Andrew Stuttaford of National Review Online ponders government’s efforts to force a transition away from fossil fuels.
Not for the first time, it strikes me that the transition away from fossil fuels may be moving rather more quickly than the technology upon which it is supposed to rely.
The Wall Street Journal:
“Summer is around the corner, and we suggest you prepare by buying an emergency generator, if you can find one in stock. Last week the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) warned that two-thirds of the U.S. could experience blackouts this summer. Welcome to the ‘green energy transition.’”
“We’ve been warning for years that climate policies would make the grid more vulnerable to vacillations in supply and demand.”
One of the markers of human progress has been the way that we have been able to break away from the constraints put upon us by the natural environment. For example, we have developed better and better methods of lighting — from candles and oil lamps onward. We have beaten, so to speak, the night. Equally, in more and more parts of the world we have managed to break away from the constraints imposed by weather or climate, another sign of progress.
And yet now, the climate warriors are telling us to put our faith in an electricity grid that may well find itself vulnerable to being crippled as a result of the inescapable reality that the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine. In all probability, storage technologies will, in due course, be developed that get around those problems, and nuclear energy will — if the political will can be found to turn to it — be able to help out. But the latter will also take time. …
… [D]espite some encouraging signs of an emerging belief to the contrary in unexpected places such as the EU Commission, many climate warriors insist that natural gas is a climate crime, even when used as a “bridge” fuel.
