NRDC in Climate Denial (forced smiles at ‘Climate Week’)

“Dilute, intermittent, fragile, land-intensive, transmission-intensive, and government-enabled energies have had their chance since the 1970s and the 1990s. It is time to move on to consumer-chosen, taxpayer-neutral superiors.”

Their only option was to put a happy face on climate activism at the just-ended Climate Week in New York City. But how things have changed. Consider, 11 years ago, a lone Alex Epstein challenging climate alarm and forced energy transformation at the People’s Climate March in New York City (below). Now, Epstein’s “human betterment” human philosophy is ensconced in the halls of power in Washington, including the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

But the narrative and jobs of the Climate Industrial Complex, thousands of rent-seekers and grifters strong, must keep their Deep Ecology faith. Manish Bapna, President and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), wrote on social media:

What a lively way to start the day. As part of The New York Times Climate Forward event on Tuesday at hashtag#ClimateWeekNYC, I joined Cara Buckley Bill McKibben and Abbie Dillen for a stimulating conversation about the state of the environmental movement under the Trump administration, and where we go from here.

It’s easy to understand the impulse to feel that all is lost—but actions speak louder than words, and the actions we’re seeing around the world say that hope is very much alive. This is a moment to watch what leaders are doing, not just what they’re saying. The U.S. is bigger than Washington, and the world is bigger than the U.S.—no president can stop the clean energy revolution because clean energy is cheaper, faster, and more secure. It creates far more jobs than fossil fuels, and it simply makes economic sense. The shift is inevitable; the only question is when it happens, and which countries will seize the opportunity.

Our task as a movement is to embrace momentum outside Washington while defending hard-won progress at the federal level, so we can keep the U.S. firmly in the climate fight. And to succeed, we must get better at connecting climate action to the kitchen-table issues people live with every day: lower utility bills, safer neighborhoods, and healthier air and water.

What a tissue of fallacies! Clean energy is not cheaper because, in part, it does “create more jobs” (jobs are a cost, not a benefit). Less labor with wind and solar and batteries means more labor to do what consumers want, as judged by their spending.

Back to reality. Dilute, intermittent, fragile, land-intensive, transmission-intensive, and government-enabled energies have had their chance since the 1970s and the 1990s. It is time to move on to consumer-chosen, taxpayer-neutral superiors. Politically, this move is on.