HELP WANTED for Major Media: Better-Informed Energy Experts and Reporters

By Stephen Heins, The Word Merchant

HELP WANTED for Major Media: Better-Informed Energy Experts and Reporters

By Stephen Heins, The Word Merchant

The media is pivotal in shaping public understanding and policy on energy, environment, engineering, and regulatory matters, especially given their direct ties to global economic development and human prosperity. However, I want to highlight a pressing need for “energy sanity”—prioritizing abundant, reliable energy supplies, robust infrastructure, economic growth, and capital formation via unsubsidized profits—over politically driven narratives.

This requires elevating well-informed, less partisan experts and reporters who can deliver nuanced, evidence-based insights rather than ideological echo chambers. Below, I’ll discuss why this shift is essential, drawing on examples of current shortcomings and potential benefits.

Current Shortcomings in Media Coverage

Media outlets often fail to provide balanced, expert-driven reporting on energy issues, leading to distorted public perceptions and suboptimal policies. One key problem is inherent bias or ignorance, where coverage skews toward sensationalism or political agendas rather than technical realities.

For instance, analyses of U.S. newspaper reporting on climate change reveal significant outlet-specific biases, with some emphasizing apocalyptic scenarios while others downplay them, influencing how energy transitions are framed. This divide has widened over time, as seen in comparisons between MidAmerican outlets and elite newspapers, where regional media might underreport or interpret energy-related climate stories differently than national ones.

False balance is another issue, where journalists give equal weight to fringe views alongside scientific consensus, confusing audiences on topics like renewable energy viability or fossil fuel roles. This practice has been shown to erode trust in climate and energy facts, making it harder for people to support practical solutions. The media sometimes legitimizes misinformation in energy-specific contexts, such as overstated claims about biomass or wind energy benefits, while ignoring drawbacks like intermittency or environmental impacts.

A notable example is the underreporting of potential links between offshore wind development and marine mammal deaths, like North Atlantic right whales, where increased boat traffic and sonar noise from construction correlate with strandings—yet major outlets have dismissed these concerns as “misinformation” without thorough investigation.

Political slant exacerbates this, with conservative-leaning sources often critiquing green subsidies as market distortions that hinder reliable energy production. At the same time, liberal outlets push narratives of urgent transitions without addressing reliability gaps. As a result, audiences get incomplete pictures: renewables are hailed as panaceas without discussing their dependence on subsidies or backup from fossil/nuclear sources, while traditional energy is vilified without acknowledging its role in abundance and economic stability.

This politicization stems partly from journalists’ challenges translating complex scientific and engineering language into accessible stories, leading to oversimplification or reliance on biased sources.

The Need for Better-Informed, Less Political Experts and Reporters

To foster energy sanity, the media must prioritize experts grounded in engineering, economics, and regulatory realities over activists or politicians. Well-informed reporting can clarify that abundant energy isn’t just about quantity but reliability—ensuring grids don’t falter during peaks or wind droughts, as seen in regions over-relying on intermittent sources like wind and solar.

For example, unsubsidized profits drive innovation and capital formation, allowing markets to allocate resources efficiently without taxpayer burdens that distort priorities, such as funneling billions into unviable projects. Experts in recent U.S. Department of Energy reviews emphasize that greenhouse gas policies must balance emissions reductions with economic impacts, rejecting one-size-fits-all targets that ignore complexity and trade-offs.

Less political coverage would reduce moral panic around energy issues, where apocalyptic framing—often amplified by media—ignores data showing that reliable infrastructure supports development without inevitable catastrophe. Instead, reporters trained in energy literacy could highlight how digital tools and factual press have been used to enhance public knowledge of transitions, linking cognitive understanding (e.g., engineering limits of batteries) with practical actions. This is crucial globally, as energy decisions affect billions; biased or uninformed reporting can hinder sustainable growth, like in developing nations needing affordable, reliable power for their own industrialization, without colonial interferences.

The media’s role in energy transitions is profound—it shapes perceptions, influences policy, and holds stakeholders accountable. By featuring diverse experts (e.g., engineers over ideologues), outlets can support climate action without alarmism, as suggested by UN guidelines for journalists: focus on solutions, verify facts, and engage communities. Independent, data-driven journalism from specialized outlets fills gaps in mainstream coverage by providing rigorous analysis of clean energy momentum amid political shifts.

Benefits and Path Forward

Embracing energy sanity through better experts, non-political scientists, yields tangible gains: stable grids reduce blackouts, unsubsidized markets spur innovation (e.g., nuclear renaissance for baseload power), and informed economic development lifts living standards without environmental overreach. It counters post-truth pitfalls in renewables hype, where lies about costs and efficacy persist unchecked, leading to higher bills and grid fragility.

Ultimately, the media owes audiences this upgrade—by training reporters on energy complexities, diversifying sources, and prioritizing facts over politics, it can drive sane policies that deliver abundance and reliability for all. Bigger audiences will be their reward.