I’ll add some more:
- A lot of “green” energy components such as solar panels, lithium batteries and windmills are not only extremely environmentally and financially costly to produce, they all have a limited service life. After their relatively short service lives they are literally TOXIC WASTE. So now comes the expense of disassembling them for their components which could be recycled or the cheaper option of burying them in a landfill somewhere but did I mention this is toxic waste? Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of being supposedly more “green” to begin with?
- pushing energy intensive industries (metal smelting for example) to 3rd world countries with less technology and less efficient means of production and much lower environmental standards is not a net win for the environment. In fact, its a net loss for the environment since more pollution is created for the same level of consumption. It may make very shallow and ignorant virtue signalers in this country feel good about themselves for lowering carbon emissions in this country, but that’s just a shell game. The same products are being produced and consumed. Its just happening elsewhere.
- Along the same vein, why is it better for the environment to pump a barrel of oil out of the ground in Saudi Arabia or Nigeria or Venezuela all of which have dirtier processes and lower environmental standards than we do AND then ship that barrel of oil halfway around the world (burning oil to do so) rather than pumping that barrel of oil out of the ground here in the US? Its one atmosphere. Ergo a ton of carbon (if you believe its a pollutant) pumped into the atmosphere in Nigeria does every bit as much harm as that ton of carbon pumped into the atmosphere in the US. Again, this is just a virtue signaling shell game. That barrel of oil is still being consumed. Its not only more expensive, its NOT a net “win” for the environment.
- how can you possibly be serious about the whole carbon thing yet reject nuclear energy which produces zero carbon and which produces large amounts of energy reliably - unlike wind and solar? You can’t. You not serious if you do not incorporate nuclear energy into the mix.
- having done consulting work for energy companies....remember when calculating the supposed “savings” from “green” sources like wind and solar, you must include secondary costs such as having to beam that energy down expensive power lines which you are going to have to install. Remember you lose a percentage of the energy you beam down those power lines. Remember you have to have 100% backup capacity on standby at all times (that invariably means a coal fired power plant sitting there waiting to be fired up). When you include the cost to build all of this...the windmills/solar panels, the extra power lines, the entire power plant you must have on standby at all times, and the cost to recycle/dispose of these things when they wear out, you are spending a lot of extra money and you are causing a lot of environmental damage. You’d have been a lot better off on both fronts had you just used coal or natural gas or nuclear.
“ It may make very shallow and ignorant virtue signalers in this country feel good about themselves for lowering carbon emissions in this country, but that’s just a shell game.”
Your entire post was well thought, concise and to the effing point. This sentence above describes so many to a tee. That sentiment seems to fit the way leftards live their pathetic lives.
Good post, thank you.
I would add the additional environmental and fiscal costs of replacing the batteries for EVs which will occur once or more in the lives of those vehicles. $15,000 -$25,000 each plus the problems of disposal of the components of those old batteries.
And once they have mandated a majority of EVs, people won't have the ability to move about for any significant ranges, so people will be limited in commuting distances, traveling independently, moving at will. It's all about control of the populace.
The whole "Green" thing is a Leftist ploy to control/inhibit the petroleum industry, which is the largest capitalist force in the world.
Without oil, a country cannot fight a war, or produce/transport/preserve food inexpensively, or move people any great distances, keep people warm on the winter, etc.,etc.
Damn lying Marxists.