Ed. note: This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete MBN for this post can be found here.

Greed Energy Economics:
*** Adverse Energy Taxes in the Inflation Reduction Act
Electric Prices Skyrocket with Gruesome Green Energy Policy

Renewables (General):
Renewable Energy Obsession Leading to Energy Rationing!
NY Governor Announces New Solicitation Calling for 2,000+ Megawatts of New Large-Scale Renewable Energy Projects

Wind Energy:
*** Experts question environmental and economic value of wind power
Dominion Hides Off Shore Wind Threat to Whales
Wishes and secrets fill Dominion’s offshore wind Plan
15 years ago, wind turbines came to a Maine town, and hit turbulence along the way
Gone with the wind: Lesotho’s $15-billion wind farm project vanishes without a trace

Solar Energy:
*** Pennsylvania hearing shines light on solar concerns
Why solar ‘tripping’ is a grid threat for renewables

Nuclear Energy:
*** Efforts to Transform US Nuclear Industry Entering Full Bloom
*** Battery Deaths Put Nuclear Safety In Context
*** Poll Shows Widespread Support for Nuclear Energy
US study assesses potential for coal-to-nuclear conversion
Nuclear power is the future

Fossil Fuel Energy:
*** Environmentalists, Emboldened, Ask EPA to Ban Natural Gas
*** Short video: That would be the road to hell
America is Successfully Pursuing ESG = Extreme Shortages Guaranteed
The Importance of Fossil Fuels
China announces it has enough coal reserves to last another five decades
California Bans Natural Gas Furnaces, Water Heaters
How African coal is saving Green Europe from freezing this winter

Electric Vehicles (EVs):
States to Ban Gas-Powered Cars Despite EVs’ Human, Environmental Costs
California EV Dream A Nightmare for Freedom to Travel

Miscellaneous Energy News:
*** 12 arguments supporting the terrible “Inflation Reduction Act,” refuted
*** The “Inflation Reduction Act” is a 4-step recipe for destroying American energy
*** Climate Panic Behind Energy Crisis
*** Obama Led Germany Into Putin’s Energy Trap
UK abandons net-zero energy policies for energy security
Denying Access to Energy: The New Normal?…

“In its Ahab-like focus on harpooning ExxonMobil, the BBC missed an opportunity to explore the enormous challenges involved in replacing fossil fuels. The costs of ignoring those challenges may well be tragically put on display this winter when Europeans face freezing temperatures with nothing but BBC-approved power systems to keep them warm.”

In Episodes 1 and 2 of its three-part documentary, Big Oil vs The World, the BBC succeeded only in demonstrating its own bias. Time and again, viewers were presented with only one side of a many-sided issue. Episode 3 is no exception. This episode’s main narrative is that, for years, oil companies have touted natural gas as a clean alternative to coal, but poor execution has largely offset the benefits.

Per unit of energy generated, natural gas produces about half the carbon dioxide of coal.…

Perhaps the most compelling testimony in Episode 2 of the BBC’s documentary Big Oil vs The World comes from Bill Heins, a geoscientist who worked with ExxonMobil from 2001 to 2019:

I’m disappointed, I’m angry, I’m disenchanted at the duplicity exhibited by ExxonMobil to say one thing internally and to say a different thing with a much different consequence in the political arena.

The implication is that the same people within ExxonMobil were saying one thing internally and another publicly. But the story Heins tells suggests that it was different people who were saying different things:

Shortly after I joined ExxonMobil, there was a presentation by Art Green, who was the chief geoscientist of ExxonMobil Exploration. All the scientific staff were there. Art got up and gave his presentation about how ice core records were unreliable and here were temperature excursions in the past when there couldn’t possibly be any human influence.

Episode 1 of BBC’s Big Oil vs The World is a polished, emotional, lawyer-like brief for one side of a multi-sided, complex issue. But in the final analysis, the BBC case is long on agenda and feelings and short on facts, balance, and proper context. The documentary is slick propaganda that accuses oil companies of producing slick propaganda.

With its documentary Big Oil vs The World, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has added its voice to the chorus accusing the petroleum industry in general, and ExxonMobil in particular, of misleading the public and slowing the global response to climate change. The three-part documentary (Denial, Doubt, and Delay) was produced in cooperation with PBS, which ran its version on Frontline under the title The Power of Big Oil in April and May of this year.…