Thread by @ShellenbergerMD

Funding from renewables & natural gas interests helps explain why Democrats, Greens, & broader Left in US and Europe are unconscionably silent about China's use of forced labor to make solar, replacing nuclear with nat gas & dangerous dependence on Russia

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/maybe-theyre…

Environmentalists, progressives, & Greens have long spoken out for human rights, energy security, and reducing air pollution, demanding stronger protections of indigenous people in Brazil, local energy production, and stronger measures to reduce carbon emissions.

And yet none of the world’s main green NGOs or leaders have condemned China’s use of enslaved labor to make solar panels, the replacement of nuclear plants with nat gas, or the dangerous dependence of the U.S. and Europe on Chinese solar and Russian natural gas.

Climate activist group @350 is funded by @TomSteyer whose wealth derives from investments in all three main fossil fuels, coal, oil, & nat gas

Environmental groups @SierraClub @NRDC @EnvDefenseFund either take money from or are directly invested in natural gas and renewables, particularly solar

Just the amounts we know about total in the hundreds of millions.

They use the money to kill nuclear plants, which is a lucrative business. During a 10-year period, Indian Point’s owner would have brought in $8B in revenue. During 40 years, revenues could have easily been $32B. Those billions will now flow to nat gas and renewables interests

Belgium energy minister @TinneVdS worked as a lawyer to shut down one of Belgium’s plants and says Belgium must burn more nat gas because solar and wind energies “fluctuate considerably” and gas plants “can be switched on quickly if sun and wind are not enough."

@TinneVdS founded a law firm called “Blixt” with a man named Tim Vermeir who, according to his blog, worked for “a number of important players in the natural gas market,” including Wingas, a subsidiary of Russian gas giant Gazprom, and Distrigas, owned by Eni.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder works for the Russian nat gas industry. He has been effective in his job, helping to make Nord Stream II, to bring natural gas from Russia to Europe, closer to reality, with Biden’s lifting of sanctions.

A Havard researcher called Schröder "Putin's most effective Trojan horses in Europe, speaking out against Transatlantic sanctions and policies aimed at countering Putin's hybrid threats toward the West while the current CEO of the pipeline is none other than an ex-Stasi officer"

The highest priority of the Biden Administration is climate infrastructure legislation that would directly benefit major Democratic Party donors, just as President Obama’s 2009 green stimulus did.

- Top economic advisor to @JoeBiden is @BrianDeeseNEC a fmr sen exec at shadow bank/renewables investor @blackrock

- DOE Sec @SecGranholm is heavily invested in elec car company

- Head of the Department of Energy’s loan program @JigarShahDC is longtime solar investor

From 2009-15, US spent $150B on green energy, $90B of it as stimulus. At least 10 members of Obama finance committee and over 12 of his fundraising bundlers, who raised a minimum of $100,000 for Obama, benefited from $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in stimulus loans.

After I published some of these revelations last summer in Apocalypse Never, several readers emailed to ask how high the financial conspiracy by climate activists went. But the question misses the point.

Ideological belief in renewables and financial self-interest are not mutually exclusive, they go hand-in-hand. Spanish conquistadors in the 16th Century fervently believed in God. But they also wanted the gold.

The same is true today. Greens no doubt believe the world should be powered by renewables. They believe the apocalyptic claims they make. But they have also benefited directly from, and have advocated policies that directly benefit, nat gas and renewable energy companies alike

Renewables offer the prospect of harmonizing human societies with a higher power. Where Spanish conquistadores sought to get right by God by converting heathens to Christianity, green conquistadors seek to get right by Nature by making societies subservient to the weather.

As such, green ideology is the perfect synthesis of virtue signaling and self-interest. Demanding stronger protections for indigenous people in Brazil allows environmentalists to be silent about the Uyghur people in China.

Loudly demanding “self-sufficiency” through renewables distracts from growing dependence on imported Chinese solar panels and Russian natural gas. And decrying carbon emissions allows greens everywhere to replace nuclear plants with natural gas and solar panels made from coal.