Posted on 05/18/2024 4:35:38 AM PDT by MtnClimber
“Misinformation” — It has been one of the most-used buzzwords of the past few years. The “misinformation” label has been applied by advocates on both sides of the political divide in the attempt to discredit their opponents. Numerous assertions that have dominated the news cycle for months or even years have ultimately proven to be completely false, that is, “misinformation.” Examples of such assertions that have been established as “misinformation” include the assertion that Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election; the assertion that the Hunter Biden laptop was a Russian plant; and the assertion that the Covid virus originated in a wet market in Wuhan.
After the thorough discrediting of so many false narratives during these years, there remain plenty of narratives still out there that richly deserve the “misinformation” label. But of those, which is the very worst, the very most pernicious? Here is my candidate: the assertion that the cheapest way to generate electricity today is with wind and solar generators.
I recognize that there are many candidates for the title of the worst of all misinformation, and we are dealing here with a very crowded field. Numerous other endlessly-repeated false assertions contend for the title, many of them having very large real-world consequences. For example, other serious contenders for the title of “most pernicious misinformation” could include the assertion that emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases constitute a danger to human health and welfare; or the assertion that Israel is conducting a “genocide” against Palestinians. Undoubtedly, you have other candidates to add to the list.
So why do I say that the assertion of wind and solar being the cheapest ways to generate electricity is the very most pernicious of misinformation currently out there? Here are my three reasons: (1) the assertion is repeated endlessly and ubiquitously, (2) it is the basis for the misallocation of trillions of dollars of resources and for great impoverishment of billions of people around the world, and (3) it is false to the point of being preposterous, an insult to everyone’s intelligence, yet rarely challenged.
How ubiquitous is the assertion that wind and solar are the cheapest ways to generate electricity? Try Googling the question “What is the cheapest way to produce electricity?” You will get multiple pages of results advocating for wind and solar electricity, with almost no mention of the problems or costs of intermittency. A few examples of what turns up:
- The top result from Galooli.com, March 13, 2022, “Which Renewable Energy is Cheapest? A Guide to Cost and Efficiency”: “According to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook and other research projects, solar and wind energy have continued to occupy the top spots in terms of the cheapest renewable energy sources. Both energy sources cost significantly less than fossil fuel alternatives and continue to become more affordable every year.”
- Next up, decarbonization.com, August 2, 2023, “Ranked: The Cheapest Sources of Electricity in the U.S.”: “According to Lazard’s 2023 analysis of unsubsidized LCOE in the U.S., both onshore wind and utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies are more cost-effective than combined cycle natural gas power plants. In the case of onshore wind, this has been true since 2015.”
- Next, carbonbrief.com, October 13, 2020, “Solar is now ‘cheapest electricity in history’, confirms IEA.”: “The world’s best solar power schemes now offer the “cheapest…electricity in history” with the technology cheaper than coal and gas in most major countries. That is according to the International Energy Agency. . . .”
Keep going for dozens of these for page after page. Try to find in any of them a serious discussion of the costs of backup, storage, or transmission upgrades to try to make an electrical grid work with these intermittent generators. You won’t. And don’t think that the high-brow mainstream sources can be trusted for anything better. Here is the New York Times from August 17, 2023: “The cost of generating electricity from the sun and wind is falling fast and in many areas is now cheaper than gas, oil or coal.”
In the face of hundreds of different journalism outlets endlessly repeating in unison the mantra of cheap “renewable” electricity, it becomes difficult to blame the voters or the politicians for just nodding along with the crowd. Why do any mentally taxing independent thinking when everybody seems to be saying the same thing?
The problem is that the idea that wind and solar make the cheapest electricity is plain wrong. At least, it is plain wrong if the electricity you are talking about is the reliable sort that works whenever you want to turn on the switch. The idea that wind and solar are cheapest fails to take account of any of the ancillary costs necessary to make a fully-functioning grid: the entire system of backup facilities to provide the power when the wind is not blowing and the sun not shining; the transmission facilities to take the power from wherever is windy or sunny to anywhere else it may be needed on a moment’s notice; the batteries or other storage facilities to save up energy in anticipation of inevitable wind and solar droughts; and so forth. In short, the idea that wind and solar generation of electricity are the “cheapest” is classic misinformation, the endless repetition of an assertion that is clearly false and known to be false.
Meanwhile, among the people incapable of seeing through the fog of misinformation on this subject are our current President, and the Governors of New York and California. In the case of the states, they throw tens of billions of dollars of handouts and subsidies to develop wind and solar facilities (hundreds of billions of dollars in the case of the feds), never having the presence of mind to realize that none of that would be necessary of this method of generation were actually cheaper as claimed.
Between the vast mis-allocation of resources and the sheer preposterousness of the proposition in question, I think that this assertion of wind and solar electricity generation being “cheapest” definitely has the claim for the number one spot.
That Trump led an insurrection on 06 JAN 2021 while he was still President.
That Alvin Bragg ever had a real case against Trump.
This is the greatest economy in thirty years!
I remember paying 25 cents a copy for the Washington Post.
As I remember a weekly subscription in the early 1980s cost about $2/week. For a time, I also got the Sunday NY Times.
“...Britain have very high electricity rates”
One UK company said in an ad I read yesterday that it could supply “renewable electricity” to a rather large house for a typical 152 pounds a month.
That Biden’s picks for his cabinet were the best people for those jobs.
The solar cells are rather cheap. However, running an American sized house with air conditioning using solar cells is a rather complicated mess. There is a supply/demand mismatch issue of great importance.
The “newcomers” by the millions will get jobs quickly and support themselves but we still need a welfare system for the domestic feckless.
Oh, I’m not so sure they are going to get jobs that quickly. There are already millions of weed-whackers and laborers with jobs, how many more of them do we need? So, maybe let them fight each other for their turn with the weed whacker. Yeah, I like that.
My fav, God is dead or doesn’t exist. This is a total lie. God is very much alive and the only way to get to Heaven is through His Son, Jesus Christ. That is the ultimate truth , the truth that matters.
Misinformation may not be easily disproven, but it isn’t always easily “proven” either. Somebody or agency saying it’s a fact doesn’t proven. If it’s stated in the Bible as fact; well, that’s about the only way except for (maybe) an eyewitness account of something. Here’s a hint...there is a story here on FR about about the ocean warming. I’m sure most people have no proof this is happening. Global warming: some places may be warming temporarily while other locations may be cooling. This seems to be natural.
That there isn’t a multi-national Deep State run by globalists who control or influence every deception.
Not one of the biggest but the one that bugs me a lot. In MSM, every conservative person or organization is “Far Right” or “Extremist,” but there never seem to be anything or anybody that is “Far Left, Extremist, or Communist.” Not even Socialist very often.
There is no misinformation.
That racism among the African-American community is non-existent.
The correct word is Lies.
That Global Warming is being caused by humans.
ABC, CBS, CNN, Reuters, AP, NPR, MSNBC, “The View”, Weak minded flying monkeys of OZ —- “TRUMP IS A CONVICTED RAPIST”…. How’s that for pernicious bovine secretions?
The author was doing fine until he wrote “Meanwhile, among the people incapable of seeing through the fog of misinformation on this subject are our current President, and the Governors of New York and California.”
Perhaps he does not understand that the true and only reason for “green energy” is to transfer your hard-earned wealth to Democrat company owners and Democrat politicians.
Plus, it’s an easy sell to the ignorant rubes. “Oh, I have to pay more for power to keep the earth from burning up to a cinder? SURE!!”
6. We must save democracy.
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