Most WUWT readers know Joltin Joe Romm by his trademark over the top rhetoric and his outright hatred of skeptics on parade every day at his Center for American Progress blog. Most of us have learned to ignore it, because he’s simply pushing a company brand.
That said, Master Resource has this interesting story today; it seems Joe was endorsing the nastiest energy company in history, as told by someone who was an employee, Robert Bradley Jr..
From Master Resource:
It is a common refrain in headlines at Joe Romm’s Climate Progress:
- “Koch-Fueled Americans for Prosperity Takes Credit for Bullying GOP Lawmakers Into Climate Denial” (Emilee Piece: December 8, 2011);
- “Koch-Fueled Denial Backfires: Independents, Other Republicans Split With Tea-Party Extremists on Global Warming” (Romm: December 2, 2012); and
- “Koch-Fueled Americans for Prosperity Spends $2.4 Million on Solyndra Attack Ad (VIDEO)” (Stephen Lacey: November 28, 2011).
Smearing and innuendo is hardly fair play. But in this case, Joe Romm has something embarrassing to hide. Just as Koch Industries might be his least favorite company, Enron was his darling company.
Specifically, Romm was not only a cheerleader of Enron (Enron is “a company I greatly respect,” Romm would say). He was also an unpaid consultant and collaborator with the infamously fraudulent division, Enron Energy Services (EES), purveyor of energy efficiency service in (gamed) long-term contracts.
It is timely to reestablish the linkage between Joe Romm and once-mighty Enron Corporation, a company which went bankrupt ten years ago this month. Perhaps this history will help the combustible Romm to deal with the arguments more and funding links less. (Besides, would he like for his critics to bring in the funding link between George Soros and Center for American Progress?)
Some Romm Enron Quotations
Read the rest here at Master Resource
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You know, I want to know where to get me some of that Koch denial moolah folks are yammering about. I do my best to indoctrinate the boys and girls about climate issues, yes I do, but not a penny of that big Koch money have I seen in all these years of teaching. Surely someone here can hook a girl up?
It is also said, IIRC, that Enron was (one of ) the force(s) behind the push for carbon legislation and renewables. As usual, it all ends up making sense.
Wow, talk about being a hypocrite, this must take the cake. Does this man have any decency or any morality at all? Scratch that, the last was of course rhetorical.
In any regard, looks like big enron funds the hypocrite.
REPLY: I don’t know that Bradley has established any funding of Romm by Enron -Anthony
Oh how fondly I remember Enron.
They bought the utility company I worked for, primarily to acquire the Oregon – California intertie. Just about every Enron employee I dealt with – fortunately they were few – came across as either arrogant, slimy or both. They took over the communications affiliate and went into fiber construction big time. Guess who became one of our biggest sources of problems? Apparently following the rules was beneath them. To this day I’m convinced they installed fiber along transmission corridors without notifying either the utility or underlying property owners.
I would mention $125,000 in 401k accounts that went up in smoke, but that falls under the category of personal problem. Yeah, I have this nice warm spot for Enron.
It is kinda funny to read Romm’s Wikipedia page. No mention of Enron…
But,…” In March 2009, Rolling Stone magazine named Romm to its list of “100 People Who Are Changing America”
…and “In 2009, U.S. News & World Report featured Romm as one of eight “key players” in its article “Driving Public Policy in Washington”, In 2009, Time magazine named Romm one of its “Heroes of the Environment (2009)”. It wrote, “He combines … intellect with a strong sense of moral outrage. He also possesses a Jon Stewart-like quality for pointing out the absurdity of his opponents.”…. Romm’s blog, in addition to being named one of the “Top 15 Green Websites” by Time magazine, was ranked as the leading “Green site”, in 2009, by Technorati. In 2009, Thomas L. Friedman, in his column in The New York Times, called Climate Progress “the indispensable blog”.
ok…I feel a bout of rapid onset retro-peristalsis approaching…
Andrew
“Enron Romm” sounds nice. Like “Bagdad Bob”. 🙂
Romm is a living testament to the adage “the ends justify the means” for those who care nothing for the facts – just the end goal.
It seems that Enron was nothing more than a trial run for future top warmalistas.
Discernment, rationality and good business acumen, all hardwired into this guy, way to go Joe.
So big oil is associated with a Warmist. What a surprise. Sort of like GE buying The Weather Channel in order to propagandize.
Google Games…
“Joseph Romm” Enron = About 9,600 results (0.14 seconds)
“Joe Romm” Enron = About 17,600 results (0.15 seconds)
“President Bush” Enron= About 5,570,000 results (0.13 seconds) gee…way more results and faster too!
