Hard right-winger Stephen Moore took a break from pushing debunked trickle-down economic policies to take a pathetic shot at clean energy. Let the stupid begin.
…radical Greens, one of the most influential political forces in America today…
Seriously? He goes on to mention the famed Sierra Club as one of these forces. And where did they rank in 2013 on lobbying: 755. In fact, if we look at the top 50 interest groups giving to members of Congress this year, no sign of a “clean energy” or “renewable energy” group in the rankings. Yet, they are one of the “most influential” because Stephen Moore says so and not because any facts back it up.
…we could end up seeing “rolling brownouts and even blackouts in the years ahead.”
Kind of like the blackouts induced by the infallible private sector giant, Enron, in California over a decade ago? Remember kids, always let the fossil-fuel guys have their way and nothing will ever go wrong.
America gets about 40 percent of its electricity from coal-fired plants.
Correct. And one day, whether it’s because climate change has erased mankind off the face of the earth or because we run out of coal, that percentage will be zero, which is the whole point of finding renewable sources and getting them in use as fast as possible. This ignores other ugly realities of coal, such as the destruction caused by mountain top removal. Moore might want to look into that some time.
But the environmentalists are…raising unsupported objections to fracking.
Unsupported? If they are so unsupported Mr. Moore, please allow a fracking operation to begin close to your home, just like the CEO of Exxon refused to do. And what about the growing research showing the relationship between fracking and increased earthquakes? Unsupported? Not really.
Sorry, for the foreseeable future, we aren’t going to get our power for our $18 trillion economy from wind turbines and solar panels. And if we begin to try, prices are going to skyrocket.
This ignores the reality that the cost has been falling for things like solar. As noted in this piece from the Guardian:
Panels now sell for less than a quarter of their 2008 price…Bloomberg estimates that the world will have 600GW of photovoltaic solar worldwide by 2020 (an increase from about 150GW today) and 1,900GW by 2030; making up 5-7% of the global electricity mix. These positive predictions are based on the falling prices of renewables.
And one last absurd quote from Moore:
…the Greens think oil is a “dirty” fuel that causes global warming.
Let me fix that statement for you. Scientists know oil is a “dirty” fuel that causes global warming. There you go, Mr. Moore. You’re welcome for the assistance.
