Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed into law late last month a bill defining “green energy” as “… any energy generated by utilizing … hydrocarbons which, when combusted for the purpose of electricity generation meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the authority of the Clean Air Act, and shall include: (a) Energy generated by nuclear reactors. (b) Energy generated using natural gas.”

That definition is a bit odd, in that the NAAQS are defined as ambient atmospheric concentration levels of given pollutants, and not as emissions levels for a given pollutant used in power generation. But for purposes of this discussion, it matters not. It is far more amusing to note the feigned outrage that followed immediately from all the usual left-wing suspects. A good example is DeSmog, for decades a determined ideological opponent of fossil energy: “… the state’s overreliance on gas and reticence to adopt solar and wind energy has led to high costs, an unreliable grid, and toxic air pollution that threatens the climate and public health.” That the DeSmog leftists can argue with a straight face that it is fossil-fired power generation that yields “an unreliable grid” is supremely entertaining (see the electricity generation capacity factors in Table 1b, and the Spain and Portugalblackout of April 2025).

Read more in RealClearEnergy here.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.