“Joe Romm” enron “President Bush” = About 5,280 results (0.22 seconds)
Since WUWT get so much traffic, if we all start bitchin’ about Romm and Enron online…the message will get out there via ‘the google’…we can work around Google’s AGW bias, lol!
I usually don’t even think about Joe Romm. This piece reminded me of this little debate from a couple years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tUO4WqAg2Q
Want to know who WAS paid by Enron to write favorable pieces about them? (yes, it’s documented)
Noted NYT columnist and Global Warming true believer, Paul Krugman.
In a former life I was in Omaha NE as an engineer. This during the ’80’s. There was a FINE, established, 70+ year old company, “Northern Natural Gas”, with 5000 employess, servicing about 30 million people across the midwest. Then a group of upstart financial manipulators came in, Houston Nat. Gas, about 1200 employees..and “leverage bought out” NNG. End result: 900 employees left in Omaha. About 2000 employees offered jobs in TX. (About 1/2 of them took it…no other choices.) Families ripped apart. Long term stability destroyed. All because of a bunch of young ’30 year olds, who were great manipulators, but dripping with SLIME. Oh, Houton Nat. Gas was too provincial, so they changed the name to ENRON. (Because it sounds like END RUN, which is what they did around most ethical business practices.) One of the chief of the miscreants was Kenneth Lay. I must say, he took the “easy way out”.. He DIED before he could be tried and sent for a stay at a Federal Hotel. DANG!
Bradley blew the whistle on Enron and Romm has hated him for it ever since .
“December 2, 2012”?
There was nothing substantive in those quotations.
Basically, Romm said “Enron looks like a cool company” and “Enron senior staff believes what I say” and “Enron has made big deals.”
At worst, they show Romm was wrong about Enron – along with a whole lot of other people.
EnRomm, the oil supported bubble head of the CO2 ponzi scheme. He’s probably just pissed he missed out on the future fortune of Enron. :-()
“In 2009, Thomas L. Friedman, in his column in The New York Times, called Climate Progress “the indispensable blog”.”
Friedman — who longs to replace the US Constitution with Chinese-style single-party dictatorial rule?
But, then, CAGW *IS* just another justification for doing just that, so…
ah- that would explain romm’s unnatural fascination with energy co. funding- the ‘secret shame syndrome’
like the ‘white collar drug addicts’ rush limbaugh was curiously on about…
like the ‘no sex outside marriage’ that doctor laura obsessed over…
like congressman Foley, one of the foremost opponents of child pornography…
“REPLY: I don’t know that Bradley has established any funding of Romm by Enron -Anthony”
I stand corrected Anthony. I read “unpaid” as paid. It was my mistake, and I appologize for my post which alluded to something that was a mistake. Thanks for correcting me. It is better to be called out for a wrong then to go on believing a falsehood….at least that is my two cents on the issue. Again, thanks!
-Ben
Kevin Butler says:
December 19, 2011 at 11:09 am
There was nothing substantive in those quotations.
ummm…you didn’t read Bradley’s piece did you…
“Your [Enron Energy Services’] folk believe what I say is possible, and, more to the point, is a reasonable ‘goal’–I have that from Tom White himself, though ‘Kyoto’ probably has more meaning as a benchmark goal so that is more my focus now. I have had many discussions with EES’s senior staff.”
– Email communication from Romm to Enron, July 23, 1999.
Kevin Butler says:
December 19, 2011 at 11:09 am
Basically, Romm said “Enron looks like a cool company” and “Enron senior staff believes what I say” and “Enron has made big deals.”
At worst, they show Romm was wrong about Enron – along with a whole lot of other people.
ummm…try doing some research as well…
Coolcompanies.org is a project of the non-profit
Center for Energy & Climate Solutions
The Center was founded in 1999 by Dr. Joe Romm
http://www.cool-companies.org/targets/
from that specific page…on Romm’s own website…
The Business Council for Sustainable Energy
The Business Council for Sustainable Energy, a group of senior executives in the natural gas, energy efficiency, electric utility and renewable energy industries in the United States has also provided active support for climate protection measures. Members include Enron, Honeywell, Trane, Lockheed, York International, Sempra, Keyspan and others.
Romm says in the clip that “it’s clear that we’re going to warm this country by 10 to 15 degrees by the end of the current century if we continue with our current emissions.” Pretty spectacular claim. It makes me that much prouder to have been attacked by him on his blog and to have the attack be included in his book of 2010.
Speaking of books, the second excerpt from my own is here: http://bit.ly/umfr5Q
You’re right – Google games is fun…
“President Obama” Enron:
About 4,390,000 results (0.18 seconds)
“Al Gore” Enron
About 3,550,000 results (0.18 seconds)
“Andrew” Enron
About 2,470,000 results (0.08 seconds)