Joe Romm’s Repeated Deceit On Enron

“The consolation prize for a lot of us is that Joe Romm is so extreme and unprofessional that his cause of “Hell and High Water” suffers. Climate change is exaggerated and nefarious, just like Joe Romm himself.

MasterResource has followed the mercurial climate alarmist/activist Joe Romm since its beginning (2007). Back in the late 1990s, I sparred with Romm while I was at Enron, (“a company I greatly respect,” said he) regarding what turned out to be its most deceitful business, one promising free-lunch energy efficiency. Enron Energy Services (EES) and Romm’s Center for Energy and Climate Solutions (CECS) both bit the dust. For-profit or non-profit, the “energy service company” (ESCO) was a mirage.

Romm has referred to me as a “sociopath” in a private email. And he repeatedly throws guilt-by-association that I have laboriously refuted several times before (see here, here, here, and here). Recently, he raised his head to get it handed back to him. I report, you decide.

Romm started the tussle with this comment:

Romm: Bradley hates when I point it out, but he worked directly for Ken Lay at Enron. “Bradley spent … 16 years at Enron where he served as corporate director of public policy analysis and as a speech writer for Kenneth Lay.” Quite the pedigree for a super troll. https://www.desmog.com/robert-l-bradley-jr/

Bradley: Here is the rest of the story of Rob Bradley and Enron, Joe. You are not being straight and are relying on short attention spans for your guilt-by-association. I have corrected you on this several times, and you continue to go for the hit-and-run.

Bradley: Your ‘energy efficiency’ pays-for-itself idea, which was at the core of Enron Energy Services, the most fraudulent division of Enron, was a bust. The ESCO/EES dream was an economic failure, a mirage, despite government policies trying to promote it. Here is the backstory for interested readers.

Romm: still with the disinformation. No, I wasn’t a “super-Enron” supporter nor have you provided any evidence that I was. Yes I was one of the many, many outsiders duped by your boss and the Enron Energy Services people for a short period of time. Obviously, I had no idea how corrupt the place was. Not many people outside the company had a clue about that.

I wasn’t one of the insiders, like you, who worked for the company for 16 years. I think it’s safe to say that if either one of us was likely to know what was going on inside the company—and be perfectly fine with it—it was the person who stayed there for 16 years and was working directly for Ken Lay for much of that time. Unless your argument is that you had no idea whatsoever what was going on at the company you were at for so long, even though you worked directly for the man in charge.

Bradley: Yes, a lot of people were fooled by Andy Fastow (whose first crime was with a wind farm, btw). But Enron was the darling of the Progressive Left for its climate alarmism, wind and solar investments, and grand promises of energy efficiency (your field). I fought against it in real time, however, and as an employee, with others at Enron wanting to fire me for my views. Read the memos here (once again) politicalcapitalism.org/enron

Mid-Course Correction Needed

Sixteen years ago, I recommended three reforms for Joe Romm to be realistic and stop offending people. The same apply to him today, as he hunkers down with Michael “Climategate” Mann at the University of Pennsylvania.

1. Be more respectful toward your intellectual opponents. Beware of the “smartest guys in the room” problem, or what F. A. Hayek called the pretence of knowledge.  The “skeptics” of climate alarmism have very serious arguments that could avoid what nobody wants: an energy road to serfdom. (Remember Jimmy Carter’s thermostat regulations? Beware of the carbon police!) I personally fear the effect of government intervention in the name of climate-change for the energy poor.
2. Welcome and publicize the good news about CO2 and global climate change. There are plenty of studies and recent evidence of climate calm (temperatures, hurricanes, etc.) that should be recognized as such. There are ecological and economic positives from the green greenhouse gas that should be factored into the equation–a happy fact given that politics cannot solve the alleged problem (have you noticed?).
3. The climate debate is very much two-sided. Don’t bully those on your side who share the nonalarmist view with their readers or listeners. They will smell a rat, not be intimidated. Journalists must be fair–that is part of their code of ethics.

He, of course, will have none of it. The consolation prize for a lot of us is that Romm is so extreme and unprofessional that his cause of “Hell and High Water” suffers. Climate change is exaggerated and nefarious, just like Joe Romm himself.

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Appendix: Joe Romm in Retrospect

I have documented some of the errors and exaggerations of Romm over the decades, including:

Master of Incorrect: Joe Romm (Part I: “Mideast Oil Forever,” 1996) July 23, 2018

Master of Incorrect: Joe Romm (Part II: ‘Hell and High Water’ book, 2007) July 24, 2018

Joe Romm: “It is clear that solar and wind are competitive in many situations right now” (Where have we heard this before?) April 27, 2011

When Romm Blamed Reagan for “this energy mess” (Jimmy Carter lives!) July 12, 2016

Enron Romm: History Should Not Forget December 19, 2011

Big Bad Wolf Romm: “Climate on the Brink….” (Plea to temper ‘shrillness’ by EDF’s Krupp ignored) June 3, 2011

Joseph Romm and Enron: More for the Record May 8, 2009

Joseph Romm and Enron: For the Record May 5, 2009

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Source: https://www.masterresource.org/romm-joseph-climate-progress/joe-romm-again-i-think-i-am-winning-and-have-his-goat/