Tag: green energy

Reality Check: Towns And States Don’t Want Green Energy

Trump Administration actions to scale back renewable energy capture headlines, but citizens are also pushing back. Efforts to deploy wind and solar systems face a rising tide of opposition in towns, counties, and states. Mandates for electric vehicles and electric home appliances are being challenged. The combination of rising local opposition and Trump funding cuts threatens to end the transition to green energy.

The green energy revolution in the United States has run almost unopposed for the last two decades. Driven by the fear of human-caused global warming, federal regulators enacted an expanding array of incentives for renewables in the form of mandates, tax credits, loans, and subsidies. States added incentives to push for the adoption of wind, solar, electric vehicles, heat pumps, green hydrogen, and carbon dioxide (CO2) capture systems.

Twenty-three states have laws or executive orders requiring Net Zero electricity by 2050. Power companies have been forced to comply with state mandates. Since 2000, wind and solar have grown from near zero to about 16% of US power generation in 2024, wind (10.5%) and solar (5.1%).

Twenty-two states have electric vehicle (EV) mandates, requiring all sales of new cars to be EVs by a future date, such as 2035. Tightening CO2 emission standards from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) force manufacturers to sell an increasing share of EVs. Plug-in EV sales grew from zero two decades ago to 8% last year.

Climate policy advocates want homeowners to switch from natural gas and propane appliances to heat pumps and other electric appliances. In 2019, Berkeley, California became the first city to prohibit natural gas in new residential construction. Cities and counties in seven states now ban gas in new construction, including a statewide ban in New York.

The wave of renewable energy programs promoted and subsidized included electric vehicle charging stations, CO2 pipelines, and green hydrogen production facilities. But it’s becoming clear that many towns, counties, and states no longer support the green energy movement. A rising tide of opposition threatens the deployment of renewables.

Last month, the State House of Arizona passed legislation that would prohibit construction of wind systems on more than 90% of state land. The legislation would force new wind projects to be at least 12 miles from any residential property. The bill is being considered in the Arizona Senate.

Oklahoma is the third largest generator of electricity from wind in the US. But attendees at recent rallies at the state capitol call for bans on new wind and solar projects. Local residents voice economic, environmental, and health concerns about renewable systems.

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How Many More Ridiculous Green Energy Projects Will Fail?

The answer is all of them, in due time. Here are the latest spectacular failures.

Birds Fry Every Two Minutes

It took 10 years, and hundreds-of-thousands of dead birds, before the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California would meet its fate.

The Wall Street Journal explains in ‘A Prolific Executioner of Wildlife’

An Obama-era monument to green delusions finally faces extinction.

Longtime readers may recall a 2014 Journal editorial about California’s “bird-fryer” solar plant, a taxpayer-backed venture that was hell on local animals. Turns out it was also hell on electricity ratepayers. But as with so many politically favored green ventures, waiting for official acknowledgment of failure can feel like an eternity.

Now finally here in 2025 it seems the reckoning has begun. The Las Vegas Review-Journal notes in an editorial that “a major California utility —  Pacific Gas & Electric — announced that it will no longer buy power from the Ivanpah solar plant off Interstate 15 near the Nevada-California border. As a result, two of the plant’s three towers will shut down next year — and the third will probably follow.”

The plant might have functioned merely as the world’s most expensive backyard bug zapper. But it was just too lethal. The Review-Journal’s Emerson Drewes reported last month:

Federal wildlife officials said Ivanpah might act as a “mega-trap” for wildlife, with the bright light of the plant attracting insects, which in turn attract insect-eating birds that fly to their deaths in the intensely focused light rays.

So many birds have been victims of the plant’s concentrated sun rays that workers referred to them as “streamers,” for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair. When federal wildlife investigators visited the plant around 10 years ago, they reported an average of one “streamer” every two minutes.

Performance has proven so poor that PG&E has exercised its right to terminate the contract, about which negotiations have been completed; there is no doubt that towers 1 and 3 will cease operations within roughly a year. And it appears to be the case that Edison too wants out: “the utility is in ‘ongoing discussions’ with the project’s owners and the federal government over ending the utility’s contract.”

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Citizens Face $2,000 Energy Bill Increase as Dem Gov’s Green Energy Push Moves Forward: Report

One the country’s bluest regions is learning about the high cost of going green.

Customers of New York’s Consolidated Edison, the electric and gas utility that services New York City, is proposing a massive rate increase that would cost Big Apple customers paying utility bills almost $2,000 more a year than they did in 2020, the New York Post reported Thursday.

And the company blames energy mandates imposed by the New York state government, led by Gov. Kathy Hochul, for the hikes.

The proposed rates are being reviewed by the state Public Service Commission, the Post reported

And one former member of that commission told the newspaper the hikes are a sign that the state is headed in the wrong direction.

“We have to take a breath,” former Commission John Howard said, according to the Post.

“We’re not telling Mr. and Mrs. New York how much this transition to clean energy will cost them.”

