Minnkota campaigns against global-warming science

Minnkota Power Cooperative, an electricity provider in northwest Minnesota and eastern North Dakota, has been making a case about global warming — against the scientific consensus that it’s real. The blog Solar Kismet pored over back issues of its customer newsletter,  the Minnkota Messenger, finding a surprising number of articles that call global warming science “alarmist,” “myths” and based on science with “a shaky foundation.”

The May 2006 issue, for instance, includes a short piece entitled “Myth: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid unprecedented rate.” It was written by Friends of Science, a Canadian organization that questions the science behind the Kyoto Protocol and reportedly is funded in large part by the oil industry. The gist of the articles: “[C]limate change is a massive environmental sham.” Writes Solar Kismet, “Some of it reads like grocery store tabloids and it’s quite interesting how much coverage they give to it” — stories about global warming appear in at least 13 of the utility’s last 18 bimonthly newsletters.

In an opinion piece countering one written by Minnkota’s CEO David Loer (pictured) in the Grand Forks Herald, University of North Dakota geologist Allan Ashworth outlines ways Loer “selectively uses scientific information [...] and misrepresents science and the majority of scientists” — to support his views on global warming. And his business interests.

“We shouldn’t be too surprised that an energy company executive would try to sway public opinion away from a sensible position on global warming,” Ashworth writes. “Unabashedly, he tells us that his purpose is to keep the cost of energy low for his consumers and, presumably, also keep the profits high for the cooperative.”