Alex Epstein Profile picture
Sep 12, 2020 12 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Media coverage of the CA wildfires is designed to do 2 things: 1) Get us to ignore the fundamental role of "green" forest mismanagement in causing the out-of-control fires. 2) Get us to ignore the CA blackouts and the fundamental role of "green energy" policies in causing them.
California is experiencing blackouts because of "green" policies that reward or mandate unreliable electricity from solar and wind and punish or outlaw reliable electricity from nuclear, natural gas, coal, or hydro. We need to understand and apply this lesson this election.
Fact: electricity producers know how to produce enough reliable electricity for virtually any situation--certainly plenty for the heat wave CA has been experiencing this year. All you need to do is build enough reliable power plants: nuclear, natural gas, coal, or hydro.
CA, attempting a mini-mini-Green New Deal, decided to mandate that a lot of the electricity generated in the state had to come from unreliable, "renewable" solar and wind electricity. We shut down reliable gas and nuclear plants to hit our renewable targets.
While California was boasting about its increasing use of "unreliables"--@KamalaHarris called it a "model"--the reality was that it was becoming an electricity parasite, hugely dependent on reliable gas, nuclear, and coal plants from neighboring states such as AZ, NV, and UT.
What happens to a state trying to rely on "unreliables" when there’s a regional heat wave? The wind dies down. The sun dies down daily. This meant CA needed more electricity from the states with “reliables”--but they need more, too, so they sent CA less. Surprise...blackouts!
Everyone needs to learn from CA's blackouts--and fast. Policies mandating unreliable solar and wind electricity are making our electricity grid more unreliable every year. If we do not make reliability a priority we will become a third-world grid with frequent blackouts.
Nationally we face the prospect of frequent "green blackouts" thanks to a cocktail of 3 bad policies: 1) mandating unreliables (solar and wind), 2) prematurely shutting down ultra-reliable coal and nuclear plants while 3) stopping the construction of natural gas infrastructure.
What is @JoeBiden's answer to the CA blackouts? His "plan" would make them nationwide and frequent via 1) more mandating unreliable solar and wind, 2) more shutdowns of ultra-reliable coal and nuclear plants, and 3) more obstacles to urgently-needed natural gas infrastructure.
Blackouts aren't the only problem with green energy policies. The main problem is cost. Because wind and solar are unreliable they can’t replace our reliable power plants, only duplicate or supplement them at tremendous cost. Even when CA electricity is working it's expensive.
Every candidate who supports mandating "unreliables," let alone the Green New Deal or @JoeBiden Plan, should be reminded of the utter failure the mini-mini-GND/Biden-Plan has caused in California. I hope @realDonaldTrump raises this in the debates and uses the term "unreliables."
There is no world in which mandating "unreliables" makes sense. If you want to lower CO2 emissions, decriminalize reliable nuclear energy--something the @JoeBiden plan completely fails to do. For a real, pro-freedom, pro-nuclear energy policy go to EnergyTalkingPoints.com.

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More from @AlexEpstein

Nov 13
COP 29 is immoral

COP 29 seeks net-zero—rapidly eliminating fossil fuels—in the name of protecting us from climate danger.

In reality, net-zero would radically increase climate danger and ruin billions of lives.

Good people should condemn COP and embrace energy freedom. 🧵👇
The COP 29 climate conference has a consistent theme: previous COPs have done an okay job of restricting fossil fuels in the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but this one needs to eliminate fossil fuel use far faster so as to reach net-zero by 2050.

This is 180° wrong.
COP 29’s goal of rapidly eliminating fossil fuels to reach net-zero is deadly because:

1. Fossil fuels are making us far safer from climate along with improving every other aspect of life
2. Even barely implementing COP’s net-zero agenda has been disastrous.
Read 24 tweets
Oct 14
Myth: Hurricanes Helene and Milton show that we’re experiencing unprecedented danger from extreme weather thanks to fossil fuels.

Truth: Fossil fuels have made us much safer from extreme weather—and the recent hurricanes would’ve been far worse without them. 🧵👇 Image
Media reports would lead us to believe that hurricanes like Helene and Milton are proof that fossil-fueled “climate change” is making extreme weather much more dangerous by virtue of being more intense and/or frequent. Mainstream data and climate science show otherwise.
Myth: We’re experiencing unprecedented danger from extreme weather.

Truth: We’re experiencing unprecedented safety from extreme weather, including a huge drop in extreme weather deaths in recent decades. All media reports on extreme weather should acknowledge this, yet none do.
Read 42 tweets
Sep 19
The costs of Biden-Harris's "government-dictated green energy" policies have been enormous so far, would have been catastrophic if not for their opponents' resistance, and will be apocalyptic if not stopped in the future.

My testimony to the Budget Committee (video below) 🧵👇
Watch my testimony here:
My name is Alex Epstein. I am a non-partisan philosopher and energy expert. I am grateful to share with members of both parties my analysis of “government-dictated green energy,” which is the essential energy policy of the Biden-Harris administration and of much of today's world.
Read 22 tweets
Sep 18
Media myth: Fossil fuels are making Texas, the capital of fossil fuels, more endangered by heat.

Truth: Fossil fuels have made Texas far safer than ever from climate, both from heat and the far more dangerous cold—but anti-fossil-fuel policies are stalling that progress. 🧵👇 Image
A recent WSJ article portrays Texas as threatened by fossil-fueled climate warming. But as evidence, they point to just 200 additional heat deaths that can’t be traced back to climate change, while ignoring the overall decline in climate deaths that fossil fuels helped cause. Image
An objective account of climate danger and fossil fuels would look at what the general trend of climate danger is and what fossil fuels' role is in that trend. Globally and in Texas, the answer is clear: climate danger is lower than ever, and we have fossil fuels to thank for it.
Read 14 tweets
Sep 10
Myth: @KamalaHarris used to be for banning fracking, but now she supports fracking.

Truth: Kamala Harris is still for banning fracking—because she is still for the *net-zero agenda that requires banning fracking* along with all other fossil fuel activities. 🧵👇 Image
Kamala Harris, who in 2019 said, “There is no question I am in favor of banning fracking,” now tells voters in fracking-dependent states like PA that she is no longer wants to ban fracking.

They shouldn’t believe her, since Harris’s net-zero agenda *requires* banning fracking.
To know what to make of Harris’s reversal on a fracking ban, we need to first recognize that banning fracking would have been one of the most harmful policies in US history. It would have destroyed 60% of our oil production and 75% of our natural gas production.
Read 23 tweets
Aug 29
Electricity rates have risen 47% faster than the CPI the last 12 months, and nearly 24% overall since the Biden-Harris administration began.

High electricity bills are the result of government-dictated green energy schemes. 🧵👇 Image
As Americans struggle with rising summer electricity bills, it’s important to know that this struggle was 100% unnecessary and 100% preventable.
High electricity bills are the result of government-dictated schemes—such as the recent IRA—to build massive, wasteful, unreliable solar and wind infrastructure.
Read 7 tweets

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