The Myth of Alternative Energy

Environmental advocates regularly pontificate about the need to adopt alternative energy sources.  But when you press them, they offer up such non-solutions as wind and solar power which is unlikely to provide for more than a small percentage of our current energy needs. (Solar power, for instance, currently accounts for a measly 0.04% of the world’s energy usage.)

Roy Spencer, principle research scientist at University of Alabama, explains why the alternative energy cure-all is just fantasy — and why oil will be around for a long time.

I am astounded by the naiveté of those folks who seem to think there is some magic, non-polluting energy source out there that “Big Oil” has been hiding from us until all of the petroleum runs out. As these reality deniers continue to drive cars and fly in airplanes, they deny the fact that mankind’s dependence on oil is not out of choice, but necessity.

…The only problem is, no matter how serious you think global warming will be, our current renewable-energy technologies and conservation will make virtually no difference to future global temperatures.

…The energy demand by humanity is simply too large — and it is growing rapidly in developing countries like India and China. Electricity in the United States is supplied by the equivalent of 1,000 one-gigawatt power plants. It would be a major feat, both politically and monetarily, to replace 50 of those 1,000 power plants with solar and wind generation facilities.

Moreover, most people seem to forget that we’ve already spent — and are continuing to spend — billions on alternative energy research.  The idea that we could make an easy, pain-free switch and "solve" global warming just doesn’t hold up.