(Originally aired: February 5, 2023)
Nebraska, Indiana, New Mexico, and Wisconsin have all delayed the planned closing of coal plants, the latest sign the green energy transition ambitions aren’t quite ready for prime time. One Wisconsin Public Service Commissioner, Ellen Nowak, is calling for a pause and a reassessment of the national strategy as, she says, more people are starting to awaken to reality.
The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.
Sharyl: It seems impossible to predict what is doable far down the road when it comes to green energy. Things are changing so quickly. Are we setting goals and then just trying to meet them regardless of whether we can? Or are we looking realistically at what the goal can be?
Ellen Nowak : It’s more of the former. It’s easy for a politician to set a goal that needs to be met 30 years after they’re out of office. There’s no accountability there. You need to work with the people that actually run the grid and them tell you what is achievable, and be flexible along the way, versus having hard and fast rules.
Sharyl: Do you have any thoughts about the idealistic goals we have versus the reality of — is this really reducing the carbon footprint?
Ellen Nowak: So, it’s clean-emitting, but it’s not necessarily clean to produce the energy, the green energy that we want. So the production of the solar panels themselves require an extraordinary amount of environmental impact. There’s mining involved. You know, that is not an emission-free source. Same as with the electric vehicles. The production of the electric vehicle itself, that’s not a carbon-free process. So we’re also focused on, “Well, it’s a carbon-free— there’s no emissions from the car.” Okay, but what did it take to get there, and as you look at the holistic picture, did we come out ahead?
Sharyl: If you could talk about a framework you would like to see, you know, just a general outline in the next 10, 20 years. You talked about a pause. What would you like to see happen?
Ellen Nowak: So, I think we still need to have an all-of-the-above energy policy. It wasn’t that long ago that, as a country, we talked about that. I am absolutely supportive of moving towards more renewables. We all breathe the same air. We all want clean air. We have made tremendous strides in reductions of carbon over the last two decades, especially here in Wisconsin. But, I think we need, just like your financial portfolio, it needs to be balanced, and you cannot put all your eggs in one basket.
I don’t like to talk about, “We should eliminate a certain type of fuel source,” because you never know what the future is going to hold. And I think, right now, we are too focused on the pros of some resources and not the cons, and vice versa, with the fossil base that is reliable. And we definitely need to move towards a more nuclear future. Whether it’s maybe more the small nuclear facilities — larger are very expensive to build and difficult. So, I think we need to keep moving all of the above, optimize the resources. Let’s not eliminate resources. That’s short-sighted.
Sharyl (on-camera): The United Nations meanwhile continues to put the gas on green energy. It recently said that supplies from low-carbon-emitting sources need to double by 2030 if the world is going to reach the goal of being net-zero.
Watch story here.
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Choose your poison. There is no energy production/use that comes without both costs and benefits. There are more elements involved than just carbon.
Look at Maine for problems that are coming to the fore: Pollution secondary to the technologies. Property rights usurpation. Prices out of reach of the local population. International interests. Green energy may be green as in $$$ for some, but it isn’t so green for others, so various interests need to be weighed. Expect this to be more contentious as people wake up to what they voted for without knowing what they were voting for. Lots of stuff they also never voted for. A few examples (there is a lot more with just Maine – on line articles follow):
Here’s why electricity bills in Maine are getting more expensive this month (centralmaine.com)
Testimony: Opposing Costly, Unreliable Offshore Wind Development – Maine Policy Institute
Commentary: Regulators must examine wind power’s potential damage to fisheries (pressherald.com)
Calgary’s Enmax spends $7.5M to oppose Maine referendum on electricity providers – Calgary | Globalnews.ca
Farmers roll out tractors, trucks in Albion to protest proposed transmission corridor (centralmaine.com)
Northern Maine power line project moves forward, slowly (centralmaine.com)
Maine Has the Lithium America Needs, But Won’t Allow Mining | Time
The ‘very liberal’ doctor, the pro-GOP car dealer and the movement against offshore wind – POLITICO
America’s Bet on Wind Power Is Running Into a Big Problem (msn.com)
(Below: recommendations upon how to stymie opposition to wind using Maine law)
Our Biggest Fans: Nuisance Immunity for Grid-Scale Wind Energy Projects in Maine
(Western tier transmission line to benefit Massachusetts)
Is New England’s Biggest Renewable Energy Project Really a Win for the Climate? • The Revelator
What a waste of time and money. There is no man made climate change. Nature determines climate change.
This article and interesting energy goings on ? Sharyl you can share this ( My ) post with the people of JPL . Instead of JPL spent the money in the past to put Drone vehicles on Mars, I think you should have spent that money on creating a drone Lander to land on the Mini- Planet Pluto collect Samples and connect back with orbiting mother ship orbiting pluto to bring samples back to Earth ? Tell use why ? Because Pluto is out by asteroid belt thus has more exciting past History impacts from Rocks from the asteroid belt and possibly more ??? Yeah it would take 20 years round Trip but imagine the info collected ? ( Un-manned Pluto landing collect and gather rocks and info, lift back off again and connect with orbiting ride back Home ) I got just the idea for a new energy system to turn that crank to turn generator Turbine without Uranium or plutonium ? ” Wm. A. New energy idea X- files ?
This article ? I wonder if the people of Fukashima, Japan should have engineered New Iodized Graphine filters to filter storage water stored in large Vat tanks before releasing contaminated water back into the sea ? The New Iodized Graphine filters would better further treat contaminated water molecule particles worrying fishermen and near by other countries ? New breakthrough idea’s to test in science based from my copyright Molecular De-Fusion ( C ). USA.. “It’s all about the Nuclear Chain and Molecules Binding and Un ~Binding ! ( If it works you can reward me later. E= ( Subgroups Pi, ) Filtration…