The last time I wrote about former Vice President Al Gore, he was complaining bitterly about the failure of the 2023 United Nations climate meeting in Dubai to generate an agreement to phase out fossil fuels.
As I noted in my post, “The real ‘inconvenient truth’: The Iron Law of Electricity will always trump Climate Crisis Narrative.”
However, I was recently reminded in a brilliant X-thread that the European Union failed to recognize the importance of reliable and inexpensive energy. The E.U.’s adherence to “Net Zero” ambitions has substantially hindered its economic growth, with adverse impacts on its entire population — but especially the young people who are now struggling to find jobs, careers, and plan for their futures.
The difference in prosperity is staggering.
Legal Insurrection readers will recall that in April, days after bragging about achieving “Net Zero,” Spain was plunged into darkness after a blackout tied to its now-sensitive grid hit the Iberian peninsula.
Now the Netherlands is rationing electricity and connections to its greenified grid.
Thousands of businesses and households are waiting to connect to the Dutch grid, forcing network operators to ration power in an early indicator of what other European countries are likely to suffer as the speed of electrification increases.More than 11,900 businesses are waiting for electricity network connections, according to Netbeheer Nederland, the association of Dutch grid operators. On top of that are public buildings such as hospitals and fire stations as well as thousands of new houses.
Following Gore’s “Net Zero” delusions, Dutch leadership opted for energy seppuku. The country once relied heavily on its own natural gas resources. However, in 2023, it closed the Groningen gas field to help accelerate the shift.
The Netherlands has officially stopped drilling at the Europe’s largest gas field in Groningen, marking the occasion with a symbolic ceremony on Friday.The occasion took place at the same spot where the deposit was reportedly discovered in 1959. Since the early 1960s, the field has been a major contributor to the country’s economy and it still has huge reserves of gas.
In 2025, it appears the Dutch chose … poorly.
There are plans to export this concept across Europe.
Similar measures are underway elsewhere. In Ireland, ESB Networks is upgrading the medium-voltage grid, quadrupling its capacity. In Belgium, Elia is deploying dynamic line rating systems to adjust power flows in real time. In Lithuania, legislation since 2022 has enabled the creation of hybrid power plants combining solar, wind and storage.Capacity maps are also being developed to visualise congestion points and guide investment decisions. The objective is to locate projects — charging stations, distributed production — in less saturated areas. These tools also strengthen transparency and coordination among stakeholders.Flexibility from distributed energy resources such as home batteries or electric vehicles offers an additional lever. This requires price signals adapted to local conditions to encourage behaviour aligned with grid status. The development of local flexibility markets could play a central role in this dynamic.
The wealth that has been squandered in the senseless endeavor to limit the concentration of a life-essential gas present in trace amounts within the atmosphere is staggering.
As Hot Air’s Beege Welborne notes, there will be consequences on future plans to develop new technologies.
All of these countries are vying for the AI centers, and none of them remotely have the power or potential to even begin to take advantage of the technology and the data center explosions coming with it. And, Lordy – who wants to pay that tab?
As I look back on the energy choices the U.S. could have made, it makes me grateful for people like Beege and many others (CO2 Coalition, Watts Up With That Blog, Dr. Judith Curry, Dr. Mattew Wielicki, Meteorologist Chris Martz, and brave scientists who continue to do research that challenges the “climate crisis” narrative).
We owe a deep debt to our Climate Reality Warriors.
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