Not so green

As a general rule, if you can spot the disconnect on the title page of a report [PDF]...


... the rest of it might contain some factual errors.

Senior executives in the fossil fuel industry have launched an all-out assault on renewable energy, lobbying governments and business groups to reject wind and solar power in favour of gas, in a move that could choke the fledgling green energy industry.

Multinational companies including Shell, GDF Suez and Statoil are promoting gas as an alternative "green" fuel. These companies are among dozens around the world investing in new technologies to exploit shale gas, a controversial form of the fuel that has rejuvenated the gas industry because it is plentiful in supply and newly accessible due to technical advances in gas extraction known as "fracking".

The expansion of shale gas holds out the promise of a glut in gas that is driving down prices and creating a bonanza for the fossil fuel industry. Burning gas in power stations releases about half the carbon emissions of coal, allowing gas companies to claim it is a "green" source of fuel.

Central to the lobbying effort is a report claiming that the EU could meet its 2050 carbon targets €900bn more cheaply by using gas than by investing in renewables. But the Guardian has established that the analysis is based on a previous report that came to the opposite conclusion – that renewables should play a much larger role. The report being pushed by the fossil fuel industry has been disowned by its original authors who referred to it as "biased" in favour of gas.

So now we have to see through the propaganda of not just the coal industry shills bullshitting about how the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow and how horrible all of these new technologies will be to the world economy, causing millions of deaths, etc., etc. We'll also need to be wary of the very fossil fuel industry that the alternative industry needs to become viable (gas turbines respond faster to supply fluctuations and are thus desirable to promote greater renewable production).

And while we're at it, let's mention that solar panels increase home values.