“Power plants, usually natural gas, must be kept in spinning reserve, ready to come online when the wind stops blowing or the sun stops shining. There is the cost of natural gas to keep these units operating off-line, as well as maintenance costs from the added wear and tear on these units.”

“The strongest winds, which are the best for generating electricity, are found hundreds, if not a thousand or more miles away from where the electricity is used. [Fossil-fuel] power plants are located closer to where the electricity is used.”

“Coal-fired and NGCC power plants were built to operate as baseload plants operating continuously. Cycling results in an increase in the number of cold-starts and shutdowns.”

The renewable-energy lobby has the advantage of many citizens having short attention spans and not being experts in the field.…

“Armed with Gore’s utility bills for the last two years, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research charged Monday that the gas and electric bills for the former vice president’s 20-room home and pool house devoured … more than 20 times the national average….”

“‘I appreciate the solar panels,’ [Drew Johnson of TCPR] said, ‘but he also has natural gas lanterns in his yard, a heated pool, and an electric gate. While I appreciate that he’s switching out some light bulbs, he is not living the lifestyle that he advocates.'”

– Jake Tapper, “Al Gore’s ‘Inconvenient Truth’? A $30,000 Utility Bill.” ABC News, February 2007.

Neo-Malthusians who profess the need for government to save the world from peaceful consumers and producers face some hard realities in their lemming-like war against fossil fuels.…

You can have your solar panels … and your turbines on the hills;

You can use the warmth of sunshine … to reduce your heating bills.

You can dream you’re self-sufficient … as you weed your vegie bed;

As long as you make sure to keep …  a diesel in the shed.

When I was a kid on a dairy farm in Queensland, Australia, we relied on green energy: horses and human muscles for motive power; fire-wood and beeswax candles for heat and light; windmills to pump water; and the sun to grow crops, vegetables, and pastures.

The only “non-green” energy used was a bit of kerosene for the kitchen lamp, and petrol for a small Ford utility.

Our life changed dramatically when we put a diesel in the dairy shed.…

“Even with more wind and solar power, coal will continue to supply around two-thirds of the power for China’s  expanding electric car users.”

“Think in terms of opportunity cost. The resources for installing 12,000 charging stations could have been used to modernize Chinese coal power plants instead of catering to already-subsidized electric car buyers.

Electric cars are popular with investors, and the New York Times reports on booming market value as “Tesla Passes Ford in Market Value as Investors Bet on the Future,” (April 3, 2017). Tesla’s Elon Musk wants all future engines (except rockets) to be electric:

In his vision, Tesla is going to change the world, and is primed to cash in on the two transformative trends in the industry: the shift to electric vehicles as part of a broader societal move to cleaner energy, and the advent of automated driving.