Renewable energy makes sense

It’s not a great time for renewable energy in the United States. The Trump Administration has already rolled back, or is attempting to roll back, any legislation that promoted its use. It might be easy to write this off as just delivering what the taxpayer and the consumer want. But it’s a result of a decades-long disinformation campaign by people with a political or financial stake in its failure.

In an effort to help combat that disinformation, the YouTube channel Technology Connections shared an extensive video discussing renewables (mostly in transportation) and why he believes it makes sense to support the technology from a business perspective. It’s a very good video that explains in plain English why renewables make sense and the concerns.

It also systematically addresses concerns people might have at each step. For one, it discusses how much corn is used in gasoline and why corn-based gasoline isn’t a greener solution. Yes, ethanol in gasoline can be a positive, but making ethanol from corn — and subsidizing the process — doesn’t solve any of the problems it’s supposed to solve.

(Editor’s note: It’s a long video, and the last 30 minutes aren’t necessary to watch to understand the video, but I think it’s a necessary watch for anyone who believes in what America should be. Let me paraphrase some statements I’ve seen recently: You can’t read this newsletter if you’ve been murdered by the armed goon squad of the state.”)

For those who didn’t just stop reading, this video also points out something that some have known for a long time, but is worth mentioning again: Disinformation works because it’s easy.

I’ve highlighted a few times automotive media outlets and journalists who have run a successful disinformation campaign against EVs, touting the same arguments that the Trump Administration does.

But if you want to fight against these claims, you need to explain how it all works. This video is over an hour long. It’s very good. You should share it with people. But it’s also an hour long.

It starts with asking questions not in good faith, like what happens to the batteries, or about the mining of materials, or about the fear of a house burning down. Then normal people start to question the same thing.

Those people — the regular, normal people — are asking in good faith. Their concerns are in good faith. It’s just that those who learned what they learned weren’t making the argument in good faith.

Propaganda works. Gaslighting works. Fear mongering works. It’s easier to spread a lie than to disprove a lie, in many cases.

One takeaway I’m going to have from this video is the simple talking point, “Why pay for single-use energy when you can pay to use the energy over and over?” It doesn’t answer all the questions (which the video does), but it’s a simple idea most people should be able to understand.

Renewables help stem the tide of global climate change. Renewables help secure energy independence. Renewables just make sense. For normal people, it shouldn’t be more complicated than that.