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Chasing Utopian Energy: How I Wasted 20 Years of My Life
Real Clear Energy ^ | June 26, 2022 | By Brian Gitt

Posted on 06/30/2022 8:59:50 AM PDT by Hojczyk

For years, I chased utopian energy. I promoted solar, wind, and energy efficiency because I felt like I was protecting the environment. But I was wrong! Feeling like you’re doing the right thing doesn’t mean you are. I just couldn’t admit it. My sense of identity was tied to my false beliefs about energy—myths that blinded me to what really does—and doesn’t—help the planet.

I started to realize that I had accepted as true certain claims about energy and our environment. Now I began to see those claims were false. For example:

I used to think solar and wind power were the best ways to reduce CO2 emissions. But the biggest reduction in CO2 emissions during the past 15 years (over 60%) has come from switching from coal to natural gas.

I used to think that the world was transitioning to solar, wind, and batteries. This, too, was false. Trillions of dollars were spent on wind and solar projects over the last 20 years, yet the world’s dependence on fossil fuels declined only 3 percentage points, from 87% to 84%.

I used to believe nuclear energy was dangerous and nuclear waste was a big problem. In fact, nuclear is the safest and most reliable way to generate low-emission electricity, and it provides the best chance of reducing CO2 emissions.

It’s now clear I was chasing utopian energy. I was using green energy myths as moral camouflage, and I was able to believe those myths as long as I remained ignorant about the real costs and benefits of different energy sources.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearenergy.org ...


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To: Hojczyk
There are a group of people, some liberal and some conservative, who are still more focused on controlling their own energy supplies than worrying about overall usage.

There will always be people talking up solar panels, fuel cells, etc. but it will not be because they care about the environment. It will be because they don't trust big gov or big biz.

21 posted on 06/30/2022 9:44:18 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: Hojczyk

Left Looney people must lie to themselves to feel good about themselves. It is what it is.


22 posted on 06/30/2022 9:44:23 AM PDT by jacknhoo ( Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: Boogieman

“But then it’s clear he is still concerned about CO2 emissions.”

‘Baby steps, man, baby steps.’

Valid X 2.


23 posted on 06/30/2022 9:49:16 AM PDT by ChessExpert (Neither a Democracy nor a Republic. "I did that," Joe Biden.)
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To: Hojczyk

Excellent. An honest enviro who has seen the light.

He’d make a great energy secretary.


24 posted on 06/30/2022 9:51:00 AM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they control you. )
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To: Hojczyk

This sounds bogus.


25 posted on 06/30/2022 9:55:38 AM PDT by larrytown (A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do. Then they graduate...)
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To: Hojczyk

Anyone stupid enough to believe in global warming is not smart enough to think about energy.


26 posted on 06/30/2022 10:23:26 AM PDT by CodeToad (Arm up! They Have!)
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To: katana
Exactly right, CO2 is the second part of the cycle of life.   We breath in Oxygen and exhale CO2.   Plants take in CO2 and produce Oxygen.   Calling CO2 a so called "greenhouse gas" is lunacy.

If anyone fears that we have too much CO2, then they need to go out and plant more trees, or plant soybeans and corn.

There may also be a tiny bit of truth about so called "anthropomorphic climate change", but how many cultures and millennia did it take to deplete "The Cedars of Lebanon", yet we are all still here.

The Phoenicians, Israelites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Arabs, and Turks used Lebanese timber. The Egyptians valued their timber for shipbuilding, and in the Ottoman Empire their timber was used to construct railways.

27 posted on 06/30/2022 10:30:36 AM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
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To: katana

It takes time for libs to see the light, LOTS of time for many.


28 posted on 06/30/2022 11:14:26 AM PDT by egfowler3 (Still a Deplorable, a Christian 'Infidel', an American patriot & 'a vast right-wing conspirator')
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To: Hojczyk

Now do multiculturalism, race, and gender.


29 posted on 06/30/2022 11:28:25 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (“Government is the problem.” --Milton Friedman)
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To: Hojczyk

We need to address how the left has bastardized our language, and uses the one word ‘carbon’ for C02. C02 is PLANT FOOD. Plants use the C02 and..... wait for it..... produce oxygen (which is essential for several species, including us).

