Bottleneck in the Energy Sector

Reader Ankur Gupta asks, “What is the biggest bottleneck in the energy sector that prevents green energy from becoming a dependable source at mass scale?”

Good question.  It’s that the fossil fuel companies receive enormous subsidies, making their products artificially cheap. The largest two components are:

They are permitted to use our atmosphere as their own private sewer. If they had to pay even a fraction of the cost in terms of damage to human health and the environment, the cost of energy from fossil sources would make solar and wind the only games in town. The “carbon fee and dividend” idea is the best solution, IMO.

They depend on the U.S. military to protect access to foreign crude.  That’s a cool $700 billion annual budget.