Greens and others who think about what energy sources humanity uses talk of an “energy transition” away from fossil fuels. Many of us on the right take a dim view of such claims.
Writing for City Journal, energy analyst Mark P. Mills observes that despite all the talk, no such transition has happened, is happening, or in fact, will happen.
The renewable share of final energy consumption is slowly advancing at 0.3%–0.6% per year. One does not need a mathematics degree to understand that such anemic growth rates are not the hallmarks of an “unstoppable” juggernaut.
Fossil fuels supply over 80 percent of all global needs today.
The world obviously uses far more coal, oil, and natural gas than at any time in history. Indeed, the world today uses more of every kind of energy deployed since the dawn of civilization (with the notable exceptions of whale oil).
Mills is clearly of the opinion that fossil fuels will continue to be important for the foreseeable future.
