One of the myths that environmental activists promote is that our nation can “have it all” by “going green.”
They say, for instance, that we can vastly reduce the use of coal and oil and shift to wind and solar power without suffering economic harm — even though wind and solar power are far more costly to produce than power from fossil fuels.
The activists seem unfazed by the practical effects of excessive “green” policies in states such as California, which destroyed its auto industry in part through heavy-handed environmental rules.
They also ignore the fact that some environmental technologies just don’t work.
This past summer, for example, laws took effect in 17 states that required makers of detergents for automatic dishwashers to alter their formulas and make the detergents more “environmentally friendly.”
That involved cutting back on the most vital ingredient, phosphates. The trouble is, the new formulas didn’t do the job.
“My dishes were dirtier than before they were washed,” a consumer wrote on the website for one brand-name detergent.
Meanwhile, Consumer Reports magazine reported that none of the dozens of phosphate-free or low-phosphate detergents it tested performed as well as detergents with more phosphates.
A Texas homemaker told The New York Times, “Low-phosphate dish detergents are a waste of my money.” She now has to wash her dishes by hand before she puts them in the dishwasher, or else they don’t get clean. “If I’m using more water and detergent, is that saving anything?”
That’s an excellent question. But unfortunately, environmentalists often seem uninterested in the real-world effects — or real-world costs — of their activism.