A Scientific Justification for Nationalizing the Energy Sector
It’s just 90 seconds to midnight and the climate change doomsday clock ticks on…
“We are already perilously close to tipping points that could lead to cascading and irreversible climate effects” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2022 Sixth Assessment Report (AR6)”
“It is now or never to limit global warming to 1.5 deg… This is not fiction or exaggeration. It is what science tells us will result from our current energy policies. We are on a pathway to global warming of more than double the 1.5-degree Celsius limit that was [set] in Paris in 2015.” UN Secretary General António Guterres reacting to the latest findings of the IPCC.
The only hope we have is to switch from fossil fuels to clean renewables like wind and solar as quickly as possible. Fortunately, the technologies for clean renewable generation have already been developed – they are here today and have quickly become cost-effective. Vehicle manufacturers are all beginning to produce electric vehicles (EVs) and the days are numbered for the internal combustion engine. But widespread adoption of renewables for power generation lags behind, due primarily to bureaucratic bottlenecks and the lack of incentive on the part of for-profit energy utilities.
Shortly after the Paris agreement, the U.S. took a giant step backwards with the election of 45 and his anti-science agenda which disavowed the accord and embraced climate change denial as our national policy. Biden has righted the energy policy ship, reset our energy and climate goals, and made passage of new energy infrastructure a top priority.
Unfortunately, due to the intransigence of climate denier, Democrat Joe Manchin, Biden’s original huge Build Back Better bill stalled in Congress. It would have dedicated an incredible $555 billion for renewable energy and clean transportation projects. The Dems did manage to pass a stripped down $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill which includes about $65 billion for grid infrastructure and $50 billion for cyber and climate resilience, and 7.5 billion for new electric vehicle charging stations over five years. Utility and renewable energy trade groups heralded the bill’s passage, saying it would help spur the shift towards emissions-free electricity through increased funding for transmission, hydrogen and electric vehicles (EVs).
All of these new Democratic Party initiatives are steps in the right direction but to make sure we don’t pass the point of no return for climate change, we need pull out all the stops and adopt a much more bold approach.
A recent article in the New York Times reveals that the major choke point slowing the integration of renewables by utilities is the result of a backlog of approvals for new sources of power by the power grid operating companies and the implementation of state-of-the-art storage and distribution technologies. The major stumbling block is that most power generation and distribution systems in the U.S. are in the hands of energy monopolies that are driven by their bottom line and need for ever-increasing profits. Modifying and modernizing the grid infrastructure is an expense the utilities and grid operating companies are just not incentivized and willing to do.
Furthermore, many of these utilities are mega corporations with huge annual revenues and record-setting profits. While utilities are beginning to adopt wind and solar production at the generation-scale because it is lower in cost than other alternatives, many are providing disincentives to their customers to install distributed roof-top solar because it reduces their bottom line. For example, some utilities don’t pay fair market value for surplus power produced by homeowners even though these customers invested heavily to have their systems installed.
So that brings us to the elephant in the room… which is why the hell do we still rely on for-profit industries to provide basic services like energy and power? If these critical industries were operated to serve the needs of people rather than corporate stockholders, roadblocks to adopting renewables would be lifted and we could move forward more rapidly with the infrastructure necessary to support renewable energy conversion.
Ok, I’ll come right out and say it in plain English…
We need to nationalize the energy production and distribution sectors of the economy to focus on transitioning to clean renewable energy as fast as possible. Without concerns for utility company profits, we can fully incentivize rooftop solar and remove bureaucratic hurdles that are bogging down a rapid transition to renewables.
Putting politics aside for a moment, this concept is no longer solely about issues of equity and fairness (although those concerns are more than adequate justification) but is simply a means of helping to ensure sustainability of Earth’s climate and its habitability for human life as we know it. A coordinated Federal Energy power supply and transmission grid would encourage investment in distributed energy resources, eliminate bottlenecks, and clear the path for a rapid and smooth transition to renewable energy.
If you are not a climate denier, there should be no question or debate about it. It’s not even a radical concept. In fact, public ownership of power transmission is already in place in some parts of the U.S., accounting for 7 percent of the nation’s power generation and about 14 percent of our transmission lines. France recently announced plans to take over its electric utility sector (including production and distribution) and Germany just nationalized its gas industry to ensure stability and adequate supplies in light of Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine. The list of western, capitalistic democracies that have nationalized power generation and distribution includes Denmark and the Netherlands.
We have no time to fiddle around while wild fires burn and consume our forests, polar icecaps melt at an alarming rate, droughts and floods impact our food supplies and catastrophic weather events become commonplace. Nationalize energy production and distribution now… our children’s lives depend on it!
[Originally published in The Daily Kos community page, March 7, 2023]: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/7/2156650/-A-Scientific-Justification-for-Nationalizing-the-Energy-Sector
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