Biden has pledged that the power business will decarbonize by 2035. (Reuters)

Of course, the dirty energy corporations are complying. They won’t leave money on the table. Indeed, Duke Energy would glass the entire US with solar panels if there was profit in it.

It’s all about incentives

“Renewable energy” cannot compete. Carbon-based energy is cheaper and more efficient, so governments level the playing field by adding more taxes to gas and oil energy production. It’s a standard government “solution:” Don’t help the losers by helping them increase their performance; help the losers by dragging the winners down to the losers’ level.

“These standards could level the playing field between new gas plants and new renewable energy,” said Thomas Schuster, head of the Sierra Club’s Pennsylvania chapter. Most new gas plants currently do not pay for emitting carbon, so the rules could make it harder for them to compete with solar and wind power. (Reuters)

Nail fossil fuel energy with a carbon tax that wind and solar will not incur. Can anyone besides me (and I ain’t that smart) see a subsequent government reducing the carbon tax, and instead taxing energy producers by how much land they use?

What too many people fail to understand is, everything is about tradeoffs. There are no magic bullets. 100% decarbonized sounds wonderful, but so does finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Even the best “experts” can’t do the math on minerals, production, BTU capacity, etc sufficient to build and maintain a “carbon neutral” nation by 2035 that maintains our current lifestyle and keeps our economy growing.

What say you?