So Long to Greentech Media’s Eric Wesoff

• When I started tracking renewables in 2003 (pre-GTM), non-hydro renewable sources made a meaningless contribution to the grid and nobody was making money. Fifteen years later, non-hydro renewables make a very small contribution to the grid, and some folks are making money. With that in mind, I’ll suggest that the sniping going on over the 100 percent renewables goal modeled by Professor Mark Jacobson is an epic example of Sayre’s law: “Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low.”

Oooo.  Cuts like a knife.  In reality, I fail to understand the big deal here, as there is no imperative to rid ourselves of the last molecule of fossil fuels.  What’s happening here can be divided into three phases, as follows.  Phase one is the replacement of fossil fuels in the national grid-mix.  The pace at which this is happening, even considering the considerable headwind represented by the Trump administration, suggests that the U.S. will get to a point in which renewables plus natural gas backup will win the day over the coming couple of decades–even if there are no breakthroughs in safe and cost-effective nuclear.

Phase two is the replacement of petroleum as fuel in most forms of transportation.  Again, it’s pretty clear that this is happening, given the adoption curve of electric vehicles, a function of better range and lower costs.  It won’t be long until the confluence of these two parameters provides consumers with a host of EV products that boast obvious advantages over gas- and diesel-powered transportation.

Phase three is “everything else”: aircraft, shipping, class 8 trucks, etc.  It’s too early to see exactly where this is going and when it’s going to get there.

• That said, consider running for local office on a renewables platform. Apply for a job at your state’s PUC — they are hiring. Call the offices of your elected officials and politely tell the aides how you feel about solar, wind, and storage. Invent something new. Found a renewable power startup. Write an article or an op-ed. Teach someone young about energy policy.

Right on.

• As much as it pains me to say this, Gary Kremen was mostly right. Eight years ago, over breakfast, the entrepreneur and Match.com founder told me that there was no economy of scale in nationalizing a home contractor business like HVAC or plumbing or SolarCity, Verengo or Sungevity.

This appears to be correct, but I don’t see this as a gating factor to the adoption of renewables, either in the context of public utilities or distributed generation.

• Throughout my tenure at GTM, or my entire lifetime for that matter, no fuel-cell company has had a profitable year. Bloom Energy remains a private company. And the damn $3 million half-built hydrogen filling station on the corner of my street remains half-built.

Right.  It’s 100% clear that there will never be a “hydrogen economy,” based on the basic economics, including the unfathomable cost of retrofitting our fuel-delivery infrastructure, the cost and fragility of fuel-cells, and the horrific inefficiencies of generating hydrogen–either from the electrolysis of water or the reformation of methane.

• A “C” student should not be leading our energy policy or safeguarding our nuclear stockpile.

Obviously.

• Calling negative news “fake news” is the mark of a despot. With exceptions, the press is doing a decent job of reporting on the incompetence and malfeasance of the Trump administration. Access for the sake of access is bullshit — journalists need to band together and walk out of the room when faced with propaganda and lies.

Good for you.  It’s hard for anyone with any intelligence and concern for humankind not to be at least somewhat rattled by the whole Trump phenomenon.  Yet it appears that independent media–and even a sizable chunk of corporate-owned media is not knuckling under to this current fascistic, though flash-in-the-pan trend toward obfuscating the truth.  The whole thing seems to be imploding with each passing day.

When this is over, and we all hope soon, we will realize that we dodged a huge bullet.  Had Trump been a little less reckless and immature, had he acted and spoken with some level of truth and decency at least some of the time, he probably could have pulled this off, destroying not the environment, but healthcare, public schools, the rights of women, non-whites and religious minorities, etc.–a true Koch brothers dystopia for all but the super rich. In a few years we’ll look back on this period and realize how much worse all this could have been.

In any case, we say goodbye to Eric, we thank him for his amazing service over the years, and we wish him well.  As he indicates at the close of this article, the Greentech Media editorial is indeed left in the “capable and creative hands of Editor-in-Chief Stephen Lacey, Senior Editor Julia Pyper, Grid Whisperer Jeff St. John, and Staff Writer Julian Spector.”