Four Key Messages – Professor Ross McKitrick Unmasks 'Green Energy' Myths

Economist Ross McKitrick dismantles Net Zero policies, exposing flaws in renewables, CO2 narratives, and politicized science.

Imagine building a railway… With 3-mile gaps after every 10 miles. Still cheap? Sure. Still useful? Not at all. That’s wind power without any reliable backup. This post unpacks four eye-opening clips from Professor Ross McKitrick, an economist at the University of Guelph.

McKitrick has spent decades researching climate policy, energy economics, and environmental data. His work cuts through the noise, and he doesn’t mind being unpopular for telling the truth.

Storage systems are a fantasy

You need a way to store excess electricity generated by wind and solar capacity. Pump water to a sky-high lake for hydropower storage? Use batteries the size of a country? No one can even conceive of it. The storage systems just aren’t there. They’re so expensive that fossil fuels are still the cheapest and most reliable source.

CO2 is not the villain

Most of what you hear in the media about the climate is ridiculous. The normal, sensible work never makes the papers. McKitrick flips the narrative: extra CO2 isn’t like sulfur or ozone—it’s good for plants. It’s caused global greening, improved crop yields, and even turned deserts green. Yet this upside of CO2 rarely makes headlines.

When politics takes over science

The political makeup of universities is so overwhelmingly in favour of the left… Some researchers want their work to benefit left-wing politicians. McKitrick warns this skews not just the hiring decisions, but research itself as well: researchers might shape their publications with exactly that in mind. The cost? Scientific independence.