{"id":307581,"date":"2024-03-13T07:58:16","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T06:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=307581"},"modified":"2024-03-13T07:58:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T06:58:18","slug":"when-will-politicians-accept-that-wind-and-solar-power-cant-replace-fossil-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=307581","title":{"rendered":"When Will Politicians Accept That Wind and Solar Power Can\u2019t Replace Fossil Fuels?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

From The Daily Sceptic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY\u00a0RICHARD BURCIK<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

On Saturday March 2nd Northern California was hit by a major blizzard in its Sierra Nevada Mountain Range<\/a> with 12 feet of snow and winds of 190 miles per hour. But during the following week America was hit with a blizzard of a different kind: a flurry of pro-renewable energy news reports which totally distorted the facts. The distortion of the truth has been going on for at least 15 years. In 2009 Scientific American<\/em><\/a> published an article (citing a Stanford study<\/a>) which predicted that renewables could become 100% of the world\u2019s energy needs by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March of 2021 Carbon Tracker<\/a> posted a report errantly asserting that renewable energy was capable of meeting energy demand 100 times over. Two years later the World Economic Forum jumped on the bandwagon with a study that mistakenly claimed that we have \u201creached peak fossil fuels\u201d and that we are now entering a \u201cnew era for power\u201d. Yet the WEF\u2019s own charts show that worldwide electricity production (WEF apparently forgot about the energy needs of the global transportation sector) in 2022 was less than 13%. The WEF also aberrantly suggested that global CO2<\/sub> emissions might start to decline in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making matters even worse, U.S. President Joe Biden touted renewable energy in his March 7th 2024 State of the Union speech, and two days later the Washington Post<\/a> <\/em>printed a story about the efforts by Dartmouth University to try and find some way to bring solar power to northern Greenland where the sun does not shine for six months every year: solar power for six months and fossil fuel power when darkness shrouds the landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this never ending deluge of renewables propaganda, most American progressives dutifully believe that humanity can obtain all of its energy needs from renewables almost for free. But energy has never been unchained from cost. And although the cost of renewables have been declining, existing fossil fuel (including coal and nuclear) sources remain the cheapest sources of energy<\/a>. That is true both for electrical generation and transportation \u2013 not least because the Sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow, making these intermittent sources of energy unreliable, as Germany<\/a> discovered last winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political scientist Roger Pielke, Jr. has stated: \u201cIt is quite intuitive for people to understand that there is a lot of power in solar energy. We feel the wind. The idea that you can get something for nothing, people find enormously appealing.\u201d But the Sun does not shine at night and the wind blows strongest at night in the winter when the electricity that it produces is not needed. Simply put, renewables are intermittent and they are far less concentrated than fossil fuels are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In America, different states are following varied energy paths, providing us with an invaluable 50-part experiment. California<\/a> is the most committed jurisdiction to the adoption of renewable energy and its citizens are being hit hard in their wallets. Take the U.S. West Coast as a comparison. Consumers in Washington state on average pay 11 cents per kilowatt-hour for the electricity they use. In Oregon, the average household pays 13 cents per kilowatt-hour used. Now look at California where people must endure an average cost of electricity of 30 cents per kilowatt-hour and they suffer from rolling blackouts and brownouts. The cost of their electricity has risen three times faster than the rest of the nation. Even California Governor, Gavin Newsom, has admitted that \u201cwe failed to predict and plan\u201d. California\u2019s recent spate of wildfires has been attributed by some to the state\u2019s overloaded power grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018lifting cost<\/a>\u2018 of a land-based barrel of oil in the U.S. is under $40 for existing wells and about $60 for new wells. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review<\/em><\/a> asserted that wind energy is now competitive with the cheapest fossil fuels even without Government subsidies \u2013 but this analysis did not consider the cost for each electric utility to keep a \u2018spinning reserve<\/a>\u2018 that burns natural gas as back-up in order to maintain grid integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An article in One Finite Planet<\/a> <\/em>put its finger on the nub of the problem. \u201cSolar and wind have proven to be successful partial cost-effective substitutes for fossil fuels, but fossil fuels are stored energy, and solar and wind are not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Burcik is the author of two short books, <\/em>The DNA Lottery<\/a> and <\/em>Anatomy of a Lie<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

