A❤️438-word🧡2.5-minute💛read
Climate activists tie themselves in knots worrying about the fate of the Inflation Reduction Act, but the legislation was never going to put much of a dent in emissions.
What it has done is enrich the solar industry.
The IRA’s kitchen sink approach was poorly thought out. More time was spent developing convoluted incentives to benefit Tribal nations and address environmental justice issues than in developing a strategy to actually reduce emissions.
The core of the IRA is a dozen or so tax credits designed to promote the development of everything from alternative fuels, to hydrogen, to nuclear.
Some of these like hydrogen are promising. However, given hydrogen’s many technical challenges, a more limited - proof of concept - approach was likely warranted. Other promising approaches like carbon sequestration, nuclear, and energy efficiency were only minor aspects of the bill.
Boil it down and the vast majority of the benefits of the IRA take the form of tax credits for solar, wind, and energy storage.
Ah, energy storage - that’s certainly important technology. Yes, if you need to compensate for the limitations of intermittent solutions like solar and wind. Standalone battery projects exist, but they are few and far between.
Solar and wind became the darling of the climate movement for one reason: they were furthest along. But the climate movement forgot one thing: they are lousy long-term solutions to reducing carbon emissions.
Don’t get me wrong. Solar and wind have a place. Rooftop solar is an ideal approach because it generates power on real estate where no other solution is viable. Wind also has limited applications.
The climate movement further errored by assuming that the world could – or would - quickly wean itself off fossil fuels. Like it or not, fossil fuels will be with us for likely another 100 years.
Reducing atmospheric carbon levels requires multiple things: high volume baseload power like nuclear and geothermal, a major emphasis on efficiency and conservation, a viable transition plan to electric transportation, and a Manhattan-style effort to suck carbon out of the air.
The climate movement is failing on all four fronts.
Why?
Because somewhere along the line the goal changed from reducing CO2 levels to ridding the world of fossil fuels.
As a consequence, in the long run, the IRA isn’t going to move the needle. And tomorrow I’ll present data that I believe proves it.
Today, I’ll leave you with one data point:
According to International Energy Agency (IEA), from 2010 to 2022 worldwide CO2 emissions from electricity and heat generation increased by 19%. That’s despite record-setting solar and wind installations.
#renewables #oilandgasindustry #powergeneration #solarpower #windpower #climatechangeisreal