Guest Post by John Stossel
The “Greens” promise renewables, solar and wind power, will replace fossil fuels. After all, the wind and sun are free, and they don’t pollute!
Oops.
Now countries that embraced renewables are so desperate for power that they eagerly import coal, the worst polluter of all!
Do they apologize? No. Greens never apologize.
Germany was a leader in renewable energy, so confident in solar and wind power that they closed half their nuclear plants.
Oops.
That leaves Germans so short of power that Germans are now desperate to buy fossil fuels from Russia. Even worse, pollution-wise, high pollution coal now tops wind as Germany’s biggest electricity source. That’s really disgusting.
Then, even after putting all that soot in the air, Germans pay more than triple what Americans pay for electricity.
For my new video, I confront German-born environmentalist Johanna Neumann of Environment America, a group that lobbies for 100% renewable energy.
I point out that despite massive subsidies, her beloved renewables still provide just 12% of our power. She responds, “Saying renewables are not yet powering our utility grid is like critiquing a 2-year-old for not being able to run a marathon.”
A 2-year-old? I don’t want to meet that kid. Renewables have been subsidized for 40 years, not two.
“How we spend our taxes ought to be a reflection of our values,” Neumann adds. “Americans … love renewable energy.”
Yes, I suppose we do. We like the idea of it. I put solar panels on my roof. I’d be a sucker not to. Massachusetts takes money from other state residents to give me a tax break on solar panels.
Still, in winter, when the sun is low, or my panels are covered by snow, I get nothing from my solar panels.
What kind of energy solution is that? People need energy when it’s cloudy, too. They also need it when the wind doesn’t blow.
“When the sun goes down … offshore winds get cranked up,” says Neumann.
No, they don’t!
“The wind doesn’t always come up when the sun goes down,” I point out.
“Renewables are clearly better,” Neumann replies.
She says we’ll solve renewable energy’s inconsistency by doing things like storing energy in batteries.
Well, yes, a battery that holds energy for weeks would make renewables work. But it doesn’t exist.
“This is just a total fantasy, which is why nobody has done it anywhere, ever!” says Alex Epstein, author of “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.”
Fossil fuels are moral, Epstein correctly points out, because human flourishing depends on them.
Abundant fossil fuels are especially important for poor people.
“Three billion people in the world still use less electricity than a typical American refrigerator. Are we going to allow them to have a modern life? Because that’s going to depend on fossil fuels.”
Even if climate change becomes a serious problem, fossil fuels reduce its harm by making us prosperous enough to afford protection against the climate.
“We have a 98% decline in climate-related disaster deaths over the last 100 years,” Epstein points out.
A 98% drop in deaths! This is the amazing untold story of fossil fuels and their benefits. Because oil and natural gas so efficiently provide power, heat homes when it’s freezing, pump water during droughts, etc., millions thrive, despite problems like climate change.
Thanks to fossil fuels, “We have this amazing productive ability,” says Epstein. “That’s the only reason we experience the planet as livable.”
Global warming is a threat. Limiting fossil fuels now, without a capable alternative, will make it even harder to deal with the effects.
Unless someone invents a miracle battery or something else that makes sun and wind power practical, we need fossil fuels, desperately.
Poor people need them most.
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Solar panels are just not ready for prime time. Never mind the rare stuff that has to be mined and that they’re made in China–our biggest enemy next to George Soros and Klaus Schwab. They are not cost effective ANYWHERE. I’m not in Massachusetts. Southeast Texas has usable sun all year. Installers prefer south facing roofs here, although I imagine a flat roof would be optimal. In any case, I have tried four times now to get solar to be worth it.
Best I can do with my current 10.5 cents per kwh bottom line electric bill is about a 13 year payback, and that’s disregarding repairs (which I understand are not uncommon with the electronics) and damage from hail. Also cleaning seems to be something you have to do periodically. In the spring here there is pine pollen (or maybe it’s oak) that for a while deposits yellow dust on everything. Our house is two stories, so cleaning the panels would probably require a pro. Also efficiency of solar panels drops as their temperature goes above about 90 degrees. Well the sun here warms things quite nicely. So nicely in fact that my friend in San Antonio 200 miles west of here says his solar panels are usually operating at 80-85% at best.
That’s solar. Wind is not even remotely feasible in a suburban neighborhood. I see ads for companies putting in geothermal systems here. I can’t imagine how that would work. You’d have to go down a hundred feet or more to get to the stable 55 degrees that geothermal uses, as I understand it.
