As far as energy goes, climate alarmists love to tout renewable energy like that generated by solar panels and wind turbines. It certainly sounds great to use natural resources so lightly. But political analyst John Hinderaker takes apart the myth that either of these energy sources can truly solve our problems or become sustainable.

Enormous amounts of money are being made by “green” fraudsters, utilities and politicians who tell us we are in the midst of a transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy. In fact, no such transition is underway; fossil fuel consumption is higher than ever. And no such transition will take place, ever, either in America or anywhere else in the world.

Why? Because wind and solar are both obsolete technologies. They produce electricity less than one-half of the time, a fact that will never change. How can we run a modern economy on intermittent energy sources? We can’t.

If you ask a liberal that question, his answer will be “batteries.” He will admit that wind and solar work only occasionally, but that is no problem, he will tell you, because the electricity they generate can be stored in batteries for later use.

Power can be stored in batteries, of course. We all do this every day, storing tiny amounts on our laptops, smart phones and so on. But our energy demands are almost unfathomably large, and all of the batteries in the world don’t begin to meet those needs.

Energy consumption is so far beyond the capacity of batteries to store that it’s almost pathetically funny. Moreover, Hinderaker says:

Batteries are also unbelievably expensive. This is one of the reasons why greenies rarely offer cost estimates for their wind and solar mandates. The turbines, solar panels and transmission lines (which they always leave out) are already too expensive, but in addition you have to either build natural gas plants to operate most of the time, when wind and solar do nothing (greenies always leave out these costs, too) or else hypothesize an insane amount of battery storage (they don’t even try to calculate these costs, let alone consider them).

Not only that, he warns, but as demand grows, it will drive the price of batteries far higher, putting this green dream even further out of reach. After showing that the math proves it, Hinderaker also notes the current unreliability of energy sources that work only about half the time. He concludes:

The political forces arrayed behind the wind and solar farce are formidable. But reality is more formidable still. The day of reckoning is coming, and in fact is not far off. Those who are impoverishing Americans and destroying our formerly-reliable electric grid should be storing their ill-gotten money in Swiss bank accounts, so they can make a hasty getaway when the whole enterprise comes crashing down.

Read the whole thing here.