Michael Moore’s latest project looks at alternative energy and comes to an unexpected (for them) conclusion. The left-wing filmmaker and a long-time collaborator Jeff Gibbs discover some inconvenient truths about green energy.
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“It turned out the wakeup call was about our own side,” Gibbs said in a phone interview. “It was kind of crushing to discover that the things I believed in weren’t real, first of all, and then to discover not only are the solar panels and wind turbines not going to save us … but (also) that there is this whole dark side of the corporate money … It dawned on me that these technologies were just another profit center.”
I’m not clear on how they make these discoveries or what they mean by corporate money. We’d have to see the movie, and it is not yet released.
We know and have reported for years that the abuse of bailouts and kickbacks to huge corporations (manufacturing these not-so-green technologies) makes the old government rail cronyism look like kids leveraging mom and dad to make their lemonade-stand look like a good investment.
If discovering that the Koch brothers make money on the glass used in solar panels was all it took to put them on this journey fine – as long as that’s not where it ends.
“We all want to feel good about something like the electric car, but in the back of your head somewhere you’ve thought, ’Yeah, but where is the electricity coming from? And it’s like, ‘I don’t want to think about that, I’m glad we have electric cars,’” Moore said. “I’ve passed by the windmill farms, and oh it’s so beautiful to see them going, and don’t tell me that we’ve gone too far now and it isn’t going to save us … Well, my feeling is just hit me with everything. I’m like let’s just deal with it now, all at once.”
It is here that we see the juxtaposition of our heroes. They realize the green energy monster is more of the same corporatism, and it won’t do any of the things promised. But they still think we need saving, and I assume they feel like the government needs to be involved in that despite how badly it has screwed up their dreams of a clean energy utopia.
While not impossible, it seems unlikely that Moore and company will realize that the only reason we raced down this path to nowhere at great expense (and a waste of time and resources) was because of government, not despite it. And that any energy solution that works (for whatever ends) will come from the captains of free-market capitalism whom they appear to hate but whose employees they are happy to milk for ticket sales that line their pockets.
I want to call this a move in the right direction, but it’s Michael Moore. While I’m pleased they’ve come to a new realization about green energy, it does not appear to be a road to Damascus moment. The point upon which that impotent journey was predicated – that CO2 is killing the planet – is a bigger lie.
One they’ve yet to grasp with as much clarity as the fraud committed by the green energy movement.
| AP
