In a recent series of articles, RealClearInvestigations has reported on seemingly intractable problems obscured as the Biden administration and its eco-allies pursue an enormously expensive, massively disruptive zero-carbon dream:
- A VAST LAND FOOTPRINT: James Varney examined the disconnect between the vast array of wind and solar farms needed and the Department of Energy’s official line that to meet President Biden’s goal of “100% clean electricity” by 2035, “less than one-half of one percent of the contiguous U.S. land area” will be required – or roughly 15,000 of the lower 48’s roughly 3 million square miles. In fact, as Varney reported, solar and wind farms could require an expanse nine times as large: 134,000 square miles. That is equivalent to the land mass of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky combined – plus all of New England.
- GRASSROOTS RESISTANCE: As Steve Miller has reported, grassroots resistance to environmental ambitions is "coalescing in varied new state laws and local ordinances that threaten to bog down solar and wind development in a multi-front legal and regulatory war on a scale not seen before.” In a stinging irony, opponents are routinely invoking arguments regarding endangered species and wetlands that environmentalists have long deployed to kneecap pipelines, gas fields, and other fossil fuel projects.
- NOT ENOUGH EV CHARGERS: John Murawski reported that to keep electric cars rolling, California “may need to install at least 20 electric chargers for every gas pump now in service to create a reliable, seamless network.” In other words, more than 2 million new stations during the next decade, about 10 times as many EV ports as gas station nozzles. Further, because the electricity won't be profitable, California is investing at least $14 billion to subsidize the chargers, most of which will be able to provide only between five and 60 miles of range for an hour hook-up.
- EMPOWERING ADVERSARIES: Ben Weingarten reported that America’s transition to renewables is making its most formidable economic adversary stronger. “China currently holds a commanding position in the clean energy industry, controlling the natural resources and manufacturing the components essential to the Biden administration’s desired alternative energy transition,” Weingarten wrote. What’s more, if the U.S. slows its production of oil and gas in the coming years, hostile or problematic nations that continue to drill – including Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Venezuela – will reap the benefits should renewables fail.
- THE REVOLT AGAINST "SETTLED SCIENCE": Murawski reported that a growing number of experts are challenging this orthodoxy. In August, “more than 1,600 scientists, including two Nobel physics laureates, signed a declaration stating that there is no climate emergency, and that climate advocacy has devolved into mass hysteria,” Murawski wrote. “The skeptics say the radical transformation of entire societies is marching forth without a full debate, based on dubious scientific claims amplified by knee-jerk journalism.”
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