Glencoe-area Republican state representative Glenn Gruenhagen is back, flogging a fossil-fuel industry funded climate change denying website to his constituents, along with a site run by former television meteorologist whose academic credentials are sketchy at best.
Earlier this summer in Michele Bachmann & Glenn Gruenhagen only MN lawmakers to sign AFP No Climate Tax Pledge Bluestem noted that the Republican state representative from Glencoe had signed on to a Koch Brothers-funded climate change denial document:
Earlier this month, the release of a two-year study by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University documenting Charles and David Koch's influence via Americans for Prosperity on politicians and elections focused on the little-known No Climate Tax Pledge, the New Yorker reported.
Minnesota's climate change deniers should be hanging their heads in shame on this one, as only the retiring Gentlewoman from Minnesota's Sixth, Michele Bachmann, and Minnesota House District 18B representative Glenn Gruenhagen have signed on to this particular loyalty oath to the Koch Brothers and their money.
The Koch Brothers make much of their money in the fossil-fuel industry.
In the post, we also noted that Gruenhagen and state senator Scott Newman were attacking a long-permitted wind farm set to begin construction near Winthrop:
This week, the Glencoe-area Republican and SD18 senator Scott Newman have launched a crusade against the wind industry, publishing this letter in area newspapers. They challenged a long-permitted wind farm in near Winthrop in Sibley County that's been scaled back from 13 turbines to 10 wind machines.
Gruenhagen suggested that his constituents get in touch with an anti-wind activist who sends the PUC articles drawn from such awesome sources as UFO Digest.
Now he's pushing back against a defense of the project in a new letter. And in this new missive, Gruenhagen isn't forgetting his wealthy-climate change denying pals, but directing readers to a couple of Koch Brother-funded websites for information:
If a citizen does even minimal research, you will quickly learn that wind and solar “enriches the few financially at the expense of the many”, as all government centralized planning programs do.
The previous editorial by Sen. Newman and me listed several websites that verify the many negative impacts and higher energy costs of wind turbines. In addition, concerned citizens can access “What’s up with that” and “CO2 Science”.
Bluestem welcomes Gruenhagen's internet research as a chance to exercise critical reading and thinking skills.
The skinny on CO2Science (The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change)
DeSmogBlog notes in Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change (CO2Science):
The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, also known as CO2Science is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Arizona run by a family of climate change skeptics including Craig D. Idso (Chairman and former President), his father Sherwood B. Idso (President), and his brother Keith E. Idso (Vice President). Craig Idso founded the Center in January, 1998.
The Idsos have had ties to the energy industry. In the early 2000s Craig Idso was the director of environmental science at Peabody Energy, the world's largest privately owned coal company. And Craig and Keith Idso are both tied to the Western Fuels Association, having published a October 1999 report by the Greening Earth Society titled "Forecasting World Food Supplies: The Impact of the Rising Atmospheric CO2 Concentration." [1], [2] . . .
The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change racked No. 8 on a list of the "Dirty Dozen of Climate Change Denial" compiled by Mother Jones in 2009. [1]
John Mashey recently released a report that question's the Center's charitable tax status and funding (PDF - see p. 69) as well as that of the Heartland Institute and the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP).
According to Greenpeace's ExxonSecrets, the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change has received $100,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998. [7]
Media Transparency lists an additional $100,000 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation. [8]
Greenpeace's PolluterWatch project found that the Center had also received a total of $85,000 from Koch Foundations from 1997-2009. [9]
Donor's Capital Fund (DCF) also donated a total of $283,800 between 2007 and 2009. DCF has recently been reveled as a major funder of numerous climate change skeptic organizations, as it offers a conduit for other individuals and organizations to donate anonymously. [10]
Seriously, Glenn, WHAT is up with that?
And the other site Gruenhagen recommends? “What’s up with that” is actually Watts Up With That? which bills itself as "The world's most viewed site on global warming and climate change."
DeSmog Blog reviews the impressive credentials of the site's founder and editor, Anthony Watts:
Anthony Watts studied Electrical Engineering and Meteorology at Purdue University, but has been unwilling to state whether he graduated. [1], [2]
He is a former television meteorologist. . . .
Anthony Watts is best known as the founder and editor of the popular Watts Up With That (WUWT), a blog that primarily publishes articles skeptical of climate change. He is also the owner of the weather graphics company ItWorks. He is the founder of Surfacestations.org, a project with the stated purpose of documenting the siting quality of weather stations in the United States. According to documents released in 2012, Watts has received funding from the Heartland Institute.
. . . Watts admits "I'm not a degreed climate scientist" on his WUWT profile, and his primary credential appears to be an American Meteorological Society Seal of Approval. This does not mean that Watts is "AMS Certified" as some sources have inaccurately claimed. The AMS Seal of Approval is a discontinued credential that does not require a bachelor's or higher degree in atmospheric science or meteorology.
RationalWiki has more and there's an entertaining parody site devoted to debunking Watt's malarky at Wott's Up With That?
Photo: A still from Gruenhagen's famous floor speech in which he claimed renewable energy standards were a "complete United Nations fraud and lie." Here's the video:
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