Commentary: The Biden Administration Misleads the Public on the Vast Expanses of Land Needed for ‘Net Zero’

The Biden administration is misleading the country about the amount of land that will be required to meet its ambitious renewable energy goals, RealClearInvestigations has found.  

The Department of Energy’s official line – echoed by many environmental activists and academics – is that the vast array of solar panels and wind turbines required to meet Biden’s goal of “100% clean electricity” by 2035 will require “less than one-half of one percent of the contiguous U.S. land area.” This topline number translates into 15,000 of the lower 48’s roughly 3 million square miles. 

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Commentary: ‘Net Zero’ Is Not a Rational U.S. Energy Policy

Despite Germany’s last-ditch attempt at realism, the European Union recently approved a 2035 ban on gas-powered cars, moving ahead with its “net zero” emissions agenda. In the U.S., the cost of achieving net-zero carbon emissions would be staggering – $50 trillion if the goal is reached by 2050 – as would the demand for raw materials, which in most cases would exceed current annual worldwide production. 

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Commentary: Net-Zero Is the Real Climate Catastrophe

Maybe Vladimir Putin SHOULD get the Nobel Peace Prize after all. 

To be sure, Putin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine is an affront to humanity, given his targeting of civilians. Russia even fired upon medical and humanitarian aid convoys and is using a nuclear power plant as a shield for his military operations.

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Commentary: Using the Financial System to Become ‘Net Zero’ Will Threaten Global Financial Stability

So far, the big message from the Glasgow climate conference is the role of finance in decarbonizing the global economy. It’s a dangerous development. In his speech to the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties (COP26) last week, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, pledged action to “rewire the entire financial system for Net Zero.” Finance has taken center stage in large part because of inadequate government policies. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, around two-thirds of global emissions are linked to private household activity. Reducing them requires major changes in people’s lifestyles, UNEP says.

Rather than imposing carbon taxes that really hurt – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates a minimum of $135 a ton, rising up to $14,300 a ton in order to hit net zero in 2050 – governments prefer to outsource the heavy lifting to the world of finance in the hope that it will provide a pain-free path to the net zero goal. Up until now, central banks and financial regulators – particularly the Fed and the SEC in the U.S. – have been maintaining the pretence that their involvement in climate policy is motivated by concern about climate financial risk. As I show in my new report for the RealClearFoundation, “Climate-Risk Disclosure: A Flimsy Pretext for a Green Power Grab,” climate financial risk is a smoke screen for a green power grab. Now, Sunak has done the world a favor and exposed it for what it is.

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