Shellenberger on Biden's Woke Green Energy Fantasy

This is almost certainly right:

If renewables are doomed for fundamental physical reasons, why do so many educated people believe we will transition to them? Most are just ignorant. They have been surrounded by professional ideologues who have deceived them for decades. They insist that the US will somehow be able to quickly build the massive solar factories, rare earth mines and mineral refiners that took China 20 years to build.

Most educated people aren't educated at all about climate nor energy. "Educated" now--with respect to such issues--really means: indoctrinated into the fantasies of the left. (In this case: liberals as well as progressives, unfortunately.) They do not understand how dicey "the science" on climate is...must less on warming...much less on anthropogenic warming. They do not understand what a boon to humanity fossil fuels are--even taking their climate costs into account. And they don't understand the costs and problems associated with alleged "green" energy sources. They are subject to pervasive propaganda to the effect that we're on the brink of an apocalypse, science-fiction energy sources can save us, and only the stupidity of conservatives and the greed of oil companies stands in the way. When you are allowed to hear--and allow yourself to consider--only one side of the issues...and when all the strength of the considerations are all wildly exaggerated...you end up with a fantastically counterfactual view. In fact, the reasonable view here is that of people like Shellenberger and Musk: there are a lot of reasons to work toward a future in which fossil fuels play a much smaller role. But we are not teetering on the edge of apocalypse. And the pretense that we are has become at least as dangerous as climate change itself. It's making us do very, very stupid and harmful things.