Our nation’s electric grid is unnecessarily in danger from corrupt climate alarmists who worship at the altar of net-zero emissions and greedy, shortsighted utility company CEOs who unflinchingly prioritize profits from the green energy transition scam over the grid’s long-term viability. [emphasis, links added]
Unfortunately, this nexus has put the U.S. electric grid in danger of not being able to supply reliable and affordable electricity for millions of Americans who have become so accustomed to having it that they take it for granted.
What’s more, as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other emerging technologies that require immense amounts of energy become more common, the grid’s burden will be exacerbated like never before.
This is not speculation. It is an undeniable fact that must be addressed.
California, the vanguard of the climate alarmist movement, serves as a cautionary tale.
In the late 1990s, the Golden State was an early adopter of renewable energy mandates. Unfortunately, California’s rush to embrace intermittent wind and solar power while shunning traditional dependable sources has left the state’s electric grid in shambles.
Since the early 2000s, California has been plagued with rolling blackouts because the state’s grid cannot supply sufficient baseload power.
In the winter of 2000, for example, the self-inflicted energy crisis in California was so acute that the state announced it could not provide power for the lights on the Christmas tree in the state Capitol.
California government workers received an urgent email from then-Gov. Gray Davis advising that they shut down their computers to save electricity.
Incredibly, two decades after this initial crisis, California still experiences frequent brownouts and blackouts because it has become even more dependent on unreliable wind and solar power.
Given the disastrous results of California’s experiment with a grid that is too reliant on undependable wind and solar energy, one would assume that the other 49 states would use this as a lesson in what not to do. But the opposite is taking place.
As of this writing, 13 states have pledged that their grids will run on 100% renewable energy by at least 2040.
While it is certainly true that climate alarmist politicians and activist groups are playing a large role in the asinine transition to green energy, it is even more important to understand that utility companies are paving the way as well.
…the utility “has a financial self-interest in promoting propaganda for wind power, solar power, climate change, and net-zero emissions in order to puff up its overall profits.”
You might wonder why big utility companies would jump on the renewable energy bandwagon, given that wind and solar cannot possibly provide enough consistent energy to fuel modern life. The answer is simple: money.
“The primary reason [that] utilities lobby for closing down coal and natural gas power plants and replacing them with new wind and solar projects is that utilities receive a guaranteed return on investment of approximately 10 percent,” according to a new report by The Heartland Institute.
“In other words, if a utility proposes a $2 billion wind power project to replace a perfectly operational coal power plant, the utility is guaranteed $200 million in profit just for construction and emplacement of the wind turbines,” the report states.
Consequently, the utility “has a financial self-interest in promoting propaganda for wind power, solar power, climate change, and net-zero emissions in order to puff up its overall profits.”
Shamefully, the nation’s biggest utilities are selfishly putting their bottom lines ahead of their obligation to provide affordable and reliable power to their customers.
If you think this is a niche problem that only blue states and cities will have to face, you are sadly mistaken.
“We’re heading for potentially very dire consequences, potentially catastrophic consequences in the United States in terms of the reliability of our grid, and I think that the basic reason is that we’re facing a shortfall of power supply,” warned Federal Energy Regulatory Commission head Mark Christie in 2023.
“The problem is not the addition of wind and solar. The problem is the subtraction of coal and gas and other dispatchable resources that are the ones we need during this transition to keep the lights on. That’s the fundamental problem,” Mr. Christie said.
“The grid has to have power being fed into it every second of every minute of every hour of every day to keep the lights on.”
With President-elect Donald Trump returning to the White House soon, we should expect substantial changes in federal energy policy. That alone, however, will not solve the problem.
It is imperative that state lawmakers and public utility commissions stop the net-zero madness and require that utility companies provide reliable and affordable power before energy rationing becomes the new normal.
Read more at Washington Times
