Democratic presidential candidates are signing on to the “Green
New Deal” and a number of municipal authorities have set the goal of running on
100% “green” energy by 2025 or 2030. It sure sounds nice, but is it real? I
suggest reading Mark Mills’ paper The
“New Energy Economy: An Exercise in Magical Thinking”. Mills is a
physicist, and he argues, in excruciating detail, that the laws of physics, let alone the
realities of economics, make these blue sky promises just that - nothing more
than empty promises.
In fact, as I have argued before, the only possible way we
could get to 100% “green” energy anytime in the next half century or so would
be to vastly expand the number of nuclear power plants in the country, and
given the American public’s irrational fear of nuclear power, that isn’t likely
to happen. (Irrational? There have been less than 300 recorded deaths worldwide from
nuclear accidents since nuclear power was invented half a century ago. By contrast, the estimates
are that between 7500 and 52,000 people A YEAR die in the USA alone from power
plant pollution. Which should we really be worried about???)
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