On Saturday March 2nd Northern California was hit by a major blizzard\u00a0in its\u00a0Sierra Nevada Mountain Range\u00a0with 12 feet of snow and winds of 190 miles\u00a0per hour. But during the following week America was hit with a blizzard of a different kind: a flurry of pro-renewable energy news reports which totally distorted the facts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":307586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"On Saturday March 2nd Northern California was hit by a major blizzard\u00a0in its\u00a0Sierra Nevada Mountain Range\u00a0with 12 feet of snow and winds of 190 miles\u00a0per hour. 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To make the grid capable of fulfilling customer demand 24\/7\/365, wind and solar require large amounts of additional capital infrastructure \u2014 dispatchable back-up generation, energy storage, additional transmission capacity, and more. 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Media outlets have repeatedly made similar claims over the past decade, but as with those previous stories, data on power prices and trends in those states\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Everyday States\"","block_context":{"text":"Everyday States","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=everyday-states"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQMlzkBuJK4pf6fFo7Grw5coWyKd8cZt4GR48pBs5cIA5XFsfztZPDSeu4aJUVCWQpx-l8RkH-Urz3zxzOHUFl0L03CUHFN2xKr84NWybjdXXGSyD3MvWbTdJ3E2hgCWidl3zTV4D_Itxrq24sUmm2wDbuGO5g.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQMlzkBuJK4pf6fFo7Grw5coWyKd8cZt4GR48pBs5cIA5XFsfztZPDSeu4aJUVCWQpx-l8RkH-Urz3zxzOHUFl0L03CUHFN2xKr84NWybjdXXGSyD3MvWbTdJ3E2hgCWidl3zTV4D_Itxrq24sUmm2wDbuGO5g.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQMlzkBuJK4pf6fFo7Grw5coWyKd8cZt4GR48pBs5cIA5XFsfztZPDSeu4aJUVCWQpx-l8RkH-Urz3zxzOHUFl0L03CUHFN2xKr84NWybjdXXGSyD3MvWbTdJ3E2hgCWidl3zTV4D_Itxrq24sUmm2wDbuGO5g.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQMlzkBuJK4pf6fFo7Grw5coWyKd8cZt4GR48pBs5cIA5XFsfztZPDSeu4aJUVCWQpx-l8RkH-Urz3zxzOHUFl0L03CUHFN2xKr84NWybjdXXGSyD3MvWbTdJ3E2hgCWidl3zTV4D_Itxrq24sUmm2wDbuGO5g.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQMlzkBuJK4pf6fFo7Grw5coWyKd8cZt4GR48pBs5cIA5XFsfztZPDSeu4aJUVCWQpx-l8RkH-Urz3zxzOHUFl0L03CUHFN2xKr84NWybjdXXGSyD3MvWbTdJ3E2hgCWidl3zTV4D_Itxrq24sUmm2wDbuGO5g.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":285688,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=285688","url_meta":{"origin":307581,"position":2},"title":"Virginia \u2013 Don\u2019t Follow Net-Zero Lemmings Over the Energy Cliff","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/10\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"States that link climate and energy policies to California and \u2018climate crisis\u2019 will pay high price. Mandates for electric vehicles, wind and solar power, and a magical transition to a fossil-fuel-free energy utopia are critical issues this year and in 2024. From Watts Up With That? States that link climate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Blackouts\"","block_context":{"text":"Blackouts","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=blackouts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-816.png?fit=1200%2C510&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-816.png?fit=1200%2C510&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-816.png?fit=1200%2C510&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-816.png?fit=1200%2C510&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-816.png?fit=1200%2C510&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":275703,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=275703","url_meta":{"origin":307581,"position":3},"title":"Mythbusting: There\u2019s No Way Wind & Solar Are Cheaper Than Coal &\u00a0Gas","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"26\/08\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The fact that every country that\u2019s increased reliance on wind and solar is suffering rocketing power prices is incontrovertible. And that simple relationship puts paid to the myth that wind and solar are cheaper than coal and gas, principally because it\u2019s heavily subsidised wind and solar that are (occasionally) displacing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Renewables\"","block_context":{"text":"Renewables","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=renewables"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/00721-F2-1-scaled-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/00721-F2-1-scaled-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/00721-F2-1-scaled-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/00721-F2-1-scaled-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/00721-F2-1-scaled-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":286510,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=286510","url_meta":{"origin":307581,"position":4},"title":"Gavin Newsom scapegoats fossil fuels to cover his own failures","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/11\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Green energy is not Green.-\u00a0Renewables\u201d are not \u201ccarbon free. - \u201cRenewables\u201d are the antithesis of fair, equitable, and just.- \u201cRenewables\u201d are intermittent and unreliable. From \u00a0CFACT By Craig Rucker California recently joined other states in\u00a0suing oil companies\u00a0for purportedly misleading the public about alleged risks from fossil-fuel-driven climate change, extreme weather,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"California\"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=california"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0face-palm.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0face-palm.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0face-palm.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0face-palm.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0face-palm.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":364240,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=364240","url_meta":{"origin":307581,"position":5},"title":"AEP\u2019s Latest Renewable\u00a0Fantasy","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/02\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"If green energy is the future, as he claims, then obviously there is no need for renewable subsidies, mandates, bans or all of the other laws and regulations being applied to enforce Net Zero","rel":"","context":"In \"DESNZ\"","block_context":{"text":"DESNZ","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=desnz"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/01_eExI3eXTbPwK-FhGrVqJmg.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/01_eExI3eXTbPwK-FhGrVqJmg.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/01_eExI3eXTbPwK-FhGrVqJmg.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/01_eExI3eXTbPwK-FhGrVqJmg.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/01_eExI3eXTbPwK-FhGrVqJmg.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=307581"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307589,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307581\/revisions\/307589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/307586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=307581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=307581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=307581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}