{"id":237280,"date":"2023-01-01T19:14:31","date_gmt":"2023-01-01T18:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=237280"},"modified":"2023-01-01T19:14:32","modified_gmt":"2023-01-01T18:14:32","slug":"the-net-zero-road-to-nowhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=237280","title":{"rendered":"The Net Zero Road to Nowhere"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JunkScience.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>By Steve Milloy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My latest in the Wall Street Journal (Web<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0PDF<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Net zero by 2050\u201d is more than a slogan of climate activism. It has become a chief organizational principle for multinational corporations and the BlackRock-led cartel pushing environmental, social and corporate governance investing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNet zero\u201d was mentioned in more than 6,000 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2022 and countless other times by publicly traded corporations and investor groups in statements and on their websites. The SEC says its proposed climate disclosure rule will help investors \u201cevaluate the progress in meeting net-zero commitments and assessing any associated risks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNet zero\u201d and its corollary, the \u201cenergy transition,\u201d are talked about so often and so loosely that many take them for granted as worthy goals that could be accomplished with greater buy-in from political and business leaders. But two new reports from the utility industry should put an end to such loose talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, the Electric Power Research Institute, the research arm of the U.S. electric utility industry, released a report<\/a> titled \u201cNet-Zero 2050: U.S. Economy-Wide Deep Decarbonization Scenario Analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EPRI report concludes that the utility industry can\u2019t attain net zero. \u201cThis study shows that clean electricity plus direct electrification and efficiency . . . are not sufficient by themselves to achieve net-zero economy-wide emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, no amount of wind turbines, solar panels, hydropower, nuclear power, battery power, electrification of fossil-fuel technologies or energy-efficiency technologies will get us to net zero by 2050.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even to achieve \u201cdeep decarbonization\u201d\u2014which isn\u2019t net zero\u2014by 2050, EPRI says, \u201ca broad portfolio of options that includes low-carbon fuels and carbon removal technologies will be required.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But \u201clow-carbon fuels\u201d\u2014efficient biofuels\u2014don\u2019t exist. \u201cCarbon removal technologies\u201d aren\u2019t possible to scale up, and if they were, it would cost about $1 quadrillion\u2014a million billion dollars\u2014at today\u2019s prices to remove the 1.6 trillion tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide that U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said<\/a> needs to be sucked \u201cout of the atmosphere even after we get to net zero.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s more. The EPRI report states: \u201cThis study does not include a detailed assessment of factors such as supply chain constraints [and] operational reliability and resiliency\u201d of a net-zero electricity grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How a net-zero grid could be built and function would be an issue worth studying if it were possible in the first place. But it simply isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, barring some unforeseen miracle technology, \u201cnet zero by 2050\u201d won\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The curious thing about the report is that it has largely remained an EPRI secret. There has been no media coverage of it. I found out about it only after I filed a shareholder proposal about net zero with the electric utility Alliant Energy. The company offered the report as a defense against my proposal that management explain how it planned to reach its goal of net zero by 2050.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other recent report<\/a> is \u201c2022 Long-Term Reliability Assessment\u201d from the North American Electric Reliability Corp., a government-certified grid-reliability and standard-setting group. NERC concluded that fossil-fuel plants are being removed from the grid too fast to meet continuing electricity demand, and that is putting most of the country at risk of grid failure and blackouts during extreme weather. The U.S. just got another taste of this during the Christmas electric-grid emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So there you have it: We are dangerously dismantling our electric grid while burdening it with more demand in hope of attaining the goal of \u201cnet zero by 2050,\u201d which the utility industry has admitted is a fantasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress should hold hearings on \u201cnet zero by 2050\u201d goals before real disaster happens. It should bring in witnesses from utilities, public-service commissions, grid operators, regulators and the ESG cartel and have them explain under oath how they plan to accomplish the impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Milloy is a senior fellow with the Energy and Environment Legal Institute.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appeared in the December 29, 2022, print edition as \u201cA Quiet Refutation Of \u2018Net Zero\u2019\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Net zero by 2050\u201d is more than a slogan of climate activism. It has become a chief organizational principle for multinational corporations and the BlackRock-led cartel pushing environmental, social and corporate governance investing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":237282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-ZJ6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":271006,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=271006","url_meta":{"origin":237280,"position":0},"title":"BBC still playing fast and loose with climate facts","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/02\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A new paper from Net Zero Watch shows that the BBC is still misleading its viewers and listeners about the facts of climate change. 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