I wonder what a nuclear reactor from a decommissioned submarine would cost?
Yellow dust = Pine pollen.
This time of year in Georgia, you’re kicking up clouds of it as you walk down the sidewalk.
Tennessee too!
Yep, pine pollen. Oak pollen likely too.
Pine Pollen for Food and Medicine? does not mention loblolly pine specifically. While I’m using pine needles in tea, the yellow stuff from the pines this time of year is nasty, all over everything. and I never imagined it to be of medicinal value.
Talking about solar, my co-op electric company announced recently it is investing in a solar farm in Simms , Texas.
Coal puts more soot in the air these days? I doubt it. Most advanced burners have scrubbers on the exhaust.
I’ve always wondered how we can, supposedly, put man on the moon but can’t figure out how to make coal burn clean.
Then there’s also the oil and gas lobby in DC might have more stroke than the coal people.
The author’s anecdotes about Germany are even more pointed when one knows that the Germans, having 6 nuclear power generation plants in 2020 reduced that number by 50% in 2022. Their insanity is unabated since they are committed to shutter the remaining 3.
Nuclear is the only solution. One pellet of the refined stuff is about the size of a marble and can power one home for an entire year. There’s plenty of it around. It is cheap and available.
The current Nuclear approach to power, unfortunately, is not the solution. A typical fuel rod used in today’s Nuclear Power plants only has a service life of just six years. These same rods remain dangerous for over 100,000 years. The amount of energy gained in the short term does not equate to the amount of energy required to store it by a long shot. I don’t believe the people of 100 years from now will be thanking the people of today for their shortsightedness.
However, there are Nuclear technologies that would be much better suited for use in energy production without the perpetual storage problem. Thorium (molten salt) reactors, however, are a much better alternative, but do not serve the MICS desire for uranium and plutonium in weapons. Thorium reactor waste only has to managed for just 300 years.
I guess we will see where this all goes eventually.
The Germans leaned right into a left uppercut. That’s what the illness called ‘wokeism’ does. Common sense is the first to go. Now the dumb bastards are going to pay 50% more for their food and 100% or more for their heat, air conditioning and utilities. Hitler must be rolling over in his grave.
Flow redox batteries do exist. They are part of the solution to renewables, and are scalable to meet grid-size demands. No exotic metals needed. The membrane (presently nafion) is the weak point (cost and durability), but technology will solve that problem eventually.
Coal with scrubbers is pretty clean.
I like Stossel, but he is turning into the alarmists he always fought against. Shoot straight, man.
Continuing to call hydrocarbons ‘fossil fuel’ is only perpetuating the scam.
A mature, honest discussion as to what ‘fossil fuel’ is and what natural processes create it would be immensely helpful.
Fossils. Seriously…
To a certain extent they are. It is the thick layer of organic scum on the bottom on the oceans that create oil when the tectonic plates collide and the stuff gets pushed down under the top layer. But that takes millions of years and we don’t have the time to wait for it.
No reason for the downvotes. Last I read, its origins are still debated, at least among honest scientists. Not too long ago some Russian geologists were theorizing that oil may be formed abiotically at those areas of the sea floor where magma seeps in.
😂 Fuel cells must have had some potential…For the Buyer. It’s most likely why you never hear about them anymore. (FYI, “restricted stock” generally means you can’t sell it.”Until”…)
Ground mount solar, with tracking. Panels face down at night. ‘wake up’ with the sun and track it across the sky. The motive force for movement was an issue regardless of the prime mover, last i paid attention 12+ yrs ago. Probably have feature by now to adjust the ‘angle of incidence’ or whatever it’s called. Sun hits ‘square on’ all the time, the idea being for maximum efficiency, 20% or maybe a little more by now.. Expensive.
Currently, After the initial ‘Customer site Survey’, most people just go with however many panels their salesman feels/runs credit check that the customers wallet can support… “state of the art Bi-Directional Metering! The Power company will pay You for Your excess generation!” (Better call experian™And get that free boost that you DESERVE today! First)
Not sure if it is smooth talking, down-playing ‘salespersons’ lol, or giddy customers itching to save the planet while ‘making money hand over fist on their minimal if any ‘excess’ production…And not paying attention to ‘minor details’. For example, when you loose power from your utility provider, (Electric Co.) Your array is ‘Locked Out’, and you can’t get any power from them. Either. For the vast majority of roofs, (Asphalt shingles) you are effectively and eventually assuredly installing multiple leaks in your roof.
It gets Better.