The Post based its figures on customers using 600 kilowatt-hours per month — the average for New York state households, according to the electricity marketplace website Electricchoice.com.

Con Ed officials argued that New York City customers use less electricity than others in the state and claimed the Post’s figures were too high — that its proposal would amount to a hike of 15.7 percent, or about $46.42 to $289.41 per month, but there’s no denying that a rate increase is a rate increase.

And there’s no denying that New York’s Democratic-run state government has a mania for electricity mandates.

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The storm that shattered Ireland’s energy security

One of the most powerful weather events in Ireland’s history plunged the country into chaos last week. Bet you didn’t hear much about it, either, as it was hardly mentioned in the North American press. Still, the implications of its aftermath and what it reveals about the ‘green’ movement are a warning for any nation still gripped by obviously flawed climate ideology.

Storm Éowyn wreaked havoc across Ireland, with winds of over 100 mph downing power lines, flooding roads, and damaging renewable energy infrastructure. Hundreds of thousands of people were left without electricity for days in freezing winter conditions. Many people — up to 168,000 — are still without heat or light as of this writing, exposing the nation’s alarming dependence on electricity to meet basic needs.

More poignantly, the storm laid bare the vulnerabilities of renewable energy infrastructure. Thousands of wind turbines in the North Sea were forced offline because the power generated by the storm’s extreme winds risked overwhelming the electricity grid. “Constraint payments” were made to wind farm operators, compensating them for halting production — a cost ultimately passed on to consumers. This system, which guarantees profits for renewable energy companies regardless of output, highlights the flawed economic model underpinning Europe’s green energy push.

This inefficiency underscores a glaring and paradoxical tension: current energy generation systems being pushed under the banner of climate change are far from ready to meet the demands of extreme weather events, which climate activists frequently remind us are expected to increase.

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With all the detrimental effects of wind farms, how on Earth are they being approved?

I recently returned from Wales where once pristine green hills are now littered with (often stationary) giant wind turbines, in the name of saving the planet. On a farm near Llangollen, I met with a group of locals who are deeply concerned about the rampant escalation of these ugly, noisy, lethal and futile installations.

Farmer Tim Smith explained the issues to me in detail which I hope I’ve covered adequately below so that you too can grasp what is at stake, and see that wind turbines are yet another big lie to support the biggest lie of all – climate change.

For communities, it’s incredibly difficult to challenge decisions made by developers or government officials. Once more, in the case of this area of outstanding natural beauty, it seems that the Government has prioritised corporate interests over the health, wellbeing and livelihoods of ordinary people. With increasingly more wind farms planned for the area, the group expressed feeling angry, frustrated and powerless to defend themselves from these metal monsters.

“The system is set up to protect big business, not the little guy,” Tim said.

Climate Change or Climate Hoax?

There is growing scepticism about the climate change narrative that drives many renewable energy policies. Living in the UK, there is no doubt the weather is doing strange things – it’s been a miserably cloudy and cold year with hardly any sunshine whatsoever. But is this climate change or part of a climate hoax?

Devastating floods in Spain as well as the fires in Greece have raised questions about whether these events were genuinely natural or potentially orchestrated. This possibility only reinforces the need to critically examine policies that push for widespread wind farm developments, which are so obviously visual and noise pollutants. So why are they allowed?

Wind Energy as a ‘Solution’ to Climate Change

Wind energy is presented as a solution to “climate change,” yet its long-term effects on health, ecosystems and local communities are devastating and these effects are completely overlooked.

Tim, who has started a UK branch of the international Motvind advocacy group to raise awareness of the dangers of the wind energy agenda, explained that once turbines are installed there is no oversight at all. One of the group’s most pressing concerns is the health risks associated with wind farm noise, particularly the low-frequency infrasound emitted by turbines. This sound, often imperceptible to the human ear, can lead to a range of health issues, including sleep disturbances, chronic stress, and even motion-sickness-like symptoms. Some members of the group had experienced these symptoms. According to Tim, developers have refused to release the records of the infrasound data relevant to their local installations. In addition to infrasound, the turbines make audible sounds that also lead to increased stress, can drive people mad, or cause them to relocate.

The current regulations, such as the ETSU R97 guidelines, do not adequately address these risks. Although independent reports have been prepared by the Independent Noise Working Group to protect the public, these are simply ignored by the government and corporations alike. Thus, communities living near wind farms are left vulnerable to these health effects, with no sufficient protections in place.

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UK’s National Grid Admits It Doesn’t Have A Clue How To Reach Net Zero

A few weeks ago, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and his Head of Mission Control, Chris Stark wrote a public letter to Fintan Slye of the National Grid ESO asking for practical advice on how to deliver a clean power grid by 2030.