I’m beginning to realize we need to organize an award for the person / business / factory that provides the most C02. There could be preliminary awards for the most hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly max producers.

Now we need to think up a fantastic title for the award. Hmmmmmm... Plant Kingdom Friend... or better Best Friend to Plants On Planet Earth.

Eventually, we could use these awards to reintroduce teaching the Carbon Cycle as it was taught to me in my youth. A very natural, balanced system.


30 posted on 06/30/2022 11:48:42 AM PDT by Ronaldus Magnus III (Do, or do not, there is no try. )
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To: higgmeister
One problem with their misuse of the term "Climate" is a failure to differentiate between Micro and Macro Climate. Microclimates around cities, forests, estuaries, etc. are greatly affected by human activities. Urban pollution and deforestation, heat sinks, and drying up of aquifers and freshwater lakes from overuse are examples. The planet's macroclimate, on the other hand, is a product of forces that make anything humans can do completely insignificant.

Yet that is what the promoters of this scam and their believers focus on for the fear mongering. I'd be more onboard if they forgot the CO2 nonsense and reduced their focus to what the Chinese, Indians, and other countries are pouring into the air and oceans. Or the overuse of water by cities at the expense of agriculture. But there's no money in all that.

31 posted on 06/30/2022 11:53:50 AM PDT by katana
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To: Hojczyk

Why stop now Brian? Go cry on somebody else’s shoulder.


32 posted on 06/30/2022 11:59:22 AM PDT by sport
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To: Hojczyk

This guy will be cancelled if he ever makes it out of the gates. The Left will not tolerate his point of view, no matter how correct he may be.


33 posted on 06/30/2022 12:04:54 PM PDT by FamiliarFace (I wish “smart resume” would work for the real world so I could FF through the Burden admin BS.)
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To: Hojczyk

Green/renewable energy is at best a loose conglomeration of very costly piecemeal approaches that cumulatively can never produce enough power to support our 21st Century lifestyles.

Nukular power, OTOH, is one-stop shopping that the entire nation can run on.


34 posted on 06/30/2022 12:55:36 PM PDT by Paal Gulli
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To: Hojczyk

The pro choice crowd isn’t happy letting people make a individual choice.
If you want to have solar and wind power..have at it.
If you want to be a communist...go right ahead.
Find some like minded people and live like commies.
You can even pretend your a women. Although,you really are not.

The problem with leftards is they want to force everyone else to live the way they think is best.
Even though most of them probably don’t live as they say.
What they really want is for someone else to do all the hard work ..while they enjoy the benefits.
There isn’t going to be EV in every garage. Leftards are not going to live green. But they will spend OPM as if it’s theirs. And they don’t care who suffers along the way.


35 posted on 06/30/2022 1:17:10 PM PDT by Leep (Hillary will NEVER be president! 😁)
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To: Hojczyk

He brings up good points for others in his mindset.

I don’t entirely fault him.

Through the media and schooling he was brought up in the religion of leftist environmental lies.

It would be like expecting snake handlers to see a different path to healing. Gotta break it down before you can build it up.


36 posted on 06/30/2022 1:17:30 PM PDT by Chickensoup ( Leftists totalitarian fascists are eradicating conservatives. Leftists are genocidal. )
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To: katana

CO2 is NOT a pollutant.🤔


37 posted on 06/30/2022 2:32:04 PM PDT by BiteYourSelf ( Earth first we'll strip mine the other planets later.)
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To: Hojczyk

Brian is closer to space cadet than energy consultant or should I say conslutant?

No credibility. 20 years of lies and misguided illusion. If it took him this long to figure out how wrong he is there is no chance he cant tell me anything I really need to hear.

Writers write, talkers talk. If nobody reads or listens, Brian is out of a job in Frisco. Of course, he is a born grifter having gotten $60 million in green contracts from obama from which I’m sure he made a tidy sum and by his own admission accomplished little.


38 posted on 06/30/2022 9:23:04 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Politicians are only marginally good at one thing, being politicians. Otherwise they are fools.)
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