Thread by @simonahac

a short, true story about @alan_john_moran (18 years at @TheIPA) who was offered $100k to prove the accuracy of his work for @MRobertsQLD — but, after much bluster, shied from the challenge. 1/17

in july, @alan_john_moran wrote a report for ex-senator @MRobertsQLD in response to the #finkel report.
39 pages of “scholarship” such as this: 2/17

moran’s report, largely a rehash of his blog, was riddled with errors.
the report was so bad that i prepared this brief critique:

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3/17

was less than impressed with my work! 4/17

moran’s report claimed that renewables received $4.87bn in subsidies — he maintained that his numbers are ‘accurate’ and ‘dead right’. 5/17

i put out an open challenge:

the moran-roberts prize: prove moran’s table is correct and receive $25k.

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6/17

moran’s paranoia led him to believe a public servant was out to get him: 7/17

moran was worried i wouldn’t pay up, so i pledged to put funds in escrow. 8/17

moran was worried i’d reject his arguments — duh! i just had — so i pledged to engage a panel three neutral adjudicators. 9/17

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moran was worried that there’d be a huge application fee — i reassured him there’d be none.
moran was worried that i’d choose skewed adjudicators — so i pledged to allow him to choose 2 of the 3. 10/17

with no applicants, but continued big talk by moran, i quadrupled the reward:

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11/17

…finally moran accepted!

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12/17

…and after much cajoling, moran provided his nominees:

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13/17

it was a challenge and took months to find adjudicators who were happy to participate, but i found three, two of whom were nominated by moran. 14/17

on 30 may i sent moran the application form. 15/17

on 6 june moran responded, indicating, in a round about manner, that he was not going to apply — trying to push the onus of proof onto me. (no sir, that's not how you win the prize.) 16/17

the take-away? even with the offer of more than ample reward, under a process skewed in his favour, moran knew that his work would not, could not survive scrutiny — he cut and ran.

why would anyone ever give this @theIPA relic a platform on energy ever again? 17/17

ps. i should note @alan_john_moran is no longer with the @TheIPA — he was ousted after some questionable social media use. check out his timeline or any of his tweets to me, and you'll get a glimpse into the soul of a dark, sad man, whose energy credentials are in tatters.

pps. one reason @alan_john_moran gave for not applying is that if he gave his address on the application form then "one of my supporters" would "firebomb his house". i told him he could leave the address field blank.

ppps. moran believes i pay *you* to like my tweets. 🤣

here's an example of @alan_john_moran's considered response to my challenge of his scholarship:

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.@alan_john_moran lacked the confidence in his own work to apply for the moran-roberts prize, but somehow thinks he's entitled to the prize winnings?

i think we're watching a man implode in real time. sad.

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