We’ve already been warned by the White House that our winter heating bills are going to be more expensive, but the AP has a story out on the global energy crunch. It reports:
Power shortages are turning out streetlights and shutting down factories in China. The poor in Brazil are choosing between paying for food or electricity. German corn and wheat farmers can’t find fertilizer, made using natural gas. And fears are rising that Europe will have to ration electricity if it’s a cold winter.
The world is gripped by an energy crunch — a fierce squeeze on some of the key markets for natural gas, oil and other fuels that keep the global economy running and the lights and heat on in homes.
In a lengthy thread, “Apocalypse Never” author Michael Shellenberger takes a closer look at the global energy shortage:
Greta Thunberg said “I want you to panic” and nations did. They over-invested in unreliable weather-dependent energy sources & under-invested in reliable energy. Now, global energy shortages are forcing the poor to choose between food & electricity pic.twitter.com/bhitwz1AAo
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
Overdependence on unreliable energies isn’t the only reason for energy shortages. Post-pandemic economic recovery resulted in higher energy demand. And too little natural gas stored on-site after a colder-than-expected winter played a role. https://t.co/LNW5XfP069
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
But the heavy investment in unreliable renewables made energy supplies more vulnerable to a single commodity’s volatility. Today’s grids mean that high gas prices cause energy price spikes and a return to the dirtiest forms of electricity production, including diesel and coal.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
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The return to coal was most dramatic in Germany. Electricity from wind was 20% lower in Germany in the first half of 2021 than the first half of 2020, resulting in a 24% higher use of fossil fuels and 28% greater emissions from electricity.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
Lack of wind in Britain led its grid operator to ask French electricity giant, Électricité de France, to restart a coal plant in Nottinghamshire. And California requested permission from the federal government to violate air pollution regulations so diesel plants can operate
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
In 2019, @GretaThunberg called nuclear “extremely dangerous, expensive & time-consuming”
& unnecessary for most nationsAfterwards, Germany and Sweden closed nuclear reactors that could have kept running for decades.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
Germany, Sweden, the US and other nations replaced their nuclear plants with fossil fuels, contributing to global energy supply shortages
As a result, what turned out to be “dangerous and expensive” wasn’t nuclear, it was Greta Thunberg & her anti-nuclear climate movement https://t.co/IZI2ljMOTQ
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
This isn’t the first time that pro-scarcity environmentalists created real world scarcity. They have done so in the past pic.twitter.com/n8DxGFNifi
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
I describe the history of pro-scarcity Malthusians in Apocalypse Never
Since World War II, the pro-scarcity activists have hidden their anti-abundance agenda behind the mask of concern for nature https://t.co/sVKlFIeqTF
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
But it’s obvious that Greta Thunberg and the Malthusian Axis doesn’t care about climate change. If they did, they wouldn’t be replacing nuclear plants with fossil fuels, and opposing the means for poor nations to adapt to it.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
As @jordanbpeterson says, “If you don’t understand somebody’s intentions, consider the consequences of their actions.
The consequences of Greta et al.’s actions are panic, energy shortages, and rising carbon emissions.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
That said, Greta made clear last year that she hates “the system” more than she fears climate change https://t.co/78J3R3Qt75
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
In 2019 Greta singled out for attack France & Brazil, which get 86% & 79% of their power from zero-carbon sources
Why? Because her real concern isn’t climate change, it’s destroying “the system” https://t.co/sP8mxZXu82
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
Americans should be relieved that that global energy crisis occurred before Congress passed disastrous climate legislation, which would have increased energy scarcity and electricity prices even more than unreliable renewables already havehttps://t.co/2PjxMugxSb
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
This is the second time climate legislation failed to positive effect.
In 2010 a failed “cap and trade” bill had a goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2020.
Instead, the U.S. reduced its emissions by 22 percent.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
Had cap and trade legislation passed in the Senate, emissions would have declined less than 22 percent, because Waxman-Markey so heavily subsidized coal and other fossil fuels.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
As the Los Angeles Times reported at the time, “the Environmental Protection Agency projects that even if the emissions limits go into effect, the U.S. would use more carbon-dioxide-heavy coal in 2020 than it did in 2005.”https://t.co/z0H2m22sG8
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
The climate legislation that @Sen_JoeManchin mercifully killed was authored by a Canadian political scientist, @leahstokes , who had no experience regulating electric utilities, and no business writing legislation for the United States of America https://t.co/uMQZJp9RVE
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
Stokes achieved her status by writing a book attacking American utilities that had dared to resist efforts to make the US electrical grid more reliant on weather-dependent energy sources, even though over-investment in them had contributed to blackouts in California & Texas.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
Advocates of unreliable renewables are scrambling to explain how over-investment in them, and under-investment in reliable energies, are not to blame for global energy scarcity, which is contributing significantly to inflation, but when you’re read what they write it’s word salad pic.twitter.com/ofu7tEsKjc
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
These are *physical* & *economic facts :
Unreliables make electricity less reliable and more expensive when deployed at scale
Over-investment in unreliables led directly to blackouts in California & Texas
Over-investment in unreliables led directly to today’s energy shortages
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
Here are the sources which include my testimony to the Senate and House where I predicted the current global energy crisis:https://t.co/V4PhylLCmxhttps://t.co/rgnBDngUMIhttps://t.co/1fDLwHx9wphttps://t.co/cJcNU4gRhD
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 21, 2021
That's what happens when you try to live in the fantasy of an adolescent girl. https://t.co/uI928IXoHw
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) October 21, 2021
— Nic ₿rown ⚡ (@NicBrentBrown) October 21, 2021
HOW DARE YOU!!!!!!!!!!
😝
— HEX_TAngent (@TAngentsOnly1) October 21, 2021
The fantasy world of a girl who completely rejects the one source that will do what is needed.
— Not Here Mentally (@NMentally) October 21, 2021
This was all so predictable. And, indeed, it was.
— John Linder (@linderje) October 21, 2021
All by design. Soon all will see.
— Art Eric French (@artericfrench) October 21, 2021
“Pro-scarcity environmentalists” has really got us thinking.
Related:
Cori Bush cheers on children participating in a 'Hunger Strike 4 Climate Justice' https://t.co/sYrPDRNaEP
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) October 21, 2021