StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Michael Thomas

Founder and Author, Distilled · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

journalistauthorfounderanalyst@curious_founder ↗distilled.earth ↗

Michael Thomas is an investigative climate journalist and energy researcher best known for writing Distilled, a newsletter examining energy data and anti-renewable misinformation campaigns. He also founded Cleanview, a power infrastructure intelligence platform, and previously launched the home electrification publication Carbon Switch.

6statements → 6claims → 5claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 3.67/5average certainty → 2.67/5average debate potential →

5 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

6 assertions · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 5 are resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Michael argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Thomas: There is zero documented contamination of town water supplies by solar panels
“There's never been A single documented instance of solar panels that have contaminated a town's water supply compared to fossil fuels where that's actually a very common experience or has happened a number of times.”
Michael Thomas Apr 5, 2023 ▶ 3:48 What’s driving a surge in renewables opposition?

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
100% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Michael Thomas on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Michael Thomas said on the Green Blueprint that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Supported
Thomas: There is zero documented contamination of town water supplies by solar panels
“There's never been A single documented instance of solar panels that have contaminated a town's water supply compared to fossil fuels where that's actually a very common experience or has happened a number of times.”
Michael Thomas Apr 5, 2023 ▶ 3:48 What’s driving a surge in renewables opposition?
Assertion Supported
Thomas: Local opponents have blocked clean energy in 49 US states
“Clean energy projects have been blocked by local opponents in 49 out of 50 states.”
Michael Thomas Apr 5, 2023 ▶ 16:28 What’s driving a surge in renewables opposition?
Assertion Supported
Thomas: Over 30 states have local bans or restrictions on clean energy
“Local governments in more than 30 states have passed local ordinances that either severely restrict clean energy development or outright ban it, and more than a hundred local governments have passed severe restrictions Setbacks that make it almost impossible t…”
Michael Thomas Apr 5, 2023 ▶ 16:36 What’s driving a surge in renewables opposition?
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Thomas: Facebook Misinformation Spurs Vocal Local Backlash Against Renewable Projects
“When there's a county commission meeting debating whether or not a wind farm or solar farm is going to be approved, people show up in the dozens. In a lot of cases, it leads to these screaming matches in county commission meetings, and people who used to go to…”
Michael Thomas Apr 5, 2023 ▶ 7:35 What’s driving a surge in renewables opposition?
Assertion Supported
Thomas: DOE found safety issues in under 100 of 40,000 wind turbines
“There was a study by the Department of Energy a couple years back, and they looked at the 40,000 wind turbines in America, and they found that less than a hundred of them had any sort of safety issue, and I think only a handful had, had caught fire.”
Michael Thomas Apr 5, 2023 ▶ 2:28 What’s driving a surge in renewables opposition?
Assertion Supported
Thomas: Renewable Opponents Target Clean Energy Solutions, Not Climate Science
“I think one of the biggest surprises when I started to research misinformation was that people aren't denying the science of climate change. A lot of the misinformation was more related to the solution to climate change.”
Michael Thomas Apr 5, 2023 ▶ 5:58 What’s driving a surge in renewables opposition?

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
What’s driving a surge in renewables opposition? Apr 5, 2023 6m
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 100 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more