A movement of anti-energy evangelism threatens our health, welfare and lifestyles. The great Satan — oil and gas — has grown to include most promising energy sources. Maybe we can live like the Paleolithic cave people and burn sticks for energy.
For a fringe example of this philosophy — the environmental movement’s version of a hypocritical religious zealot — consider Colorado’s Dr. Mohammed Mesmarian. An Aurora-based pediatric dentist and orthodontist, Mesmarian admits to setting a fire that damaged a solar array outside Las Vegas this month.
“Mesmarian admitted ... he did it for the big message, larger picture, greater good. He explained the greater good was clean energy,” a police report explains.
Police say Mesmarian mistook the transformer for part of a “Tesla facility.”
Mesmarian is not alone in attacking portions of the electrical grid to save Mother Earth from energy — any energy.
Stephen Plato McRae spent several months shooting electrical grid facilities in Utah and Arizona as his “master plan” to shut down electrical power and stop “global warming.”
Even in Colorado — a hub of “renewable” and “clean” energy policy think tanks and activists — wind and solar come under attack. Before El Paso County commissioners approved a small wind farm near Calhan in 2015, a barrage of environmentalists tried to stop them. In a packed room, they said rotating blades would cause chickens to lay eggs more erratically and harm other livestock. The blades would decapitate birds.
One activist from Manitou Springs — 41 miles west of the wind farm — complained the “repetitive shadow effect” of turbines could jeopardize her mental and physical health.
Gizmodo — a journal of tech, science and culture — reported in 2018 that “anti-wind farm activism is sweeping Europe and the U.S. could be next.”
That was prophetic. All over the United States, groups are forming to protect the environment from wind turbines and solar arrays. Not in My Back Yard. Not on my pasture. Not near my beach.
“Finding places to build all the clean energy we’ll need to limit global warming isn’t getting any easier,” reported the Los Angeles Times in late 2022.
“As developers flood rural communities and remote landscapes with proposals for solar fields and wind turbines, they often face intense opposition from conservationists dedicated to protecting habitat for migratory birds, sage grouse and desert tortoises — and from local residents who see industrial energy infrastructure as a threat to their small-town way of life.”
Alas, anti-energy activism does not begin and end with NIMBYism and unhinged extremists.
During the first week of January, Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg the board might outlaw appliances powered by clean-burning natural gas. He cited an obscure study that links gas stoves to childhood asthma — a correlation far from proven.
Other commissioners told Gazette reporter Scott Weiser they had no plans for an imminent ban. Of course, they would say that. This unpopular idea must be carried out with an insidious incrementalism that will mitigate opposition.
Don’t be surprised if gas stoves, heating systems and water heaters go the way of incandescent lightbulbs and high-capacity shower fittings without much notice.
“The Sierra Club is committed to eliminating the use of fossil fuels, including coal, natural gas and oil, as soon as possible,” the organization’s website says. President Joe Biden has stated a near-identical commitment.
We can dismiss the likes of Dr. Mesmarian as fringe operatives, but they represent a dangerous and irrational agenda shared by a mainstream movement. The emotional pandering of “clean energy” resonates more easily than data highlighting the obstacles to an all-electric world.
Our electrical grid — whether powered by wind, solar, coal or gas — has nowhere near the capacity to meet our energy needs and will not for generations. Most older homes lack access to adequate voltage for all-electric heating, cooling and cooking. Deprive foodies and chefs of gas stoves, and they might storm the Capitol.
Humans have advanced and extended their lives by harnessing available energy sources. We must continue making them safer and cleaner. We cannot let the radical fringe — or the establishment — threaten our access to power.
The Gazette Editorial Board