New York state Sen. George Borrello, R-Wyoming County, has introduced a bill to require that all wind turbines, solar collectors and infrastructure for producing green energy be manufactured and constructed without the use of fossil fuels.
His bill would also apply to the manufacture and distribution of electric vehicles.
If the bill were to become law, it would be the end of renewable energy. There’s no feasible way to manufacture and transport wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles without fossil fuels.
Borrello is well aware of this fact and said he suspects most of his colleagues in the New York Legislature do too.
Like a resolution that was introduced in the last Wyoming legislative session earlier this year that would’ve banned auto dealerships from selling electric vehicles, the goal of Borrello’s bill is to get people thinking a bit harder about the outcomes of extreme green energy policies.
“The intent of the bill is to start an honest conversation about the reality of wind turbines and solar panels,” Borrello told Cowboy State Daily. “These energy sources are praised as the answer to reducing emissions and saving the planet. However, rarely discussed is the environmental damage that results from the manufacture, transport and installation of these systems.”
‘Stupid Laws’
In the last session of the Wyoming Legislature, Sen. Jim Anderson, R-Casper, sponsored a resolution requiring the state’s auto dealerships to phase out the sale of electric vehicles by 2035.
Anderson and the co-sponsors never intended the resolution to pass. They only wanted to start a conversation about bans on the sale of gas-powered vehicles that were adopted in California and considered in Colorado.
He was successful.
After Cowboy State Daily first reported on the measure, Anderson was interviewed on Fox News, Fox Business and Newsmax, as well as news outlets in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida and Pennsylvania.
“It was successful at starting the conservation and getting a lot of comments from the ignorant,” Anderson told Cowboy State Daily.
He said it’s possible he’ll pursue similar legislation in future sessions, perhaps a bill rather than a resolution, which is nonbinding.
With bans on the sale of gas-powered cars in California and New York, along with bans on natural gas hookups in new construction, Anderson said more conversation is needed.
“There’s so many of these stupid laws being passed. It’s really getting out of hand,” Anderson said.
Height Of Hypocrisy
Borrello said solar panels require the mining of rare earth metals, which is done with diesel-powered machinery, and they are typically manufactured with coal-fired electricity.
Likewise, metallurgical coal is burned to forge steel for the foundations of wind towers. Diesel-powered heavy equipment, Borrello continued, transports the components, prepares the sites and assembles the structures.
“It is the height of hypocrisy to pretend that solar panels and wind turbines will save us from ‘evil’ fossil fuels, when the reality is that renewables — just like modern life as we know it — cannot exist without them,” Borrello said.
Additionally, Borrello said much of the materials for wind turbines, electric vehicles and solar panels are sourced from countries with far fewer protections for the environment and labor than we have here in the United States.
“It is also important to note that the manufacture of these structures also often involves human rights abuses, such as child labor and forced labor,” Borrello said.
Critical Thinking
The New York lawmaker said he doesn’t expect the bill will gain support from his colleagues in the New York Legislature.
“While I hope that this bill will encourage some of my colleagues who support the state’s radical climate agenda to think a little more critically about the true costs and benefits of the harmful policies they are promoting, it is doubtful that they will get behind this bill,” he said.
Borrello said that in his home state of New York, there are those who will privately acknowledge the shortcomings of wind and solar, but they must continue to repeat party-line talking points on the issue.
“Politics is at the root of this debate and those on the left are ‘all in’ on the idea that the answer to climate change is blanketing our landscapes with wind turbines and solar panels,” he said.
Realities
Borrello said he is hoping to expose the truth behind the talking points.
“I believe that we can help educate everyday folks about the realities of these ‘solutions’ they constantly hear about from politicians and the media,” Borrello said.
Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, who co-sponsored the electric vehicle resolution, said he’s happy to see lawmakers in more liberal states going beyond rhetoric to get people to see practical realities.
He said it’s hard to say the feedback he received on the electric vehicle proposal was mostly positive, but he hopes, like Borrello, the effort got people thinking about the outcomes of the policies they are pursuing.
Boner said that practical realities are sinking in here in Wyoming. As an example, he pointed to the latest future planning document for PacifiCorp, which is the parent company of Rocky Mountain Power, the largest utility in Wyoming.
The company showed some delays in retiring coal-fired power plants, along with more natural gas-fired units to be kept in the mix well into the future.
“There's a difference between the rhetoric and what they're actually doing, which I choose to view in an optimistic manner,” Boner said.
