Michael Kelly: The green energy Net Zero plan will require a command economy

Imagine asking someone in the 1960s how much a modern smartphone would cost? Would probably have come up with some large numbers at the time. Or just asking for a modern computer clusters worth of capability. Thats how I read articles like this-linear extrapolation at things very unlikely to be linear. (Granted, they may not be as fast to scale as transistors, but that’s no reason to throw the whole idea out.)

The transmission lines argument is good. Recent figures for the chargers were 55-150 billion for the US. I suspect the draw figures aren't likely to be quite as accurate when people don't need to fast charge every time, for that matter. Yes people will still drive interstate, but not everyone needs to drive interstate at all times. That actually highlights that demand is likely to follow a pattern. So scale up to the demand, etc.

Probably the biggest help for decarbonization would be an honest carbon cost added to prices-instead of subsidies.

The call for a command economy as the response to climate change like any other problem just adds another problem. Then we’d have a command economy most definitely dominated by corruption, incompetence, and violence in addition to the problems from climate change. Not good.