved ‘Yentl’.
So Delusional David stops by to tell us what the CRI motto is. Charming.
Wonder if the PDDs could do some local think tanking. You don’t have to cover everything — just pick a topic and start working it. For that matter, I wonder if you couldn’t do that with a consortium of local blogs and blog writers.
Disingenuous is too kind a term for the misrepresentation of facts, unadulterated lies and unsubstantiated fantasies that CRI engages in on virtually every economic, environmental and social issue. I would love to see a cooperative effort to assimilate and disperse actual facts on the critical issues facing us today and those issues challenging future generations but that would have to be a work in progress. In the meantime I cleanse my palate of the bitter taste of CRI’s homegrown brew so that I might better appreciate reality by hitting the delete button as often and quickly as possible. However, I will occasionally review some of their diatribes to see if any facts have inadvertently slipped into the discussion and for a refreshing belly laugh at their expense. My advice would be to take everything with a grain of salt and then go on a salt-free diet.
John Kowalko
They are playing fast and loose with more then just the facts about energy costs. Stevenson’s emails allude to “climategate” which, among some conservative circles whose sole information source is talk radio or Fox News, “proved” their long held belief that global warming is a hoax. Nothing could be further from the truth. Four independent review panels have cleared the scientists involved of any wrongdoing. The results of their research are not in question.
For me, CRI lost any credibility on scientific matters when they used the phrase “green police” in an email about the recycling bill. No serious policy research group talks like that.