In committing national economic suicide and sending living standards back to 19th century
Paul Driessen
29-year old ex-bartender and freshman U.S. Representative (D-NY) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez received thunderous environmentalist and media acclaim when she introduced her Green New Deal resolution in the House and Ed Markey (D-MA) submitted it in the Senate. It was quickly endorsed or cosponsored by scores of House and Senate Dems, including many who want to run against President Trump in 2020.
But within days the GND was subjected to rigorous analysis (and ridicule) by energy experts, President Trump, Republicans, conservative pundits and even some Democrats. Their disdain is well-founded.
Asserting yet again that “manmade climate change” poses an “existential threat” to people and planet – with only a dozen years before total disaster strikes – the Green New Deal demands that the United States convert to 100% “renewable” energy within ten years. It also proclaims an equally urgent need to abandon free enterprise capitalism in favor of 100% socialist economic and “social justice” policies.
In the energy arena, AOC’s GND requires that fossil fuels, nuclear power and even waste-to-energy and large-scale hydroelectric facilities be eliminated from the US energy mix. Coal, oil and natural gas leasing and development on federally controlled Western lands would be banned, as would exports of those fuels.
Internal combustion cars, trucks, buses, trains and boats would be replaced with electric versions, or eradicated. Airplanes would be replaced by high-speed rail. And every house and building in America would be gutted, rebuilt or retrofitted with “state of the art efficiency” technologies. That’s for starters.
The original “draft” resolution (since replaced on AOC’s website) even called for getting rid of “farting cows” – to prevent methane from increasing above its current minuscule 0.00017% of the atmosphere. So “bugs not beef” in our diets – and no more cheese, milk, yogurt or Baskin Robbins.
In the “social justice and fairness” arena, the Cortez-Markey GND provides that every American would get government-guaranteed jobs, with “family-sustaining” wages and pensions; free college or trade school; “healthy organic” food; “safe, affordable, adequate” and energy-efficient homes; and support for ethnic and economic “communities” that “historically” were harmed “first and most” by “dirty energy.”
Saturday Night Live could not have crafted a better parody of energy, economic and scientific reality.
But Ms. Cortez is determined to have her GND brought up for a vote in the House, where Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) worries about the spectacle that would ensue. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is equally determined to have a vote. Mr. Markey is outraged; he claims Republicans just want to sow discord within the Democratic party, portray Dems as favoring extremist policies and sabotage the plan.
Meanwhile, Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) threatened to call police on a reporter who was “harassing” him merely by asking for his views about the Green New Deal.
Ms. Cortez has no such qualms. When asked whether implementing her GND would require “massive government intervention,” she replied: “It does. Yeah. I have no problem saying that.” Moreover, she added, we shouldn’t point fingers and say China or India or Russia isn’t doing anything like this. We shouldn’t “hold ourselves to a lower bar.” We should “choose to lead” the world in this transition.
Lead the world in economic suicide, environmental degradation, plummeting living standards, shorter life spans and societal upheaval would be a more accurate description of her GND.
But at least Democrats and environmentalists have now made clear what they will do to America’s energy, economy, jobs, transportation, infrastructure and society if they regain control of the House, Senate, White House, Deep State and courts.
What they are not doing, discussing or even thinking about is how they intend to get achieve their energy-climate-socialist nirvana … how many trillions of dollars it would cost … how many millions of good jobs would be eliminated before their promised job-creation programs theoretically kick in … and exactly how they plan to deal with the enormous human and environmental impacts.
AOC says don’t worry about the price tag. Just tax the rich more and borrow trillions more. Whether the cost is $1 trillion per year or $40 to $100 trillion in total, that is an ignorant, cavalier response. Either way, she must provide the numbers, calculations and wherewithal – transparently and with full debate.
But on environmental matters, Ms. Cortez and her cosponsors have no clue what they are talking about.
America has over a century of coal, oil and natural gas that we should use. We have vast quantities of limestone, copper, iron, and rare earth and other strategic metals that would be essential for the wind turbines, solar panels, biofuel operations, massive backup battery arrays, and thousands of miles of new electricity transmission lines that their Green New Deal envisions. Is there a snowball’s chance in Hell that they would open highly mineralized Western and Alaskan lands for exploration and mining?
Their intransigence on those resources means giving up bonuses, rents, royalties, taxes and millions of high-paying jobs. Billions of dollars in revenues to government will be replaced by billions of dollars in subsidies from government. America won’t even be able to manufacture GND energy systems because we will not have either the reliable, affordable fuels to operate factories nor the necessary raw materials.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world will continue to use fossil fuels, emit greenhouse gases, surge ahead of us economically – and sell us trillions of dollars of Green New Deal energy systems. Those that come from China might even have grid-hacker-friendly portals built right into their motherboards.
