Some Good News on ‘Clean’ Energy

Source: “Clean Energy Momentum: Ranking State Progress,” Union of Concerned Scientists

When a far-left, eco-hysterical organization says you’re not measuring up when it comes to “driving clean energy,” that’s good news for ratepayers and taxpayers.

So New Mexicans can take comfort in the fact that their state is not a high achiever on politically correct power, “vehicle electrification,” and cutting carbon-dioxide “pollution.”

“Clean Energy Momentum: Ranking State Progress,” issued by the Union of Concerned Scientists, names California as the top state making “clean energy happen.” Other “winners” include Vermont, Hawaii, Oregon, and Iowa.

The analysis suffers from the usual flaws one finds when greens examine energy issues. It touts the addition of solar and wind facilities, without mentioning their unimpressive capacity factors, risk to birds and bats, and massive taxpayer subsidies. It extols the growth of electric automobiles, while ignoring the fact that “fossil” fuels still power more than 99 percent of the U.S. vehicle fleet. It accepts the data supplied by green-power “trade associations” without question. It perpetuates wildly overblown claims about the linkage between asthma and conventional power plants. And despite the supposedly dire threat posed by carbon dioxide, it makes no note of the role nuclear power plays in avoiding emissions.

Fortunately for the Land of Enchantment, the state ranks in the top ten in only one of the analysis’s 12 metrics. New Mexico scores fairly high in solar and wind employment per capita — #7 for the former, #10 for the latter. But that’s it. It’s not a star in “renewable” electricity generation or growth. It’s not much for electric-vehicle adoption. And it has not set an “economy-wide target” to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions to 2005 levels.

“Clean Energy Momentum” offers a solid overview of eco-oriented virtue signalling, but it’s bad economics, bad engineering, and yes, bad science. New Mexicans should feel pride, not shame, over failing to win the UCS’s praise.