Europe’s climate consciousness is hardly paying off for European families who face startling energy blackouts this winter amid a dangerous energy crisis.
The energy shortage is largely due to an overreliance on solar and wind-generated power made worse by Europe’s 2015 Paris Climate Accord agreement, which mandated the closing of coal-fired power plants and replacing them with less reliable wind and solar power alternatives.
There is no doubt that unpredictable energy sources such as these cause unnecessary suffering, financial strain, and even illness among the most vulnerable.
Americans should take heed of Europe’s misguided energy strategy and misplaced reliance on wind and solar power, or else watch many regions of the United States endure lengthy power shortages.
As the colder months roll in, Europe could soon face temporary cuts in cell phone and internet service, school closures from a lack of lighting and heating, and even traffic jams from underpowered traffic lights.
In Germany, a country heavily dependent on Russian gas due to its shuttered nuclear power plants, candle sales have skyrocketed in anticipation of power blackouts.
In fact, electric car owners in Finland are being told not to heat their vehicles on frigid mornings to avoid straining the electrical grid.
In the United Kingdom, energy companies have made a game of saving energy during peak usage times by bribing participants to sit in the dark in exchange for prizes and monetary savings.
The message from the UK is clear: you might suffer this winter, but you will suffer with savings and a smile. The truth is that alternative energy sources proposed by Europe are far from a smart investment for families suffering from low-energy production.
When it comes to relying on wind power, sometimes the wind just doesn’t blow. Europe experienced this phenomenon in 2021 when a drastic reduction in wind caused a decrease in energy generation by wind turbines.
Just recently, wind power production in the UK fell from 28% of overall energy production to just 3%.
Due to a lack of wind power, the UK’s reliance on coal for energy outperformed wind and solar even though the country has nearly banned its coal production entirely.
The reliability of coal is so obvious that the nation is beginning to reinvest in coal mines to keep the plants open for business.
Still, it’s doubtful such reinvestment will spur an uptick in reliable energy in time to protect its citizens from frigid winter temperatures.
Solar energy, on the other hand, has proven to be just as unpredictable in its output, despite Europe’s aggressive commitment to the source.
Since Russia cut gas supplies after Europe’s sanctions over the war in Ukraine, there has been a sharp increase in demand for natural gas, forcing prices to rise higher and higher as a result.
But this is a bad omen for elderly, lower-income Europeans ill-equipped to deal with the consequences of supply chain issues.
Ordinarily, Europe sees an increase in winter deaths but over 100,000 Europeans could die from high energy prices this winter, according to a study by The Economist magazine. If each country experiences its coldest winter since 2000, the death toll could rise to 185,000.
But even if the temperatures remain at usual levels, 147,000 more people could die from cold-related illnesses than if the electricity costs stayed at the 2015-2019 averages.
In the United States, European-style energy policies likewise cause tragic consequences with little benefit to Americans.
Due to the Biden administration’s inflationary policies, U.S. electricity prices have more than doubled. Oil and natural gas prices have done the same.
Hundreds of people in Texas died in February 2021 after frozen wind turbines triggered blackouts. Meanwhile, the administration plans to replace fossil fuel power with wind and solar by wrapping up $369 billion in climate spending in the Inflation Reduction Act.
If energy policymakers don’t stop soon, they risk turning the United States into a European “green” energy nightmare.
That’s the last thing Americans want or deserve. Congressional leaders on both sides of the political aisle should take heed of the clear European warning signs before it’s too late and American citizens are left in the dark.
Read more at Fox News
There is NOTHING GREEN ABOUT SOLAR AND WIND. They are inflationary energy. They last half as long and require 100% backup from conventional energy that works 24/7/365. That is hydro(7%), nuclear(7%), and fossil fuels(85% of world supply). When we use fossil fuels to make us the best-fed, longest-living, most prosperous human beings in human existence, we recycle the two most important molecular ingredients to life on earth – CO2 and H2O. The living environment’s metabolism that paints the earth green is photosynthesis. It converts sunlight energy into high-energy sugar bonds, assimilates the carbon into earth’s carbon-based life, and as a bonus produces 100% of earth’s breathable oxygen. Photosynthesis’s formula is sunlight plus CO2 plus H2O with the green enzyme chlorophyll produces all of life’s carbon, all of life’s energy, and all of our breathable oxygen. Now you tell me, what energy is actually green? Unreliable, inflationary solar and wind? Or the energy that comes from life, and when used recycles life’s most important ingredients – CO2 and H2O?
From the article, “If energy policymakers don’t stop soon, they risk turning the United States into a European “green” energy nightmare.” As I have said many times, liberals are incapable of learning from the mistakes of others if doing so undermines their agendas. The only way for the US to reverse the decisions of the policymakers is to replace them.
The article mentions some effects of losing power that most don’t think about, such as cell phone towers and internet service. We live where many, many miles of our power lines run through forests. Wind, snow, freezing rain, and some times even heavy rain bring trees down. Power outages are common here, we recently had a seven day outage. Cell phone towers obviously have some sort of back up but it only last so long. Wired/fiber internet normally fails with the power because the repeaters don’t have power. Even having a generator as we do normally means no internet and often no cell phone service.
LOL David. All would be better if we lost, TV, telephones and the Net. It is a mass of politically far left dis and misinformation.
Cheers
Most Americans take reliable power for granted. When I was home in Boulder last year, we had a major wild fire on Dec. 30. It spread less than 2 miles south of our home. The electricity was cut off for 44 hours to prevent any (additional) ignition points from potential downed power lines with the prevailing high winds. Not having electricity is way BELOW AVERAGE, especially when your overnight lows are in single digits. This “green dream” won’t be very FUNNY once these blackouts start spreading (here) like they soon will in Europe. Aspirations & dreams have LITTLE APPLICABILITY in the face of energy imperatives…
Even those of us who lose power more often than most take having it for granted. Food in another item that we take for granted. However, having food is iffy. My father’s mother told me when she was a little girl there was times when she was hungry, there was no food in the house, and no money to buy food. During the Great Depression at times food for my mother’s family was struggle. My grandfather always managed to feed his family but often they did not know where the food for the next few days would come from. The book “The Population Bomb” is often criticized on this web site. Yet, its prediction of famine was accurate given the agricultural practices of the time. Today the only reason that farmers such as Sonnyhill can feed the rest of us by the increased use of fixed nitrogen fertilizer. Now the climate change movement is attacking the use of the fertilizer.
Too late. Too many Americans have bought into the “green hype” and have little interest or intellectual curiosity to educate themselves on energy imperatives. It is even worse for progressive politicians & agency administrators who seem to be consumed with blind ideology. Unfortunately, looks like we get to spend some time in the “Hurt Locker.” If you can’t learn the right way in the energy arena, then you will learn the HARD way…