Kudos to Melissa Steele and the Cape Gazette for revealing troubling facts behind our predominant feel-good narrative about clean energy (“Retiring fossil fuel generators could cause electricity shortage”). The PJM Interconnection study is a red alert that the dependable energy we have long taken for granted is in jeopardy. Our current national and regional energy policy seems to be focused on three imperatives:
1. Shutting down reliable and affordable fossil fuel plants
2. Placing greater demand on the power grid by making us use electric vehicles and stoves, etc.
3. Building lots and lots of wind turbines and solar panels to bridge the gap.
This is a policy based more on hubris than reason. Leaving aside environmental and economic considerations, we are nowhere close to solving the technical obstacles to maintaining an economy powered by sustainable energy. There is a reason no one can point to a large-scale demonstration project that can prove the viability of a fossil fuel-free energy system because none has been done. Indeed, none is even being planned. Still, we persist on a course that will inevitably increase the costs of utilities and enhance the likelihood of outages. This is precisely what is happening in California, and our time is coming.
Affordable and reliable energy is a keystone to economic prosperity, and we must tell our elected representatives to stop indulging green fantasies that will put our security as risk.
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