Radical environmentalists a hindrance to environmental solutions

Here a the Rio Grande Foundation we love to disagree with radical environmental US Senator Martin Heinrich and others who would both blow billions of our tax dollars on environmental projects while regulating the US economy and energy production in an attempt to eliminate CO2 emissions. All while doing nothing to limit growing CO2 emitters China and India.

But there is always someone crazier, especially on the environment and sadly the supposedly “pro-environment” protestors who attempted to disrupt a Democrat-sponsored meeting in Downtown Albuquerque yesterday are ultimately outside the boundaries of rational argument.

According to the ABQ Journal, protestors implacably oppose not only carbon sequestration, but also nuclear energy (some of the signs make that clear). As per the usual, the “only” supportable forms of energy among the extremists are wind and solar.

But, as the chart below from the Energy Information Administration highlights, “renewables” account for just 13% of all US energy consumption. And, those “renewables” include numerous dirty biofuels and hydroelectric which is not available in large swaths of the nation. Wind and solar combine for about 42% of “renewables” which means they account for a whopping 6% of all US energy consumed (after decades of heavy subsidies).