The letter asked Slye to set out a range of pathways to enable a decarbonised power system by 2030. For each pathway they asked for the forecast energy generation and demand mix and the underlying assumptions that need to be met for these to be deliverable. They also asked for the key requirements for the transmission network and interconnectors and for a high-level assessment of the costs, benefits, opportunities, challenges and risks as well as the key actions to be taken by Government, NESO, Ofgem and industry to enable delivery of the pathways.

Recently, Fintan Slye took to X to announce his initial response. Strangely Slye’s letter is not addressed to Miliband or Stark, but takes the form of an open letter to industry.

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We are wasting $2 trillion a year chasing ‘green’ fantasies

Despite much hype, the much-vaunted green energy transition away from fossil fuels isn’t happening.

Achieving a meaningful shift with current policies turns out to be unaffordable. We need to drastically change policy direction. 

Globally, we are already spending almost $2 trillion annually to try to force an energy transition. Over the past decade, solar and wind energy use have increased to their highest-ever levels.

But it hasn’t reduced fossil fuels — on the contrary, we have added even more fossil fuels over the same time. 

Countless studies show that when societies add more renewable energy, most of it never replaces coal, gas or oil. It simply adds to energy consumption. Recent research shows that for every six units of new green energy, less than one unit displaces any fossil fuel. Analysis in the United States shows that renewable energy subsidies simply lead to more overall energy being used.

In other words, policies meant to boost green energy are leading to more emissions.

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‘Green’ renewable fuel plants are releasing MORE pollution than oil refineries, report claims

So-called ‘green’ fuel refineries have used loopholes in federal regulation to become massive polluters, according to a new report. 

The 275 Biofuel and ethanol manufacturers in the US released 12 million tons of toxic materials into the air in 2022 compared to 15 million emitted by oil refineries, the report detailed. 

Further, these plants released more of four kinds of toxic chemicals that can cause vomiting, diarrhea and shortness of breath in the short term, and have been linked to cancer in the long term. 

These green fuel companies use products like corn or vegetable oil to make fuel instead of petroleum. 

A majority of the biofuel facilities are located in the Midwest, with one in Illinois that generated the largest source of Hexane, a toxin that can cause nerve damage.

Courtney Bernhardt, Director of Research for the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), the group that released the report, said: ‘Despite its green image, the biofuels industry releases a surprising amount of hazardous air pollution that puts local communities at risk – and this problem is exacerbated by EPA’s lax regulation.’

The EIP is a nonprofit watchdog group focused on environmental law, and has been calling for increased federal regulation of the ‘green’ fuel industry. 

Their report reviewed 2022 data that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released from 191 ethanol plants, 71 biodiesel plants and 13 renewable diesel plants. 

Not only were the ‘green’ manufacturers emissions nearly on par with oil and gas, they also released more of particularly potent toxins than the petroleum manufacturers – including hexane, acetaldehyde, acrolein and formaldehyde than traditional oil and gas refineries. 

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Thousands of Beloved Joshua Trees to Be Chopped Down in Maniacal CA Solar Energy Push

The Joshua tree. The beloved gnarled California icon—revered by desert aficionados and nature conservationists and considered to be endangered—is nevertheless under assault in a weird twist: environmentalists battling environmentalists.

The tree is held in such high regard by people who love the natural world that supergroup U2 named perhaps their finest album after it, titling their 1987 multi-hit record simply “The Joshua Tree.”

The symbolism was not lost on their fans.

But woke is pitted against woke, as the ancient trees now face the chopping block as the crazed “green energy” crowd is poised to destroy the land and thousands of these ancestral growths:

A renewable energy company will soon begin clearing thousands of protected Joshua trees just outside this desert town, including many thought to be a century old, to make way for a sprawling solar project that will generate power for 180,000 homes in wealthier coastal neighborhoods.

The 2,300-acre project has angered residents of Boron and nearby Desert Lake, two small Kern County towns where the poverty rate is twice the California average. Residents say their concerns about construction dust, as well as the destruction of the mostly pristine land that is habitat for endangered desert tortoises, have been ignored by the county and state officials who approved it.

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World’s Largest Floating Solar Farm Wrecked By A Storm Just Before Launch

Anyone who has ever owned a boat, particular a large boat which gets left in the water, knows what a harsh environment the sea can be. Some kind of failure was inevitable. If it hadn’t been a storm, there are plenty of other things which could have gone wrong.

Greens keep telling us we can expect more frequent and extreme superstorms – so what is the point of building vulnerable floating structures?

Plastics tend to disintegrate under tropical sunlight, especially when in contact with water or water spray. Ultraviolet from the sun drives exotic chemical reactions, which leads to chemical breakdown.

Metal sitting in water is difficult to manage, even stainless steel is not immune to corrosion. All metal structures in contact with water need to be protected with sacrificial anodes or comparable protective measures. Electricity and metal are an especially bad combination, any electrical fault which causes a current to run through metal in contact with water can cause corrosion to occur thousands of times faster than normal.

Let us hope developers and politicians take the hint, and stop throwing our money at inherently flawed ideas like floating solar arrays.

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