Wind, Solar, & Batteries: nope

Yesterday, we blogged on the Green Cult members, those environmental zealots who are actually up to something else.   As a follow-up, John Hinderaker at PowerLine explains why wind and solar power will “never work”:

Enormous amounts of money are being made by “green” fraudsters, utilities and politicians who tell us we are in the midst of a transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy. In fact, no such transition is underway; fossil fuel consumption is higher than ever. And no such transition will take place, ever, either in America or anywhere else in the world.

Why? Because wind and solar are both obsolete technologies. They produce electricity less than one-half of the time, a fact that will never change. How can we run a modern economy on intermittent energy sources? We can’t.

If you ask a liberal that question, his answer will be “batteries.” He will admit that wind and solar work only occasionally, but that is no problem, he will tell you, because the electricity they generate can be stored in batteries for later use.

Power can be stored in batteries, of course. We all do this every day, storing tiny amounts on our laptops, smart phones and so on. But our energy demands are almost unfathomably large, and all of the batteries in the world don’t begin to meet those needs. My colleague Isaac Orr created this graphic, which compares energy consumption in just one state in one country, as of 2019, with projected battery storage in the entire world as of 2030. You might as well rely on pixie dust as on batteries:

Click to embiggen

Much more at PowerLine here.

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Country on fire

 

Gary Varvel cartoon via Townhall

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Maybe there’s hope after all

 

Richard Fernandez, a/k/a Wretchard The Cat, has more optimism than some of us.  Mr. Instapundit posted this:

click to embiggen or click on the Instapundit link above

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COVID: The after times

 

At American Thinker, Alex Lekas takes a thoughtful look at the aftermath of the COVID “pandemic” – and some readers here will surely relate to his frame of reference.  He starts off:

The Covidian orthodoxy is beginning to crumble. Some governments have discovered that their approach did not improve anything. On the contrary, at least one study shows that the myriad restrictions on normal life have had the opposite effect. That confirms what many people said 18 months ago when challenging the official dogma was considered an act of heresy.

Now what? There is going to be a clear delineation of human interactions in the aftermath when compared to the before times. It is almost impossible to expect otherwise.

Like many of you, I have learned things about people I thought I knew that were hard to believe. It has been quite the learning curve to find out who would happily serve as an enforcer to push the state's dictates, who would just as happily shut people out of society, celebrate their firing, or deny them healthcare for the sake of making a political point. Once you have seen the true measure of a person, one who would support steps that harm friends and relatives and justify that support [without] hesitation or regret, how can you see such people in the same light again?

You can't trust them. You can’t discuss anything of substance with them. You can’t pretend that none of this happened. It is impossible to once again respect or like people whose inner tyrant rose to the surface so easily, and that will be among the lasting legacies of this sorry spectacle, one that should sadden us all. The friendships forever tarnished, the family ties that are irreparably broken, the neighbors you no longer recognize; for many people, those will be the most tangible results of their COVID experience.

There is no joy in saying "I told you so" as the narrative starts falling apart. The same people and publications who dismissively, if not derisively, hand-waved warnings of second-order effects from mandates and lockdowns as so much conspiracy babble, are now reporting on the second-order effects of mandates and lockdowns. But worse, they are doing so without the faintest hint of humility or self-awareness, without the slightest acknowledgment of their complicity in pushing fear while stifling open, honest discussion. Then again, why would they?

Mr. Lekas concludes:

The path forward is not likely to be pleasant. It is going to be difficult to watch the various divisions of the Karenwaffe pivot and claim that they knew all along the assaults on freedom would not work. Of all the lies people can tell, the worst are the ones they tell themselves. This is where the truth about character is revealed. The old saying holds that tough times build character. That is not true. Tough times reveal character. What many of us have seen cannot be unseen and it will resonate for some time.

Full article is here.   

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The Destruction is Deliberate

 

At American Thinker, the pseudonymous columnist Ed Sherdlu makes the case that the destruction of America is the goal of the Biden administration.  And he considers the nomination of Saule Omarova as evidence.  He starts off:

The comptroller of the currency is not another one of those do-nothing Washington jobs.  The person filling this critical role controls all federally licensed banks, credit unions, and foreign banks operating in the United States and similar institutions.  Normally, you would think receiving your postgraduate education at the University of Moscow (in the USSR) and writing your doctoral dissertation on the advantages of Marxism over free economy capitalism might be a disqualifier for this all-powerful position.  But not in the Biden administration.

To Biden and his cronies, the fact that their nominee for comptroller is a lifelong Marxist is not disqualifying.  In fact, to the radical Democrats pulling Biden's strings, Russian-born Saule Omarova's dedication to hardcore communism is one of her strongest qualifications.  Ms. Omarova makes no attempt to hide her radical leftist political and economic feelings other than to try to prevent the Senate committee considering her confirmation from accessing her other "academic" works.

As noted yesterday, some conservatives digging into Omarova's recent past may have found the wooden stake to drive through the heart of her nomination.  In a newly unearthed video clip, this woman who Biden wants to control all our nation's finances told her audience, "In order to prevent climate change, we have to bankrupt all the coal, oil, and gas companies."

Under other circumstances, we might consider this utter foolishness to be little more than the drunken utterance of some Ivy League sophomore.   Unfortunately, in this case, the threat and intent to completely bankrupt American energy producers came directly from the mouth of a person who might be given the power to do just that!

And Mr. Sherdlu concludes:

In looking at Omarova's nomination and everything else this administration has done, from the border to Kabul to the supported terrorists, including Iranians, receiving de facto permission to build their atomic bomb, I believe we are forced into one inescapable conclusion: the Biden/Harris administration's actions are not the result of ineptitude.  They are a carefully thought out, well-planned, and almost flawlessly executed plan to ensure the destruction of the United States as we know her.  It is being viciously implemented by Obama acolytes such as Susan Rice and hundreds of others who are the people really running our country under the Biden administration.

. . . Omarova's nomination leaves little doubt as to their intentions.

The full column is here.  I would like to think that Mr. Sherdlu is wrong, but it's hard to argue with his points. 

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