Oh goody. The State Senate’s leading Windies, Bob Hartwell and the Slummin’ Solon Peter Galbraith, fresh off their smugtastic performance in passing the anti-wind S.30 through committee yesterday, will be taking a victory lap Friday evening in Grafton. They’ll be joined by fellow Senate Windy, Joe Benning.
The event is billed as “a public information meeting,” but naturally the stage will be filled by Windies promulgating their misinformation.
And I would ask Senator Hartwell, who is generally known as a reliable environmental voice in the Legislature, to consider the company he’ll be keeping. Specifically, one Lisa Linowes, ardent Windy and head of the Industrial Wind Action Group (IWAG). See, there are some things the Senator — and everyone else — should know about Linowes. (I reported some of this on GMD last year, after Linowes had spoken at another stacked “information meeting” in Lowell.)
In the Grafton event press release, Linowes is described as “an expert on the impacts of industrial-scale wind energy development on the natural environment, communities, and the regional grid systems.” However, trustworthy independent sources have described her work in far different terms. For instance…
Last August, the Sierra Club documented the increasing attacks on renewable energy in its report, “Clean Energy Under Siege.” The report described IWAG as one of a growing network of anti-renewable groups promoting fossil fuel-funded “research” at odds with mainstream science. The report also documented her ties to notorious anti-renewable advocates, which can be seen at the “free-market energy blog” MasterResource, which is vociferously critical of all types of renewable energy. And she was one of the attendees at a February 2012 gathering of “wind warriors” — free-marketeers, many of whom with ties to fossil fuel barons like the Koch Brothers, who met to develop anti-renewable strategies.
The Sierra Club describes IWAG as “run by husband-and-wife team Jonathan and Lisa Linowes. Jonathan is a politically active Tea Party member and the listed owner of the IWAG website. Lisa is the face of the organization…”
Speaking of Jonathan, here’s a picture of him playing dress-up at a Tea Party rally and blowing the ever-popular “OBAMA MUSLIN” dog-whistle. Jonathan’s got some interesting political views, including: “children have been brainwashed by public education,” and “Obama is so anti-capitalist I’m stabbed in the heart by him.” He also believes we don’t need the Postal Service because FedEx and UPS “giv[e] us reliable mail service.” Also, the social “safety net” should be purely a matter of private charity, and it’s unnatural for people to be governed.
Oh, and he’s a climate change denier. The evidence, he claims, has been falsified by “agenda-driven” scientists who have been lavishly funded for their alleged fakery.
I realize that you can’t judge a person by their spouse’s political beliefs. But it’s clear that Jonathan Linowes is a (silent) partner in IWAG, and Lisa Linowes should, at the very least, be questioned about her beliefs on climate change.
Next, we have the Checks and Balances Project, an independent watchdog on corporate lobbying. It reports that IWAG…
“…routinely promotes discredited problems and messengers instead of credible sources. On their website, the Industrial Wind Action Group links to articles and information from sources whose work is unscientific or has been linked to the fossil fuel industry – rather than objective sources that could help residents and government officials make informed decisions. According to our investigative research, the Industrial Wind Action Group continues to hype anti-wind rhetoric above reality.”
Checks and Balances found that IWAG relies heavily on the work of “experts” employed at “think tanks” heavily funded by fossil fuel interests, including Koch Industries and ExxonMobil. This ain’t penny-ante stuff, either; the Kochs and Exxon Mobil have spent at least $85 billion on anti-climate change propaganda in the last 15 years.
Lisa Linowes is clearly part of this anti-science, anti-planet “astroturf” campaign. Senators Hartwell and Galbraith, who claim that (1) they are devoted to combating climate change and (2) their pet bill, S.30, is “not an anti-wind bill,” should be embarrassed to appear alongside her at a “public information meeting.”
If they do go ahead with the event, they should at least have the decency to question Linowes’ motives, her funding, and her views on climate change. But I’m not holding my breath.
Makes him more than a little friendly to the fossil fuel industry’s propaganda on wind.
After all:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something if his salary depends on his not understanding it” – Upton Sinclair
Personal profit is a powerful motivator for intentional ignorance. Greed is an amazingly strong force for ill in the world.
My guess is she would share a lot of values about land conservation with GMD readers.
Also an excellent photographer.
Ms. Linowes served as a member of the New Hampshire State Wind Energy Facility Siting Guidelines Working Group to determine guidelines for the siting of land-based wind turbines. The committee was focused on minimizing and avoiding impacts of large-scale wind development on wildlife and sensitive habitat areas. Ms. Linowes has been an active participant in the ISO-New England’s Scenario Planning Process to determine regional energy requirements to meet growing demand in the region.
At the local level, Ms. Linowes has been an active member of planning boards and conservation commissions for over ten years, having reviewed hundreds of development plans including wind energy facilities, large subdivisions, office buildings, and shopping complexes.
She has led numerous seminars on land use issues and the impact of such development on sensitive land areas. Ms. Linowes also served on the Board of Directors of the NH Association of Conservation Commissions, and was awarded a NH Coverts Cooperator for promoting wildlife habitats conservation and forest stewardship.
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ties in with the company you keep theme.
The National Milk Producers Federation, which include both St. Albans Cooperative Creamery and Agri-Mark in its membership, is petitioning the FDA to allow for the un-labeled use of aspartame in milk. Be worth checking in with either cooperative to see if their farmers agree that adding aspartame to milk without labeling it is an idea they support.
First, good work exposing Ms. Linowes.
That said, are you REALLY recommending that state senators boycott events with people whose politics they don’t like?
I’m all for having “the decency to question Linowes’ motives, her funding, and her views on climate change.” But to do that, if you’re one of the senators you’ve addressed this to, you have to be there.
The answer to right-wing propaganda speech is not boycott or silence: it’s clearly set-forth argument based on sound facts and science — precisely what the first part of your article does.
Given their track record on wind-development policy to date, it’s certainly not likely that these 2 senators will be the source of any truth-telling, but you never know.
At least their revised bill is a big step in the right direction.