XPost: alt.global-warming, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.atheism   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats.d, talk.politics.guns   
   From: walker@yahoo.com   
      
   Leftist politicians and activists rarely ponder the foreseeable   
   consequences of their actions, and typically demand solutions paid for by   
   others.   
      
   Like other leftist politicians and activists, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel   
   Bowser rarely ponders even easily foreseeable consequences of her actions   
   and demands solutions implemented and paid for by someone else.   
      
   The District of Columbia is about to inflict an enormous new set of   
   roosting chicken realities on its residents — and even more so on its   
   neighbors: Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.   
      
   Led by Councilwoman Mary Cheh, D.C.’s City Council recently passed two   
   laws banning fossil fuels for heating, cooking, and city-owned vehicles.   
   Together, they put this crime-ridden city at the forefront of stopping   
   manmade climate change, “the single most important environmental issue of   
   our time,” Cheh said. Bowser enthusiastically endorsed the efforts.   
      
   The “Clean Energy D.C. Building Code Amendment Act” prohibits fossil fuels   
   for household and water heating in new commercial buildings (including   
   residential buildings four stories and higher), starting in 2027. Among   
   other requirements, it mandates that restaurants and families use electric   
   cooking systems instead of natural gas, though buildings deemed “essential   
   to protecting public health and safety” may use gas for backup electricity   
   generation.   
      
   The “Climate Commitment Act” forbids fossil fuel heat for new district-   
   owned buildings, including schools, by 2025 and requires that all D.C.   
   vehicles be zero emissions by 2026, all District operations be carbon-free   
   by 2040, and the entire city be “carbon-neutral” by 2045.   
      
   Every fossil fuel reduction will require expanded electricity use — and   
   generation. With nuclear likely off the table, power generation will   
   presumably be via “renewable energy,” mostly wind and solar. But these   
   technologies are intermittent, unreliable, and weather-dependent. They   
   must be backed up by batteries that must be recharged constantly, by more   
   wind and solar power.   
      
   Ignoring Reality   
   Ignore for the moment that none of this energy is renewable or   
   sustainable. Wind and sunshine are, but raw materials needed to harness   
   this energy to power modern civilization are not.   
      
   In fact, a nationwide Green New Deal would require millions of tons of   
   metals and minerals, billions of tons of ores, and hundreds of new mines   
   in the United States, China, Africa, and other countries.   
      
   Ignore that D.C.’s “historic” laws might reduce average global   
   temperatures by 0.0002 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, assuming fossil fuel   
   emissions actually drive climate change. With China, India, and a hundred   
   other countries burning more fossil fuels to improve living standards and   
   supply U.S. “green energy” needs, global greenhouse gas emissions will   
   continue to rise.   
      
   Where exactly does D.C. intend to locate the hundreds of wind turbines and   
   millions of solar panels this “transition” will require? On city rooftops?   
   In Rock Creek Park and the Potomac River?   
      
   Where will it put a half-million half-ton battery modules for a week of   
   backup power? They pose serious fire hazards and thus must be located far   
   from residences, offices, garages, and parking lots. Even electric cars   
   and buses, for safety reasons, ought to be parked away from buildings and   
   with distance between them.   
      
   Surrounding Areas to Pay the Price Too   
   City leaders probably assume they can install all these facilities in   
   neighboring states: on West Virginia mountaintops; in Maryland and   
   Virginia agricultural, scenic, and wildlife habitat areas; and in the   
   Chesapeake Bay — with high-voltage transmission lines connecting the   
   facilities to the District.   
      
   After all, District residents should not be expected to pick up the tab   
   for trying to save the planet from climate cataclysms. They shouldn’t have   
   to endure the environmental consequences, either.   
      
   What “say” will residents of these states have in these decisions —   
   especially those who will be expected to live next to vast wind and solar   
   “farms,” and suffer the infrasound, light flicker, and other tranquility-   
   disrupting and health-impairing effects of this so-called clean energy?   
      
   Can Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland citizens reject the facilities,   
   just as others have rejected fracking, pipelines, and mining?   
      
   What about the raw materials that are currently sourced primarily through   
   China — with rampant pollution, child and slave labor, and fossil fuels?   
   Will D.C. require “responsible sourcing” for the massive amounts of metals   
   and minerals needed to honor its “climate commitment”?   
      
   One has to wonder whether the real objective is sustainability, sustained   
   moralizing, or totalitarian control over people’s lives, livelihoods, and   
   living standards.   
      
   The good news for Bowser and the D.C. Council is that their reckless   
   energy agenda has received little pushback from the public. That may all   
   change, of course, should the power go out during a Nats or Wizards game.   
      
   https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/02/lets-talk-about-mayor-muriel-bowsers-   
   looming-gas-pains/   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)