(LifeSiteNews) — The CEO of JP Morgan Chase told shareholders in an annual letter that eminent domain may need to be invoked in order to ramp up solar and wind energy production.
“The window for action to avert the costliest impacts of global climate change is closing,” Jamie Dimon wrote in a letter recently published with the financial giant’s annual report for 2022.
“The need to provide energy affordably and reliably for today, as well as make the necessary investments to decarbonize for tomorrow, underscores the inextricable links between economic growth, energy security and climate change,” he wrote. “We need to do more, and we need to do so immediately.”
Doing “more” for Dimon includes evoking “eminent domain” to seize private land. Though eminent domain is supposed to be used only for bona fide government projects, such as necessary roads or sewers, it has been expanded to include initiatives that are of interest to policymakers, even if those are private business pursuits. A 2005 Supreme Court case, Kelo v. New London, opened up the use of eminent domain for projects by private real estate developers, for example.
Dimon explained:
To expedite progress, governments, businesses and non-governmental organizations need to align across a series of practical policy changes that comprehensively address fundamental issues that are holding us back. Massive global investment in clean energy technologies must be done and must continue to grow year-over-year.
At the same time, permitting reforms are desperately needed to allow investment to be done in any kind of timely way. We may even need to evoke eminent domain – we simply are not getting the adequate investments fast enough for grid, solar, wind and pipeline initiatives.
Dimon is not the only one to suggest taking private property to promote a “green” agenda. Even conservative Republican states like Tennessee have floated the idea of using eminent domain to build electric vehicles.
For example, black farmers in Tennessee have had to battle with authorities to protect their land as the state tries to take it through eminent domain to build new roads primarily just to help the Ford factory with its logistics.
“According to the Tennessee Department of Transportation, the state is seeking 35 separate tracts, either through purchase or eminent domain, in order to construct a series of road connections and widenings that will link the 4,100-acre BlueOval Ford campus to the new Exit 39 off I-40 to accommodate throngs of workers and truck traffic,” the Tennessee Lookout reported.
“Thus far, the state has taken possession of 15 tracts — two through court proceedings, Nichole Lawrence, a spokesperson said. Of the remaining 20 tracks, Lawrence said the state is in negotiation with property owners. It’s unclear how many land owners the state has sued,” the publication reported. “In Haywood County alone, court records show, the state has filed seven lawsuits seeking to take property for the new interchange.”
Experts raise concerns about reliability and cost of solar, wind
The push to forcibly move people toward solar and wind technology comes despite serious questions about the cost and reliability of such energy sources.
Consider that in 2018, the energy producing capacity of solar and wind actually lost ground to gas-fired generators, according to David Wojick, an expert with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow. He has degrees in civil engineering and mathematics and worked in research for the Navy.
But even if President Joe Biden’s massive subsidies to green energy might help build up the infrastructure, that will not change the fundamental problems of solar and wind.
Wojick explained:
For solar these ideal conditions are basically a clear sky, with the sun overhead and no snow or dirt, etc., on the collector. For wind they are typically a sustained air flow exceeding 30 miles per hour or so. Note that these crucial conditions do not occur all that often.
This is why wind and solar are called “intermittent”, because they frequently produce far less power than their nameplate capacity; often they produce none at all. In contrast, gas fired power runs most of the time, although it does need a certain amount of downtime for maintenance.
Sterling Burnett with the Heartland Institute also wrote an analysis of the problems of a move toward so-called renewable energy.
“Offshore wind is absolutely the most expensive source of electric power being considered anywhere, and it is among the most unreliable,” Burnett wrote. “The heavy reliance on offshore wind facilities for electricity is one reason why the U.K. now has the highest electric power prices in the world. Unlike markets, where price hikes almost always ensure supplies increase to meet demand and thus ultimately reduce prices, wind power is not dependent on incentives but on nature.”