Shuttering nuclear and hydro power plants – and converting our transportation and shipping systems from gasoline and diesel – would mean the USA will need twice as much electricity as it generates today. Closing waste-to-energy facilities would add to those demands – and to landfill requirements.
Energy journalist Ron Bailey estimates that the GND would require installing some 154,000 offshore wind turbines, 335,000 onshore wind turbines, 75 million residential photovoltaic systems, 2.75 million commercial solar systems, and 46,000 utility-scale solar facilities sprawling across millions of acres. My guess is that it would require a lot more than that – plus millions of Tesla-style battery arrays.
Manufacturing and installing all those units … and the transmission lines to connect them … would require removing hundreds of billions of tons of rock, to reach and extract tens of billions of tons of ores, to create billions of tons of metals, concrete and other materials. That would be expensive, fossil fuel-intensive and habitat destructive. If it is done overseas, as most of it is today, it would involve virtually no health, safety, environmental, human rights, child labor or fair-pay protections. That is not acceptable.
One would hope their commitment to environmental protection and “social justice” would make GND supporters stalwart advocates for reform. Amendments to the GND or stand-alone bills should require that that all future wind turbine, solar panel and battery components and raw materials be “responsibly sourced” under tough US standards addressing all these issues – or we don’t import them.
There’s more. Contrary to claims by GND advocates, electricity rates would likely skyrocket – to at least the 38¢ per kWh families and businesses are already paying in Germany and Denmark. That’s four times as much as Americans now pay in states where coal, gas, nuclear and hydro generate most of the electricity. Those rates are job killers for factories, hospitals, schools and businesses.
They also literally kill people, by making it hard for poor families and pensioners to afford adequate heat in wintertime. And just imagine countless stranded electric cars, trucks and buses clogging highways, especially during snow storms, as their batteries go dead … and hundreds of people die of exposure.
GND advocates seek a total, virtually totalitarian transformation of the US energy and transportation system, economy, buildings, industries, employment base, living standards and individual freedoms. They are using American citizens as guinea pigs in this grand experiment.
They need to tell us what resources will be required … how and where they will get them … how this scheme will work. That’s not likely to happen – because they don’t have a clue, and don’t care. They also can’t prove climate fluctuations and weather events are unprecedented and caused by fossil fuels.
So let’s have those House and Senate votes on the Green New Deal. Let’s see who stands where on this.
Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and author of articles and books on energy, environmental and human rights issues.
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I never heard where AOC got her 12 years from.
” with only a dozen years before total disaster strikes – the Green New Deal demands that the United States convert to 100% “renewable” energy within ten years”
So if a miracle happens in ten years, we are saved? Not going to happen. There is no point going to all that trouble if total disaster happens anyway.
So I say — Party Like It’s 1999! Enjoy it will it lasts. Burn all that oil now; the rats who take over aren’t going to use it.
I believe the 12 year remark comes from the most recent UN IPCC fifth grade semester project.
She got it from a dartboard at a local tavern.
No one, to my knowledge, ever seems prepared to tell us where all of the electricity to move this fleet of vehicles would come from; how we will heat our homes, power our factories, schools or hospitals.
Never mind the world ending in twelve years; we would already have committed suicide while the rest of the world looks on and cheers.
That part comes later when they reveal the second part of their Malthusian worldview: dramatic population reduction.
They have for years have proudly designated their ideological opponents as “Lebensunwertes Leben”
John, you must not have read their proposal.
The resolution clearly says:
See, they carefully thought it out; the electricity will, like, come from “charging stations”, like, “everywhere”.
And it’s not like everything has to be done at once; you have 10 years to find a new use for your ICE vehicle, and for them to dismantle all the corner gas stations.
I’m not much of a believer in “too big to fail”, but if the US economy failed, I doubt that the rest of the world would do much cheering. The economics department at Boston University, however, might cheer a bit.
John: This might provide you with a part of the info. It is from my 2015 article.
How much more electricity would be needed in the U.S. should all cars (200 million of them) be the electric, such as the Nissan Leafs and driven as today for 15 000 km annually. Charging them would draw the average of 80 GW. But not everybody will be satisfied driving a small car so the overall consumption will be higher, say 110 GW. (This number excludes buses, trucks, delivery vehicles, etc.)
