Profiting From Power: Subsidised Renewable Energy Nothing More Than State Sponsored Theft

The real delight of Michael Moore’s Planet of the Humans is watching the climate cult squirm, as those on the left sink the boots in. Of course, those who have been pointing out that heavily subsidised and hopelessly unreliable wind and solar offer no solution to our purported planetary perils are relishing the opportunity to sink the boots in, too.

As we have been reporting for a couple weeks now, Michael Moore’s withering attack on the power and money behind the renewable energy scam (see above) has incensed weather-worriers, as well as those who profit from the greatest economic and environmental fraud of all time.

The film – produced by Moore and made by Jeff Gibbs – has been uploaded to YouTube to allow all and sundry to get the message: renewable energy is the greatest economic and environmental fraud of all time. STT first covered it here: Blood & Gore: Mike Moore’s ‘Planet of The Humans’ Unmasks The Power & Money Behind Renewables Scam

The film’s attack on characters like David Blood and Al Gore who have made $billions by stripping the world’s landscapes and wilderness in order to burn every scrap of timber they can, in subsidised ‘biomass’ fuelled power plants – leaves them looking like the cynical, mercenary hypocrites that they are.

The film has also offered a glorious opportunity for those that have been attempting to regain control of our energy policy to point out that subsidised renewable energy is, in reality, state sanctioned theft from power consumers and taxpayers, alike.

Michael Moore’s documentary ‘has exposed green energy as a fraud’
Sky News
Peta Credlin, Matt Canavan & Craig Kelly
5 May 2020

Michael Moore’s documentary, ‘Planet of the Humans’ has exposed the “swindlers” who are peddling misinformation and the environmental benefits of green energy, according to Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly.

Mr Moore’s documentary, which is available free of charge on the internet, casts doubt over the efficacy of renewables, in particular solar and wind energy.

The documentary filmmakers argue some green energy is hindering, rather than helping, the fight against dangerous climate change.

Many environmentalists, including Yale Climate Connections, have criticised the film, claiming it relies on outdated depictions of renewable energy.

Yale Climate Connections said while renewables do have a carbon footprint, it is smaller than non-renewable energy.

However, Mr Kelly told Sky News “Moore exposes everything about green energy.”

“Moore’s film, what makes it so important, is because he is a character of the left,” he said.

“This is the moment where they say, the emperor has no clothes.”

“He exposes everything about green energy as simply a fraud peddled by a whole lot of swindlers who are making an absolute fortune out of it, and ultimately, it’s not even environmentally friendly.

All these wind turbines and solar panel, they have a life of 15 to 20 years.”
Sky News

Transcript

Peta Credlin: Let’s have a look at this latest film that’s really set the cat amongst the environmental pigeons. What’s almost as surprising as the revelations in this documentary called, Planet of the Humans, is that it was made by the arch environmentalist himself, Michael Moore. And now it’s a must watch film. It’s free on YouTube. It takes a really deep dive into the world of the environmental movement that not only an insider like Moore can expose that’s all now overrun with the billionaires, bankers and organisations that are nothing much more than a green front rather than entities serious, Moore says, about saving the planet. Six million plus downloads in five days. Now, much of this isn’t going to be an eye opener to people like you who might watch channels like this, but to his fans on the Left, Moore has really belled the cat on the lies that underpin renewable energy.

Man on stage at event: I need to thank Building Energy, which provided so much solar power to this that we’ve powered the entire event with solar energy.

Jeff Gibbs: But when I went backstage to see what was really going on.

Solar supervisor: He ain’t running this whole thing on that Jack, I can tell you that, a toaster is 1200 Watts. So that run right there, it could run a toaster.

Peta Credlin: All right, my next two guests have forgotten more about renewable energy than most green activists will ever know. Senator Matt Canavan joins me now from Rockhampton and Liberal MP, Craig Kelly in Sydney.

Matt, I’m going to start with you. I mean, the renewables emperor, has got no clothes now, and this film is extraordinary. You wrote a review about it in the Spectator recently Matt, and you said the fundamental problem with green energy is not just its cost, it’s that it does not deliver what it promises on the production side, you said, green energy is not reliable. This is the best film to pull apart a lot of the myth-making and indeed lies that I’ve seen in some time.

Matt Canavan: Well that’s right, Peta, and a revolution always eats its children and that’s what’s occurring here with the left and renewable energy. As this movie makes clear and as you say, it’s a must see movie as it makes clear, The only thing green about renewable energy is the money it makes for billionaire banks right around the world. And the enthusiasm you see for renewable energy from banks, from investment houses. You’ve always got be a little bit cynical about why are these people, who we thought otherwise only interested in the mighty dollar, why are they suddenly had some conversion and want to save the planet? They haven’t, they haven’t had a Road to Damascus moment. They’re just making lots and lots of money on the backs of the power bills that you pay every quarter.

Peta Credlin: Want to bring Craig in here. I’ll talk to my producers now if they can find me this grab of the wind turbines and the cost of the emissions costs. What I found so striking Craig, was how carefully more bust the myth that renewable power is free of, and we’re told that often the wind is free and the sun is free and talks about the emissions needed to produce these turbines and solar panels. Let’s have a listen.

