This week, in a major win for clean energy advocates, and anyone that cares about their children – the Michigan House passed major clean energy reforms over bitter, party line opposition.
That legislation includes siting reforms that will move primary responsibility for clean energy siting permits to the Michigan Public Service Commission, which is much better positioned to evaluate highly technical projects, and much more insulated from the harassment, threats and intimidation that local township boards have been subjected to by conspiracist mobs ginned up by fossil fuel linked organizers.
To understand just what kind of intimidation farmers and local officials have faced, it’s important to review some of the typical kinds of threats we have seen over recent years.
First up, Josh Nolan, an attorney with a history of working for coal industry clients, who mysteriously shows up again and again wherever local boards are considering clean energy projects. Below, I recorded him making thinly veiled legal threats against the Isabella County Planning Commission in 2019.
Nolan frequently shows up as a collaborator or stalking horse for Kevon Martis, well known as a self described “Senior Fellow” for the fossil fuel funded E & E Legal lobbying firm, based in Washington DC.
E&E has a long history of intimidation tactics against climate scientists, which I have documented many times.
Here, Mr Martis has a facebook posting with a mob-like tone – “nice capitol building you got there, be a shame if something happened to it.” This was posted within days of an incident where heavily armed right wing activists invaded the Michigan Capitol to menace citizens and lawmakers.
Mr Martis has been a prime mover in disrupting meetings and intimidating farmers and local officials in Montcalm County, MI, where he was a featured speaker at a bizarre anti wind rally with a revival meeting atmosphere, in Trufant, MI.
Another featured speaker was Ryan Kelley, a then-candidate for Michigan Governor, recently sentenced for his role in the Jan 6 debacle.
Mr Kelley will be spending several months in jail for his role.
Meanwhile, don’t despair for Mr Martis. He wins either way – the grift simply rolls on.
The morning after passage of the energy bills, Martis was already on line fund raising for more of his activities.
The cross connections between the authoritarian, insurrectionist right wing, and fossil fuel coordinated attacks on clean energy, should be a sobering reminder to all of us that what we are up against is much more than a few disgruntled Fox News addled exurbanites and internet trolls. The fight for clean energy is very much a part of the fight for democracy.
I spoke last night to a very conservative farmer who has been fighting for his right to site clean energy on the land that has been in his family for generations.
He spoke of his bemusement of sitting in the Michigan Governor’s office, and wondering how it came to be that a Democratic Governor was now defending his property rights, against Republican officials who were actively engaged in attacking and discrediting him not far away. A lot of that kind of re-think is going on across rural America at this moment.
If you have not seen my video on Mr Martis and his Cult of Fossil Fuels, now would be a good time to check it out.
UPDATE: For a little more context, some additional tweets from Matt Maddock, the fake elector’s spouse.
Cities should look more like North Korea (not quite as dark) by having lighting that only shines down and having more streets covered by healthy trees.
And the astronomers of the world would thank us.
Anyone wanting to learn more about the disconnect between left and right should watch this new piece on HBO titled “The Insurrectionist Next Door”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NyMk-qGdAs
While watching it last night I couldn’t help recalling that quote from E. O. Wilson: “Humans have Paleolithic Emotions, Medieval Institutions, and God-Like Technology”