by 
President
Trump’s
Executive
Orders
have
ended
U.S.
participation
in
the
Green
New
Deal
and
Paris
climate
treaty.
He’s
also
terminated
mandates,
programs
and
subsidies
that
would
have
changed
our
reliable,
affordable
energy
systems
to
wind,
solar
and
battery
power
for
all-electric
homes,
schools,
hospitals,
businesses,
factories,
farms,
transportation
and
shipping.
His
actions
will
benefit
wild,
scenic
and
agricultural
lands
in
America
and
worldwide.
-
Wind,
solar
and
transmission
line
installations
would
have
sprawled
across
tens
of
millions
of
acres,
impacting
habitats,
farmlands
and
scenic
vistas,
onshore
and
offshore;
interfered
with
water
flow,
aviation,
shipping
and
other
activities;
and
killed
whales,
birds
and
other
wildlife. -
These
“clean,
green”
technologies
require
far
more
raw
materials
than
the
equipment
they
replace:
electric
cars
need
4-6
times
more
metals
and
minerals
than
gasoline
counterparts;
onshore
wind
turbines
require
9
times
more
raw
materials
than
equivalent
megawatts
from
combined-cycle
natural
gas
turbines;
offshore
wind
requires
14
times
more
materials
than
gas
turbines;
solar
panels
are
just
as
resource-intensive.
And
we’d
still
need
gas
power
plants
or
grid-scale
batteries
for
windless/sunless
periods. -
Those
raw
material
needs
would
require
mining
at
levels
unprecedented
in
human
history.
Just
meeting
“green
energy”
plus
“normal”
needs
for
copper
would
require
more
than
twice
as
much
copper
mining
as
occurred
throughout
human
history
up
to
now.
That
would
mean
mine
shafts
and
open-pit
mines;
ore
removal,
crushing
and
processing;
and
land,
air
and
water
pollution
–
on
unprecedented
scales. -
Converting
those
raw
materials
into
finished
technologies,
and
transporting,
installing,
maintaining
and
ultimately
removing
the
turbines,
panels,
transformers,
power
lines,
batteries
and
other
equipment
would
require
unfathomable
quantities
of
materials,
equipment
and
energy. -
All
this
mining
and
processing,
equipment
damaged
and
destroyed
under
normal
operations
and
from
extreme
weather,
leaching
from
non-recyclable
components
in
landfills,
and
huge
infernos
when
batteries
ignite
would
send
massive
quantities
of
toxic
chemicals
into
air,
soils
and
water
worldwide. -
U.S.
mining,
processing,
manufacturing
and
waste
disposal
would
be
done
under
tough
environmental,
workplace
safety
and
human
rights
standards.
Not
so
in
despotic
regimes
in
the
rest
of
the
world. -
A
large
portion
of
the
cobalt,
lithium,
rare
earth,
graphite
and
other
exotic
and
strategic
materials
still
come
from
China,
which
has
monopoly
control
over
mining
and
processing
them.
That
puts
U.S.
and
Western
energy,
transportation,
communication,
AI,
defense
systems
and
national
security
at
great
risk.
Simply
put,
humanity
would
have
had
to
destroy
the
planet
with
green
energy
mining
and
systems,
to
save
it
from
GIGO
computer-modeled
climate
cataclysms.
Read
the
rest
of
this
piece
at
Townhall.
Paul
Driessen
is
senior
policy
advisor
for
the
Committee
For
A
Constructive
Tomorrow
(www.CFACT.org)
and
author
of
books,
reports
and
articles
on
energy,
environmental,
climate
and
human
rights
issues.
Photo:
James
St.
John
via
Flickr
under
CC
2.0
License.
Go to Source
Author: Paul Driessen
