The recently announced Green New Deal has called for an expansive overhaul of the country’s energy infrastructure. Recommendations include the creation of an economy powered entirely by clean energy, such as wind and solar power, yet devoid of fossil fuels. The only things standing between us and a renewables revolution, advocates insist, are a lack of collective will and the political clout of oil, coal, and natural-gas producers.

A bigger hurdle to the dream of a 100% green future, writes MI senior fellow Mark Mills in an upcoming study, are the physical limits of alternative energy sources. To replace global hydrocarbons in 20 years, notes Mills, renewable-energy production must expand 90-fold. Yet it took 50 years for global oil and gas production to expand only 10-fold. Please join Mark Mills for a sober assessment of America’s energy future.

Mark Mills, a physicist, is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a faculty fellow at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, where he co-directs the Initiative for Manufacturing, Science, and Innovation. He is also a strategic partner with Cottonwood Venture Partners, an energy-tech venture fund. Mills’ articles have been published in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Forbes. In 2016, he was named “Energy Writer of the Year” by the American Energy Society.

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