Robert Bryce
The Wall Street Journal
For years, greens have relentlessly insisted that replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy “will create jobs and stimulate the economy,” said Robert Bryce. Europe is proving that “it was all bunk.” The European Union and Germany recently announced they were rolling back huge subsidies for solar, wind, and other renewables because of “staggering costs.” In Germany alone, renewable energy subsidies and rising energy prices are costing consumers and the industry about $32 billion a year—enough to risk “dramatic deindustrialization,” according to Energy Minister Sigmar Gabriel. Meanwhile, across the Continent, steelmakers are now paying “twice as much for electricity” as their U.S. competitors. In Germany, a foolish decision to shut down eight nuclear reactors has led to a boom in coal use. Now compare Europe’s plight to America’s shale gas revolution. Natural gas production is injecting billions into the U.S. economy and producing tens of thousands of jobs. By weaning the U.S. off coal, fracking has cut carbon dioxide emissions by 10.9 percent since 2005. Greens who continue to hawk renewables “are the real deniers.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
October 5 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday's political cartoons include half-truth hucksters, Capitol lockdown, and more
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailoutTalking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Viewpoint: Rebecca MacKinnonfeature From Slate.com: “Companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, and many other digital platforms and services have created a new, virtual public sphere...
-
How to save the U.S. Postal Service
feature Unlike the post office, which has a monopoly on letter delivery, FedEx and UPS have had to compete for customers by boosting quality and holding prices down, said Jeff Jacoby at The Boston Globe.
-
Viewpoint: George Packer
feature From Foreign Affairs: “Inequality creates a lopsided economy, which leaves the rich with so much money that they can binge on speculation, and leaves the middle class...