The notion of wind and solar farms sufficiently powering communities or every motorist switching over to an electric vehicle is unraveling. The world is waking up.
As we confront a precarious energy situation of surging demand with inadequate—and too often, expensive—supply, we cannot afford to play politics. Like most climate policies, people are seeing net zero for what it is: An unrealistic goal that stifles productivity and economic growth.
Talks of net zero, which aims for an overall balance between producing and removing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, began percolating among climate elites and national leaders soon after the Paris Climate Agreement was adopted hardly a decade ago. But the idea that energy production can be completely altered faces a reality check.
Europe has been chasing the net zero dream longer than most, and their experience should serve as a cautionary tale.
A report two years ago, whose first line declares it “a much-needed warning to America,” documents how Britain’s aggressive climate policies inflicted astronomical utility costs which have led to the nation’s subsequent stagnant economy.
Germany, also experiencing significant deindustrialization, economic decline, and skyrocketing electricity prices due to its own ambitious climate agenda, elected a new president two months ago, leaving some to speculate “a reduced focus on climate policies in a future government.”
Renewable energy sources that will supposedly save the world are proving to be as unreliable and costly as they are environmentally destructive. A necessary course correction is coming.
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Kristen Walker is a policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, follow us on Twitter @ConsumerPal.