At a time when the anti-environmental climate movement should be collapsing alongside renewable energy, the Old Guard is doubling down. And Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, is in denial as judged by his recent op-ed in Salon, “Is there an ‘energy crisis’? Not really — fossil fuels are collapsing, and it’s high time (October 25, 2021).

Pope’s subtitle says it all: “Why are energy prices spiking? Mostly because we’re not making the transition to wind and solar fast enough.” That’s exactly wrong as blackouts and conservation alerts in Texas, California, and around the world demonstrate.

Pope’s essay follows in blue with my comments.

The Economist calls it “The Energy Shock.” Forbes and the Wall Street Journal go further, resurrecting a term from the 1970s: “Energy Crisis.”…

Ed. note: This fortnightly Master Resource post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, published every other week by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete MBN for this post can be found here.

Of special interest in this issue is Michael Shellenberger’s article “Why the Pro-Nuclear Movement Is Winning,” previewing his next book: The War on Nuclear: Why It Hurts Us All.

Greed Energy Economics:
Congress eyes $235B in clean energy subsidies. Here they are
The Real Cost of Government Mandated Wind and Solar
New data on real offshore wind costs
Why Carbon Hysteria And Decarbonization Policies Are Economically Insane
Wait, who agrees NC electricity costs must keep going up? Not consumers
New Book: Green Murder
Study: Electric Cars Cost More To Refuel Than Gasoline Powered Cars
Solar And Wind Are Forcing Poverty On Africa

Renewable Energy: Health and Ecosystem Consequences:
Tucker exposes the hidden impact of green energy
Wind Noise: A Continuing Issue (night amplification)
The Dirty Little Secret: Wind Turbines Create Health Issues
EPA’s Commitments to Action on PFAS

Wind Energy:
Wind Turbine Failures Behind Europe’s Energy Crisis are a Warning for America
No Christmas for wind project operator or neighbors
Icebreaker wind project proposed for Lake Erie needs to find more financing soon
Plug-in cars are the future.…

“… solar’s production boom has left its recycling infrastructure in the dust…. The totality of these unforeseen costs could crush industry competitiveness.”

“A first step to forestalling disaster may be for solar panel producers to start lobbying for similar legislation in the United States immediately, instead of waiting for solar panels to start clogging landfills.”

“The same problem is looming for other renewable-energy technologies.”

In The Dark Side of Solar Power, (Harvard Business Review: June 2021), authors Atalay Atasu, Serasu Duran, and Luk N. Van Wassenhove bring the solar boom back down to earth. Quotations follow from the article (subtitles added):

• Solar’s pandemic-proof performance is due in large part to the Solar Investment Tax Credit, which defrays 26% of solar-related expenses for all residential and commercial customers (just down from 30% during 2006-2019).

“Using moralistic yet blatantly dishonest slogans and pseudo-science, the environmental movement has digressed dangerously…. One of the most fundamental truths rarely surfaces among the movement: there is no credible alternative to hydrocarbons in both the near and far foreseeable futures.” (Michael Economides, below)

He was irascible in person but a rare energy realist in thought and action. Michael Economides (1949–2013) was many things, including leading oil consultant and Lecturer in Petroleum Engineering at the Cullen College of Engineering at the University of Houston. [1]

With Ronald Oligney, he authored an important book, The Color of Oil: The History, the Money and the Politics of the World’s Biggest Business (2000). Some quotations follow:

“… energy is the world’s biggest business, and it continues to move unstoppably forward.” (p. 17)

“We predict that the world will not run out of oil for the next three centuries, at least.”