美国国家公共电台 NPR--Renewable energy is maligned by misinformation. It's a distraction, experts say

Renewable energy is maligned¹ by misinformation. It's a distraction², experts say

Transcript³

You can generally trust that when you flip⁴ a light switch in the U.S., the power will come on.

But earlier this year, a forecast by the North American Electric Reliability⁵ Corporation (NERC) predicted much of the country could see blackouts during peak summer demand, when everyone is blasting their air-conditioners.

While major outages haven't happened so far, GOP elected officials and fossil fuel supporters still used the report to bash the shift to renewable power.

" 'Biden blackouts' will make it impossible to run even fans and air conditioners on the hottest days of the summer," said Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst during a speech on Capitol Hill in July, claiming these outages would be the result of "the Democrats⁶' push towards renewables."

Iowa is major producer of wind power, said Ernst, but she accused Democrats of causing energy shortages by restricting oil and gas leases.

Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the top coal-producing state in the country, made a similar argument in a USA Today op-ed. So did Washington Post columnist⁷ Marc Thiessen, in a piece that also cast doubt on climate change. "Senator Barrasso's opinion column expresses his point of view based on data," said Kristen DelGuzzi, USA TODAY's opinion editor. The Washington Post declined to say how it fact-checked Thiessen's column.

This message is part of an ongoing⁸ misinformation campaign, says Dave Anderson of the Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog group.

The aim is, "To keep alive the idea that we need large amounts of fossil fuels" to back up the grid⁹, he says, despite the scientific consensus¹⁰ that the world must rapidly slow down and stop using them to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

How disinformation for the fossil fuel industry started spreading

When the power did go out during the big winter storm in Texas last year, killing¹¹ 246 people, "The disinformation machine for the fossil fuel industry very quickly jumped into action," Anderson says.

He put together a 19-page timeline of how elected officials and advocacy groups began publicly hammering wind power, even before the blackouts started.

The day before the storm, DeAnn Walker, then-chairperson of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, had warned that gas generation plants were having issues and wind turbines were frozen.

But only part of that message was picked up and widely circulated. Photos and tweets about frozen wind turbines flew around social media. Some spreading the message, like the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, have received money from coal and gas interests. As the weather worsened, conservative media amplified¹² the message, with segments by Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight and Mornings with Maria.

"It's just reaching millions of people in a way that's hard to reach with any sort of fact-check," Anderson says.

This campaign is designed to drown out the truth, says Anderson, "When a situation like this arises that highlights in a enormously public and consequential¹³ way how fossil fuels can also fail."

A federal report would later find that natural gas fired plants suffered the majority of outages during the storm, with wind power a distant second.

This pattern repeated again during the summer of 2022, when the grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) warned the power could go out during a heatwave in July.

"They put out a press release which basically was setting up wind to be the fall guy if there were problems," says Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric¹⁴ sciences at Texas A&M University.

This time, the power stayed on. ERCOT declined to make anyone available for an interview, but confirmed to Politico that at the same time it warned about wind power, conventional power plants were also down.

The message that renewables were to blame, Dessler says, "It's not honest."

Transitioning to renewable energy is doable but must be done at a managed pace

Jim Robb, CEO of NERC, says there are two main challenges when adding renewables to the grid: Managing times when wind and solar power aren't producing, and converting power from renewable sources to a form that the grid can use.

"This clean energy transition is doable. It needs to be done at a managed pace," he says. Bringing more wind and solar onto the grid, without focusing on how to back it up, could cause outages, Robb says. For now, natural gas is often the power source for times the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining, according to NERC. In the future, it could be batteries, hydrogen power, or another clean energy source.

But, technology exists now to make a renewable grid work better, says Shelley Welton, professor of law and energy policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Solutions like building transmission lines to connect power sources in different parts of the country are a policy challenge, not a scientific one.

Blaming renewables is a distraction, says Welton, "A way to forestall¹⁵ a transition that's underway, but needs to move faster than it is right now."

1 maligned   

vt.污蔑，诽谤（malign的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• She feels she has been much maligned by the press. 她觉得她遭到了新闻界的恣意诽谤。
• We maligned him dreadfully when you come to think of it. 回头想想，我们狠狠地中伤了他。 来自辞典例句

2 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

3 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。

4 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

5 reliability   

n.可靠性，确实性

参考例句：

• We mustn't presume too much upon the reliability of such sources.我们不应过分指望这类消息来源的可靠性。
• I can assure you of the reliability of the information.我向你保证这消息可靠。

6 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

8 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

9 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。

10 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

11 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

12 amplified   

放大，扩大( amplify的过去式和过去分词 )； 增强； 详述

参考例句：

• He amplified on his remarks with drawings and figures. 他用图表详细地解释了他的话。
• He amplified the whole course of the incident. 他详述了事件的全过程。

13 consequential   

adj.作为结果的，间接的；重要的

参考例句：

• She was injured and suffered a consequential loss of earnings.她受了伤因而收入受损。
• This new transformation is at least as consequential as that one was.这一新的转变至少和那次一样重要。

14 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

15 forestall   

vt.抢在…之前采取行动；预先阻止

参考例句：

• I left the room to forestall involvements.我抢先离开了这房间以免受牵累。
• He followed this rule in order to forestall rumors.他遵守这条规矩是为了杜绝流言蜚语。