Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Conservative Idiots

[bananas]

I just came across this book review from 2008:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/apr/13/energy-independence/
...
In "Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusion of 'Energy Independence,'" Mr. Bryce, despite a tendency to reach for the rhetorical sledge- hammer, writes with strength and gusto, and is an equal opportunity attacker.
...
Mr. Bryce also excoriates Greenpeace, World Watch Institue, Amory Lovins, Al Gore and his championing of "the enthanol scam," as well as all the presidential candidates, Nancy Pelosi, the Center for American Progress, Robert Redford (also touting the ethanol scam), Thomas Friedman, and even poor James Carville.
...
By 2030, wind will perhaps provide just over 1 percent of all our electricity, and solar less than that.
...

Wind was generating almost 2% of US electrcity in 2009, one year after the book was published.
How could Robert Bryce get his prediction so wrong so quickly?
The guy must be delusional.

According to Wikipedia and the NY Times:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_States
At the end of 2009, the installed capacity of wind power in the United States was just over 35,000 megawatts (35 GW),<2><3> making it the world leader ahead of Germany. Wind power accounts for about 2% of the electricity generated in the United States.<4>

4. ^ Peter Behr. Predicting Wind Power's Growth -- an Art That Needs More Science New York Times, April 28, 2010.

Checking the actual data at the EIA:
2009 wind = 70,760,934 thousand kwh http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/table3.html
2009 total = 3,953,111 thousand mwh http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table1_1.html
70,760,934 kkwh / 3,953,111 kmwh = 70 760 934 / 3 953 111 000 = 0.0179000625 = 1.8%

So wikipedia and the NY Times are correct.
How did Robert Bryce get his prediction so wrong?

What's really galling is the cover of his book,
compare it to this photo from the DU thread "This Is What An Oil-Soaked Ocean Wave Looks Like"

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ELLd8i0mL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Dangerous delusion of fossil fuel dependence.

[depakid]

2. Not sure when it occured, but sometime in the past 20 years, publishers just stopped caring

whether the nonfiction books they put out were in any way factual. It's gotten so bad in the states that it's almost as if the bigger more sensational the lies- the more packed it is with outright false statements of fact- the more likely they are to publish and promote it.

One of the symptoms of impending decline (or collapse) according the Jane Jacobs.