What Many Progressives Misunderstand About Fighting Climate Change
Since the 1960s, fighting for the environment has frequently meant fighting against corporations. To curb pollution, activists have worked to thwart new oil drilling, coal-fired power plants, fracking for natural gas, and fuel pipelines. But today, Americans face a climate challenge that can’t be solved by just saying no again and again.
Decarbonizing the economy will require an unprecedented amount of new energy investment. Fossil-fuel infrastructure built over centuries needs to be replaced within the next few decades by clean-energy alternatives. The United States will need to build of square miles of wind and solar farms; deploy enough to keep power flowing through the grid even on calm, cloudy days; and at least the country’s transmission-line capacity. And the that environmental groups leveraged in the past to block or delay fossil-fuel projects are now being by NIMBYs in ways, a geothermal facility in , and what could have been the in America have all been blocked by an endless series of environmental reviews and lawsuits.