To put that number into perspective, the present (2015) average electricity draw of the whole country amounts to 450 GW. This four times higher wattage powers everything: from ranges and air conditioners to trains, factories, hospitals and cities. It is uncertain what new sources would generate the extra 25 %. Or perhaps only ~20 % if charging only during the off-peak time to take advantage of the spare capacity of existing power plants.
Similar to gas cars, electric cars are expected to need a replacement battery eventually. Once the emissions from producing the second battery are added in, the total CO2 from producing an electric car rises to 12.6 Mg, compared with 5.6 Mg for a petrol car. Disposal doubles the emissions for the energy consumed in recovering and recycling metals in the Li battery. Recycled Li batteries are more expensive to produce that new ones.
The whole article can be read on https//www.masterresource.org/electric-vehicles/energy-usage-cost-gasoline-vs-electric/
jake
It would not be virtually totalitarian.
Making such a plan a reality would entail making it illegal to keep using the cars and homes and fuels we already have and own.
It would entail shutting down whole industries involuntarily, and forcing people into new lines of work, many of them the physical labor type like construction and mining.
The logistics alone are 100% unworkable, as even a cursory back of the envelope calculation easily shows.
All of this is obvious.
The plan is so incredibly inane and impossible and far reaching though, that it is hard to engage the brain to fully actualize what would be required to make such a plan a reality.
The battery requirement alone, to name one example, means it could never ever work.
A Tesla powerwall contains enough power to run a home for about an hour.
Intermittent renewables would require weeks worth of stored backup power to achieve reliability comparable to what we have now. And the inefficiency of battery charging and discharging means that enough windmills and solar cells to charge all of these batteries would multiply by many times the number of these devices required.
This is one aspect of one part of the plan.
In fact every part of the GND runs into many similar impossibilities.
It is far beyond insane to suppose these things can happen, delusional to think they are needed, hallucinatory to think people who know naught of such matters can plan an industrial infrastructure, and horrifying to realize we have to even think about it long enough to prove these obvious facts.
Typo in your phrase: “The plan is so incredibly inane…”
You forgot the “s”
After 10 years and billions of dollars wasted in environmental impact studies, blue ribbon panels, etc., Kalifornia has barely broken ground on their high speed rail, and they have already given up. Kalifornia is the socialist beacon for the country, and they couldn’t even complete a very meager project. What makes these people think that transformation on a scale orders of magnitude great could be achieved in the same timeframe?
These people are extremely dangerous.
AOC says America should lead the world … that’s what all the winning is about.
+10
The best way to lead has always been by example. That we intend to do by ensuring our liberties and economic opportunities.
With President Trump at the wheelhouse, America IS leading by example…and others are beginning to listen and learn
We need Josh w/another AOC cartoon.
Worth 1,000,000 words:
hahahaha on the money
Funny as heck, but prb’ly get someone banned on facebook, twitter, instagram, etc.
AOC says jump! Jump! AOC did not say.
Overall impression: a cancer. About to metastasize.
Nah, more like a cyst that is localizing and surfacing in a frightening and disgusting way.
Just another example of Mother Nature’s warning us to pay attention, or the Wankers will sneak up on us and POOF! You’re gone!
Our Electric CO-OP recently started a “Peak Demand” charge. Normal rates, 0.108/Kilowatt hour. Peak Demand charge, 1.00/Kilowatt hour.
For me, it added $5 bucks to my last bill, but customers who are home all day, what a punishment for needing warmth in the winter and AC in the summer.
Can’t wait till customers revolt.
Will look really good at winter use of 3000 kwh/month.
Buy your yellow vest before the stores run out
Or while you can still afford one.
Need to get people in Yellow Vests at ALL AGW rallies
America used to lead the world:
Individual freedom.
Industrial advancement.
Standard of living.
It sounds just like Pelosi years ago when she said: We have to pass the bill to see what’s in it” referring to another economy grab, ACA.
These folks are making it much too easy to be snarky.
Will China and Russia fly in food and medical supplies to the Mexican border to help impoverished Americans when the GND is operating?
McConnell is brilliant.
Does it come with more insurance-funded opioids to lower the population?
Yes. That’s the beauty of socialism. It comes with promises of an iron rice bowl or in this case a banana leaf to eat your portion on. Relax take it easy. Others will provide for you. It’s a moral imperative so no asking sticky questions on the specifics.
A joke but more like the Insane Clown Posse type.
Is RECALL of an elected congressman ( or woman) a possibility in the US electoral system?
The House can expel a member, but don’t hold your breath.
