From Forbes "The arctic weather hammering parts of the country should be a cold slap of reality. Eighty per cent of our energy comes from natural gas, oil and coal. We need all of our current energy sources.
Here’s one example why a no-fossil-fuel approach is absolutely unrealistic. A natural gas turbine the size of a typical residential house can supply electricity for 75,000 homes. To create a similar amount of juice from wind requires 20 turbines, each the size of the Washington monument, and occupying 10 square miles of land. To build such a wind farm requires 30,000 tons of iron ore, 50,000 tons of concrete and 900 tons of nonrecyclable plastics for the huge blades."
"It took 14 years and roughly $2.3 trillion for the US economy to become self-sufficient in crude oil in Figure 1. How long would it take the world to change an $87 trillion economy from oil and gas to renewables? The answer is 530 years. Although this is simplistic, the calculation does convey that changing the world to renewables will be difficult and will take a lot longer than 30 years until the year 2050."