Today’s WSJ includes an op-ed written by Steven Hayward titled “The Real Cost of Tackling Climate Change.” Hayward argues that an 80% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050 is nearly impossible and costly.
You can forget refrigerators, microwaves, clothes dryers and flat screen TVs. Even a house tricked out with all the latest high-efficiency EnergyStar appliances and compact fluorescent lights won’t come close. The same daunting energy math applies to the industrial, commercial and transportation sectors as well. The clear implication is that we shall have to replace virtually the entire fossil fuel electricity infrastructure over the next four decades with CO2-free sources ? a multitrillion dollar proposition, if it can be done at all.
