Like most Democrat front groups, they are sorely misinformed. Virginia Republicans, on the other hand, should pursue a much better path. I believe there are four pillars to support Republican energy policies in Virginia:

1. Realism. Stop doing what isn’t working. The world needs to follow the U.S. example of how the U.S. became the world leader in reducing emissions. Net zero can only be achieved when technology advances over time, it is accepted by the public, the new technology is affordable, and market forces — not government mandates — lead the way.

Democrats always measure success by how much they spend, never by results. There is no comprehensive report published by a credible governmental organization that concludes net zero will be achieved by 2050. Today’s Democrat policy prescriptions are not only ineffective, but can succeed only in Communist China, not in free democratic societies.

2. Any energy transition will take a long time. You can’t change a worldwide energy system that took 150 years to build and change overnight. We can only move as quickly as engineering, physics, economics and science allow.

The public needs to hear from industry and business leaders that any transition will take a long time; most importantly, it needs to hear it from the federal government. Weening the world off fossil fuels in the near term is pure folly. This idea was developed by radical environmentalists to justify keeping it in the ground.

3. American leadership on the world stage. The world needs Republican leadership, not the European Union, China or the Democrats, for they have failed. The United States is the world’s largest energy producer and has decreased emissions more than the next five countries combined.

The U.S. is the natural leader to show the world how it can be done. Natural gas is responsible for 58% of all emission reductions in the United States; natural gas reduced more emissions than renewables. The same can be accomplished worldwide by U.S. liquified natural gas exports. Dictating and limiting developing nations’ energy options is the modern era’s colonialism. It’s a moral imperative to end climate colonialism advocated by the global elite and forced upon the developing world. Leading a worldwide effort of an “all of the above” strategy will benefit developing nations and the U.S.

4. Innovation and technology. America has always solved complex societal problems. We have a proven playbook that works; it’s called technology and innovation. Republicans are for the possible. Democrats are against everything!

Solutions need to be affordable in both Indiana and India. If we want true change, governmental programs are not the answer; the solution is unleashing entrepreneurs and allowing the market to adapt and innovate. Worldwide use of coal reached a record in 2024, and the U.S Department of Energy has been developing near zero emissions coal plants of the future. We should export this technology. If we are to reduce both domestic and global emissions, it will require innovative technologies that not only reduce emissions but are also affordable, reliable and clean.

Lou Hrkman is the former deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy. He lives in James City County.

The supposed reason for any wasteful renewable project is to achieve a goal of net zero emissions by 2050. In 2021, the International Energy Agency, or IEA, published a report that came up with a plan on how to achieve net zero by 2050. In its Net Zero by 2050 report, the IEA outlines more than 400 milestones, all of which need to be achieved in order to reach net zero by 2050. The document is basically based upon fantasy and an endless pot of money spent by governments that is unsustainable and increasingly not accepted by their citizens. How unrealistic are each of the steps? Here is just a sampling.

• Renewable power generation will reach 88% of world generation by 2050. EIA estimates by 2050 at least 75% of power generation will be by fossil fuels.
• Coal use in 2050 is 90% lower than in 2020; the U.S. Energy Information Agency predicts a 10% increase in coal usage by 2050.
• Oil demand never returns to its 2019 peak of 88 million barrels a day; 2023 demand was about 101 million barrels a day.
• Limiting driving speeds on motorways to 62 mph. (Apparently they’ve never been on I-64.)

Achieving decarbonization of energy use in the sector requires almost all existing buildings to undergo a single in-depth retrofit by 2050.

Oh, by the way, the Hampton roads area would need to eliminate internal combustion engines.

Currently, no signatory of the Paris Climate Agreement is anywhere near a pathway to achieve the net zero pledges. However, Virginia Democrats continue to advocate for unreasonable solutions. 2023 set a new world wide record for GHG emissions. It’s time to end the nonsense that this will be achievable.

By far the largest waste of ratepayer and taxpayer dollars is the Virginia offshore wind project. The ratepayer will be on the hook for $13 billion dollars for old technology — windmills — that at best will generate electricity maybe 40% of the time. And, every 10 years the windmills will need to be “re-powered” costing taxpayers and ratepayers billions of dollars more every 10 years.

