By James Delingpole
If the definition of insanity is doing the same over and over again and expecting a different result then both the state of California and, most especially, its governor Gavin Newsom, are certifiably bonkers.
See if you can spot the insanity contained in this report on Newsom’s response to the blackouts:
Though the state would continue its “transition” to 100% renewable energy, Newsom said, “we cannot sacrifice reliability as we move forward in this transition.”
Wait, what?
Just moments earlier, Newsom had fessed up to the fact that California’s over-reliance on renewables – wind and solar – was directly responsible for its power shortages. So by what contortion of logic can it possibly make sense for California to commit itself to doing more of the very thing that caused its current crisis?
That’s what ‘transition’ means, by the way. It’s the green movement’s codeword for ‘abandoning cheap, effective energy like coal, gas, oil and nuclear and replacing it with expensive, intermittent energy like wind and solar.’
No successful economy has ever done this. Those that have tried – such as the state of South Australia – have had the same result as California: rocketing electricity prices; blackouts and brownouts; an exodus of businesses; misery and disruption for everyone unfortunate enough to still live there.
The reason for this is that renewables – aka unreliables – are completely unsuited to providing base load power for a First World economy. (Or even a Third World economy, come to that). If the wind isn’t blowing (as is quite often the case when electricity is most needed: in the heat of the day or in the still depths of winter) or the sun isn’t shining (which it doesn’t at night, for example), then you need back up power from fossil fuels or nuclear. But if you’ve started scrapping your nuclear and fossil fuel power plants for ideological reasons, like California has, then pretty soon you’ll find yourself back in the pre-industrial idyll so many greenies yearn for: the Stone Age.
Not only do renewables fail to provide the reliable, cheap energy a functioning economy needs but they also fail on environmental grounds. I call wind turbines bat-chomping bird-slicing eco-crucifixes because of the millions of bats and birds they slaughter every year.
They are made partly with poisonous rare earth minerals dug up in hideously polluted regions of China. They despoil the landscape, ruin views and disturb residents with their low frequency noise and shadow flicker.
Why would anyone with a moral conscience champion these expensive, environmentally destructive monstrosities?
The answer is that no one with a moral conscience does.
It’s why, for example, there is now a bitter division on the left between those watermelon ideologues (green on the outside, red on the inside) who see renewables as a vital tool in destroying Western industrial civilization and those such as activist filmmaker Michael Moore who recognise their true evil.
That was why left-wing activists tried to cancel Planet of the Humans, the anti-renewables documentary that Michael Moore executive produced.
Planet of the Humans was never meant to be an anti-renewables documentary. It just ended up that way when its director/presenter Jeff Gibbs – himself a green activist – did his research and saw the light
