Alex Epstein Testifies on Behalf of Energy Freedom and the Real Costs of Government-Dictated Green Energy

Alex Epstein testified before the House Budget Committee last week and laid bare the reality and threat of something he properly causes 'government-dictated green energy.” A video of his presentation, along with a transcript, including comments and questions by Budget Committee members, may be found at Epstein's “Energy Talking Points” substack. I encourage all readers to check it out. His open remarks are set out below:

Thank you. My name is Alex Epstein. I’m a nonpartisan philosopher and energy expert. I’m very grateful today to share with members of both parties my analysis of what I call government-dictated green energy, which is the essential energy policy of the Biden-Harris administration and of much of today's world.

The basic idea of government-dictated green energy is that the government should force us to rapidly reduce our use of fossil fuel energy and replace it with so-called “green energy,” mostly solar and wind, such that we reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest. 

There are three basic truths you need to know about the costs of government-dictated green energy. And I think these are really under-appreciated even by critics.

One is they have been enormous so far.

Two is they would have been catastrophic had it not been for the resistance of their opponents. This is very important when you hear the Biden administration has record production. That’s in spite of them, not because of them.

And three, they will be apocalyptic if not stopped in the future.

So let’s talk about the cost so far of government-dictated green energy. All the energy related problems we have experienced in recent years, which have been a lot: high gasoline prices, higher heating bills, higher electricity bills, and unreliable electricity, which is a huge problem we need to talk much more about, are the result of government-dictated green energy.

And its very simple. When you shackle the most cost effective and scalable source of energy, fossil fuels, and you subsidize unreliable solar and wind, that wouldn’t otherwise be competitive, energy necessarily becomes more expensive, less reliable and less secure. So again, it’s very simple.

Unfortunately, the current administration and many others are engaged in a denial campaign blaming our energy problems on everything but their own policies.

And then their main targets for blame are Putin, which is a factor, but a derivative factor, and then industry greed, which is a lie. High fossil fuel prices are not a Putin price hike. They’re caused fundamentally by government-dictated green energy.

What happened is they made fossil fuel prices artificially high before Putin’s war, and they made our capacity much less than it should have been. They prevented the free world from quickly increasing production like it could have if we had actually had what I call energy freedom.

Green Energy Dictator?

And high fossil fuel prices have certainly not been determined by greed, including so-called price gouging, which is a big focus right now.

Prices are determined by supply and demand. If oil and gas companies could control energy prices in their favor, why didn't they do this from 2015 to 2020 when they were losing money? The truth is that government-dictated green energy policies are fundamentally responsible for all the energy related costs we experience today compared to a decade ago.

And in fact, it’s worse than that. There’s an opportunity cost. Because were it not for these policies, energy would have gotten considerably cheaper and more reliable, especially with lower natural gas prices, which should have lowered electricity prices. Instead, they’ve gone up because we’ve added a bunch of wasteful energy and unreliable stuff. And it gets worse, since energy is the industry that powers every other industry. By making energy more expensive and less reliable, we make everything more expensive and less reliable, which means government-dictated green energy drives price inflation. Very important point.

But even blaming Biden-Harris’s government-dictated green energy policies and those of other countries for all the energy-related costs we experienced today, including inflation, is not enough, because we have to recognize that these policies would have done far more damage had they not been vigorously opposed.

In action after action, unfortunately, the Biden administration has shown us that it will do anything it can get away with politically to rapidly eliminate fossil fuels. So pipeline blocking, federal leasing bans, LNG prohibitions, power plant shutdowns, EV mandates, SEC rules.

Now, most of what this administration has tried to do to rapidly eliminate fossil fuel use has thankfully been slowed by opposition. So Congressional battles, lawsuits over power plant shutdowns, courts reversing illegal leasing bans, etcetera.

But without this opposition, they would have already caused energy ruin. Consider our failing grid. We desperately need more reliable power plants, given huge demand from AI and EVs, which, that’s artificial demand mostly from the administration, but our EPA has tried to shut down all coal, which is one sixth of reliable capacity.

Were it not for the opponents of this administration’s government-dictated green energy policies, we’d already have a third-world grid. So, you have to think about the real cost.

I hope you can understand why I’m so concerned about our energy future. The costs of government-dictated green energy have been enormous and would have been truly catastrophic had this administration done everything it wanted to. 

Here’s what scares me most. Our administration and others promised to rapidly eliminate fossil fuel use to reach net-zero by 2050.  But so far, they’ve only managed to slow fossil fuels’ growth. They haven't reduced it, they’ve just slowed its growth. And just that has caused an energy crisis. What happens if we really start going net-zero, which is the promise ahead of us?

Just think about agriculture. Our ability to feed 8 billion people is dependent on natural gas for fertilizer and diesel for farm equipment, neither of which has a near-term scalable substitute that's not fossil fuel.

Government-dictated green energy unopposed would starve much of the world. And I’ll just say as I conclude, there is an alternative to government-dictated green energy: energy freedom, which means the freedom to produce and use all sources of energy so long as they are subject to reasonable protections against pollution and other forms of endangerment.

And that’s really going to be the key to having energy abundance and resilience to climate in the near future and energy innovation, including among alternatives, long term.

Whatever party you’re from—again, I don’t affiliate with either party—I want to help you fight for energy freedom and I welcome your questions.

When Epstein asks what happens if we really start going net-zero he poses the essential question. Net-zero is all about degrowth for everyone outside the circle of elites. That's the world we face right now on every front. Global elites want total control of our energy, our health, our speech and our numbers.

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