Though it needed a perfect storm of events for that to happen, the science community knew future meltdowns would be impossible - and easily avoidable if Democrats led by President Bill Clinton and Senator John Kerry hadn't gotten nuclear research effectively banned in 1994. If American technological progress had been allowed to continue, America would have 4th generation nuclear power, with no damaging byproducts and no risk of meltdown.(1)
In a bizarre twist, German environmentalists, bizarre because they get paid by German politicians to lobby German politicians, lobbied to have German nuclear plants scuttled. Solar and wind were ready, they insisted, Deutschland just needed the "political will" and to "show leadership" and fully switch to solar and wind.
Europe gasped when Germany volunteered to again become The Sick Old Man of Europe by rolling the dice of its economy on solar power. Yet activists and politicians said it was fine. Then they hid the fact that on-demand German conventional power was making more profit than ever, because the government had to buy it on the spot market when government got the weather forecasts wrong. And they had to pretend not to notice that a lot of the gas they were using to keep the lights on was coming through Ukraine from Russia.
They insisted solar and wind was working, even though every expert and energy scientist knew that was impossible.
Germany quietly began to import wood pellets to burn - those are charged to exporting companies under the climate treaty Germany helped created.
To Europe, pollution from burning wood is better than using clean natural gas - unless it is from Russia. Credit: Andrew_Writer, CC BY
They negotiated with their domestic environmental groups to fast-track a pipeline directly from Russia, in case a 2014 fight with Ukraine happened again. Then they could stay out of it by noting that Ukraine is a 'sovereign nation' and their spats with Russia were no business of Germany. And Russians would then be able to take Ukraine, since their pipeline was no longer strategically needed for Germany.(2)
It didn't work out that way, Russia attacked before the new pipeline was done, so German manufacturing began to shut down and German companies began to invest their money in the U.S.
And the public still did not know that Germany had shut down its nuclear plants while coal was not only still being used, but German coal plants were quietly being placed back into service.
Coal plant in Datteln, Germany. Credit: Arnold Paul/Wikimedia Commons
Now there is no more hiding. A new study showed that Germany has been lying about its emissions. Not by a little, by a lot, 184X the amount they report to the UN under the treaty they created with France. Easily calculated if anyone in Germany had used American methodology rather than letting politicians just make breezy claims.
Was 2020 that long ago? Of course not, environmentalists engage in open collusion to promote each other's claims about how energy is magic. California also claimed solar and wind were working, while quietly asking EPA to waive emissions rules for California so they could fire natural gas plants non-stop to prevent more brownouts.
The good news is that Germany is only really lying about methane. Yes, environmentalists pivoted from CO2 to scaring people about methane once CO2 became contained, just like they pivoted from actual smog, PM10, to virtual pollution PM2.5 once the air got clean, but that is just a money-making grift from the same people who promoted natural gas and ethanol and hydroelectric power before suing over all three. Methane does have 24X the warming effect of CO2 but it is so short-lived that environmentalists are undermining climate change efforts shrieking about it, because it detracts from the CO2 issue.
Germans have been willing to turn a blind eye to facts when they are in contrast to wishful thinking about alternatives to energy, so look for politicians and the environmentalists they fund to lay the blame on Big Energy - and citizens will pretend that is possible.
NOTES:
(1) Instead, progressives are suing to prevent any maintenance at California's last remaining nuclear power plant, at a time when the state is suffering brownouts due to the failure of solar and wind while the public pays the nation's highest utility rates.
(2) Something went wrong, and some day we may know what, but not yet. Before the Nord 2 pipeline was finished, and it was going to magically get environmental approval the day it was completed, Russia attacked Ukraine. Germany was in the awkward position of having to denounce Russia
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