Electricity co-op boss catches flak

Leading skeptic of global warming hired for $100,000

Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 3, 2006 at midnight

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The general manager of a Sedalia-based electrical cooperative is coming under fire from scientists and co-op members for spending $100,000 to hire a leading global warming skeptic as a consultant.

Some members of the Intermountain Rural Electric Association said general manager Stanley Lewandowski overstepped his authority when he hired Virginia state climatologist - and longtime global warming contrarian - Patrick Michaels as a consultant.

One climate scientist said Lewandowski's action was part of a well-orchestrated campaign to confuse the public about global warming.

In a letter sent July 17 to about 850 U.S. utilities, Lewandowski acknowledged that the IREA recently spent $100,000 to hire Michaels as a consultant on climate issues. He also urged colleagues across the nation to "stand up against the alarmists and bring balance to the discussion" of global warming.

"(Former Vice President) Al Gore and others state that the scientific community has reached consensus and that the debate is over. That is simply not true," he wrote. "An army of scientists and researchers are determined to make man-made global warming a threat in order to continue obtaining their funding."

IREA is a fast-growing electrical cooperative with 133,000 members in 10 counties to the east, west and south of metropolitan Denver. Lewandowski said Wednesday that the IREA board of directors legally and unanimously approved the hiring of Michaels, though customers were not notified beforehand.

"We're a $300 million-a-year corporation. We're not going to go to our members and ask them individually about every decision we make," Lewandowski said.

But some IREA members said Wednesday that Lewandowski went too far and should have consulted with customers before hiring Michaels, who has long maintained that the burning of fossil fuels is unlikely to lead to severe warming and serious environmental changes.

"I just think it's outrageous that Lewandowski feels he can do this without talking to the members of the organization," said John Stencel, president of the Rocky Mountain Farmer's Union and an IREA customer in eastern Aurora.

"There is enough scientific information out there that shows that greenhouse gases are mounting and that it is causing global warming," Stencel said. "I think farmers and ranchers are concerned, when you look at the seven years of drought we're in and what's happening with our water supplies."

Boulder climate researcher Kevin Trenberth said Wednesday that Lewandowski's actions show "there is clearly a well-organized and well-funded effort to undermine the science and cause confusion in the minds of the public" over global warming.

Tim Killeen, director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder and president of the American Geophysical Union, said "the overwhelming majority of practicing climatologists and climate scientists agree that human activities are leading to the observed warming of the planet, to some degree."

Michaels and a handful of other frequently quoted global warming skeptics "create the perception that there's a real debate, when that's just not the case," he said.

Lewandowski said Wednesday that he's received just eight e-mails, about 10 letters and two telephone calls about the Michaels hiring since it was revealed Friday by ABC News and The Associated Press. About half those who contacted him expressed support for the move, and about half opposed it, he said.

Supporters include David Jenkins, manager of the Wisconsin Electric Cooperative Association.

"In the past, Stan Lewandowski has been a maverick," Jenkins wrote in an e-mail. "Now, national criticism will rain down on him on this issue. His only crime is that he said what many others in the electric cooperative family think."

Michaels, author of Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians and the Media, said Wednesday that he will provide Lewandowski with "the story behind the story" on global warming.

"Gore says that if we don't do anything (to limit the buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases) in 10 years, there will be an irrevocable climate disaster, driven by the massive melting of Greenland and big sea-level rise.

"In my view, there is no impending disaster," Michaels said.

Under fire

• Stanley Lewandowski, head of a Sedalia-based electrical cooperative, urged colleagues across the nation to "stand up against the alarmists and bring balance to the discussion" of global warming.

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