In stepping back and looking at the chasm that separates renewable energy from its eager American consumer, the barriers and roadblocks seem ridiculously contrived. 

Before you look at the Department of Energy announcements about loan guarantees further down this post, please keep the following in mind: CO2 levels in the atmosphere are now roughly 400ppm (they are 399.30 ppm, to be exact); global temperatures have risen 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880 with 2014 being the hottest year on record, global sea levels have risen 8 inches in the past 130 years and Arctic ice is decreasing at the rate of 13.3% per decade.

We have heated up the planet to the point that:

► 90% of Big Ocean Fish are gone since 1950.
► 50% of Great Barrier Reef are gone since 1985.
► 50% of Fresh Water Fish are gone since 1987.
► 30% of Marine Birds are gone since 1995.
► 28% of Land Animals are gone since 1970.
► 28% of All Marine Animals are gone since 1970.
► 50% of Human Sperm Counts decreased since 1950.
► 90% of Lions are gone since 1993.
► 90% of Monarch Butterflies are gone since 1995.
► 93 Elephants are killed every single day.
► 2-3 Rhinos are killed every single day.
► Bees die from malnutrition lacking bio-diverse pollen sources.
► Extinctions are 1000 times faster than normal.

What’s going to happen to us, if we stay on this same path?

► Ocean acidification will double by 2050.
► Ocean acidification will triple by 2100.
► We are on track to lock in eventual 6°C earth temp rise in just 13 years.
► Mass Extinction will become unstoppable and irreversible in 40 years.
► Permian mass extinction of 95% of life took 60,000 years 250 million years ago.
► Dinosaurs mass extinction took 33,000 years after asteroid impact.
► Anthropogenic mass extinction will take 300 years, max.
► This mass extinction is 100x faster than anything before us.
► Antarctic meltdown now irreversible and unstoppable.
► Arctic methane burst is irreversible and unstoppable within current system.
► World Bank says we have 5-10 years before we all fight for food and water.
► It takes 10 times as much “green” energy to displace 1 unit of fossil energy.
► Efficiency and conservation only causes more growth within current system.

And yet, what do we do?

► We combine bacteria DNA with plant DNA and eat it.
► We put massive pesticides and herbicides directly into our food.
► We put nano metals and particles into our food.
► We put man-made, computer designed, synthetic DNA into our food.
► There are thousands of different chemicals in our foods.
► We are eating stuff that never, ever existed on earth before.
► We are turning into mutants because of our food.
► We are wiping out all life on earth because of our food.
► After mass extinction, genetically modified trees may be all we leave behind.

Given the facts presented above (thanks, in part, to Dr. Rob who didn’t think I was listening and for whom I will continue to root for the Toronto Maple Leaf’s winning of the Stanley Cup in the foreseeable future), one would assume that policymakers, think tanks and world governments would be doing every single thing within their power to switch our nation to truly clean and renewable energy (not nuclear, which has no exit strategy in sight for all the waste it creates).

One would THINK that it would be “all hands on deck,” instead of “business as usual.” Nope. In the words of theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli, these collective policies and strategies are, “not even wrong,” which is to say that they are so illogical and so utterly lacking in any cogent ideas that they do not even rise to the level of being incorrect. The proverbial dinosaurs over at the Department of Energy still throw money at not only the dirtiest forms of energy and extractive processes on earth, but also at ridiculous methods of carbon capture that a) don’t really work, and b) would just worsen pollution and climate change by allowing us to continue to burn fossil fuels. One would THINK, right?

This past December, the Department of Energy boastfully announced more loan guarantees to companies as part of America’s “all of the above” energy policy.

Keep in mind that there were already tens of billions of dollars spent in a similar manner, with, for example, over $10 billion dollars in loan guarantees to upgrade and begin construction on two nuclear reactor projects just a few years ago. So, in addition to the previous full and partial funding of dirty energy projects, subsidies in place to incentivize the fossil fuel industry so that they can continue to earn a trillion dollars in profits, and loan guarantees provided by the DOE, AND with increasingly clearer indications of an impending mass extinction caused entirely by humans and brought about by our burning of fossil fuels, the vacuum in which the Department of Energy, and which our entire government operates seems both pathetic and apocryphal.

For nuclear power:

Then there’s the $16 billion DOE loan guarantee program for vehicle manufacturing:

And, of course, we cannot leave out the fossil fuel industry, who apparently needed a FURTHER boost in research and development funding, so THEY got $8 billion in loan guarantees:

And so we have the $10.3 billion nuclear reactor loan guarantee from a few years ago:

And then the new $12.5 billion in additional loan guarantees for nuclear energy:

So, that’s almost $23 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear energy, which, until this loan guarantee, had not had a new nuclear reactor built in 30 years FOR GOOD REASON. And so what would you guess renewables are slotted to receive in loan guarantees? Keep in mind that we have $8 billion for fossil fuels and $16 billion for car manufacturers…

And (drumroll please) these are the loan guarantees for renewables:

So, the tally for THIS $40 – $50 billion dollar loan guarantee package is:

Nuclear energy: $12.5 billion (on top of their $10.3 billion guaranteed loans from a few years ago);
Fossil fuels: $8 billion dollars;
Vehicles : $16 billion dollars;
Renewable energy: “as much as” $4 billion

Now, I don’t know who created this marvelous “package,” but since they supposedly work for the American people, I say we fire every single one of them. Then, let’s simplify this process: 80% of these loan guarantees go to renewables and the remaining 20% goes to public transportation.

Boom.

Problem solved.

You’re welcome.