The junk man delivers junk

October 16, 11:06 PMPortland Green Business ExaminerPaul Fox

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Junk man, Steven Milloy, continues his propaganda efforts to reverse the growing trend toward ecologically sound policies. As a commentator for Fox News he attacks the rapidly growing mountain of data supporting global warming as a result of human activity as “junk science,” and to misdirect people's attention from rationally considering life-style and policy changes that might be necessary to avoid the worst effects of human caused ecological imbalances.

Most of the junk, however, is in Milloy's methods. For example, on February 5, 2009 he posted an op-ed piece on www.foxnews.com with the ominous headline “The Futility of Hybrid Cars” and he leads off with: “Could plug-in hybrid cars actually increase greenhouse gas emissions? Is energy efficiency being oversold as a greenhouse gas reduction measure? A new report from the research arm of Congress raises troubling questions about the direction in which President Obama is taking us.”

He then goes on to cite what appears to be a Congressional Research Service report, “Carbon Control in the U.S. Electricity Sector: Key Implementation Uncertainties.” A link to his citation in his opinion piece returned an “unable to connect” message, and a search for this report on the site for The National Council for Science and the Environment returned a message that no report by this name exists (could it be a portion of a larger report that does not on the whole support his opening contentions?) In the end he winds up not talking about hybrid or plug-in hybrid cars in any manner that answers his opening question.

Perhaps this item from a real CSR report (R40670 - Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Critical Barriers and Congressional Policy by Paul W. Parfomak, Fred Sissine and Eric A. Fischer) might serve as an answer to one of his opening questions: “In the electricity industry, increasing the energy efficiency of buildings is viewed by many as the measure with the greatest potential to reduce CO2 emissions quickly and at relatively low cost.”