by Vijay Jayaraj
Whether it is a hot summer in Colorado or a cold winter in the UK, the misery of “green” policies becomes a daily reality as consumers are unfortunately denied access to energy. quantity. As state legislators and energy suppliers choose to increase “renewable” technologies in their energy mix, the inevitable result is grid instability, power shortages, and high prices. both higher and a lot of chaos due to power outages.
Is this the new normal that our world’s leading elites want us to accept? We must then accept the denial of a fundamental necessity in modern society – readily available and affordable energy.
In Colorado, energy demand peaked on August 30 due to rising temperatures. Epoch Times report that “more than 22,000 Xcel Energy customers in Colorado were greeted with an ‘energy emergency’ message on their smart thermostats, preventing them from dropping temperatures below 78 degrees.”
Xcel says that this only affects customers who have signed up for a special rewards program that offers cash incentives to consumers, who have the option of opting out of the program. While the voluntary nature of the program makes it less authoritarian, the mindset of our energy owners is nonetheless disturbing.
The truth is that Xcel’s energy allocation is not a matter of weather, but rather the result of the company accepting the folly of replacing abundant and economical fossil fuels with so-called renewable energy sources. Renewable energy sources are not suitable to produce electricity for large populations. .
Much the same can be expected, according to Colorado Sun: “Xcel plans to double its renewable energy production by 2030. It will cost consumers $8 billion to do so. Major new wind and solar projects are planned to bring Xcel Energy to 80% renewable generation in Colorado. This will leave millions of people with unreliable electricity supplies.
In a recent week in green-obsessed California, Natural gas supplies most of the state’s needs in the evening because its renewable energy cannot keep up with demand. For those who don’t know, California “has The 10th largest increase (48.75%) in renewable energy production from 2014 to 2019. The state received the third-largest grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for renewable energy from 2004 through 2021, when it received $557.8 million in federal funding. No state has more policies and incentives geared towards renewable energy than California, which has 170.
So what we have is the threat of millions of customers across the country who are heading towards energy shortages because of their suppliers’ aversion to fossil fuels and willfully blinding them. against the risks of sacrificing energy security for a pseudo-climate emergency.
But this is not just a US problem. In 2017, people in many provinces of China could not buy coal for winter heating because of the policy that required reducing fuel use. The South China Morning Post report that “fearing villagers in northern China resorted to burning cob and wood chips.” In the UK, there is not enough heating in homes for the elderly due to high energy costs associated with excess mortality.
In Africa, the continent’s largest funder of development projects – the African Development Bank – has been stop supporting coal projects needed to promote economic growth and reduce poverty in many countries.
Perhaps most disturbingly, the overused global movement to decarbonize the energy sector is still in its infancy. Given the pain already inflicted on consumers, a fully developed “energy transition” would impose energy scarcity of unimaginable proportions. In regions like many in Africa, this means economic growth will be halted before it even begins. In developed countries, people will have setbacks in their lifestyle and some will fall into poverty.
Humanity has made great strides at great cost over the past few centuries to achieve the energy-abundant state that civilization enjoys today. Elite policymakers are reversing this process by denying people the energy they need to prosper and even survive.
Vijay Jayaraj is a Research Associate at CO2 Alliance, Arlington, VA. He holds a master‘holds a degree in environmental science from the University of East Anglia, UK and resides in India.
This comment is the first published at Real clear energy September 14, 2022.
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