I believe recall options are the prerogative of the states, and not all states have a recall process.
Indeed, it’s a states issue. New York State currently has no recall process for congress critters.
Perhaps someone on the Democrats side should ask this young woman just how the USA is going to “Save the World”, in 12 year , when the likes of India and China plus the countries of S.E. Asia continue to put billions of Tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Was this her pre election talk, in which case why did they elect her. Was it the offer of f lots of “Free Stuff” , in which case the voters must be even dumber than she is. .
If this is the best that the USA Democrats can produce to represent them, then Trump has his second term in the bag. .
MJE
“Whom the Gods wish to destroy………………”. Sorry this is an oldie; but I can’t get it out of my mind.
Wisdom from 40 years ago.
“How extraordinary! … The richest, longest-lived, best-protected, most resourceful civilization, with the highest degree of insight into nits own technology, is on its way to becoming the most frightened.”
Aaron Wildavsky, political scientist, University of California, New York Times, 1979.
In “The Apocalyptics” 1984, Edith Efron.
Readers might also like from Efron,
Probable-Possible, my black hen,
She lays eggs in the Relative When.
She doesn’t lay eggs in the Positive Now,
Because she’s unable to postulate How.
F. Winsor & M. Parry, quoted by Jeff Masten in “Epistemic Ambiguity and the Calculus of Risk: Ethyl Corporation vs. Environmental Protection Agency,” South Dakota Law Review, 1976.
Geoff
I thought it was GNB. Green New Boondoggle.
There was a comment from a 2hotel9 person attacking my entry this morning. Anyone knows who 2hotel9 is? Not that I would ever wanted to meet such a person.
For those who so kindly defended me, here is an addition to that 10 year issue.
Fortunately for the poor, and all of us, the available US work-force will be insufficient to manufacture, operate, maintain, tear down, dispose of and erect all those millions of W&S plants that would be needed anew every 20 years. We should also recognize that jobs are a cost. And that unnecessary, unproductive jobs are demoralizing on top thus reducing productivity. Employing robots instead, as some propose, implies more energy yet for powering them.
I claim: not in 10 years, not in a century can we have 100 % renewable electricity, and not in centuries can the US produce the level of 3300 GW from renewable sources. The effort is not just futile; it is also unnecessary as we have had a source of CLEAN and inexhaustible source of both electricity and heat all along – nuclear energy
That is perhaps the craziest part…if there really is a global threat of annihilation, why are these people preventing moving ahead with the sources of power which might actually be achievable.
With standardization and cutting through all red tape, in ten years we could likely have dozens and dozens of new nuke plants online.
And they would really do what they want to achieve.
Even “Bill Gates Slams Unreliable Wind & Solar: ‘Let’s Quit Jerking Around With Renewables & Batteries’ …….
https://stopthesethings.com/2019/02/18/bill-gates-slams-unreliable-wind-solar-lets-quit-jerking-around-with-renewables-batteries/?utm_source=CCNet+Newsletter&utm_campaign=f739b48694-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_02_18_04_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fe4b2f45ef-f739b48694-36403905
Crazy-Yo! Cortez and other Leftists have adopted the brilliant economic policy of—Make America Venezuela Again…
All Leftists needed to do was not act crazy, and with MSM’s 92% negative news coverage of Trump 24/7, they had a small chance of defeating him in 2020….
Leftists just couldn’t help themselves and went full-bore wacko..
Swing-state voters in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, etc., realize that if Leftists implement even tiny elements of the GND, they’ll all be unemployed… They won’t vote for their own destruction in 2020…
I always thought the CAGW scam would be the undoing of Leftists, and I was right.
Yes, we should fundamentally transform the most successful country in history because it… because it needs to be punished, just like Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, the USSR, and others. Who wants to join me? Together we can lead the world’s lemmings to the cliff and beyond. Come on you cowards! You know you deserve to be punished.
Or you could just put all the radical lefties on Guam and cheer when it tips over.
So, can we prosecute all these folk as foreign agents of China?
There’s a pleasant thought.
If you want to see what happens to a western democracy when it gets infected by the greens, just look at Australia. Our equivalent of your republicans and democrats are both captured by looney green left thinking. The consequence – domestic power prices have risen from 12c per kWh to 30c per kWh (last bill) over a period of 8 years. A major problem for industry and ordinary people alike. Neither political party is capable of (or just refuses to) tackle the problem.
Well, jeesh, I’d been thinking of moving to Australia or NZ to get out of the US.
Is there anywhere left to go? Belize maybe?