My dad used to say that in business, nothing happens until somebody sells something. My dad was a salesman. I’ve expanded on that notion by suggesting when it comes to the economy, nothing happens until energy is expended. And it’s along these lines that I must applaud Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature for another pragmatic move toward energy realism, and away from climate alarmism.
A new energy bill passed by the Florida legislature, which DeSantis is certain to sign, bans offshore wind turbines and prioritizes reliable, affordable electricity over utopian renewable fantasies. According to experts at the Energy Research Institute, this bold move represents a reasoned pushback against the climate activist agenda that has destabilized power grids across America.
As the past year has made abundantly clear, over-reliance on inherently intermittent sources like wind and solar threatens grid resilience and economic stability. The 2021 Texas freeze and 2022 Christmas blackouts vividly illustrated the failures of recklessly forcing renewables into the energy mix. Conventional baseload plants are being driven out of business since they cannot profitably operate solely as on-demand backup for when the wind stops blowing or sun doesn't shine.
The "green" Left claims wind technology is rapidly advancing and becoming cost-competitive. This is wishful thinking at best. According to the non-partisan Energy Information Administration, offshore wind remains exponentially more expensive than combined cycle natural gas plants, even before factoring in the enormous costs of undersea transmission cables and backup capacity when winds are unfavorable. Eastern states have already had to massively increase subsidy prices for their offshore wind boondoggles just to keep projects viable amid soaring post-pandemic construction inflation.
Florida's legislative leaders deserve immense credit for piercing through the climate doomsday cult's hype and understanding the practical deficiencies of offshore wind for their state. As proponents like House Speaker Paul Renner rightly argue, Floridians have no desire to spoil their iconic coastal vistas with industrial wind farms operating at excessive costs. Reps Bobby Payne and Jay Collins highlighted pragmatic concerns over reliability and energy security that anti-fossil fuel ideologues repeatedly ignore.
In addition to its pragmatic offshore wind restrictions, the bill takes the crucial step of removing alarmist climate rhetoric around greenhouse gases and emissions from state laws. The stated intent, as a DeSantis spokesperson explained, is rightly refocusing Florida's posture on proven, dependable energy sources without succumbing to the undue "pressures of the global Green New Deal regime." Given the systemic failures and crises inflicted by climate policy experimentation in recent years, this defiant stance reflects admirable independence from radical environmental orthodoxy.
Critics will surely assail Florida's move as regressive and anti-science, as they do with any policy deviation from the approved climate change catechism. But it is the renewable energy lobby that steadfastly ignores countervailing evidence, from basic physics around intermittency to real-world affordability and reliability data.
Texas and California produce more renewable energy than all other states, but they also lead the nation in power outages.https://t.co/2c8kn8dGX8
— Institute for Energy Research (@IERenergy) March 25, 2024
Until proponents can definitively prove industrial wind and solar can sustain modern societies at reasonable costs without destabilizing grid operations, policymakers are right to approach such technologies with healthy skepticism.
By banning offshore wind in favor of policies supporting natural gas and future-proofing energy infrastructure, the Florida GOP is upholding conservative principles around energy freedom, affordability and protecting taxpayers from bloated subsidies, and reckless spending on prematurely scalable renewable technologies. Their actions stand in stark contrast to the irrational alarmism and fantasy thinking that has paralyzed American energy policy. More states should follow this bold, rational example before catastrophic blackouts become our national pastime.
