Germany Destroyed Its Economy Following Climate Science — Will Colorado Do the Same?
A warning for Colorado before it repeats Europe’s green mistakes.
Germany tried to save the planet — and ended up saving nothing, not even itself.
The same ideology that shut down its nuclear plants, drove up energy prices, and gutted its industries is now being repackaged in Colorado under the banner of “climate justice.” The warnings are flashing red, but our leaders seem too busy chasing virtue to notice the cliff ahead.
Germany once led the world in renewable energy. It also now leads it in self-inflicted economic decline. After spending hundreds of billions of euros to “go green,” the country that once symbolized industrial excellence now faces soaring energy prices, factory closures, and an exodus of jobs.
The architects of Germany’s Energiewende, or “energy transition,” promised a new era of sustainability and technological leadership. What they got instead was a masterclass in how ideology can bankrupt prosperity. In their zeal to fight climate change, they shut down clean nuclear power, taxed affordable energy sources into extinction, and made themselves dependent on unreliable wind, solar, and imported Russian gas.
Then Russia invaded Ukraine — and the fantasy collapsed.
Factories that once powered Europe went dark. BASF, one of the world’s largest chemical producers, announced it was downsizing in Germany and relocating its production to the U.S.. Energy costs are lower and regulatory policies are more favorable. Small businesses struggled to stay open. Families faced impossible heating bills. Germany became the cautionary tale of what happens when political virtue replaces mechanical reality.
“Germany’s mistake wasn’t caring about the planet — it was confusing moral virtue with mechanical reality.”
The Colorado Parallel
Now, Colorado is heading down the same path — just with better marketing.
We’re told that “climate science” requires us to abandon oil, gas, and coal, ban natural-gas hookups in homes, and force utilities to hit arbitrary renewable targets regardless of what the grid can handle. The rhetoric is lofty: sustainability, environmental justice, decarbonization. But behind the slogans lies the same problem that doomed Germany — an obsession with ideology over engineering.
Xcel Energy’s rates have already increased nearly 40 percent in five years. Rolling brownouts are now discussed as if they’re an acceptable part of progress. Natural gas — the reason Coloradans can heat their homes during winter — is treated like a moral sin. Meanwhile, the state’s leaders are pursuing a regulatory maze that punishes producers, squeezes consumers, and subsidizes corporations whose only skill is gaming the green-tax-credit system.
“Colorado talks like Silicon Valley but governs like Berlin.”
When Science Becomes Dogma
The real issue isn’t science. It’s the politics masquerading as science.
Climate data should inform energy policy, not dictate it. But in the age of fear and hashtags, political leaders have transformed scientific uncertainty into moral absolutism. “Net zero” is treated as scripture, dissenting engineers are heretics, and public debate is replaced with performative panic.
That’s not science — that’s faith without evidence.
The problem isn’t that we’re studying climate change. The problem is that we’re legislating as if every model is a prophecy and every question is blasphemy. Energy systems are complex. They require balance, redundancy, and realism. When government tries to redesign those systems around public emotion instead of practical limits, collapse is inevitable.
The Cost of Virtue Signaling
Germany learned this lesson the hard way. It shut down perfectly good nuclear plants — which emit no carbon — while importing coal to keep the lights on. It crushed small businesses with energy taxes meant to “save the planet.” Now, its economy is shrinking faster than at any time since reunification.
Colorado is marching headlong toward the same ruin.
Our energy policy has become a showcase for political posturing.
We’re restricting oil and gas development — one of the state’s largest sources of revenue — while claiming to champion “green jobs” that exist mainly on grant applications. We’re exporting manufacturing, importing rare-earth minerals from China, and pretending that solar panels made with slave labor somehow represent moral progress.
The reality is simpler: when moral virtue replaces measurable results, prosperity dies.
“The question isn’t whether we’ll save the planet — it’s whether we’ll have an economy left when we’re done pretending.”
A Smarter Path Forward
The choice isn’t between burning the planet and freezing in the dark.
The choice is between rational stewardship and ideological self-destruction.
Colorado doesn’t need to abandon its environmental values to preserve its economy — it needs to return to common sense. That means embracing energy diversity: renewables, yes, but also natural gas, hydro, nuclear, and emerging technologies that can actually sustain a modern grid.
It means evaluating energy projects on results, not rhetoric.
It means empowering innovators, not regulators.
And it means recognizing a truth Germany forgot — that prosperity funds environmental progress, not the other way around.
When people can afford to live well, they invest in cleaner technologies. When they can’t, they burn whatever keeps the lights on.
The Warning for Colorado
Germany’s fall was not inevitable. It was a policy choice — a refusal to question ideology in the face of reality. Colorado still has time to choose differently. But every new mandate, every tax hike disguised as a “fee,” and every regulation that punishes the producers who power our lives pushes us closer to the same cliff.
We should be leading the nation in balanced energy innovation — not repeating Europe’s mistakes under a different slogan.
If we continue on this course, the story of Colorado will mirror Germany’s: once a symbol of ingenuity and prosperity, reduced to dependency and decline.
Germany destroyed its economy chasing climate virtue. Colorado shouldn’t ruin its future doing the same.