Ozzie Zehner - Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism

In this terrific book, Ozzie Zehner explains why most current approaches to the worlds gathering climate and energy crises are not only misguided but actually counterproductive. We fool ourselves in innumerable ways, and Zehner is especially good at untangling sloppy thinking. Yet GreenIllusions is not a litany of despair. Its full of hopewhich is different from false hope, and which requires readers with open, skeptical minds. David Owen, author of Green Metropolis

Think the answer to global warming lies in solar panels, wind turbines, and biofuels? Think again.... In this thought-provoking and deeply researched critique of popular green solutions, Zehner makes a convincing case that such alternatives wont solve our energy problems; in fact, they could make matters even worse.Susan Freinkel, author of Plastic: AToxic Love Story

There is no obvious competing or comparable book.... Green Illusions has the same potential to sound a wake-up call in the energy arena as was observed with Silent Spring in the environment, and Fast Food Nation in the food system.Charles Francis, former director of the Center for Sustainable Agriculture Systems at the University of Nebraska This is one of those books that you read with a yellow marker and end up highlighting most of it.David Ochsner, University of Texas at Austin Green Illusions

Our Sustainable Future

Series Editors

Charles A. Francis

University of NebraskaLincoln

Cornelia Flora

Iowa State University

Paul A. Olson

University of NebraskaLincoln

The Dirty Secrets

of Clean Energy

and the Future of

Environmentalism

Ozzie Zehner

University of Nebraska Press

Lincoln and London

Both text and cover are printed on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled).

2012 by Ozzie Zehner

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zehner, Ozzie.

Green illusions: the dirty secrets of clean energy and the future of environmentalism / Ozzie Zehner.

p. cm. (Our sustainable future)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

isbn 978-0-8032-3775-9 (cloth: alk. paper)

1. Renewable energy sourcesUnited States.

2. EnvironmentalismUnited States. I. Title.

tj807.9.u6z44 2012

333.79'40973dc23 2011042685

Set in Fournier MT.

Designed by Mikah Tacha.

To Mom and Dad,

who gave me a leash,

only to show me how to break it.

All of the royalties from this book

will go toward projects supporting

the future of environmentalism.

Contents

List of Illustrations......................................... viii List of Figures................................................. ix Acknowledgments............................................ xi Introduction: Unraveling the Spectacle.................. xv

1. Solar Cells and Other Fairy Tales........................ 3

2. Wind Powers Flurry of Limitations.................. 31

3. Biofuels and the Politics of Big Corn.................. 61

4. The Nuclear-Military-Industrial Risk Complex...... 81

5. The Hydrogen Zombie.................................. 105

6. Conjuring Clean Coal................................... 121

7. Hydropower, Hybrids, and Other Hydras........... 133

8. The Alternative-Energy Fetish........................ 149

9. The First Step............................................ 171

10. Womens Rights........................................ 187

11. Improving Consumption.............................. 223

12. The Architecture of Community.................... 263

13. Efficiency Culture...................................... 301

14. Asking Questions....................................... 331

Epilogue: A Grander Narrative?......................... 343

Resources for Future Environmentalists................ 349

Notes.......................................................... 355

Index.......................................................... 415

Illustrations

1. Solar system challenges.................................. 23

2. An imposing scale......................................... 33

3. Road infiltrates a rainforest.............................. 40

4. Mississippi River dead zone............................. 72

5. Entering Hanford......................................... 87

6. A four-story-high radioactive souffl................. 88

7. In the wake of Chernobyl.............................. 102

8. Flaring tap................................................. 142

9. Reclaiming streets....................................... 289

10. Prioritizing bicycle traffic............................. 295

Figures

1. California solar system costs............................ 11

2. Solar module costs do not follow Moores law....... 16

3. Fussy wind................................................. 44

4. Five days of sun........................................... 45

5. U.S. capacity factors by source.......................... 50

6. Secret U.S. government document ornl341........ 84

7. Clean coals lackluster potential....................... 129

8. Media activity during oil shock........................ 153

9. Incongruent power plays............................... 181

10. Congruent power plays................................ 181

11. Global world population............................... 195

12. Differences in teen pregnancy and abortion....... 217

13. Similarity in first sexual experience.................. 217

14. American food marketing to children............... 229

15. gdp versus wellbeing.................................. 255

16. Trips by walking and bicycling....................... 280

17. Walking and bicycling among seniors............... 282

18. U.S. energy flows....................................... 304

19. Passive solar strategies................................. 326

Table

The present and future of environmentalism.......... 332

Acknowledgments

To begin, Id like to extend special thanks to numerous anonymous individuals who risked their standing or job security to connect me with leads, offer guidance, spill dirt, and sneak me into places I perhaps shouldnt have been. These include one World Bank executive, one member of Congress, one engineer at General Motors, two marketing executives, one former teen celebrity, two political strategists in Washington dc, two military contractors, a high school vice principal, one solar industry executive, one solar sales rep, one mining worker, and three especially helpful security guards.

I also extend thanks to those organizations that generously released confidential reports, which I had worked on, so I might draw upon their findings in this very public setting. I appreciate the cooperation from numerous Department of Energy employees, who provided everything from images to insight on internal decisionmaking. This book would not have been possible without brave individuals from the World Bank, U.S. military, academia, and industry who were involved in whistle-blowing, industrial es-pionage, and leaks exposing wrongdoings. Their courage reminds us there are rules that are provisional and rules that are not.

My enthusiastic and keen agent, Uwe Stender, generously pursued a nonprofit press deal while offering me limitless support and advice. I'd like to thank the editors and staff at the University of Nebraska Press, including Heather Lundine, Bridget Barry, Joeth Zucco, and Cara Pesek, who believed in this work enough to buy the rights, support this book in staff meetings, coordinate expert reviews, considerably improve the manuscript, and put up with this green writer. Special thanks go to Karen Brown, whose copyediting cut a path through my writing for readers to follow.