* From the Illinois News Network’s story on today’s executive order committing Illinois to the Paris Climate Agreement…
Climate Science Coalition Executive Director Steve Goreham said there is demonstrable evidence that the more renewable energy injected into the power grid, the higher the utility cost will be for ratepayers. He said that could lead to ratepayer revolts that have been seen in other countries.
“If you look around the world we’re seeing ratepayer revolts already,” Goreham said. “The most visible one is the yellow jackets in Paris regarding a fuel tax that [French] President Emmanuel Macron was putting on.”
In December, Macron suspended France’s gasoline tax increase after weeks of violent protests.
More info on Mr. Goreham is here, here, here, here, here and here.
- Smitty Irving - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 2:47 pm:
Please let there be a link to Tillman …
- Actual Red - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 2:54 pm:
The yellow vest protests were in part set off by the gas tax, but the prevailing sentiment was that this tax hurt working and poor french people at the same time the Macron government was cutting taxes for the very wealthy (the protests have succeeded in reversing some of these cuts). The problem isn’t simply taxation - it’s unfair taxation where those who benefit most from the sale of fossil fuels see their wealth grow while everyone else shoulders the environmental burden or the cost of reducing the impact.
- radio rod - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 2:56 pm:
I would’ve bet everything that this story was about the Edgar county watchdogs.
- Al - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 2:56 pm:
The media has done a less than admirable job relating the cause of the yellow jacket protests. The American Revolution was about more than a tax on tea. Macron has been a great friend to the Uber wealthy. The petrol tax was just the last straw of his right sizing of their economy. You know how our congress recently ended the estate tax and gave away huge tax breaks to corporation, running up huge deficits and then claiming we have to cut education and health services because somehow the government went broke overnight. It is about far more than the price at the pump.
Conservative Rodney Davis and the Trillion dollar deficit he supports, ugh.
- OneMan - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 2:58 pm:
And with all that clean air, they will be more effective in their rioting since they will not have hacking coughs or be overheating.
Wake up sheeple….
- Siriusly - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:03 pm:
It’s one thing to be a denier out of ignorance or scepticism.
It’s an entirely different thing to make a career by peddling lies and anti science conspiracy theories.
This is a person who should be wholly disregarded by policymakers. Heartland as well while we are at it !
- Chicago Cynic - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:03 pm:
Between this guy and James Taylor, boy what a bunch of geniuses. BTW, someone maybe should tell him that renewable prices have been falling through the floor to the point where new renewables are often significantly cheaper than existing coal.
- a drop in - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:05 pm:
Will someone please pull his plug?
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:06 pm:
Will all six people of last week’s Illinois progressive income tax rebellion show up?
- Norseman - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:07 pm:
Well if the IPI/INN don’t like it, JB did a very great thing. Can’t wait for INN to quote the folks who believe the earth is flat.
- Mr. Smith - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:08 pm:
On one hand, it’s good to know what the oppfor is up to.
On the other, giving their inanities ink (electronic or otherwise) always feels a bit like picking up after a stranger’s dog; even though you don’t have to let it touch you, it’s still kind of disgusting…
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:09 pm:
Populist perfidy
- Nearly Normal - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:14 pm:
Thanks for the links to more info on Goreham. I found the two reviews of his book most revealing. As an educator, I always told my students to look at where the author got his information and look at the sources to see if they exist. The reviewers noted that there wasn’t a bibliography included. One author looked for the sources for some of the charts and graphs in the book and could not find them as cited in the book. Goreham had weak excuses for having errors that would be corrected in a future reprint. Sure.
- Michelle Flaherty - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:15 pm:
The Iben Browning of energy policy.
- wondering - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:16 pm:
Keep in mind, this is INN in action. Forget the guy, concentrate on the organization. Just because they are like a broken clock twice a day is no reason to cut any slack.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:25 pm:
It’s either happening, or it isn’t.
Arguing is ridiculous.
- Glengarry - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:26 pm:
People like Goreham shouldn’t be given a forum to speak in the first place. More need to follow Chuck Todd’s model.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:29 pm:
===shouldn’t be given a forum to speak in the first place===
Take it up with INN. My readers can handle it.
- The_Equalizer - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:29 pm:
“Climate Science” Coalition meets Illinois “News” Network. Same kind of fakes either way.
- Amalia - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:30 pm:
Edgar County Watchdogs are doing some fine stuff. this is not like them, even their windmill post. this is ridculous.
- low level - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:39 pm:
Actual Red got it spot on.
Goreham either forgot to mention or is unaware that it was the concurrent reduction of taxes on the super wealthy that caused the violent revolt, not the fuel tax in and of itself.
Nice try though…
- Chicago_Downstater - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:43 pm:
I personally love how this guy crows about having 100,000 copies of his book in print only to find out in third link that a Senator mailed out those 100,000 copies to reputable climate scientists across the country out of the blue. Talk about misrepresenting facts.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:50 pm:
Chicago_Downstater - Yeah, at first I was thinking those 100,000 copies were under his bed until I read the other site. I hope they ended up being recycled by the recipients.
