The Briefing Room
General Category => Politics/Government => Topic started by: txradioguy on December 10, 2018, 08:37:03 pm
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez promises that going green – removing all fossil fuels from our energy mix – will “establish economic, social and racial justice in the United States.â€
In fact, her proposal would cripple our economy and hurt our poorest citizens.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has admirable passion, but needs some schooling in energy economics. The cost of renewable energy is dropping fast, but is still more expensive in many applications than traditional fossil fuels like coal or oil. That’s one reason that adoption of wind and solar power has been slow, and that many countries, including the United States, underwrite renewables with subsidies and tax credits. The International Energy Agency predicts in its 2018 report that “the share of renewables in meeting global energy demand is expected to grow by one-fifth in the next five years to reach 12.4% in 2023.â€
The share of renewables remains low because wind and sun power are effective in producing electricity but not, for instance, in powering automobiles or airplanes. Renewables will generate nearly 30 percent of global electricity in 2023, a big jump from 24 percent in 2017, but will still account for only 3.8 percent of transportation fuel, compared to 3.4 percent in 2018.
More important, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez should know that lower-income and minority communities in the U.S. are disproportionately disadvantaged by higher energy costs. A 2016 study by the National Research Defense Council found that low income households “spend, on average, 7.2 percent of their income on utility bills…That is more than triple the 2.3 percent spent by higher-income households for electricity, heating and cooling.†Were we to ditch coal, natural gas and oil in favor of higher-cost renewables, electricity prices would soar, especially harming just those folks whom the young progressive says she wants to help.
Evidence of the staggering costs imposed by green policies is provided by other IEA data, which compares electricity costs in different countries. In the United States, the cost of electricity for households earlier this year was $129 per megawatt. In Germany, a country that leapt into renewables with enthusiasm, and imposed hefty taxes to squelch demand for fossil fuels, the cost is $343.59. Does Ms. Ocasio-Cortez really want to impose a near-tripling of electricity costs on Americans?
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez might want to visit France, a sympathetic left-leaning country, which is currently convulsed by people who are really, really angry over recently-enacted green policies of the kind that she might embrace. President Emmanuel Macron raised taxes on diesel fuel and gasoline, hoping to make driving more expensive and thereby discourage fossil fuel use, setting off the worst rioting that country has seen in a generation.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-ocasio-cortez-backs-green-policies-that-would-hurt-the-poor-and-cripple-our-economy (https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-ocasio-cortez-backs-green-policies-that-would-hurt-the-poor-and-cripple-our-economy)
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"Dumb and Dumber" was a movie, not a political position.
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"Dumb and Dumber" was a movie, not a political position.
Yet sadly more and more politicians believe it's the latter instead of the former.
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I'd like to rub her nose in Venezuela and France, figuratively of course.
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I'd like to rub her nose in Venezuela and France, figuratively of course.
She would tell you...as would most American Progressives...that the reason Communism has failed everywhere else is because the right people weren't running it.
If only they were running the show things would be different.
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She would tell you...as would most American Progressives...that the reason Communism has failed everywhere else is because the right people weren't running it.
If only they were running the show things would be different.
A O-C can run her mouth and that's about all she can run.