The Great Green Dysfunction and US Energy Policy

There is nothing so self-righteous as a modern green zealot. And there is nothing so threatening to a clean and abundant human future. Not only is "green energy" exorbitantly expensive, it is also a significant threat to the stability and quality of service of the electrical power grid. This makes it a threat to entire nations and continents where electrical systems are inter-tied.

Here is one look at how the "green energy policy" hurts the US:

According to the Electric Power Research Institute, generating a megawatt-hour of electricity with natural gas in 2015 will cost between $49 and $79. A megawatt-hour from onshore wind will cost between $75 and $138. The cost from solar photovoltaic will cost at least $242 and as much as $455.

Never mind that higher energy costs are crippling households and businesses alike.... The latest data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey shows that the bottom fifth of income earners spent 22% of income on energy expenditures in 2011.

...The Chinese government understands that using renewable energy is not cost-effective, and its main objective is to take advantage of both its low-cost labor and the Western obsession with environmentalism to become the world’s leading producer of renewables.

In other words, China is intent on strengthening its economy rather than fighting the possibility of man made global warming. Even if America were to become 100% green, this would not cause a significant drop in worldwide carbon emissions. Likewise, in India, renewables such as geothermal, solar, and wind power hold little importance in its electric power generation.

But why is this the case? Don’t China and India know that a green way of life would be a bargain?

Perhaps these countries read a 2011 United Nations report that admitted that going green would cost not $600 billion a year for the next decade, as the United Nations claimed two years ago, but triple that: $1.9 trillion per year for forty years, or $76 trillion over the forty-year period in order to “solve” climate change. This sum is more than five times the entire GDP of the United States, which was $15 trillion in 2011. Read U.N. report “The Great Green Technological Transformation.”

In supporting our government’s green policies, we are consenting to live in a poorer world with less wealth. Clean air and green forests are indisputably desirable, but $76 trillion can buy many goods and services, medical care, clean water, and trash collection. Taking pride in moral rectitude is important, but it is not worth $76 trillion, especially if individuals will not choose to spend the $76 trillion of their own volition. _Diane Furchtgott-Roth

Frantic greens in and out of the US Obama administration fret that China is "racing ahead" in production of big wind and big solar infrastructure. But the winner of that particular race ends up being the loser, in the end. Spain, for example, was once the winner -- and now is the loser. Germany is well along that losing highway itself. China itself is hurting badly from its ill-advised overbuild in intermittent unreliable infrastructure and production infrastructure.

If you want a country to fail economically, just encourage it to build up and become dependent upon its green energy infrastructure of intermittent unreliables. Before long, the problem will take care of itself.