This morning, (un)Real Donald Trump tweeted out boosting a careerist who has made a fortune in propagating climate-science denialism. Once a Jim ‘snowballs disprove science’ Inhofe staffer, that careerist — Marc Morano — merits distinction as the Andrew Breitbart of the climate-science denial world.
Breitbart [specialises in] twisting the truth,
editing video to make black look like white and up look like down —
that’s the stuff of hocus-pocus and snake oil;
it’s not the work of the journalist.
Well, when it comes to the echo chamber of deceptive truthiness and outright deceit in the arena of climate change, sadly there is a pantheon of Breitbarts to chose from who are actively disseminating confusing material and outright falsehoods with gullible (or collaborating) journalists always ready to echo their falsehoods and give them voice in “faux and balanced” Global Warming reporting.
If, however, forced to narrow down in this pantheon of anti-science syndrome sufferers, there seems to be one name that sinks to the bottom: Marc Morano.
Morano’s career path includes Swift Boating Senator Kerry, being “Rush Limbaugh’s ‘Man in Washington””, writing an article for the Family Research Council (in the 80s) attacking those seeking resources for AIDS research and funding with a (false, baseless) claim that a fund-raiser “lewd dancing, nudity, illicit sex and evidence of illegal drugs,” , etc … etc … etc …
For far too long, like Breitbart, Morano had a gold pass of access to too many journalists with lots of private conversations to influence reporting and many quotations to boost his reputation. One of the benefits of the past decade: credible outlets have reduced their credulity of Morano’s lies and ever-less frequently been giving an aura of credibility to him.
And, sadly, too many have had to spend too much time debunking his deceit to help credible journalists and outlets understand why Morano didn’t merit being given even a crumb of credibility in their reporting. Just a few tastes of this.
Morano is a long-time paid denier, which means there’s plenty of stuff out there about how he’s… not exactly a reliable expert. He even makes it into the Merchant of Doubt film trailer (and even more in the book) emphasizing ‘I’m not a scientist but sometimes I play one.”
Energy Dominance
Now, as is typical of Trump’s 10,000s of lies as President, today’s tweet is multifaceted in the ignorance and deceit — it isn’t just about climate-science denial.
To the extent that the United States has “energy dominance” (a long, complicated, and debatable discussion) due to oil and natural gas (ONG) booms, let us be clear: the path to “dominance” started well before Trump (Thank You (?), Obama) and the gains in US ONG production to date were overwhelming either prior to Trump’s occupation of the Oval Office or investment streams/planned well before Team Trump was in control. As AP put it back in 2017,
THE FACTS: … energy production was unleashed during Obama’s presidency, largely because of advances in hydraulic fracturing that made it economical to tap vast reserves of natural gas. Oil production also greatly increased, reducing imports. [Under Obama,] the U.S. for the first time in decades was getting more energy domestically than it imports.
Turning to another space, Trump has loved to brag about stock market performance (which, again, boomed even more under Obama …). Notable: while the United States moved to (fossil-foolish) “energy dominance”, the firms core that dominance have underperformed the stock market, provided negative returns to investors, and many haven’t even been able to earn enough to pay off their loans (let alone profits).