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Defrauding the Nation with Green Electricity
Norman Rogers
July 29, 2024

Here are some recent frauds involving the government:

• The Savings and Loan Crisis of the1980’s caused losses to the taxpayers of $124 billion.
• The Subprime Mortgage Crisis of 2007-2009 was due to dereliction of duty by government agencies abetted by private actors.  The losses approached a trillion dollars.
• Medicare fraud is estimated to cost $60 to $90 billion annually.

There is a new fraud. The U.S. has already spent about $1.5 trillion for wind and solar farms, the main types of green or renewable electricity. That is money wasted. Wind or solar costs about five times more than generating electricity with existing plants. Many states have renewable portfolio laws, imposing schedules to greatly increase wind and solar. That is like using gasoline to put out a fire.

Although wind and solar power reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, there are other much less expensive methods of reducing CO2 emissions. According to a school of academic thinking, CO2 emissions threaten us with a planet-wide climate catastrophe.  Plenty of scientists don’t agree. In any case, reducing CO2 emissions in the U.S. is a foolish mission. Emissions in Asia are vast and increasing very fast. Decreasing emissions from the U.S. won’t change anything.

Propaganda Promotes Green Energy
Edward Bernays in his 1929 book, Propaganda, stated that “Democracy is administered by the intelligent minority who know how to regiment and guide the masses.” The problem seems to be that the intelligent minority has become possessed by cult-like beliefs. Left environmentalism has become a religion among the intelligent minority. They are intelligent but their minds have been captured by environmental extremism.

The International Energy Agency makes the grandiose and false claim that solar power is the cheapest form of electricity in history. The Sierra Club claims that wind and solar are competitive with natural gas, a claim that is not remotely true.

Pew Research has taken polls of the public on various issues related to green energy. Unfortunately, the polls show that most Americans favor developing wind and solar. The percent favoring has declined from 79 percent in 2020 to 67 percent in 2023. Among Republicans 2023 support is only 42 percent but among Democrats 90 percent. This may reflect different habits in media consumption. The propaganda is working, but may be slipping a little.

Even though Texas is a Republican state the leading politicians brag about the vast number of wind farms developed in West Texas. They are obviously unaware that this investment is a complete waste of money, especially in Texas where natural gas is quite cheap. This is an illustration of propaganda at work. The experts at Texas universities and the investigative reporters at Texas media organizations have little interest in taking a critical look at wind power. What little criticism there is mostly does not discuss the economic failure of wind power, but speaks to peripheral issues, like the disposal of used wind turbine blades.

The conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation is an exception to the widespread Texas belief that wind power is wonderful. They dare to ask if wind is so cheap why are electric bills increasing.

Conclusion
Green or renewable electricity is a big business. It employs thousands of people. Sinclair Lewis said: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." The business consultants, lawyers, scientists and engineers that depend on the industry will not be easily persuaded that their industry is a fraud.

The government has a propensity to continue useless and expensive programs. The corn to ethanol industry is an example. We can hope for some movement in the direction of less wind and solar. Killing this useless industry, employing thousands, is a political stretch.
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The pages indexed below are independent articles, mostly previously published, that take on aspects of the green electricity industry.

              Useless Wind Energy
              Useless Utility Scale Solar Energy
              Useless Residential Solar Energy

Norman Rogers writes on energy and climate change. He is the author of the Amazon book Dumb Energy.