Trump Administration actions to scale back renewable energy capture headlines, but citizens are also pushing back. Efforts to deploy wind and solar systems face a rising tide of opposition in towns, counties, and states. Mandates for electric vehicles and electric home appliances are being challenged. The combination of rising local opposition and Trump funding cuts threatens to end the transition to green energy.The green energy revolution in the United States has run almost unopposed for the … [Read more...]
False Pretense of Energy Transition: Long on Facts, Short on Truth
While listing many of the barriers to abandoning fossil fuels for “green” energy, three writers in Foreign Affairs magazine skip over an important truth: The once ballyhooed but now moribund “energy transition” was and remains unnecessary and undesirable.Instead, the article’s title, “The Troubled Energy Transition: How to Find a Pragmatic Path Forward,” suggests (1) that the so-called transition has legitimacy and (2) that it still somehow should happen. Both are false.The writers are … [Read more...]
Trump Drops a Bomb on Green Energy
Block Island Wind/US Department of EnergyPresident Trump has long been a supporter of traditional energy. During his campaign, he spoke negatively about electric vehicles, wind, and other renewable energy sources. But in his first day in office, the new president began a historic shift in US energy policy, away from green energy and back to hydrocarbon energy.On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed five wide-ranging executive orders that radically change United States energy and climate … [Read more...]
Europe’s Energy Debacle Is a Warning for U.S.
Europe---light and dark. What happens if the grid fails for lack of sufficient generation?(Illustration by OpenAI.)When it comes to global energy policy, few narratives are as instructive – and as cautionary – as Europe's ill-fated experiment with wind and solar energy. The continent’s self-inflicted woes contain lessons that should be taken to heart by those formulating U.S. energy strategy for the incoming administration.Europe’s Misplaced Trust in Wind and SolarEurope's embrace of … [Read more...]
Rolls-Royce’s SMR Needs 10,000 Times Less Land Than Wind Energy, Proves ‘Iron Law Of Power Density’
Last month, Rolls-Royce said that it expects to receive regulatory approval from the British government by 2024 for its 470-megawatt small modular reactor and that it will begin producing power on Britain's electric grid by 2029.Will that happen? Time will tell. Many nuclear projects and startups have blown past their projected in-service dates. But Rolls-Royce’s announcement is important for two reasons. First, it adds more credence to the notion that a global nuclear renaissance is, in fact, … [Read more...]
Real Threats to Biodiversity and Humanity
References to climate change almost guarantee funding, even for research topics of little interest beyond academia and eco-activists. Polls reveal that most people worry most about energy and food prices, crime, living standards, Putin’s war on Ukraine, and increasing efforts to control their lives. A recent study by Rutgers University scientists sought to determine how much diversity is required among bee species to sustain wild plant populations. They concluded that ecosystems rely … [Read more...]
Can Green Energy Cause a Global Food Shortage?
China is one of the world’s largest food producers. Recently an acute power shortage there reduced food output. This sent markets into panic. Severe global food shortages and increased prices could follow.What caused China’s power shortage? Over-reliance on renewable energy. It led to insufficient and unreliable electricity generation. That harmed domestic food production and global food security.Many people condemn coal. They espouse “green” policies. But these lead to power blackouts. And … [Read more...]
Paris Panic: Governments Fail to Meet Their Climate Commitments, and Some Are Getting Farther Away
Political leaders and media personalities are fond of saying climate change poses an existential threat to humans and the planet. The weight of scientific evidence doesn’t support this oft-made claim, and national governments around the globe seem to acknowledge this by their actions.Despite what is reported almost daily in the mainstream media, data from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show no … [Read more...]
Renewable Failure and Renewable Threats to Wildlife Become a Global Norm
As the Paris climate agreement pushes for more and more renewable installments globally, reports of failure of installed renewables, especially wind and solar, are also becoming increasingly common.Nobody wishes for wind and solar to fail. After all, billions of dollars have been invested in them. I, like many others, desire to see renewables strengthen the existing energy infrastructure globally.Sadly, and inevitably, though, the drawbacks and limitations of wind and solar keep resurfacing, no … [Read more...]
Battery Storage—An Infinitesimal Part of Electrical Power
Large-scale storage of electricity is the latest proposed solution to boost the deployment of renewables. Renewable energy advocates, businesses, and state governments plan to use batteries to store electricity to solve the problem of intermittent wind and solar output. But large-scale storage is only an insignificant part of the electrical power industry and doomed to remain so for decades to come.Last month, Senator Susan Collins of Maine introduced a bi-partisan bill named “The Better Energy … [Read more...]
