Many politicians and media members media have a vested interest in moving past the CA blackouts and raising as few questions as possible about their cause. But Americans have a vested interest in understanding the cause, which is also the cause of rising costs: "unreliables."
"Unreliables" is the proper term for solar and wind electricity, often misleading labeled as "renewable energy." "Renewable energy" is misleading because it usually excludes reliable, renewable large-scale hydro. And because unreliable solar and wind aren't real, reliable energy.
Wind turbines and solar panels cannot provide the reliable energy that our amazing electrical grid requires 24/7. That’s why every place in the world that uses unreliable wind energy depends 24/7 on massive amounts of reliable energy from coal, gas, hydro, or nuclear plants.
Because wind turbines and solar panels are unreliable they can’t replace our reliable power plants, only duplicate or supplement them at tremendous cost. That’s why the more wind and solar a grid uses the more expensive its electricity tends to be.
Energy schemes around the world based on “unreliables”—solar and wind—have been driving up electricity costs, harming economies, destroying domestic industries, and harming consumers. Germans pay 3X US electricity prices to get just 1/3 of their electricity from solar and wind.
While unreliables mandates have obviously caused problems in California, they have also driven up costs and created real blackout risks in other parts of the country. US power prices are going up despite huge declines in the price of our #1 source of electricity: natural gas.
Higher power prices contribute to "energy poverty"--Americans experiencing hardship paying for basic energy needs. 25 million US households say they've gone without food or medicine to pay for energy. 12 million say they’ve kept their home at an unsafe temperature.
Skyrocketing energy prices from wind and solar mandates don’t just increase energy poverty. They increase all poverty by making every product more expensive, and by making American industry uncompetitive. Does anyone think Americans need higher prices and fewer jobs right now?
Thanks to unreliables mandates industrial customers report having their electricity cut off more frequently. Germany has cut off power to an aluminum company > than once a week to keep its unstable grid functioning. Is this what we want for US industry facing global competition?
TX, which has virtually unlimited ultra-cheap natural gas, has significant blackout and price-spike risk because of its insistence on mandating unreliable wind electricity. The Public Utilities Commission of TX calls their grid's margin for error ("reserve margin") “very scary.”
2019 TX incident: “As wind power slowed, [Texas] instituted its first level of emergency alerts, calling on small industrial and commercial generators to pour power onto the grid, and requesting power from Mexico from which an additional 60 MW were imported on Aug. 15." Power Mag
In the NE US, grid operator ISO-NE warns of fuel shortages and blackouts thanks to limited natural gas pipeline capacity: “In the coming years as more oil, coal, and nuclear leave the system, keeping the lights on in New England will become an even more tenuous proposition.”
Instead of learning from unreliable energy schemes in CA and elsewhere, the Biden Plan seeks to do far worse by outlawing reliable fossil fuel electricity and forcing Americans to pay $2 trillion--$15K a household--for a solar and wind-based grid that can’t possibly work.
The fastest way to increase electricity reliability and decrease cost is to end all favoritism for wasteful, unreliable solar and wind schemes. And above all reject any proposal to outlaw reliable fossil fuels and nuclear in favor of "unreliables." More at EnergyTalkingPoints.com
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Answers to Gavin Newsom’s favorite myths about energy and climate
@RonDeSantis and @GavinNewsom only spoke about energy briefly in their @FoxNews hosted by @seanhannity, but in that time Newsom raised several of his favorite myths.
Here's answers to all of them.
Myth: CA’s ICE ban is a model for the US.
Truth: 6 days after announcing this ban, CA, due to its shutdowns of reliable natural gas and nuclear plants, had to tell citizens there wasn't enough electricity for their EVs. Imagine what would happen if there were 10 times more EVs!
Myth: CA’s electrification efforts are a model for the US.
Truth: This absurd “model” consists of reducing the supply of reliable electricity (via shutting down natgas and nuclear plants) while dramatically increasing demand for reliable electricity (via mandating EVs).
Myth: UN COP climate conferences have been a force for good, but COP 28 must lead to far more “climate action.”
Truth: These conferences are immoral because they deprive billions of the energy they need to prosper.
They should be replaced by energy freedom conferences.
🧵
The leadup to the COP 28 climate conference has had a consistent theme: previous COPs have done an okay job of restricting fossil fuels in the name of reducing GHG emissions, but this one needs to restrict FF use far faster so as to reach net-zero by 2050.
This is 180° wrong.
COP 28's net-zero agenda—i.e., rapid elimination of fossil fuels—is unnecessary, and pursuing it faster would be catastrophic because
1. Fossil fuels are making us far safer from climate. 2. Even barely implementing COP's net-zero agenda has been disastrous.
Today I will be addressing hundreds of African energy leaders at Africa Energy Week.
My message: for the sake of Africans and the rest of the world, African leaders need to confidently reject the net-zero movement and embrace energy freedom—including fossil fuel freedom.
🧵👇
Why African leaders need to confidently reject the net-zero movement
– Africa needs rapid growth in fossil fuel use, the opposite of net-zero, to develop and prosper.
– The morally bankrupt and weak net-zero leadership cannot withstand a confident African challenge.
3 facts that prove Africans need fossil fuels to prosper
1. Every prosperous country has developed using FFs 2. Even prosperous countries can't replace FFs with solar + wind 3. Fossil-fueled development isn't causing a climate crisis, it's making humanity much safer from climate
Myth: The best policy toward CO2 emissions is “net zero by 2050.”
Truth: NZ policies have been catastrophically destructive when barely implemented and would be apocalyptically destructive if fully implemented.
They should be abandoned in favor of energy freedom policies.
🧵👇
What are “net zero by 2050 policies”?
Government (coercive) actions whose primary and binding goal is the net-elimination of CO2 (and other GHG) emissions, whose number one source is fossil fuel use, by 2050.
In practice “net zero” means: *rapidly eliminate most FF use.*
One “net zero” policy is an extremely high “carbon tax,” like “$1000/ton.
This would mean, in practice:
* 3-4X higher prices for gasoline in TX
* 9X higher electricity prices in WV
* 4-5X higher prices for heating with natural gas
Maui's wildfire tragedy was caused by “green” policies, not warming
The unnecessarily large wildfires in Maui were not caused by the slow warming of climate but by “green” policies that prevented proper wildfire management.
Don't let the greens scapegoat fossil fuels.
🧵👇
How “green” policies caused the Maui tragedy
• Failure to actively manage flammable grasses and instead letting them grow “naturally”
• Spending $ on expensive “green” energy and not on power-line maintenance
• Deprioritizing water release in favor of “green” concerns
Anti-fossil-fuel politicians are blaming Maui's tragic wildfire on climate change. But could the 2° F warming over 150 years, and any associated climate changes, make dangerous wildfires inevitable?
No. FFs are being scapegoated to evade the real villain: “green” policies.