Net Zero Is Dying: Blackouts, High Costs & the Politicians and CEOs Who Quietly Changed Their Minds

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John Stossel

We were told climate change is an “existential” threat.

So governments everywhere pledged to go net-zero and stop increasing emissions.

It didn’t work.

Net-zero was pushed again and again.

President Biden pledged the USA would go net-zero by 2050.

Obama bragged about how, “700 cities in more than 50 countries have pledged to reach net-zero.”

For a while it seemed like that might happen. Some European countries claimed to get 60% of their power from renewables.

But then they faced soaring energy costs and blackouts.

“The power outages are the starkest illustration of bad electricity policy,” says energy expert Alex Epstein. “But you can avoid power outages with these bad policies. What you can’t avoid is scarcity and rationing and poverty.”

In the video above we break down those consequences, explain why net-zero fails, and cover the governments (and businesses) walking back their net-zero push.

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16 Comments
August 27, 2026 2:12 pm

Is the green nightmare over?

No, It’s got forty plus years of indoctrinated people who grew up in the last 45 years believing that CO2 driven climate is going to be a disaster.

Reply to  Steve Case
August 27, 2026 2:27 pm

True. It’s going to be a long battle to get back to good sense.

J Boles
Reply to  David Dibbell
August 27, 2026 2:53 pm

There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth! there must be pain before things get reversed.

August 27, 2026 2:12 pm

For a while it seemed like that might happen. Some European countries claimed to get 60% of their power from renewables.

But then they faced soaring energy costs and blackouts.

Are these blackouts caused by renewables in the room with us?

Also as an update: It’s about energy security now, not net-zero. Did heartland institute not send out the new talking points?

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
August 27, 2026 2:15 pm

There’s only a need for “energy security” because of all the mental retardation from people like you.

Reply to  Jeff Alberts
August 27, 2026 2:16 pm

I would say trump and putin are not like me but what do I know.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
August 27, 2026 2:28 pm

You know nothing.

Harry Durham
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
August 27, 2026 3:01 pm

That’s partially unfair. Suspect a better response comes from Will Rogers (others said it first, but I like his version best):

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble, it’s what you DO know that ain’t so…”

Reply to  MyUsernameReloaded
August 27, 2026 2:20 pm

You can NEVER have energy security using wind and solar.. Only energy insecurity !

Net-Zero DESTROYS energy security…

mleskovarsocalrrcom
August 27, 2026 2:43 pm

The worm is turning. Too many missed projections (all of them), new onerous regulations, high costs, selective enforcement (only the West), and poor energy reliability all add up to reality.

August 27, 2026 2:44 pm

Interesting points, but probably too optimistic. Too many ‘green’ vested interests need to be overcome. Will take a good while longer to finally defeat Greens and Net Zero.
They will eventually be defeated—reality is stacked against them in many ways.
But then reality is also stacked against DSA, yet Dumocrats don’t seem to care—AOC just renewed her lapsed membership!

Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 27, 2026 2:54 pm

On further thought, I probably just made a logical mistake in my last sentence by even loosely associating AOC with reality. Remarkable how far a bartender can go in Congress.

Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 27, 2026 3:21 pm

If a rich nepo kid that never worked a day in his life can become president…

Beta Blocker
Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 27, 2026 3:26 pm

AOC understands that the DSA represents the economic populism of the left, and that economic populism in one form or another is on the rise in many places around the world.

One form or the other of economic populism will eventually win out in this country. Either the MAGA movement’s version of economic populism will win out, or the DSA’s version will win out.

One side will win, the other will lose. For the mid to long term future, it’s just that simple.

For true blue Democrats, they are happy as long as anyone who calls themself a Democrat is in power, DSA allied or not. AOC will make her peace with the DSA because she needs their enthusiasm and energy to keep herself in power.

For the Republican Establishment aka the Country Club Republicans, they are perfectly happy to be the controlled opposition to the Democrats as long as they can keep making a lot of money doing it. They see the MAGA movement and its economic populism as their enemy, and they want to see it crushed.

If the Democrats take control of the Congress in 2027 and the presidency in 2029, these Country Club Republicans will be huff and puff about the evils of marxism-socialism, but in reality they will take little or no effective action to oppose it.

ethical voter
Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 27, 2026 3:20 pm

The truth is always the last man standing but that doesn’t mean the fight will be short, cheap or pretty.

Mac
August 27, 2026 2:57 pm

Hey User Name; I think if you move to the UK or are not already there, you can help litter valuable farm land with solar panels and wind turbines to help deindustrialize the UK and of course turn the UK annual GDP negative; maybe a worthwhile goal is say -2%. What do you say? That would be a great goal for you wouldn’t it?