Going Green
How many times during the last Presidential campaign did Americans hear, “The greatest existential threat to the United Sates is climate change” from the enlightened progressive liberal Democrats? In Texas and other states, the “greatest existential threat” is freezing to death, in the dark, while watching the food in the fridge assume room temperature. Particularly in Texas, a state with enormous natural gas and oil reserves, this lack of power is mind numbing. As one pundit put it, “It’s like starving to death in a grocery store”.
Rather than build power plants that use fossil resources which can be “cleaned up” to minimize pollution to acceptable levels, the Texas power authorities committed to a vigorous program that built a multitude of wind turbines throughout West Texas. It is reported that those turbines supplied 23% to the electricity to the Texas power grid. The polar vortex has caused those turbines to freeze and seize up. The disruption has been massive and now folks are rethinking the use of these giant bird killers. The good news is that there are no reports that any of the fossil fuel or nuclear plants have frozen.
In a number of states, the power grid is becoming less reliable due to a growing reliance on wind and solar. It’s a scientific fact that solar panels are useless when covered with snow and at night. Further the absence of wind makes a wind turbine idle. Has anyone told the environmental activists this obvious point? Let’s have noted teenage authority on climate change, Greta Thunberg, weigh in…certainly she has a solution.
The Chinese apparently understand the importance of fossil fuel, according to the latest data. This “developing nation”, as labeled in the Paris Climate Accords, has enough coal-fired plants under development to power all of Germany. In fact, China leads the world in the number of coal-fired plants and imports more coal than any nation other than Japan. As a side note, ever since the Fukushima Nuclear plant disaster, Japan is building a lot of fossil (coal) fuel plants. No pollution there Greta?!
To be fair, these plants do burn somewhat cleaner but not to the standards that the United States’ mandates and certainly not clean enough for the tree huggers.
But it’s not just Texas that has embraced this rush to save citizens from the “greatest existential threat” to humanity. In California, the liberal progressives long ago banished coal-fired plants and the state now has only one nuclear power plant left, Diablo Canyon and that’s scheduled to close in 2025. No new natural gas or oil power plants are planned either.
When the California endured a serious heat wave last summer, it stressed the state’s power grid to a point where “rolling blackouts” became the norm in many areas. It was discovered by state authorities that there wasn’t enough wind for the turbines and solar disappeared in the evenings. An amazing epiphany for them. California energy regulators had to import from Arizona and Utah power generated by…coal. Brilliant. And when that wasn’t enough these geniuses were forced to run diesel generators.
As politically it is incorrect with the current administration, Joe and the gang need to recognize that their constituents are also freezing, in the dark, and running out of food because of a stubborn adherence to a looney energy policy favored by some far-left environmental whack jobs.
Biden’s announced, “Clean Energy Revolution Plan”, will punish coal companies while moving toward what is identified already as less reliable forms of energy. By killing the Keystone XL Pipeline project in one of his first executive orders, Joe eliminated thousands of American jobs and will eventually jeopardize America’s energy independence. Even Democrat Senator Manchin of West Virginia told Joe, he needs to rethink that pandering, capricious decision. Meanwhile his private jet setting climate czar John Kerry arrogantly suggested those unemployed pipeline workers could start building solar panels. Great idea…Lurch.
“Going Green” doesn’t mean going brown. There is a responsible and technologically safe way to utilize fossil fuel and let the wind and the sun supplement the nation’s power needs. After all, does anyone think that the Nation that gave the world the “smart phone” can’t figure out an abundant clean energy plan using those resource?
Maybe if members of the current regime were freezing and in the dark, they would change their environmental tune. Last time anyone checked, the solar panels on the roof of the White House don’t provide all the power necessary to keep the lights on in the building. There aren’t any wind turbines on the White House grounds…yet. Extreme weather events like a polar vortex have proven that renewables aren’t reliable energy sources.
Someone tell Joe.