XPost: sci.environment, alt.politics.green.party, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: democrat-insurrection@mail.house.gov   
      
   https://nypost.com/2024/08/11/opinion/we-are-wasting-2-trillion-a-year-   
   chasing-green-fantasies/   
      
   Despite much hype, the much-vaunted green energy transition away from   
   fossil fuels isn’t happening.   
      
   Achieving a meaningful shift with current policies turns out to be   
   unaffordable. We need to drastically change policy direction.   
      
   Globally, we are already spending almost $2 trillion annually to try to   
   force an energy transition. Over the past decade, solar and wind energy   
   use have increased to their highest-ever levels.   
      
   But it hasn’t reduced fossil fuels — on the contrary, we have added even   
   more fossil fuels over the same time.   
      
   Countless studies show that when societies add more renewable energy, most   
   of it never replaces coal, gas or oil. It simply adds to energy   
   consumption. Recent research shows that for every six units of new green   
   energy, less than one unit displaces any fossil fuel. Analysis in the   
   United States shows that renewable energy subsidies simply lead to more   
   overall energy being used.   
      
   In other words, policies meant to boost green energy are leading to more   
   emissions.   
      
   None of this should come as a surprise to any student of history. During   
   the transition from wood to coal during the 1800s, overall wood use   
   actually increased even while coal took over a greater percentage of   
   energy needs. The same thing happened when we shifted from coal to oil: By   
   1970, oil, coal, gas and wood all delivered more energy than ever.   
      
   Humans have an unquenchable thirst for affordable energy, which is   
   required for every aspect of modern life. In the past half-century, the   
   energy we get from oil and coal has again doubled, hydro power has   
   tripled, and gas has quadrupled — and we have experienced an explosion in   
   the use of nuclear, solar and wind. The whole world — and the average   
   person — has never had more energy available.   
      
   The grand plan underpinning today’s green energy transition mostly insists   
   that pushing heavily subsidized renewables everywhere will magically make   
   fossil fuels go away.   
      
   But a recent study concluded that talk of a transition is “misleading.”   
   During every previous addition of a new energy source, the researchers   
   found, it has been “entirely unprecedented for these additions to cause a   
   sustained decline in the use of established energy sources.”   
      
   What causes us to change our relative use of energy?   
      
   One study investigated 14 shifts that have taken place over the past five   
   centuries, like when farmers went from plowing fields with animals to   
   fossil fuel-powered tractors. The main driver has always been that the new   
   energy service is either better or cheaper.   
      
   Solar and wind fail on both counts. They are not better, because unlike   
   fossil fuels that can produce electricity whenever we need it, they can   
   only produce energy according to the vagaries of daylight and weather.   
      
   This means they are not cheaper, either. At best they are only cheaper   
   when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing at just the right speed.   
   The rest of the time, they are mostly useless and infinitely costly.   
      
   When we factor in the cost of just four hours of storage, wind and solar   
   energy solutions become uncompetitive compared to fossil fuels. Achieving   
   a real, sustainable transition to solar or wind would require orders of   
   magnitude more storage, making these options incredibly unaffordable.   
      
   Moreover, solar and wind only address a small part of a vast challenge.   
   They are almost entirely deployed in the electricity sector, which makes   
   up just one-fifth of all global energy use.   
      
   We still struggle to find green solutions for most transport, and we   
   haven’t even begun with the vast energy needs of heating, manufacturing or   
   agriculture. We are all but ignoring the hardest and most crucial sectors   
   like steel, cement, plastics and fertilizer.   
      
   Little wonder, then, that, for all the talk of the world undergoing an   
   energy transition, even the Biden administration finds that while   
   renewable energy sources will dramatically increase globally up to 2050,   
   oil, gas and coal will all keep increasing, too.   
      
   On this trajectory, we will never achieve an energy transition away from   
   fossil fuels. This would require vastly more subsidies for solar and wind,   
   as well as for batteries and hydrogen, and for us all to accept less   
   efficient technologies for important needs like steel and fertilizer.   
      
   But on top of that, a true transition would also require politicians to   
   impose massive taxes on fossil fuels to make them less desirable. McKinsey   
   estimates the direct price tag to achieve a real transition at more than   
   $5 trillion annually. This splurge would slow economic growth, making the   
   real cost five times higher. Annual costs for people living in rich   
   countries could be higher than $13,000 per person per year.   
      
   Voters won’t agree to that pain.   
      
   The only realistic way to achieve a transition is to vastly improve green   
   energy alternatives. This means more investment in green energy research   
   and development. Innovation is needed in wind and solar, but also in   
   storage, nuclear energy and many other possible solutions. Bringing   
   alternative energy costs below the price of fossil fuels is the only way   
   that green solutions can be implemented globally, and not just by the   
   elite in a few climate-concerned, wealthy countries.   
      
   When politicians tell you the green transition is here and we need to get   
   on board, they are really just asking voters to support them throwing more   
   good money after bad. We need to be much smarter.   
      
   Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus, visiting fellow at   
   Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and author of “False Alarm.”   
      
      
   --   
   November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look   
   forward to America being great again.   
      
   The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and   
   eradicated.   
      
   We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that   
   stupid people won't be offended.   
      
   Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem.  It has none.   
      
   Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden   
   fiasco, President Trump.   
      
   Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the   
   The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood   
   queer liberal democrat donors.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)