Radical Environmentalism: No Energy Sources Are Pure Enough

I am only partially tongue in cheek when I assert that radical environmentalists want to return us to hunter/gatherer societies, or rather, just gatherers.  No source of energy is pure enough. Nukes? Not for decades and certainly not now! Oil? Evil!  Coal? Global warming!  END THE INDUSTRY! Natural gas? No!  New dams?  Take down the ones we have!  Biofuel? No! SAVE THE EARTH!

How about solar and wind?  These alone can’t possibly supply our energy needs—particularly if we end up with plug-in electric cars!  I mean, if you are going to have electric cars, we are going to need far more electricity than we currently generate, and if we keep on the trail we are on, we will be generating less.

But even these are being opposed by environmentalists all across the country.  For example, I reported a bit back how Sen. Dianne Feinstein has opposed using the Mojave for solar and the Kennedy family and other Martha’s Vineyard swells bitterly fought against a wind farm off Hyannis Port.  And now, the Daily Beast gives other examples.  From the story:

From coast to coast, efforts to build everything from wind farms to solar plants has run afoul of local environmental groups and the “Not In My Backyard” (NIMBY) phenomenon. Pro-environmental journals, such as the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, as well as business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have each cataloged this trend.

“Often, many of the same groups urging us to think globally about renewable energy are acting locally to stop the very same renewable energy projects that could create jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Bill Kovacs, senior vice president for environment, technology and regulatory affairs with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote in the introduction of the group’s recent “Project, No Project” report. “NIMBY activism has blocked more renewable projects than coal-fired power plants by organizing local opposition, changing zoning laws, opposing permits, filing lawsuits, and using other long delay mechanisms, effectively bleeding projects dry of their financing.”

Recent examples include environmentalist lawsuits seeking to block construction of a solar power plant in California’s Mojave Desert due to threats to the endangered desert tortoise and environmentalists suing to block the construction of a 75-wind turbine project in Nevada due to threats to local wildlife.

This would be hysterical if it were not so potentially destructive to prosperity and a growing future.  I am reminded of a snake eating its own tail.