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.
The belief in “Green Energy” is a religious belief often associated with the church of Cultural Marxism. It is a religious belief for the followers, but the preachers know it is another profitable scam for themselves. I am not opposed to solar panels or some wind power. I just think that the market will determine the best uses better than mandates.
IMHO, generally speaking, “misinformation” = “lie” & “misspoke” = “lie”.
MISinformation is something that’s wrong by MIStake.
DISinformation is something that’s wrong Deliberately.
Here are a couple of my favorite DISs:
Oil, gas, and coal are fossil fuels - no they are organic (organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon).
Climate change is a result of human activity - no, it’s natural.
Socialism (and any variant) is a net positive - no, free markets and limited government works best.
The scariest part of misinformation is not the false information itself. It’s that no one is permitted challenge it.
A good example of that is Climate Change. Most Climate Change “data” is so flawed that it’s nonsensical. But should a scientist question that data, he risks being cancelled. Job gone. Reputation gone.
It’s sort of like living in Brezhnev’s USSR. Challenging the official line won’t get you shot. But you will lose your career.
Talk about irony: They've never stated such.
My candidate:
"Public service"
Misinformation List.
1. Diversity is strength. Our different cultures somehow makes us stronger. Look how well that worked for Austria Hungary.
2. Less Free Speech makes for better democracy.
3. The cultural victims are always morally pure.
4. All white people are racists and must be controlled.
5. Guns turn people into mass killers.
My choice is that sex is not determined by DNA (chromosomes ) and that people can TRANSform their sex.
Most pernicious bit of misinformation = good is evil and evil is good.
“Misinformation” is a moniker most harmfull when it is used to subdue fact.
And it is used ever more frequently to do just that.FAcebook uses it relentlessly to deny fact.
“Misinformation,” has become a term of Fascism in the USA and Canada, used vociferously by Biden and Trudeau to support the Davos dystopia for the West.
The Hoover Dam hydroelectric attribute is now 90 years time worth in proven functionality.
This is in addition to other provided services and benefits.
What can be said of solar power?
????
Well just that it is being force fed into documentaries of things that do work.
And that it is portended to be
As if the two are akin.
That George Stuffinenvelopes is a journalist.
1. The government is on our side
2. Joe is competent
3. Kamala isn't a congenital moron
4. Hunter is a 'boy scout'
That Putin would rather have Trump be POTUS and Commander-in-Chief.
Yep, agree 100%, plus....
6. All coastal cities will be under water in 10 years. (that was 10 years ago, or more).
7. Cash is bad.
8. Everything must be electric.
9. Our borders must be open to welcome “newcomers”.
10. A whole boatload more.
The air is full of lies now. There are so many lies, it’s like they have become one lie, many threads creating a sheet, The Lie.
Scripture tells us to expect this in the last days. The Man of Sin is going to tell smooth lies and the world will believe him.
Any time the mockingbirds insert the phrase, “without evidence”, on just about any topic.
Search engine misinformation:
I googled “electricity price by nation.” The top ten nations in price have invested heavily in renewable electricity. In the explanation of the high prices renewable electricity was only mentiond relative to Bermuda. It explained the price was high because Bermuda is so small it has no room for Solar and Wind Power to be constructed.
Spain, Germany, Denmark, and Britain have very high electricity rates and all are heavily invested in renewables. The article does not address this.
Google is high tech propaganda run by biased algorithms written by those with a political agenda and definitely not truth. Oddly Wiki is very good on subjects NOT POLITICAL. If the subject is political it is always with left wing bias and not to be trusted.
Misinformation is actually propaganda. It employs two methods. Commission and Omission.
1. Commission is just a plain lie.
2. Omission is not telling all the facts.
81 million votes for Biden
Bird flu.
Multiple genders when there are only 2.
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