Eye Recommend --- Enemies of the Sun

ENEMIES OF THE SUN, by Paul Krugman -- 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/05/opinion/paul-krugman-enemies-of-the-sun.html?_r=0

what eye thynk:  Republicans are all about jobs--unless the jobs are in an industry they are being paid to denigrate; and Republican presidential candidates are all about the energy revolution--as long as it revolves back to coal and keeps that Koch money flowing their way. 

(Any underlines are mine.)

"Does anyone remember the Cheney energy task force?  Early in the George W. Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney released a report that was widely derided as a document written by and for Big Energy--because it was.  The administration fought tooth and nail to keep the process by which the report was produced secret, but the list of people the task force met was eventually leaked, and it was exactly what you'd expect: a who's who of energy industry executives."

The GOP loved the idea of talking primarily to fossil fuel corporations back in the W years; but, boy, they hated it when President Obama and the EPA turned the tables on them and spoke to environmentalists before issuing the latest regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.

"But here's the thing: by the standards of today's Republican Party, the Cheney report was enlightened, even left-leaning.  One whole chapter was devoted to conservation, another to renewable energy.  By contrast, recent speeches by Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio...barely address either topic.  When it comes to energy policy, the G.O.P. has become fossilized.  That is, it's fossil fuels, and only fossil fuels all the way...

...Why has the right become so hostile to technologies that look more and more like the wave of the future?"

My opinion: #1 Koch money.  #2 Barack Obama.  When you have pledged, as a party, to oppose everything the President of the United States advocates and you have Koch coal money funding your obstinance, well...

"The cost of wind power has dropped sharply--30 percent in just the past five years, according to the International Energy Agency.

And solar panels are becoming cheaper and more efficient at a startling rate, reminiscent of the progress in microchips that underlies the information technology revolution.  As a result, renewables account for essentially all recent growth in electricity generation capacity in advanced countries,

Furthermore, renewables have become major industries in their own right, employing several hundred thousand people in the United States.  Employment in the solar industry alone now exceeds the number of coal miners, and solar is adding jobs even as coal declines."

The Republican call for job creation is on a regularly scheduled audio loop; but they seem to hit their mute button when anyone mentions the number of jobs being created in industries that fight climate change. (Those Koch coal dollars really make great sound baffles.)

"So you might expect people like Mr. Rubio, who says he wants to 'unleash our energy potential,' and Mr. Bush who says he wants to 'unleash the Energy Revolution.' to embrace wind and solar as engines of jobs and growth.  But they don't.  Indeed, they're less open-minded than Dick Cheney, which is quite an accomplishment.  Why?

Part of the answer is surely that promotion of renewable energy is linked in many people's minds with attempts to limit climate change--and climate denial has become a key part of conservative identity...

...Beyond that, you need to follow the money... In the 2014 election cycle the oil and gas industry gave 87 percent of its political contributions to Republicans; for coal mining the figure was 96, that's right, 96 percent.  Meanwhile, alternative energy went 56 percent for Democrats.

And (the gas and oil industry) is engaged in a systematic effort to blacken the image of renewable energy... Earlier this year Newsweek published an op-ed article purporting to show that the true cost of wind power was much higher than it seems.  But it turned out that the article contained major factual errors, and its author had failed to disclose that he was the Charles W. Koch professor at Utah State, and a fellow of a Koch-and ExxonMobil-backed think tank."

When you're rich enough, you can guy your own professor! Who knew?! 

"While politicians on the right may talk about encouraging innovation and promoting an energy revolution, they're actually defenders of the energy status quo, part of a movement trying to block anything that might disrupt the reign of fossil fuels."

And the flow of all that beautiful Koch money.