The writers at the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times won’t like this but they aren’t that bright. I have been reading their articles advocating for green energy now over the past couple of years. Today’s might take the cake on silliness.
The editorial content of the FT and the regular content at the same paper have been banging the drum on climate change for a while. At the WSJ, at least the editorial page has been somewhat objective. The regular content page has not.
Today they have an entire “exclusive” article dedicated to the growth in renewables. They fail to mention that 90% of the cost of nuclear is embedded in regulations, most of which do nothing to make us safer. They also fail to mention the rich subsidies.
There is no shortage of bad green-energy news. Automakers are fretting about electric-vehicle growth, higher interest rates are smashing financial plans, permitting for big projects still takes forever and offshore wind is a mess.
But for every setback, there is a Sun Streams. This cluster of solar farms will cover more than 13 square miles of desert west of Phoenix. By 2025, it will provide enough electricity for roughly 300,000 homes, bringing Arizona’s largest utility closer to its goal of a zero-carbon grid.
Arizona (and Nevada) would be far better off building nuclear power plants than engaging in the folly of large-scale solar energy. Nevada for its part discourages solar by only letting you sell back to the grid at 25% below the market price.
The writers think there is a trend happening. I assure you, the underlying trend to renewable energy has nothing to do with people “waking up” about the climate and everything to do with government subsidies. In addition, some solar companies are selling at break-even or at a loss to keep plants running and get inventory out the door.
There is one other thing driving the trend.
The abject failure of governments to take care of their electrical grid. If I lived in California, I would certainly put solar on my house with two backup batteries. Why? Because I don’t want to deal with brownouts and the other things that happen with power there. Same with Texas, although Texas grid is far superior to California’s.
I am putting Tesla Solar on my house in January. I only did it because with the subsidies and the expected 30-40% increase in power prices thanks to the Biden Administration’s war on power, the payback period shrunk from 10 years to 5.
The best thing for our electrical grid would be to vote the current administration out, fire all the bureaucrats in charge of it, and rewrite regulations to adhere to strict and objective cost/benefit analysis.
I won’t hold my breath.
I would say 'absurd' more than 'stupid' for the FT. Still well written, but completely silly about global warming. They can't fathom a world where people just don't care about a 1/10 of a degree change over 30 years or so. So they write inanities like 'Looking for a getaway on the Greek Isles to help cope with climate change? This one comes with it's own landing strip and superyacht dock'
There is no way they believe a word they are writing, but want to be on the side of the government, and in the UK both major parties are climate obsessed.
Just drove through northern AZ past a massive solar farm. Gonna be hilarious when hail destroys all those panels. What a waste.