One of the greatest features of the American system is that the states, or “the laboratories of democracy,” as coined by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, have a fair amount of autonomy and can therefore serve as testing grounds for a variety of policies.
This attribute, which does not exist in many countries, is a vital characteristic of the United States.
Like all things, it has its benefits and drawbacks. On one hand, it allows for constant innovation and deters centralization. On the other hand, it can produce chaos and a race to the bottom wherein states like California use their economic and political leverage to implement onerous regulations that other states must follow.
In recent years, several states have taken very different approaches to energy policy.
Some, like the Golden State, have been early adopters of the so-called green transition. In doing so, they have created incredibly complex environmental regulations that stifle economic growth.
California, and many other states, have also embraced wind and solar power while prematurely retiring perfectly operational coal and nuclear power plants.
On the other end of the spectrum is Louisiana.
A few days ago, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed the landmark Affordable, Reliable, Clean Energy Security Act (ARCESA) into law.
According to Landry, “This bill is important because it is the first in the country. Louisiana becomes the first state to codify this type of law – where we’re going to protect and make sure that policy is enacted into law to ensure our electricity is affordable, reliable, and clean energy security for our state.”
The law, which correctly defines natural gas as a clean source of energy, is expected to produce more than 300,000 high-paying jobs in the Pelican State.
Moreover, the new law “provides transparency to ratepayers,” “ensures equal treatment for all energy sources contributing to grid reliability and resiliency,” “prohibits the use of supply chains involving child or slave labor – such as those that were purchasing in China,” and “strengthens Louisiana’s energy future by prioritizing affordable, reliable, and in-state dispatchable electricity from sources like natural gas and nuclear.”
Landry is right when he said this law “sets the stage for an energy renaissance – not only here, but in America.”
In a nutshell, ARCESA is the most America first, commonsense energy law I’ve seen in recent years. It also represents a much-needed and long-overdue pushback by states against the climate alarmists who are hellbent on making American energy unaffordable and unreliable.
Despite years of federal subsides, solar and wind simply cannot produce enough baseload energy to meet demand. This is not mere speculation, it is based on empirical evidence.
As the American Energy Alliance notes, “power outages have increased by 93 percent across the United States over the last 5 years – a time when solar and wind power have increased by 60 percent. Texas, who leads the nation in wind generation, and California, who leads the nation in solar generation, have had the largest number of power outages in the nation over those 5 years.”
In “Affordable, Reliable, and Clean: An Objective Scorecard to Assess Competing Energy Sources,” Heartland Institute President James Taylor notes, “Affordable, reliable, and clean are the foundational elements of sound energy policy. An in-depth analysis of seven common electrical power sources reveals that natural gas makes the most sense according to the affordable, reliable, and clean standard, with nuclear, hydro, and coal not far behind. Biomass trails by a moderate margin while wind and solar stand apart as the least desirable power sources.”
As someone who grew up during the “inventor of the internet” Al Gore’s peak days of global warming hype, I think the tide is turning. More and more, Americans aren’t buying the alarmist claims that we are a few years from the Apocalypse unless we stop using fossil fuels. Their dire predictions of impending environmental doom have not come to fruition and they are no longer credible.
I hope more states follow Louisiana’s lead because we all want and need affordable, reliable, and clean energy.
