Green Gone Crazy

I enjoy reading Lubos Motl's blog The Reference Frame. He is a bit of a right wing nut, but his science is sound and I think he has his heart in the right place. We certainly agree on some things, but differ on others. But having different perspectives is what makes life interesting! Without differences, there is no point in holding a conversation.

Here's a bit from a posting by Lubos Motl on how state subsidies for "green technology" have gone crazy in the Czech republic. Watch closely when he talks dollar amounts:

The production of the Czech solar energy - and subsidies - grew nearly by an order of magnitude in just one year. That's crazy especially because Czechia is no Sun paradise. The lawmakers have realized the huge threat of global subsidizing, including their unsustainable growth, and they agreed to instantly fight against it.

However, Lidovky (EN), the country's #2 daily, published an analysis from economist Miroslav Zajíček (the last name means Bunny) estimating how much green subsidies we have already committed to - how much wasted money is already waiting in the pipeline - because many contracts can no longer be abolished.

The figure is pretty shocking: it's CZK 750 billion or USD 40 billion or so. The U.S. readers will find these numbers abstract so let me translate it to the U.S. context. The U.S. GDP is nominally 60 times greater than the Czech economy (30 times higher population, 2 times bigger GDP per capita). So if the U.S. have the same subsidies-to-GDP ration, there is already USD 2.4 trillion of green subsidies waiting in the pipeline! That's more than twice Obamacare.

The author of the article calculates the estimated prices and losses in the years to come, the "billions in the trap"... He thinks that details of his calculation make the CZK 750 billion figure conservative. He also says that as the electricity price jumps, some people will be switching to burning of the natural gas and old rubber boots. ;-)

Needless to say, the positive environmental advantages of these scary policies are pretty much non-existent. The electricity may be called "renewable" but the billions of dollars that are wasted for this meaningless flapdoodle are not renewable.

Motl is on the right and is against governments getting involved in the economy. In this case I agree with him. Fanatics have seized the levers of power to push an agenda. They have spent the equivalent of $2.4 trillion on a "green" scheme which will be mostly wasted tax dollars.

Here is a case in which I agree with the right: government shouldn't try to "pick winners" and subsidize industries. Government should restrict itself to creating an even playing field and ensuring that the laws are fair and fully enforced. Anything else and you have a government bureaucrat deciding what is good for you and there is no way he can know what you want to do with your dollars.

As I read the book The Science of Liberty by Timothy Ferris (see here) I realize that I'm neither left nor right, progressive or conservative. I'm more of a classical liberal (with progressive tendencies which Ferris labels a "neo-liberal"). Funny I've lived six decades, with five of which I've thought I'm a leftist, but I've discovered that I'm really a neo-liberal. It's funny that it has taken so long to recognize myself in a mirror. But it reflects how little real political discussion goes on in this society. Instead of discussion viewpoints and making careful distinctions, most politics is mud slinging and left/right name calling. So people never learn the possible subtle distinctions. Consequently the politics is stuck in puerile name-calling and never rises to the level principles and careful distinctions. Sad.