Skyrocketing natural gas and coal prices are not a failure of the fossil fuel industry, but the total failure of *anti-fossil fuel policies*, which falsely promised that if we dramatically restricted fossil fuel energy production, green energy could easily replace it.
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— Alex Epstein (@AlexEpstein) October 13, 2021
Alex Epstein of Center for Industrial Progress:
Skyrocketing natural gas and coal prices are not a failure of the fossil fuel industry, but the total failure of *anti-fossil fuel policies*, which falsely promised that if we dramatically restricted fossil fuel energy production, green energy could easily replace it.
There is no physical reason that the natural gas and coal industries can’t meet rising demand. The world has hundreds of years’ worth of gas deposits and thousands of years worth of coal deposits. But governments radically restrict the freedom to utilize those deposits.
There is no technical or economic reason the natural gas and coal industries can’t meet demand. These industries have gotten radically more capable and efficient in the last two decades–especially natural gas with fracking. But governments radically restrict their freedom.
There is no inherent logistical reason the natural gas and coal industries can’t adapt to rising demand, except for the compounding problems created over the decades by draconian restrictions on export and import terminals, pipelines, and other infrastructure.
We know that the US natural gas industry has an enormous untapped ability to produce natural gas–but that “green” policies to stop pipelines and LNG export facilities prevent it from using that ability, with the promise that solar and wind can take over.
In Europe, fracking and other shale gas technologies could produce a lot of gas, but Europeans have over and over chosen to ban fracking–reassuring citizens that solar and would would provide all the energy they need. How is that going?
America has been called “the Saudi Arabia of coal.” At today’s prices, America’s coal industry would love to be powering the world. But it can’t because of onerous restrictions on coal transport, as well as myriad domestic restrictions on desperately-needed coal production.
The pandemic recovery has provided the perfect test for the claim that solar and wind, after extensive mandates and trillions in subsidies, would make up for lost energy from fossil fuel restrictions. Skyrocketing coal and gas prices mean that solar and wind have failed the test.
The #1 lesson of skyrocketing gas and coal prices is this: fossil fuel-restricting governments have wildly overestimated the ability of solar and wind to provide the energy the world needs and wildly underestimated the need for fossil fuels to provide the energy the world needs
The total failure of solar and wind to replace the fossil fuel energy lost by anti-fossil fuel restrictions should lead us to immediately reject the fossil fuel-restricting, solar-and-wind-mandating reconciliation bill.
The total failure of solar and wind to replace the fossil fuel energy lost from anti-fossil fuel policies should lead the UN Climate Conference next month to stop insisting on solar+wind and start recognizing the value of fossil fuels as well as non-carbon nuclear going forward.
Do not let anyone tell you that these skyrocketing prices are a failure of the fossil fuel industry. They are 100% a failure of green energy policies that restricted fossil fuel production and transport on the false promise that unreliable solar and wind could replace it.
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