In the misinformation wars, renewable energy is the latest to be attacked

In the misinformation wars, renewable energy is the latest to be attacked

Transcript¹

The spread of misinformation about solar and wind energy is leading some states and counties to restrict or even reject projects. The Energy Department calls it a key threat to decarbonizing the grid².

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

There's another battle in the misinformation wars - renewable energy. False and misleading information about wind and solar is fueling opposition³ to projects across rural America. Julia Simon reports.

JULIA SIMON, BYLINE⁴: Jeremy Kitson's a high school science teacher in Van Wert County, Ohio - lots of farmland, soy, corn, some wheat and, about 10 miles away, wind turbines. Kitson knows folks on farms near those turbines who told him...

JEREMY KITSON: You do not want to live under these things. They're noisy. We can't sleep. There's sleep deprivation⁵.

SIMON: So around Christmas 2015, when Kitson heard Apex⁶ Clean Energy was planning to expand a project about a mile from his home...

KITSON: I was just like, there's got to be a way to beat them. You got to outsmart them. You got to figure out the science. You got to figure out the economic arguments. You got to figure out what they're going to say and figure out how to counter it.

SIMON: Kitson ran a Facebook group, which has grown to more than 770 followers⁷. On the page, there are dozens of posts with false, partly false and misleading information about renewable energy. Eventually, because of new state regulations that made it more difficult to locate turbines, which Kitson's group supported, Apex bowed out of the project. Last fall, a group of researchers published a paper looking at the Facebook posts of Kitson's group and another large anti-wind group in Ohio that successfully stopped wind development. Lead author Josh Fergen of the University of Minnesota Duluth says much of the misinformation focused on health and safety.

JOSH FERGEN: Commonly exploding turbines - right? - turbines falling down, crashing on roads.

SIMON: He says these incidents happen, but they're rare.

FERGEN: They usually occur once. But what these Facebook groups do is they'll click that picture of the spinning, burning turbine and repost it so it looks like it's constantly and perpetually happened that these things are exploding in the sky.

SIMON: Kitson says he knows these incidents don't happen a lot, but...

KITSON: I do that just to try to show people what's possible. That'll pique⁸ people's interest.

SIMON: These posts are spreading through a network of anti-wind and anti-solar groups across the country. Some of the misinformation comes from groups with ties to the fossil fuel industry, like the Texas Public Policy Foundation. And in recent years, the false claims got a major megaphone.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DONALD TRUMP⁹: And they say the noise causes cancer. You told me that one, OK? (Imitating whirring noise).

SIMON: Former President Donald Trump ranted¹⁰ frequently about wind power at his rallies. While some peer-reviewed studies do find links between wind noise and sleep disturbance¹¹, there are no known ties to cancer. Trump also raised other anti-wind talking points.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRUMP: If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75% in value.

SIMON: Whether it's physics, health or economics, Sarah Mills at University of Michigan says false and misleading information can now get mixed up in the decision-making about where to locate renewable energy or whether to have the projects at all. In about half of states, she says, regulations of rural utility scale solar and wind happen on the local level.

SARAH MILLS: These local officials are not necessarily experts in energy. And so when you have people coming and stating things as facts, like, it's difficult. Like, they're certainly making decisions based on what they're hearing.

SIMON: Last year, a Department of Energy study found that setback¹² regulations now represent the single-greatest barrier for locating wind projects in the U.S. They limit how close wind turbines can be to buildings, and Mills says that makes sense to reduce noise and moving shadows. But misinformation can fuel restrictions¹³ that are more stringent¹⁴ than needed, she says, and sometimes act as outright¹⁵ bans on renewable energy. In October, a law went into effect in Ohio giving counties the ability to make exclusion¹⁶ zones with no wind and solar projects. Kitson, the science teacher, testified in support of them with the argument that turbines negatively affect property values. He referenced a study by Ben Hoen at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. But Hoen says Kitson got his statistics wrong.

BEN HOEN: We have not found evidence of property value impacts despite studying it over multiple periods of time.

SIMON: Kitson's exhibit A also featured pictures with turbines towering over homes. But Hoen says they were taken using a long focal length lens, a technique that magnifies distant objects. Dahvi Wilson, with Apex Clean Energy, says across the U.S., her company is finding that in a climate of misinformation, community engagement is increasingly difficult.

DAHVI WILSON: I think for a long time and maybe still in some places, developers thought, well, we just need to give better information. We just need to give more information. And it's like, it's so not about that at all. It's about who you trust and if anybody's going to believe you if you're a company.

SIMON: Sixty percent of U.S. electricity still comes from fossil fuels. Climate scientists say there's an urgent need to shift towards clean energy a lot faster than is happening now. Michigan researcher Mills says policymakers need to be paying close attention to these rural conflicts over wind and solar farms and the role of misinformation.

MILLS: At the end of the day, like, if local governments are not setting rules that allow for the infrastructure¹⁷ to be sited, those policies cannot be achieved.

SIMON: Meanwhile, this year, two more states, Washington and Kansas, have proposed bills that would limit rural wind and solar. For NPR News, I'm Julia Simon.

(SOUNDBITE OF TONY BONES THE PRODUCER'S "CLASSIC")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。

6 apex   

n.顶点，最高点

参考例句：

• He reached the apex of power in the early 1930s.他在三十年代初达到了权力的顶峰。
• His election to the presidency was the apex of his career.当选总统是他一生事业的顶峰。

7 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

8 pique   

v.伤害…的自尊心，使生气 n.不满，生气

参考例句：

• She went off in a fit of pique.她一赌气就走了。
• Tom finished the sentence with an air of pique.汤姆有些生气地说完这句话。

9 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

10 ranted   

v.夸夸其谈( rant的过去式和过去分词 )；大叫大嚷地以…说教；气愤地)大叫大嚷；不停地大声抱怨

参考例句：

• Drink in hand,he ranted about his adventures in Africa. 他端着酒杯，激动地叙述他在非洲的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Lu Xun ranted and raved against the enemy, but he felt warmth towards the people. 鲁迅对敌人冷嘲热讽，而对人民却是满腔热忱。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 disturbance   

n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调

参考例句：

• He is suffering an emotional disturbance.他的情绪受到了困扰。
• You can work in here without any disturbance.在这儿你可不受任何干扰地工作。

12 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

13 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

14 stringent   

adj.严厉的；令人信服的；银根紧的

参考例句：

• Financiers are calling for a relaxation of these stringent measures.金融家呼吁对这些严厉的措施予以放宽。
• Some of the conditions in the contract are too stringent.合同中有几项条件太苛刻。

15 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。

16 exclusion   

n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行

参考例句：

• Don't revise a few topics to the exclusion of all others.不要修改少数论题以致排除所有其他的。
• He plays golf to the exclusion of all other sports.他专打高尔夫球，其他运动一概不参加。

17 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。