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Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
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15 Sep, 6 tweets, 2 min read
When I was in the in UK 2 years ago the country’s leading experts assured me that Britain didn’t need another 2 GW nuclear plant because wind energy was cheap and, in a pinch, they could just import power from France. Now, the wind’s barely blowing & the interconnect has failed
Happily, the French government has decided to bring an end to the nightmare of 75% cheap, reliable, pollution-free power and increase the use of stochastic wind energy and natural gas. Impeccable timing!
With winter coming, natural gas prices at historic highs, and fuel supplies running low, December will be a perfect time for Germany to shut down 4.2 GW of advanced nuclear reactors. France may be the birthplace of the Enlightenment, but Germany appears set on being its graveyard
Thank goodness Germany excommunicated all the nuclear bros! Those guys were always going on and on about things like “reliability” and “energy density” and refusing to be nice to the renewables advocates. Good riddance!
In the end, nothing to worry about. The UK-France interconnection will be up and running in little over 6 months. The wind should start to blow, and the fire should be out, well before then.
Good point

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More from @ShellenbergerMD

Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
18 Sep
Top German newspaper @handelsblatt blows whistle on renewable energy scam

- wind & solar energies have massive environmental footprint

- "ESG" eco-criteria = greenwashing

- "Now the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating"

handelsblatt.com/finanzen/anlag…
- "This is a wake-up call for the entire industry" says former head of German pseudo-sustainability fund turned whistleblower.

- "Former head of sustainable investing Blackrock, Tariq Fancy, calls ESG boom a "dangerous placebo"
"Sustainable investments make investors feel like they can invest in something 'good' while earning attractive returns. The industry had a lot of leeway to define the ESG criteria in such a way that they fit the respective providers."

Background:

Read 13 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
18 Sep
High energy prices force factories to close in UK, exposing its over-reliance on gas & renewables

“There is a way out of the bind. Yes, it is expensive, but the alternative, as we are seeing now, could easily be far more costly. We need to go nuclear.”

telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/…
“Even when things do improve, businesses have now been alerted to the fact that the UK is more susceptible to big price spikes than other countries. Wholesale prices have quadrupled, according to UK Steel”
“On Wednesday, CF Industries Holdings, a big fertilizer maker, said it is shutting down its plants in Billingham and Ince because of high natural gas prices. It couldn’t say when production will resume.”
Read 9 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
14 Sep
For years, energy experts have said that the declining cost of renewables & natural gas means we don't need nuclear

But now, as gas prices reach historic highs, nations are returning to coal and diesel, and reconsidering their closure of nuclear plants

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/skyrocketing…
Over the last decade, energy experts repeatedly assured policymakers around the world that increasing the use of renewables, while shutting down nuclear plants, would make energy supplies more secure, while lowering prices.
But those reassurances have come into question as gas prices have spiked, resulting in street protests & contributing to inflation

“The sudden slowdown in wind electricity production off the coast of the U.K. in recent weeks whipsawed through regional energy markets” — @WSJ
Read 39 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
9 Sep
Media pundits & political leaders should have roundly condemned yesterday's assault by a white woman wearing a gorilla mask on black California gubernatorial front-runner @larryelder. Instead they downplayed it. The double standard is appalling.

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/assault-on-b…
Imagine for a moment that a white woman wearing a gorilla mask threw an egg at the first black American with a serious chance of becoming governor of California as he visited homeless encampments with black and Latino community leaders.
Imagine that, seconds later, both the gorilla-masked woman and a white man punched the candidate’s security guard. And imagine that somebody fired a pellet gun into the crowd.
Read 32 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
7 Sep
“Making broad racial generalizations, and stripping minorities of agency, does not lead to racial progress — it does the precise opposite,”argued @Ravarora1 last summer.

Afterwards “I lost friends, former classmates, colleagues, and social connections.”

nypost.com/2021/09/04/wha…
“The handful of young moderates in my social circle who support my work messaged me in private, saying they respected my views but were unable to publicly support or share them on social media”
“The editor of my local newspaper (who happens to be white), started taking to social media to accuse me of downplaying racism in our society and spreading misinformation…& described my views as “alt-right” (frequently used to describe white nationalism).”
Read 5 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
4 Sep
When people die from floods, blackouts, and fires because you failed to upgrade sewers & evacuate; maintain & weatherize power plants; and manage forests: just blame climate change

They said climate change was an “inconvenient truth” but it‘s become quite convenient
NYC’s mayor said “in the age of global warming, the unpredictability of weather events can topple even the best laid of plans…”

But was forced to admit that “travel bans and evacuations of basement apartments… were not employed”

nytimes.com/2021/09/03/nyr…
“Anger seemed particularly palpable in Queens, where 12 people perished as water gushed into subterranean spaces, leaving residents to drown in their own homes. Many of those basement apartments were illegal, according to the city’s Department of Buildings.”
Read 12 tweets

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