david robertsDec 23, 2022
Today on Volts: I chat with @[email protected] about his recent work digging into the right-wing billionaires & think tanks behind the community groups opposing wind & solar development. Turns out these "grassroots" groups have powerful backing.
https://www.volts.wtf/p/the-right-wing-groups-behind-renewable#details
The right-wing groups behind renewable energy misinformation

Across the country, NIMBY groups are organizing to block solar, wind, and other clean-energy projects, and to pass state laws restricting renewable energy development. Journalist Michael Thomas took a deep dive into the right-wing billionaires & think tanks behind these community groups. We discuss what he found.

Volts
Show threaddavid robertsDec 23, 2022

Two things I hope everyone takes from this pod:

1. The RW is actively pushing anti-renewables propaganda on Facebook & Youtube (to the tune of tens of millions of $$$) & helping to fund & organize community NIMBY groups to fight RE development.

NIMBYism is not just *happening*.

Show threaddavid robertsDec 23, 2022

2. As ever, the left is asleep at the fucking wheel on this. Are there left billionaires funding a network of LW think tanks to organize pro-RE community groups? Anybody spending millions on pro-RE propaganda on FB & YT?

Or is it all just policy briefs & "raising awareness"?

Show threaddavid roberts

As @[email protected] explained when he was on the Volts pod, advertising isn't that expensive. You can get ads in major papers, on FB & YT, on subway walls, for *cheap*.

PragerU spent $20M on anti-RE FB ads in the past 4 years. Who on the climate left is doing this? Anyone?

Dec 23, 2022 at 11:00pmWeb
Show threaddavid robertsDec 23, 2022

This weird idea in the back of liberals' heads that if they just put out good policy & good info, the public will find it, assess it, internalize it, and organize around it.

It doesn't happen. Left billionaires need to spend big on propaganda & organizing. Their opponents are.

Show threaddavid robertsDec 23, 2022

And don't give me this "no left billionaires" stuff. Mainstream green groups are *swimming* in money. There are billions sloshing around in that world. It's currently producing more policy briefs than even a well-meaning pol could ever f'ing read.

There's enough money.

Show threadJoe ❌👑Dec 23, 2022
@drvolts OK, which billionaires would you say are "left"? Bill Gates? Hardly; he doesn't want the system that produces billionaires to be disrupted and he likes flying around on a private plane while buying "carbon offsets" that don't do what they say.
Show threaddavid robertsDec 23, 2022
This glib idea that there are no big left funders or that left funders are secretly conservative might play well on Twitter but it's bullshit. There's lots of money on the left. There's lots of money on the *climate* left. People need to be held accountable for how it's spent.
Show threadLizard_KingDec 24, 2022
@drvolts It’s not glib to recognize that many and perhaps all billionaires and multimillionaires are loyal to class above all, and will continue to protect the inequality and dark money that empowers reactionary interests above all. Ostensibly climate-friendly ultrarich can lay all the money they want on their preferred nonprofits. None of it compares to the good that would come from getting the rich taxed and their political expenditures transparent and limited.
Show threadtrishandertonDec 24, 2022
@drvolts The opposite of NIMBY isn't pro-RE, it's pro- better models of community development
Show threadtrishandertonDec 24, 2022
@drvolts I live in NYC and I am certainly not riding to war for our ghoulish abusive landlords
Show threadPaulBDec 24, 2022
@drvolts my Dad founded a think tank on this exact premise. If people only had easy way to digest complex tax info, they'd make better decisions. 20 years later, I'd say we're making great decisions /s
Show threadQuiltyDawnDec 23, 2022
@drvolts I have a story about this. I am on Facebook for family, friends, and community news. I am as lefty as they come, follow a few Democratic politicians, read occasional left newsy stuff. By all rights my feed should be FULL of lefty stuff, but it isn't. Only a few ads during elections maybe, that's it.
Show threadQuiltyDawnDec 23, 2022
@drvolts Once I made the mistake of going to Breitbart to read something. Immediately afterwards my Facebook feed was FULL of every Red-Maga-guns-eagles-Patriot post, ad, group recommendation, whatever. I tried hiding it all for days, it kept popping up. I finally went to Mother Jones and Planned Parenthood websites, and that seemed to fix it. All the right-wing stuff disappeared, and I'm back to normal. BUT, nothing lefty or environmental either!