Enemies of Energy is a lively research report profiling what are currently the fifteen most influential opponents of nearly 90 percent of the fuels that built modern America and sustain our prosperity: oil, gas, coal and nuclear power. Examples include household names such as the Sierra Club, and similarly influential, yet less known groups such as the Rocky Mountain Institute.
It is also an analysis of the fifteen largest known donors to these NGOs. Here again the list includes well-known anti-energy donors, such as Michael Bloomberg, and more enigmatic anti-energy billionaires such as Fred Taylor.
The report begins with ten common misconceptions used to promote the agenda of the anti-energy movement. Examples include myths about dangerous sea level increases; the dangers of natural gas and nuclear power; the supposed benefits and cost advantages of weather dependent, unreliable wind turbines and solar power; and China’s progress (or lack thereof) in reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
As noted in the introduction, the conclusion, and throughout the report, we once had a conservation movement that was not the enemy of energy. Once a Sierra Club board member, iconic nature photographer Ansel Adams was a strong proponent of nuclear power. Biophysicist William Siri, president of the Sierra Club in the 1960s, tried unsuccessfully to keep the group steered in a pro-energy direction.
That Sierra Club is now gone, as is nearly all of America’s pro-energy conservation movement. The central argument of his report is that we need that old conservation movement to return. Only a rich nation can afford to protect the features and creatures Americans love. And only abundant, reliable energy will continue to fuel that prosperity.
Below is a link to the report.
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Ken Braun
As managing editor and director of content of CRC, Ken Braun edits Capital Research magazine. He also conducts investigative research and drafts profiles for InfluenceWatch.org.
He previously worked for several free market policy organizations, spent six years as a chief of staff in the Michigan Legislature, and also wrote political columns for MLive Media Group, a consortium including the Grand Rapids Press and seven other mid-sized Michigan newspapers. He is an alumni of Michigan State University.
