Nick Loris, Dan Negrea, and Sam Buchan write in The National Interest on the importance of an “all of the above” energy policy.
“President Joe Biden needs to rethink his energy-climate-prosperity paradigm. His current thinking holds that the U.S. fossil fuel industry needs to be restrained because its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are causing imminent and catastrophic damage to the Earth. His solution is to hamstring the fossil fuel industry while pushing a government-financed accelerated transition to renewables. That is neither the way toward a reliable energy supply nor reduced emissions. Instead, the new paradigm should be an expansive “all-of-the-above” energy policy that promotes the growth of all American energy sources: fossil, solar, wind, nuclear, hydro, geothermal, and more.
America’s economy needs plentiful, reliable, varied, and cheap energy to remain strong. It must ensure the security and prosperity of the American people. Renewables just aren’t ready to meaningfully replace fossil fuels in our energy mix, and they won’t be for some time. Fossil fuels account for 78 percent of total U.S. energy consumption, while renewables register only 10 percent (excluding hydroelectricity). Little is expected to change in the next several decades given global energy demand growth and existing policies. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2022, in 2050, fossil fuels are still expected to provide 74 percent of total U.S. energy needs, while renewables will grow to just 16 percent.“
