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Of Solar Energy and Amateurish Agitprop at Fox News

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Reading the “news” can be a painful experience in our time.  Most of it consists of a blend of sensationalism, human interest stories, accounts of the lives of various vapid celebrities, and attempts to inspire virtuous indignation based on a half-baked knowledge of some ideologically loaded issue or other.  One finds very little that could be accurately described as useful knowledge about things that are likely to have a major impact on our lives.  I generally find Fox News less painful to read than what is commonly described as the Mainstream Media because I happen to be emotionally conservative.  However, I must admit that Fox can occasionally be more ham-handed than the competition when it comes to dishing out propaganda.

A story that recently turned up on the Fox website is a case in point.  It happened to be about the Ivanpah solar generating system that was recently completed in California’s Mojave Desert.  The word “solar” should enable most readers to predict the ideological slant on the story one is likely to find at Fox.  Sure enough, the title of the story is, “Taxpayer-backed solar plant actually a carbon polluter.”  In the article itself we learn that the plant,

…is producing carbon emissions at nearly twice the amount that compels power plants and companies to participate in the state’s cap-and-trade program.

In fact, the plant does emit CO2 because it burns natural gas to avoid damage to equipment and to serve as a baseline source of power to meet electricity needs at night or during cloudy days.  A bit further on, we learn from a “research fellow at the Heartland Institute” named H. Sterling Burnett that,

…designers also erred in placing Ivanpah between the tallest mountains in the Mojave where there is significant cloud cover and dust which would interfere with the sunlight.

He adds that,

…They say it is green, but that assumes that there is a power source without any environmental impact.

I don’t find anything as egregious as actual lies in the article.  Rather, Fox limits itself to “creative” use of the truth.  For example, it may be quite true that the plant, “…is producing carbon emissions at nearly twice the amount that compels power plants and companies to participate in the state’s cap-and-trade program,” but it’s also true that it produces far less carbon per unit of electricity delivered than a purely fossil fuel fired plant, a fact that is left unsaid in spite of its much greater relevance to the underlying issue of climate change.  A researcher at the Heartland Institute is quoted without mentioning that the institute is funded by the fossil fuel industry, and is considered a source of blatant disinformation by environmentalists.  That charge may be unfair, but one can hardly claim that it is irrelevant and should be ignored.  As for his claim that, “designers also erred in placing Ivanpah between the tallest mountains in the Mojave,” etc., I invite interested readers who may happen to visit Las Vegas to drive out and have a look at the plant.  It’s actually quite a spectacular sight.  It certainly doesn’t appear to be sitting in the shadow of towering mountains, and the cloud cover is generally minimal, as one can confirm by Googling nearby locations.  As for the dust, one surmises that it would have been worse if the plant had been built on the Los Angeles side of the mountains.  As for Burnett’s last remark, as far as I am aware not even the most wild-eyed and fanatical environmentalist has ever claimed that the description of a power source as “green” implies the assumption that it has no environmental impact at all.

The reality is that the plant is reasonably sited given the location of the major consumers of the power it produces.  Given the current limitations in our ability to store and distribute the excess power produced by renewable energy sources like wind and solar, some form of baseline power is always necessary to insure a steady supply of electricity when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining.  My own choice for that purpose would be nuclear, but given the regulatory hurdles in the way, that would probably have been impractical for Ivanpah.  Natural gas produces significantly less CO2 than, for example, coal, and was probably the best choice.

In short, the article is an example of what I have referred to above as “attempts to inspire virtuous indignation based on a half-baked knowledge of some ideologically loaded issue or other.”  If the goal at Fox had been to inform rather than propagandize, they would have provided the reader with “fair and balanced” information about the cost of electricity produced at Ivanpah compared to alternative sources, the amount actually produced in comparison with predictions, the amount of CO2 it produces per unit of electricity in comparison to coal or oil fired plants, the relative advantages of solar and nuclear in limiting greenhouse gas emissions, etc.  None of what I write here should be taken to imply a belief that solar should be preferred to any alternative.  In fact, my own choice would be to reduce the regulatory burden to rational levels and build next generation nuclear plants instead.  However, regardless of the technology involved, I would prefer to see it judged on a level playing field.

I know, I know, the MSM is hardly innocent of slanting the news.  Indeed, its hysterical response after the announcement that Sarah Palin would be John McCain’s running mate puts anything I have ever seen at Fox News completely in the shade.  Generally, however, it tends to be at least marginally more subtle.  For example, instead of attempting to slant important news stories that don’t fit its narrative, it will often simply ignore them.  If the story is too big to ignore, it will vilify the messenger instead.  Of course, such techniques reflect a greater maturity and experience in handling agitprop than is available to the team at Fox News.  However, that doesn’t prevent them from learning by example.  Given that we will be subjected to propaganda no matter which “news” source we choose to follow, we should at least be able to demand that it not be crudely done.

Ivanpah


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