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Alex is a very smart guy. Here’s a great observation about the solar industry.

THE MORE YOU KNOW… THE “CLEAN ENERGY” BOONDOGGLE One of the most the important elements of the “Build Back Better” agenda, and one that’s absorbing an enormous amount of capital globally is the shift away from nonrenewable, “fossil” fuels to renewable, clean sources of energy. Glossy brochures and optimistic projections are not in short supply, contrived to justify the massive, multi-trillion dollar investments. And for as long as we don’t bother with the many assumptions that go into those projections, inconvenient or unethical sides of the industry, studies that challenge the rosy predictions, or the many “fringe” experts who differ from the groupthink, everything looks great. However, more and more voices are questioning the top-down imparted green gospel. Some even manage to overcome the resistance from true believers who would rather not hear and cause enough controversy to draw broader attention to the issues at hand. One such incident took place yesterday when one Rachel Mathews, an environmental activist and resident of Colchester in the UK, delivered these remarks to the Colchester Council:

Good evening. I’ve been a supporter of green energy and a keen environmentalist since my 20s. My office is solar-powered so I was mortified to discover that the single Lithium mine causes millions of tons of waste every year, laced with sulphuric acid and radioactive uranium, polluting the water supply [some 3,000 gallons per minute] for 300 years. Not to mention the unacceptable human cost in child labor to mine Cobalt. When I researched which solar panels to purchase, I did not for one minute consider it would be made by people trapped in razor wire enclosed labor camps being exposed to large quantities of quartz dust, which causes silicosis. Please note that the Ethical Consumer organization reports that it is hard to avoid forced labor in the solar panel supply chain. Wind turbines, which last about 20 years, consume a colossal amount of resources and energy to manufacture and install, not to mention the blight and bird-kill. They require diesel engines to start them up and gallons of oil to lubricate. And they can’t readily be recycled. Solar panels are also extremely difficult to recycle, costing more than the production of a panel. And Lithium batteries pose steep challenges too. Add to that the human suffering, which we’ve all unwittingly been part of, just by owning a laptop or mobile phone which is minimal compared to what’s required for an EV [electric vehicle] or a solar farm. These so-called green orethical solutions aren’t solutions at all - just very good marketing from the 1.5 trillion dollar a year climate change industry. That’s $4 billion a day, by the way. None of us can undo what’s already been done, but what we can all do is make sure this doesn’t escalate exponentially with fleets of unnecessary EVs and acres of solar farms eating up our precious farmland.

Of course, most of what Mathews said will ring familiar to anyone who paid any attention to these issues, but the sheer amount of capital that is being allocated to this energy transition has created its own momentum and incentivized countless projects that bestow economic gains for those who pursue them. As a result, they are reluctant to acknowledge any problems with the agenda, and - as Ms. Mathews herself experienced - seek to silence, dismiss, and denounce the dissenters. The larger problem with this is that where the top-down agenda favors allocation of capital that turns out to be unproductive, it is setting the society at large at a disadvantage and impoverishing them even if it enriches some individuals along the way. With the “build back better” green energy future, we risk finding ourselves with jeopardized energy security, a decayed environment and a very costly cleanup. Top-down economic central planning may have its place in modern economies. Construction of infrastructure mega-projects like high-speed rail networks, energy grid, efficient port systems and the like, can be effectively managed at the state level. However, the agenda should not be formulated and managed by those who have a financial stake in the results as it carries an obvious and hard to remove moral hazard. Ultimately, the Build Back Better agenda will prove a massive setback for the developed world and the sooner it is sidelined and abandoned, the better.

— Alex Krainer