End of a Green Delusion

Flummoxed as always, environmentalists may yet get a carbon tax thanks to Trump

By Holman W. Jenkins. Excerpts:

"Though it does nothing for the climate given the shrinking global significance of U.S. emissions, U.S. “net zero” is still a “moral imperative”—never mind that U.S. net zero would be achieved mainly by shifting U.S. emissions overseas."

"veteran of Democratic politics and top Biden official visited our offices in 2022. I launched my usual critique of clean-energy subsidies, and he finished my sentence, adding, “I have to believe that putting a price on carbon” will return to center stage."

"In other words, at the highest levels of the Democratic Party, a climate realist was already drumming his fingers waiting for the green-subsidies preference falsification to pass."

"Richard York of the University of Oregon, no apologist for capitalism or fossil fuels, has also shown why green energy doesn’t displace fossil fuels. French energy historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz’s previous book decried the anthropocene—i.e., humanity’s effect on the planet. His new best-seller explains the fraudulence of the so-called energy transition."

"Last year the prestigious journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science should have closed the verdict on this faulty experiment. It found virtually all the world’s climate policies to be failing. Why? They mistook concessionary funding of green energy for cutting emissions."

"In Foreign Affairs, Obama brain-truster Peter Orszag delivers the coup de grace: “Rather than replacing conventional energy sources, the growth of renewables is coming on top of that of conventional sources.”"