Dec
10
The Failing “Green Transition”
In a recent email from The Dispatch, Scott Lincicome wrote an article titled “Offshore Headwinds” about the ambitious “green” plans by Leftists in the U.S. and the reality checks they are experiencing in their attempts to implement them.
As one who has been skeptical of climate change alarmism (and the proposed “solutions”) from the beginning and very concerned about the hugely negative impact on the economy (among other things) that these plans would cause if they were to be implemented, I can’t help but smile at Lincicome’s brief rundown….
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As honchos from around the world meet in Dubai for the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) this week, it’s become increasingly clear that the much-ballyhooed “green transition” in the United States — fueled at least in part by big subsidies — has hit an equally big speed bump. “A year after President Joe Biden’s landmark climate law promised billions of dollars for America’s switch to clean energy,” Bloomberg reported last week, “some of the nation’s most ambitious renewable power projects have been shelved, electric car sales are missing targets and investors are fleeing the sector in droves.”
Clean energy stocks that many thought the Inflation Reduction Act would boost have instead seen a “$30 billion collapse in the last six months,” and many analysts are significantly downgrading their emission reduction projections. As one energy consultant put it, “the euphoria has worn off and we’re starting to realize it’s still not going to be easy,” because — as another noted in the same piece — “economic realities” have set in.
While much of the clean energy sector in the United States is hurting, probably the biggest pains are being felt in offshore wind. Projects are getting delayed or canceled, companies are under serious financial pressure, lawsuits are blossoming, prices are increasing, and climate ambitions are doing just the opposite. Big Wind isn’t dead, but it’s definitely been taken down a notch or three.
In some ways, these and related problems are just your typical pandemic-era problems and nascent industry growing pains. In many other ways, however, the problems facing offshore wind in the United States have been caused or exacerbated by government policies — serving as yet another reminder of what happens when industrial policy dreams meet not economic realities, but government ones.
You can’t say you weren’t warned.
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Still smiling…
