Actors Hired To Play Consumers In Bid To Thwart Renewable Energy in New Orleans
from the fake-it-'til-you-make-it dept
The nation's largest, incumbent utilities continue to engage in some pretty shady behavior to try and stop the unstoppable renewable energy (r)evolution. In Florida, for example, we noted how one utility created an entirely bogus consumer group with one purpose: to hamstring solar competition. The group, "Consumers For Smart Solar," was built specifically by utilities to try and push legislation that claimed to support solar energy, but actually applied all manner of backward and obnoxious restrictions to the alternative energy industry.
As these companies work to craft legislation that makes it harder on renewable competitors, they've ramped up the use of astroturfing to provide the illusion of broad consumer support for their efforts. Not to be outdone by their colleagues in Florida, one Louisiana utility appears to have hired a bunch of actors to express their enthusiastic support for the construction of a gas-based power plant that had been struggling with public approval. Locals had opposed the construction, arguing that claims that the plant was needed to shore up lagging capacity didn't hold up, and the utility should instead focus on modernization of existing lines.
Local utilities didn't like that, so they hired a bunch of actors to cheer the plant's construction, and jeer any conversation about renewable energy alternatives at a meeting in New Orleans:
"At least four of the people in orange shirts were professional actors. One actor said he recognized 10 to 15 others who work in the local film industry. They were paid $60 each time they wore the orange shirts to meetings in October and February. Some got $200 for a “speaking role,” which required them to deliver a prewritten speech, according to interviews with the actors and screenshots of Facebook messages provided to The Lens.
“They paid us to sit through the meeting and clap every time someone said something against wind and solar power,” said Keith Keough, who heard about the opportunity through a friend.
"Astroturfing," or the act of generating bogus grass roots public support for arguably unpopular policies, was a concept perfected by the broadband industry years ago. Whether it was paying people to attend meetings or the creation of bogus consumer groups to attack net neutrality, creating the illusion of support is a longstanding American tradition. It tends to be confusing to the general public, so by and large it's something traditional press outlets don't deem worthy of covering. But it routinely pollutes public discourse, and directly and routinely results in crap policy and law that doesn't reflect the will of the (actual) public.
In this case, locals believe the actors were likely hired by a utility company by the name of Entergy through a company creatively named Crowds on Demand (there's a long list of companies that do this, though most like to operate under the radar). But Entergy denies the claim, and promises it will look into it and take "appropriate action if warranted":
"“While we reiterate that Entergy did not pay, nor did we authorize any other person or entity to pay supporters to attend or speak at Council meetings, we recognize that our interactions with our stakeholders must always be based on honesty and integrity,” the company said. The company said it’s finalizing an investigation “to determine if anyone retained by the company has acted in any way inconsistent with these values. We will take swift and appropriate action if warranted."
Because it's not illegal for companies to hire actors to actively mislead the public and corrupt the democratic process, nothing much comes of these revelations. And while these kinds of efforts obviously can't stop natural market evolutions like the shift toward renewable, lower-pollution alternative energy options, they certainly do a great job making meaningful evolutionary progress that much slower and cumbersome.
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Filed Under: actors, alternative energy, new orleans, public support
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All focus now off "needed to shore up lagging capacity".
that Texas hit a peak of use, and it's only May.
That shift of focus certainly doesn't serve the
democracy, either, regardless how much dislike that:
> not illegal for companies to hire actors to actively mislead the public
The "not illegal" bit does cut both ways, not just for pirates trying to dodge law and steal content.
> and corrupt the democratic process
Well, power requirements are NOT in any degree "democratic", so whether a new plant is needed must not be controlled by morons who want electricity from magic wishing, even though majority.
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Re: All focus now off "needed to shore up lagging capacity".
Maybe, you consider the power utilities to be pirating our future for today's profits?
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Re: All focus now off "needed to shore up lagging capacity".
Tell us again just exactly how renewable energy is a "pirate" attempt to "dodge law and steal content".
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Magic wishing
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Re: Magic wishing
For a short term solution, the company's idea is actually not that bad... but they really need to fix the infrastructure such that they can absorb daytime solar from multiple points and bank it for night time use. If their short term solution gets in the way of that, it's not really very useful.
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But that doesn't change the ethics of astroturfing.
Any company that doesn't see the problem with paying for astroturf support also wouldn't have a problem denying that they were the source of the funds. Their denial does seem pretty complete, but it's worth noting that PR statements are not sworn testimony.
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Re:
They're telling the truth! The money didn't come from them, it came from the dummy corp they set up to take the fall if someone caught them. ;)
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Re: Re:
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Entergy admits astroturfing
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Watched it happen to many times..
How many understand that the PEOPLE paid for it..
Corps pay for nothing, and just raise prices to cover the expense..
They raise prices to ADD facilities, that were designed to SELL POWER TO OTHER STATES..and that states persons, PAY for all of it, and dont even get a CUT of the profits..
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And yet we are supposed to believe them when they trot out their mission statements about how they are a good neighbor and member of the community. Honest, trustworthy, blah, blah - LOL, what a load.
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Company Motto
From the non-disclosure agreement:
Wow. Michael Cohen is everywhere.
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What type of actors?
AHA.
They're "Crisis Actors"!
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"real people - not actors"
as if actors are not people.
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When Ajit Pai serves you and your pirate overlords at Google a big slice of humble pie I'm going to laugh long and loud.
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Re:
But, you'll refuse to tell anyone why or enter any kind of intelligent discussion, you'll just name call, lie and gloat over something that has nothing to do with the subject of the article. My God, you people are pathetic.
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Re:
What does "serves you ... a big slice of humble pie" equate to? Prison term for not sucking up to dictators?
Perhaps you could express your opinions in a more lucid fashion. I was unaware that our esteemed FCC chairperson was an accomplished cook, and why would you laugh if this esteemed leader of democracy were to make a pie for someone?
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Re:
Try again Richard.
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