futility of wind and solar

Posted: 17 Feb 2020 04:53 PM PST

(John Hinderaker)

Jeff Bezos announced today that he will spend $10 billion to "fight climate change." How, exactly, will his money alter the climate?

[Bezos] said the Bezos Earth Fund would help back scientists, activists, non-government organizations and any other effort that "offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world."

So the money will go to "scientists, activists [and] non-government organizations"–in other words, the Left. I can guarantee that Bezos's billions will have zero effect on the climate, but they will enrich left-wing nonprofits, "scientists" who toe the global warming line, and utilities who greedily profit from foolish expenditures on wind and solar energy. I assume that Bezos is smart enough to know this, and that this is his way of sliding money to the Left without acknowledging what he is doing.

The big money is almost 100% "green." Recently there was a high-level meeting of greenies at a Rockefeller mansion outside of New York City. Notes from the meeting have been made public, and you can read about it here. The attendees talked about the need to get industry on their side. How?

[W]hen [it] comes to power sector, look to politics – relatively easy political landscape, as long as utility makes $.

And the utility will make money, guaranteed, as a regulated monopoly, as long as state mandates combine with federal subsidies to "force" it to invest countless billions in wind and solar energy, which are terrible for the environment but great for utility stock prices.

The "green" juggernaut marches on. Wind and solar energy hurt the environment in many ways while locking us in to fossil fuel use in the form of natural gas, forever. That is OK with me; natural gas is the best energy source for a power plant. But the many billions of dollars that go for wind and solar energy, which actually provide electricity nowhere near half the time, while usually relying on "complementary" natural gas plants, is a complete waste. Unless you are a utility. The only way Bezos's $10 billion could make a positive contribution is if it promoted nuclear energy, but you can be sure that isn't going to happen.

The forces of reason, which point out the futility of wind and solar energy, are essentially unfunded. They have little or no corporate support and rely on grass roots donations. Truth is powerful, but is it powerful enough to overcome the Left's massive cash advantage?

Here is another example. Have you heard of Arabella Advisors? I hadn't, but check this out:

Arabella Advisors (commonly called "Arabella") is a philanthropic consulting company that guides the strategy, advocacy, impact investing, and management for high-dollar left-leaning nonprofits and individuals. [1] Arabella provides these clients with a number of services that ease their operations and that enable them to enact policies focused on environmentalism and other left-of-center issues.

How big is Arabella?

Arabella Advisors manages four nonprofits that serve as incubators and accelerators for a range of other left-of-center nonprofits. These include the New Venture Fund, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the Hopewell Fund, and the Windward Fund. These nonprofits have collectively hosted hundreds of left-wing policy and advocacy organizations (referred to by critics as "pop-up groups" because they are little more than websites). In 2018, Arabella's four nonprofits reported combined revenues of $635 million. Altogether, between 2013 and 2018 the nonprofits reported combined revenues of just under $2.3 billion and total expenditures of $1.8 billion.
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Arabella has implemented over 300 different "pop-up" projects targeting a range of issues, including net neutrality, free speech, abortion access, Obamacare, and President Donald Trump's judicial nominees. The company specifically highlights projects in which it has helped its clients divest millions of dollars from traditional energy companies, invest in risky experimental companies, boycott the historically Republican-leaning U.S. Chamber of Commerce, enact a ballot initiative that freed 4,000 criminals in California, and lobby for a labor union-friendly policy in Oregon that was supported by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the Oregon Nurses Association.

There is nothing comparable on the right. Why does the Left have so much money? There are several reasons: 1) Many companies are pursuing their own financial interests. For example, investor-owned utilities, which have vast financial interests that cause them to support left-wing environmental fantasies that enrich utilities but harm consumers. 2) The biggest spenders on elections and public policy are unions, especially government unions, which lobby for more government, and support politicians who will expand government, because it is in their financial interest to do so. 3) Many celebrities (Jeff Bezos may fall into this category) have more money than brains, and either have fallen for leftist prattle, or–in many cases–seek to protect themselves against attacks from the Left by donating to leftist causes. It usually works.

This is the massive resource advantage that the forces of freedom are up against on just about every front.