Jul 10
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Mainstream eco-terrorism in backward Spain
Cornwall Alliance Newsletter, July 2, 2010
2. Spanish Solar Company Mails Skeptic Scientist Dismantled Bomb
by Patrick Gallagher
Editor, GreenWatchAmerica
June 25, 2010
A Spanish scientist was sent a dismantled bomb in the mail following the publishing of his study which took a hard look at the damage Spain’s green jobs program has done to the Spanish economy.
President Obama, in promoting his own green jobs program, has often pointed out Spain’s green jobs program as a template. This spring, he had to back off that stand, as a study was released that showed Spain’s green jobs program to be a phenomenally inefficient use of money. That report (link opens PDF) stated that “every job in renewable energies created in Spain in the year 2000 has cost 571138 Euros and has been the cause of the loss of 2.2 jobs elsewhere in the economy.” Only one in ten jobs created wound up being permanent. President Clinton has acknowledged that Spain’s program is seriously flawed. Even Spain’s Socialist government itself has conceded the economic ruin these policies have wrought.
Some people, sadly, cannot accept reality. Dr. Calzada received the suspicious looking package and consulted an terrorism expert before opening it. The expert told him that he had received the dismantled parts of a bomb; a common warning that implies that if he doesn’t stand down, the next package will be a completed bomb. This is not the only trouble for Dr. Calzada since his report. Pajamas Media gives us the details:
The bomb threat is just the latest intimidation Dr. Calzada has faced since releasing his report and following up with articles in Expansion (a Spanish paper similar to the Financial Times). A minister from Spain’s Socialist government called the rector of King Juan Carlos University — Dr. Calzada’s employer — seeking Calzada’s ouster. Calzada was not fired, but he was stripped of half of his classes at the university. The school then dropped its accreditation of a summer university program with which Calzada’s think tank — Instituto Juan de Mariana — was associated.
Additionally, the head of Spain’s renewable energy association and the head of its communist trade union wrote opinion pieces in top Spanish newspapers accusing Calzada of being “unpatriotic” — they did not charge him with being incorrect, but of undermining Spain by daring to write the report.
Their reasoning? If the skepticism that Calzada’s revelations prompted were to prevail in the U.S., Spanish industry would face collapse should U.S. subsidies and mandates dry up.
What’s most amazing about this story is who sent the package. It wasn’t some lone loony green acting on his own. It was a Spanish solar energy company! Dr. Calzada saw the package was from Thermotechnic and called them before opening it to ask what was inside. As he tells it, they answered: “it was their answer to my energy pieces.”
Imagine the outrage if an oil company sent a similar package to a Global Warming advocate. The media would have a field day; we’d never hear the end of it. But as of now, this story, wherein a scientist received a dismantled bomb from a solar energy company because they didn’t like the results of his study. appears to have been virtually ignored by the American press. Can’t say we’re surprised.