If the “energy transition” to so-called clean power were actually possible without collapsing the economy, we still should not do it. For, if we did, millions more Americans would be thrown into poverty, cold and darkness and the net impact on the environment would be hugely negative. And, for anyone who cares about people in developing countries, they need to understand that the transition to wind and solar power fosters massive human rights abuses across the world when one considers how these energy sources are made.
Yet, the energy transition is all the rage in Washington DC these days. For example, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson was in DC in May to meet with U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, White House officials, and business leaders to advance “shared opportunities to accelerate climate action and the transition to net-zero emissions.”
Granholm said,
“…we will work to accelerate the clean energy transition in both our countries, spurring job growth and ushering in a 100% clean energy future.”
In announcing the results from the Department of the Interior’s wind energy auction in the Carolina Long Bay area, Secretary Deb Haaland took a similar tack to Granholm and said on May 11th:
“Today’s lease sale is further proof that there is strong industry interest and that America’s clean energy transition is here.”
Where, Ms. Haaland? Not in America, that’s for sure. And not anywhere else on Earth, either. After 5 trillion dollars has been spent by the world’s governments, collectively, oil still fuels nearly 97% of all transportation. Burning wood supplies more energy than all solar, with electric vehicles yet to reach one percent of cars on the road. And fossil fuel use is already back to pre-COVID-19 lockdown levels.
Writing in The Epoch Times, former Reagan Whitehouse science advisor Mark Mills, now Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, explained where our country and the world are really going for their energy. Contrary to the naïve Granholm and Haaland proclamations, it is certainly not to the sham of renewable energy. Mills tells us that the headlines are all true — the left does indeed want more wind, solar and electric cars, and even higher electricity prices to stifle progress. In one sense, these headlines are great because, as will become clear in November, every morning… more and more Americans wake as FORMER Democratic voters.
In real science, one would use the observations that the Earth is not warming, extreme weather events are not becoming more frequent or severe, sea-level rise, where it is occurring at all, is not unusual, and so on to reject the hypothesis that we are causing dangerous climate change. But not with the left’s effort to destroy capitalism. We see that no matter the obstacles or the advice of energy experts, all developed nations are doubling down on plans to spend yet more trillions of dollars on the hopelessly impractical and, indeed, impossible energy transition being promoted by Granholm, Haaland, and everyone else in the Biden administration. Mills reveals a crucial fact that apparently none of them know:
“Building the hardware for transition aspirations will require an unprecedented increase in global mining at scales almost certainly unachievable in the time frames proposed. And aside from the challenges in replacing existing uses for fossil fuels, transitionists fail to account for huge growth in energy demands that will yet come from the kinds of emerging innovations that everyone wants.”
Building solar and wind systems requires an increase in the use of common materials such as concrete, steel, and glass, and of course, rare earth minerals critical in all magnetic systems. Even the World Bank concluded that clean energy is more material intensive than present sources of energy. The world does not have enough mines to provide such materials. An important fact is that the leftist promoters of the energy transition are either not smart enough to realize or do not care about it, as the destruction of the present world system is apparently their real goal. On top of this is the escalating cost of all things relating to wind and solar power.
And, of course, all roads for the energy transition lead directly to China. The U.S. has ample supplies of all necessary minerals but not the appropriate laws allowing their mining or refining. On top of that, a Finish Geological Survey report calculated the entire world does not contain all the minerals needed to transition the world to the new unobtainable forms of energy.
Ultimately, as costs for everything skyrocket, shortages become common, and backouts like that which occurred in Texas in February 2021 that killed 700 people become widespread, sanity will eventually reappear. Will it take a few years or decades? Who knows, but we must work to make it as short as possible.
Will advances in modern technology solve the problems already presented? Mills says no:
“Entrepreneurs are far better at inventing new ways to use energy than to produce it. History proves this to be accurate.”
Before the invention of the automobile, the airplane, pharmaceuticals and computers, relatively little energy was needed. Now billions more people want these things. While the US has 80 cars per hundred people, much of the rest of the world has but five. Not surprisingly, they want to catch up as quickly as possible. Already, the computer cloud uses twice the energy Japan uses, while the semiconductor industry plans a $300 billion expansion.
These are the known trends. While we can’t forecast the future, we can predict that politicians like Haaland and Granholm will go down in history as dangerously misinformed opportunists. Regardless of the platitudes of the Biden team, few Americans will voluntarily sacrifice the exceptional lives we have inherited from our forefathers. And that means inexpensive and abundant energy, the key to the innovations that make our lives exceptional.
Dr. Jay Lehr is Senior Policy Advisor to the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC). Tom Harris is ICSC Executive Director.