When faced with the facts, the always predictable Democrats always revert to scare tactics about the climate. They don’t even take the time to change the wording of their press releases.

Notice the dates from a June 29, 1989, Associated Press dispatch. Today, Democrats continue the same script. Does it sound familiar?

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000.

Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of “eco-refugees,” threatening political chaos, said Noel Brown, director of the New York office of the U.N. Environment Program, or UNEP.

He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before it goes beyond human control.

As the warming melts polar icecaps, ocean levels will rise by up to three feet, enough to cover the Maldives and other flat island nations, Brown told the Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday.

Coastal regions will be inundated; one-sixth of Bangladesh could be flooded, displacing a fourth of its 90 million people. A fifth of Egypt’s arable land in the Nile Delta would be flooded.

So now, 35 years later, we’re all alive. I do believe the climate is changing, but I don’t believe in the failed policies being imposed on Virginians.

Enough is enough. Virginians should not shoulder the cost of ineffective, expensive and corrupt Democrat climate policies. Virginia does not want to go down the same pathway as California, but Virginia Democrats are sure trying to do so.

Lou Hrkman is from James City County.

The authors are under the spell that if somehow everyone does their part, we can have an impact on climate change. Here are the facts. The U.S. is the world leader in lowering carbon emissions from 2005-2020 — reducing emissions more than the next five countries combined. For every ton of emissions reduced by the U.S., China has increased emissions by nearly 4 tons. Under the Paris Agreement, China will increase emissions another 50% by 2030.

The world has failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and has demonstrated that current policies and approaches have also failed. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just released its 6th Assessment, and it has concluded the world will not limit climate change to less than 1.5 degrees, and unlikely to keep it under 2 degrees. Instead of continuing to follow the same failed policies, we need to take a better and different approach.

Who can be against solar — it’s supposedly clean and cheap? It’s neither.

Solar is not clean. Over 70% of all solar panels produced in the world originate in China. They are produced by materials sourced in a region of China that uses slave labor which human rights organizations describe as genocide. They are manufactured in plants that are powered by 100% coal.

Solar is expensive. Arizona has the highest utilization rate for solar in the U.S. However, their panels produce electricity only 29% of the time. The other 71% of the time, they need to be backed up by fossil fuels. In Virginia, the utilization rate is significantly lower around 20%. When you factor in full cost of the 24/7 life support that unreliable solar and wind electricity need, they are far more expensive. Finally, if solar is so inexpensive, why have they needed subsidies for the past 27 years? These subsidies amount to the largest corporate tax cut in U.S. history.

I support landowners’ rights to do what they want with their land. However, the previous authors mention several requirements that are needed so we don’t have to see these hideous installations. I would add two other suggestions. Instead of designating the land under a “special use permit,” it should be rezoned for industrial use. James City County should require the strictest and largest monetary bond requirements for when these installations need to be dismantled. The full cost of disposal should be reflected in the bond price and inflation factors. Future taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay these costs.

There are better and more effective solutions to mitigate climate change, but this blind obedience to renewables is not the answer. Maybe more on this topic in the future.

Lou Hrkman is a resident of James City County.

The goal of achieving 100% carbon-free energy by 2045 is a total myth and unachievable. Just because Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says something, doesn’t mean it is a fact or achievable.  Here is an example of misguided policies set out in the commonwealth’s goals.

When the State Corporation Commission “approved” the offshore windfarm from Virginia Beach they expressed much skepticism. They stated,  “Dominion’s customers bear essentially all of the risk, including cost overruns and lack of performance.” Preferences expressed in the energy law, wrote the SCC, took precedence over the regulatory analysis.  If not for that, the pilot “would not be deemed prudent as that term has been applied by this Commission in its long history of public utility regulation or under any common application of the term.”

This wind farm will do nothing to stem the increase in worldwide CO2 emissions.  Since 2005, for every ton of carbon reduced by the U.S., China increased its emissions by more than four tons. Why are Virginians paying for politicians’ unwise policies?

Lou Hrkman

James City County