The worst thing about the Climate Cult is that its worst zealots are never held to account for the havoc they wreak. We end up paying for the idiotic zealotry of climate-demented politicians long after they’ve collected their fat pensions and retired to their seaside mansions. (Which, if they really believed their own horseshit, are under imminent threat from rising seas.)
When Tasmania was driven to the brink of complete energy and ecological disaster in 2016, as a direct consequence of Julia Gillard’s carbon tax, the PM responsible was long-retired and living the taxpayer-funded life of Riley. Gillard has never been held to account for the disastrous consequences of her moronic virtue signalling.
Of a certainty, neither will Barack Obama.
A once cutting-edge solar energy power plant in the Mojave Desert that looks like something out of a science fiction movie may be facing its last days, according to its builder and largest customer.
The plant was built at a time when capturing solar energy with a complex array of mirrors and boilers was one of several ideas being tested.
At the expense of the US taxpayer, naturally, to the of $1.6 billion. The Climate Cult are at least rat cunning enough to never bet their own money on their loony ideas.
And they will never, ever, admit that they were wrong. Watch how desperately they try and spin yet another green-washing scam gone tits up. They actually have the chutzpah to call this collapsed boondoggle as ‘good news for green energy’.
Solar panels (photovoltaic panels) have become so cheap that the plant’s solar collection system is no longer cost effective.
“It has been surpassed by solar photovoltaics due to much lower capital and operating costs in producing clean energy,” said NRG, the Texas company that built it.
Which is all a farrago of lies, of course. The plant failed simply because it didn’t work.
Despite being hailed as a model of renewable energy, Ivanpah underperformed, relied on natural gas and caused significant ecological damage, including habitat destruction and wildlife deaths.
The plant’s failure leaves taxpayers liable for the investment, raises concerns about job losses, and underscores the economic inefficiency of government-subsidized green energy projects.
Ivanpah’s failure is part of a larger trend of expensive and inefficient government-backed renewable energy initiatives, such as the collapse of Solyndra.
Also an Obama-funded project showered with taxpayers’ money, all for naught.
In 2011, the Obama administration issued $1.6 billion in loan guarantees to finance the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, a sprawling solar thermal power plant in California’s Mojave Desert. The project, which consists of three units and nearly 350,000 mirrors designed to focus sunlight onto boiling towers, was touted as a groundbreaking step toward a cleaner energy future. Then-Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz called it an “example of how America is becoming a world leader in solar energy.”
But a decade later, the facility has failed to deliver on its promises. Despite its massive price tag, Ivanpah has consistently underperformed, producing less electricity than projected while relying heavily on natural gas to remain operational. Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, did not mince words when describing the project: “Ivanpah is yet another failed green energy boondoggle, much like Solyndra. Despite receiving $1.6 billion in federal loan guarantees, it never lived up to its promises.”
As for ‘environmentally friendly’, it was as disastrous for the ecology as wind and solar farms.
The construction and operation of the facility have caused significant ecological damage, including the destruction of pristine desert habitat and the deaths of thousands of birds and tortoises. Julia Dowell of the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group, described the project as a “financial boondoggle and environmental disaster.”
And this is coming from likewise climate-deranged ‘environmental’ activists.
Ivanpah’s failure is not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of wasteful spending and inefficiency in government-subsidized green energy projects. Steve Milloy, a senior fellow at the Energy & Environmental Legal Institute and former member of the Trump EPA transition team, warned that similar failures could be on the horizon.
“Green projects have a long history of expensive taxpayer-subsidized disaster that is getting more so,” Milloy said. “Soon we will be looking at failures of larger magnitude than Green New Deal spending. No green project relying on taxpayer subsidies has ever made any economic or environmental sense.”
Let’s face it, Big Oil might be greedy and venal, but it’s not stupid. If these green schemes really were such winners, there would be no need for the government to fund them.
