Green Transition Isn’t a Burden, It’s a Blueprint: A Rebuttal to Bloomberg's Fossil Nostagia

A couple of days back, Bloomberg News published a story provocatively titled “Why the US Economy Might Benefit from Abandoning Green Energy Goals". The story is based on a report by Bloomberg Economics, which itself is based on data collated by Bloomberg New Economy Forum.

The report argues that green energy goals are burdening the US economy, inflating costs, and weakening traditional industries. It suggests that abandoning these goals might actually benefit the US economically.

But even without digging into technical reports, one can tell this is an ideologically loaded narrative. It’s not an economic analysis—it’s a polemic dressed up as a forecast.


What the Report Gets Wrong

Let’s start with the framing. The report:-

- Treats green energy as a cost center, not a platform for innovation.
- Frames sustainability as ideological, not infrastructural.
- Treats traditional and green energy sources as conflictual, rather than complementary. 
- Assumes US oil & gas exports will halt green energy transition in other countries. 
- Assumes, bizarrely, that hotter countries (especially India) will be the 'losers' and 'cooler' countries will be the winners — forgetting that both cooling and heating requires enormous amounts of energy, including green energy.

It glosses over the strategic, technological, and industrial logic of green energy transitions — especially for economies that lack large oil and gas reserves.


What the Report Misses Entirely

1. Green Energy as Strategic Infrastructure
For countries like India, Japan, and much of the EU, green energy isn’t a moral imperative—it’s a strategic necessity. It offers:-

- Energy sovereignty: Less dependence on volatile fossil imports.
- Price stability: Insulation from oil shocks and cartel behavior.
- Industrial leverage: Ability to shape new ecosystems rather than remain price-takers.

2. New Industry Formation
Green transitions spawn entire economic subsystems:-

- Renewable generation: solar, wind, hydro, biomass
- Storage and transmission: batteries, smart grids, HVDC lines
- Distribution and metering: IoT meters, demand-response platforms
- EV ecosystem: vehicles, charging infra, fleet management
- Installation and maintenance: technician training, service networks

These aren’t fringe niches — they’re the backbone of future employment, export competitiveness, and urban resilience.

3. Rising Energy Demand
The report almost ignores the exponential rise in energy demand:-

- Data centers: AI and cloud computing are energy-hungry.
- EVs: Electrification shifts demand from oil to electricity.
- Cooling and urbanization: Middle-class consumption drives grid loads.

Traditional energy sources simply won’t scale fast enough. Green energy offers modular scalability and local generation.

4. Greenifying Heavy Industry
Steel, cement, semiconductors, refining—these sectors are under pressure to decarbonize. That requires:-

- Green hydrogen
- Electrified furnaces and kilns
- Renewable-powered fabs
- Bio-based feedstocks

Each demands massive, reliable, clean energy inputs—not just for production, but for certification and export viability.


India: Not a Loser, But a First-Mover

The report’s Indophobic framing misses the real story: India isn’t retrofitting an old industrial base — it’s building a new one from scratch, green from day one.

As I argued in a previous blogpost “Stop Calling It Green Transition. It’s Green Re-Industrialisation”:

- India’s industrial base is being commissioned, not decommissioned.
- Green energy is becoming foundational, not optional.
- The entire stack is transforming: energy → logistics → transport → manufacturing → jobs → skills → cities.

Sure, much of Indian industry still sources energy from coal-fired power stations. Major Indian energy companies are collectively planning to add about 80 gigawatts coal-fired power generation capacity. But at the same time, major Indian oil & gas companies are also adding tens of gigawatts of green energy generation capacity, each, in the next decade. India's top coal mining conglomerate Coal India Ltd is also planning to add several gigawatts of green energy generation capacity in the next decade. Additionally, it is also exploring the possibility of extracting natural gases (methane and others) from coal mines/beds.

This is more than a 'transition'. It’s a systems-level re-industrialisation, with green logic embedded from the start.


Final Thought

Reports like Bloomberg’s may reflect fossil-centric nostalgia, but they miss the tectonic shifts underway. Green energy isn’t a burden—it’s the infrastructure of the future. And India isn’t lagging—it’s charting a new model.

Let’s stop calling it a transition. Let’s start calling it what it is: strategic re-industrialisation.

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