- Jibba - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:52 pm:
At INN, nothing infuriates us more than renewable energy. And taxes. Two things, the two things that infuriate us the most are renewable engery and taxes. And facts. The three things that infuriate us the most…
- Dome Gnome - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 3:54 pm:
Anti-intellectualism is the bear that’s going to bite us.
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 4:09 pm:
“Anti-intellectualism is the bear that’s going to bite us.”
It’s more than ironic that many deny scientific consensus but believe Trump, a pathological liar.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 4:12 pm:
This guy is just awful. Noone on either side of the debate should listen to this drivel and tripe. He needs to crawl back into whatever smog-filled hole he came out of.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 4:45 pm:
Meanwhile, Ken Griffin just bought a $238 million apartment facing Central Park, so we’re losing billionaires to high-tax New York.
- Going nuclear - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 4:51 pm:
I see Goreham is connected to the Heartland Institute, the far-right think tank that put up a short-lived billboard on the Eisenhower Expressway in 2012, comparing the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski to those concerned about global warming.
- Anon - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 4:57 pm:
The story that came up when I googled “farm bureau sound science”
- Oberon - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 4:59 pm:
Renewable energy reduces rate-payer costs; Exelon needed that Future Energy Jobs Bill because it can’t compete with renewables on cost, and the same is true for coal. But there are always those willing to overlook facts contrary to their preferred ideology.
- TheInvisibleMan - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 5:47 pm:
I’m currently looking to renew my electricity supply for another 12 months.
The cheapest offer right now, is through a 100% renewable supplier.
For whatever reason, there is a not-insignificant amount of people like this guy. Whenever they talk, whatever they say is exactly the opposite of what is happening in reality.
- CEA - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 5:50 pm:
Rich. I can’t decide whether to harangue you for giving coverage to this twit, or thank you for the entertainment.
- Huh? - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 6:05 pm:
Let me see . . . Riots are predicted over higher utility rates due to increased use of renewal energy.
Where were the riot predictions over the increased utility rates when the coal fired power plants and nuclear power plants were saved?
- G'Kar - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 7:03 pm:
To paraphrase from Jerry McGuire: “You lost me at the Heartland Institute.”
- Blue Dog Dem - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 8:36 pm:
All you rich folks can think of is how to punish the working poor and middle classes. BTW,i have a nice little solar unit that powers the man cave. But energy independence come at a price
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Jan 23, 19 @ 9:26 pm:
–But energy independence come at a price–
Your new-found concern for the “working poor and middle classes” — but only when it comes to gun-dealer licensing and fossil fuels — brings a tear to my eye. When did you have your epiphany? It sure wasn’t when Rauner was tuning up the least among us with his squeeze the beast strategy.
Tell us more about this “energy independence” you speak of.
The United States is the largest exporter in the world of refined oil products. It’s also back in the business of exporting crude oil.
So what do you mean, exactly, about “energy independence?”
Or is that something they talk about on the Fox TV box and you just repeat it, to be a part of the club?
http://www.worldstopexports.com/refined-oil-exports-by-country/
- Blue Dog Dem - Thursday, Jan 24, 19 @ 5:05 am:
After 7 years it is time to replace my solar battery array. 8 batteries at approx $225 each.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jan 24, 19 @ 6:55 am:
Love how this guy has an Electrical Engineering degree from Champaign and MBA from UC.
Of course, everyone knows this background makes him an expert on alternative energy, right? Please
- ahimsa42 - Thursday, Jan 24, 19 @ 7:39 am:
“A landmark global study into the production of greenhouse gas emissions from over 38,000 farms has pointed to one simple way we can reduce our global warming woes — by avoiding meat and dairy products. The paper published in Science today shows that without these industries, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75 per cent. That’s an area the size of Australia, the US, China and the EU combined. And what’s more, the study shows we don’t even really need meat anyway.”
“The researchers claim meat and dairy provide just 18 per cent of our required calories and 37 per cent of our protein. Despite the pitiful nutritional figures, the livestock industry accounts for a massive 83 per cent of farmland in the world and produces 60 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in farming. The study shows that getting our protein from plants such as peas is far better for the environment than farming livestock. Even the lowest impact beef-producing farm would be responsible for six times more greenhouse gases and 36 times more land than a pea farm producing the same amount of protein.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpellmanrowland/2018/06/12/save-the-planet/#3994c8e13c81
- former southerner - Thursday, Jan 24, 19 @ 7:57 am:
Many times universities wish they had never put their good name on a degree and this is likely one of those cases.
- VerySmallRocks - Thursday, Jan 24, 19 @ 11:16 am:
Where to begin to counter this amalgamation of professional ignorance and venality? New power plant construction will tend to raise generation costs from old plants, especially those decades old essentially being run into the ground. Renewable energy has become competitive in new constructiin against nuclear and fossil fuel with ir without considering subsidies, and don’t forget that traditional power continues to be subsidized directly or indirectly. The following is a link to the latest comparison of life cycke costs of different types of power plants. https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-and-levelized-cost-of-storage-2018/