The latest gimmick…Sorry!… “state of the art LEAP in technology” is battery back-up.
Battery back up was nearly universal in the early photovoltaic systems. Life-cycle replacement cost, Maintenance, etc….led to Bi-directional metering.
“But the new and improved batteries” …At minimum DOUBLE the upfront cost, ROI in the range of 18-25 yrs. Maybe your new tesla AND your house burn simultaneously. You can be happy and own nothing…While the insurance co. tries to figure out whom to pursue.
Like icing on a cake, (personal decision) saving the best for last.
Relatively ‘standard’ system. ALL your power is ‘Back-fed’. Through a 40-50 Amp Breaker. $51,000-$65,000. 3rd party financing inextricably linked to your mortgage. And That’s in WV
Excellent post. thx
Quite welcome, thanks for the compliment. Just trying to contribute as it appears a very high percentage here are so inclined. Would bet money that solar panels, no matter what, have not hit 25%, hopium marketing aside.
Just a guess but I would say the elite don’t care one iota about poor people. If they all died tomorrow nary a tear would be shed by the world’s elite.
Wind and solar work if the demand on the batteries isn’t that much. Modern nuclear plants are what’s needed.
‘Modern Nuclear’? lol
GE® “We bring good things to Life” will ultimately be deemed the ‘Deep Pockets’ after the FUKUShima debacle, still probably actively trying to figure out which restructuring technique/division will declare bankruptcy. While on the surface, (think this is a pun) giant lobster and multi-tailed shrimp has infinite appeal from many perspectives, ‘The Nuclear option’, (Yet another feeble pun?) isn’t working out so well for US is it? “There is too much waste in society”…But they barely mention the nuclear component.
Speaking of tilting at WindMills…Great for pumping water from wells where no electricity is present, Probably many other uses, Post cards from Holland for example. All the hoopla about climate derangement syndrome…Massive wind farms could potentially be a negative variant of “The Butterfly Effect”.
In closing, if you choose to ‘Invest’ your hard-earned money in these technologies, who am i to try to dissuade you? Still a free Country.
Well, we have energy back up 24K. Well driller did a 110’well. Consultant said said it needecd to be 500’+. We can afford the 500+’. When you’re on a SC Sea Island, they should known better. TDS are 29,000+. It’s only 322′ from salt creek to marsh, our house is in the middle of 6 acres.
Quit callin coal dirty. We cleaned that up long ago. Most of that stuff coming out of the stacks is steam…
You can’t build any of that shit without fossil fuels, and a wind turbine requires 5 units of energy for the production of 4 units of energy, damn, is that not the smartest thing you ever saw?
I guess my problem with the wind and solar suck articles is that I am thinking about people living off-grid in the sticks having a reasonably well thought out homestead with limited energy demands. Not people living in a city or those living in suburban McMansions with two AC units. Otherwise building small modern nuclear plants would be the answer. It makes too much sense so it won’t happen.
Counting on public officials and corporations to keep your energy flowing sounds like a bad idea to me. Will you need a CBDC to pay for your energy?
I’ve been reading about Thorium for years, the US doesn’t like it because it doesn’t produce weapons grade plutonium, looks like the Chinese will get there first.
“Scientists are excited about an experimental nuclear reactor using thorium as fuel, which is about to begin tests in China. Although this radioactive element has been trialled in reactors before, experts say that China is the first to have a shot at commercializing the technology.
The reactor is unusual in that it has molten salts circulating inside it instead of water. It has the potential to produce nuclear energy that is relatively safe and cheap, while also generating a much smaller amount of very long-lived radioactive waste than conventional reactors.
Construction of the experimental thorium reactor in Wuwei, on the outskirts of the Gobi Desert, was due to be completed by the end of August — with trial runs scheduled for this month, according to the government of Gansu province.
Thorium is a weakly radioactive, silvery metal found naturally in rocks, and currently has little industrial use. It is a waste product of the growing rare-earth mining industry in China, and is therefore an attractive alternative to imported uranium, say researchers.
Powerful potential
“Thorium is much more plentiful than uranium and so it would be a very useful technology to have in 50 or 100 years’ time,” when uranium reserves start to run low, says Lyndon Edwards, a nuclear engineer at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation in Sydney. But the technology will take many decades to realize, so we need to start now, he adds.
“Progressives”,especially female progressives just “know” that “renewables” are better than fossil fuels. Women have that special ” way of knowing”. That explains why for every female engineer,there are 1000 who are into Wicca.