Jeff Gibbs: Only a few years after it was built, things at Ivanpah began to fall apart. Broken mirrors littered the desert. Yes, these giant solar and wind technology installations may last only a few decades. Then tear it down and start all over again. If there’s enough planet left.

Peta Credlin: It’s a farce Craig, built in China, Chinese jobs, Australian coal burnt over there, emissions counted we got to count them more and more. They come here on our subsidies, they go up, they last a few years they come down and the cycle repeats itself.

Craig Kelly: Well, what we hear, Peta, is these so-called green energy creates all these green jobs and what Michael Moore’s film does is also expose that, it’s just a complete myth. And Moore’s film, what makes it so important as you said, he’s a character from the left.

This is the moment where they say the emperor has no clothes and he exposes everything about green energy as simply a fraud pedalled by a whole lot of swindlers, that are making an absolute fortune out of it and ultimately, it’s not even environmentally friendly. As you said. All these wind turbines and solar panels, they have a life from 15 to 20 years. We are going to have to build giant holes in the desert to bury all these wind turbine blades and to start burying all these solar panels when they come to their end of life.

Peta Credlin: Matt, you were getting the book review or the film review you wrote for the Spec and you reminded me every megawatt of wind power generated requires 870 cubic metres of concrete and 460 tonne of steel.

In comparison, each megawatt of natural gas requires 27 cubic metres of concrete and 3.3 tonnes of steel. This is not just the economics, but it’s the emissions and the cost of renewables that people don’t factor in when they’re marching in the street and telling kids to miss school.

Matt Canavan: Well one thing that the climate change activists have been very good at is redefining our language. So we, we’re all guilty of it, we all call it renewable energy. It’s not renewable. The wind is renewable, sun is renewable, but wind turbines are not renewable. As you pointed out, they’ve got a life of, of 20 or 30 years, solar panels less, they’re not renewable.

[STT: er, no Matt. Wind turbines do not last 20 or 30 years. They have an economic lifespan of less than 15 years and most are rebuilt several times during that time span, with generators, gearboxes and blades replaced more than once: Panic Erupts: Infigen Set to Offload Worn-Out Australian Wind Farms to Even ‘Greater Fools’ And see our post here and this paper).]

And they’re made from scarce resources just as gas turbines are and coal fired power stations are, they are made from things that we dig up from the ground.

And one of the things that it’s worth watching this movie because it makes it so clear that even solar panels, which we think you can see wind turbines are massive big towers, they do interrupt the environment, but solar panels themselves to make the filling, the silicon, that goes in the solar panel, they have to heat quartz up to 1800 degrees centigrade and the only way currently to get efficiently that kind of temperature is guess what? Using that little old reliable black rock called coal, that’s how they do it. They use coal, probably from our coal fields because we have that type of coal here in Central Queensland. They use coal to make that Silicon that ends up on your roof and everybody here has a warm glow thinking they’re doing something right for the environment, but really what’s on their roof, is coal.

Peta Credlin: It wasn’t so long ago, Craig, coming out of the Howard years and the renewable energy target was 2%, we know at the last election Labor wanted to take it up to almost half of our grid. It’s gone from the sandal wearing genuine environmentalist pushing green energy to a whole lot of big business and corporates working out how to make money and suck money out of the taxpayer too. And it’s become a gouging using this as a Trojan Horse, the environment is a gouging for the money makers, but the socialists on the other side, I think I’ve got another grab from the movie. Let’s have a listen.

Jeff Gibbs: You might ask yourself, how could men destroy what remains of nature to enrich themselves? Well, that’s why they’re billionaires and you’re not. The takeover of the environmental movement by capitalism is now complete. Environmentalists are no longer resisting those with the profit motive, but collaborating with them.

Peta Credlin: Al Gore sells a business for $100 million to big oil money out of the Middle East as well.

Craig Kelly: Peta, you can see it’s all about the subsidies. That’s what it’s all about and that’s why they told so many lies to put pressure on government that put these subsidies in. It puts the cost of electricity up for everyone and these guys walk away with their pockets full of cash

Peta Credlin: Matt, you gave a great explanation in the piece you wrote about the renewable energy target. I think it bears repeating for people at home.

Matt Canavan: Well, people have got to remember that the renewable energy target is on all of your bills. It costs us $2 billion a year.

[STT: Matt managed to inflate the lifespan of wind turbines and solar panels by a couple of decades, but he’s underestimated the full annual cost of renewable energy subsidies to Australian power consumers by a pretty significant margin, too. The subsidies paid to wind power outfits and large-scale solar power outfits under the Large-Scale RET alone will cost power consumers more than $3 billion a year until 2031, and that doesn’t count the cost of the domestic solar scam aka the Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme. The total annual cost of both the LRET and the SRES is more than $4 billion a year and rising: Australia’s Endless Renewable Energy Nightmare: Subsidies Worth $4bn a Year Run Until 2031]

Fortunately, it closes to new entrants this year, but for the next 10 years, we’ll be paying these big banks and other investors, often from overseas, out of your power bills, for the benefit of having this so called renewable energy.

Peta Credlin: Yeah. It’s extraordinary. Gentlemen, Matt Canavan, Craig Kelly, thank you very much for your time.

Craig Kelly: Thanks, Peta.

Sky News