Environmental expert says California can’t rely on wind power
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A leading environmentalist told The Epoch Times that California’s plan to generate energy using wind is harmful to the ecosystem.
While Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Biden administration tout the benefits of offshore wind development along the California coast, Michael Shellenberger, a leading climate and environmental activist, says the technology is expensive, unreliable, and ” incredibly disruptive â€to the environment.
“It’s ironic, because [they] say they care about the natural environment [and] they don’t want to industrialize the oceans—[but] if you care about the environment, you should always look for ways to use less, â€Shellenberger told The Epoch Times.
“During a heat wave, when you have to use a lot more energy for air conditioning, we won’t have that energy coming from that wind farm. So that’s not going to help at all to deal with the energy shortages that we have. “
Newsom said the development of offshore wind could “be a game-changer in meeting California’s clean energy goals and tackling climate change, while strengthening the economy and creating new jobs.” But Shellenberger retorts that weather-dependent renewables can do more harm than good.
Shellenberger is a bestselling author and founder of the nonprofit Environmental Progress. His latest book, “Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All,†aims to provide a sober assessment of the potential impacts and solutions to climate change.
“The problem is that we need electricity when the sun is not shining [and] when the wind stops blowing, â€he said.
“We have long periods where there is no wind at all. [It’s] an inherent problem [with] try to move towards renewable energies. Either they make electricity very expensive, very unreliable, or both.
Replacement of nuclear power
The Biden administration’s development plan represents a coordinated effort by National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, Home Secretary Deb Haaland, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr Colin Kahl, and of Newsom to deploy 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power across the country by 2030..
According to a press release issued on May 25, the initial offshore development areas in the Pacific Ocean will provide approximately 4.6 GW to the grid – enough energy to power 1.6 million homes over the next decade. as well as thousands of well-paying union jobs. by the White House.
“By taking a whole-of-government approach, the United States can intelligently develop our nation’s world-class offshore wind resources. [and] deploy new technologies that our government has helped advance… all in the service of the fight against the climate crisis, â€said McCarthy.
Shellenberger maintains that this will not be enough.
“The idea was that they would use this large wind farm off the central coast of California to replace the Diablo Canyon power plant,” he said, referring to the latest nuclear power plant in the state and its largest power station, which is slated to shut down from 2024.
“[But] it would only provide half of the total power of Diablo Canyon, [which] provides electricity to 3 million people. … You cannot replace a reliable source of energy with an unreliable one. If the wind is not blowing, then you will not generate electricity.
Nancy Rader, executive director of the California Wind Energy Association, called the offshore project a “major breakthrough”, but also acknowledged that it would be “a huge challenge.”
“Offshore wind development off the coasts of Morro Bay and Humboldt will require a major port facility in each area to build the floating platforms and assemble the turbines, which will require continued proactive planning by state and federal governments. “she told the San Francisco Chronicle. by email.
Solar lessons
Shellenberger said the energy provided by weather-dependent renewables represents a paradox: “[They] don’t generate electricity when you need it.
He pointed to the lessons California should already have learned due to its reliance on solar panels for energy. In 2020, the state experienced its first blackouts in nearly two decades.
“We are the fifth largest economy in the world. … We shouldn’t have power outages. And yet we are… because we have spent so much money on weather-dependent, mostly solar, renewable energy sources, â€Shellenberger said.
“The sun goes down when people come home from work, and that’s when the electricity tends to go up. So, it’s really not well suited to our civilization.
Shellenberger said the problems with solar power panels run even deeper: by using between 300 and 400 times more land than nuclear or natural gas power plants, they ultimately cause more damage to the environment.
The complexes also require around 17 times as much steel and cement to build, he added. “All that extra material becomes waste downstream,†as opposed to uranium, which is easy to store, maintain and provide the optimum amount of energy.
“The state of California has – for almost a decade – figured out what to do with all of these solar panels, because as soon as you take them off your roof, they automatically become hazardous waste,†he said.
Since solar panels cannot be landfilled, they must be “specially treated”, which dramatically increases the cost of solar power.
Shellenberger calls the circumvention of these problems “greenwashingâ€, which means that the industry creates a false impression of being environmentally friendly while neglecting possible waste issues.
In the end, he estimates that solar panels generate around 300 times more waste than nuclear energy resources. In addition, he said that the manufacture of solar panels takes place under “absolutely unethical conditions”.
“It appears that the vast majority of solar panels that we import into the United States are manufactured under conditions that the State Department calls genocide in China’s Xinjiang Province,†he said, referring to human rights violations committed against Uyghurs.
“This is a place where 1 to 2 million ethnic Muslim Uyghurs are in concentration camps and given the choice to work in solar panel factories, but that is forced labor.”
He added, “When you think that forced labor is being used to do something game-changing, it means you can’t continue to import these solar panels like we have.
“Go in the right direction”
Rather than focusing on weather-dependent “necessarily unreliable†energy sources that will “incur higher costs†than Californians already pay, Shellenberger suggests that state and federal authorities turn their attention to more serious issues. prevalent as climate change.
Although he believes climate change is real, “it’s not the end of the world,” he said. “We are moving in the right direction on many parameters. “
For example, carbon emissions in the United States have fallen more than in any other country in the world over the past 20 years, he said. “It was positive for the economy, for production[ing] about $ 100 billion in energy savings each year.
Additionally, humans adapt more effectively to their environment, as evidenced by the fact that deaths from natural disasters have declined by over 90% since their peak in the 1920s. “It’s a huge success,” did he declare.
While around 300 people died from natural disasters in the United States last year, Shellenberger noted that around 90,000 deaths were caused by drug overdoses, a figure that rose from around 70,000 in 2019. .
“It is impossible for me, as a person who has been a climate [and] environmental activist for so long, to look at these numbers and not think that the overdose crisis is much more important than climate change, â€he said.
“This does not mean that climate change will have no impact – it could very well -[but] the global warming that we have is a side effect of our prosperity, of our development, of our use of energy. And so we always have to balance these things.
He added: “We need to clarify the things that are really important, [and] also clarify what are the sources of energy that we should… use in order to improve people’s lives and lift everyone out of poverty while protecting the environment.
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