The new TV show “Landman" questions whether solar energy and wind turbines can replace the energy created by fossil fuels.

Billy Bob Thornton’s character, Tommy Norris, lectures a lawyer representing the oil company he works for on how green energy is not so green.

Thornton's character says about the current state of windmills, solar farms, and electronic vehicle batteries:

“Do you have any idea how much diesel they have to burn to mix that much concrete or make that steel and haul this (expletive) out here and put it together with a 450-foot crane? You want to guess how much oil it takes to lubricate that (deleted) thing or winterize it? And it’s 20-year lifespan. It won’t offset the carbon footprint of making it.

”And don’t get me started on solar panels and the lithium in your Tesla battery. And never mind the fact that if the whole world decided to go electric tomorrow, we don’t have the transmission lines to get the electricity to the cities.

He said it would take 30 years for society to go fully electric. Petroleum derivatives, he adds, are used in products such as car wheels, lipstick, antihistamines and artificial heart valves.

Thornton’s character made many good points, Jason Hayes, director of energy and environmental policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email.

“The Landman video clip making its way around the internet gives a brief but very useful review of a few of the many fallacies propping up the continued use of wind and solar,” he wrote.

“Billy Bob Thornton’s accurate explanation of the massive amount of fossil-fueled energy required to manufacture, transport, build, and operate wind turbines leads things off,” he added.

Hayes agreed with the character’s assessment of fossil fuels. It will take decades to convert fully from fossil fuel energy to solar and wind, Hayes said.

Hayes disagrees, however, with the character’s conclusion that consumers will run out of oil before a suitable replacement is found. The Energy Information Administration “indicates that we have far more recoverable oil and natural gas reserves today than we did in the early 1980s,” he said. There are still 400 years of coal reserves in the ground and about 90 years’ worth of natural gas, Hayes told CapCon.

“By relying on fracking for the energy we need today and rapidly advancing innovative nuclear technologies, we can ensure our grandchildren’s grandchildren have a continued supply of abundant, affordable, and reliable energy.”

Michigan law requires the state to obtain 50% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 and 60% from renewables by 2035.

State officials already have given hundreds of millions of dollars to alternative energy companies.

Electric vehicles require cobalt, 70% of it is mined using fossil fuels and slave labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to previously published Mackinac Center work. Electronic vehicle batteries require lithium, which is obtained through mining operations that depend on fossil fuels.

Mining for natural resources EVs need can also destroy and contaminate the land.

Approximately 34 billion tons of carbon dioxide are emitted annually in the cobalt mining process, according to Earth.org.

Whitmer’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appears to have reversed her plans for an all-electric vehicle future before President Donald Trump revoked a 2021 executive order that called for 50% of new vehicle sales to be electric.

Now, she just wants Michigan to remain the nation’s top auto manufacturer.

“We don’t care what you drive – [a gas-powered vehicle], hybrid, or EV – we just care that it’s made right in here Michigan,” she said in her “Road Ahead” address.

Southern states, including Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina, have attracted auto plants, Whitmer said.

“Some of them are just writing blank checks to companies,” Whitmer said. “Well, that’s bad.”

“The future of the entire auto industry is at stake. The very core of Michigan’s economy is on the line.”

The apparent change of heart follows Michigan offering at least eight companies more than $1 billion each in taxpayer funding through cash-for-jobs programs since 2021, The Detroit News reported.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation said, “All we do is win,” but the reality is starkly different, according to a recent study.

Only one of every 11 jobs promised by Michigan politicians and public officials in announcements about business subsidies gets created, according to a study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

The Mackinac Center found that only 9% of the jobs announced in major state-sponsored deals from 2000 to 2020 were created.

Since 2023, Michigan has promised $4.6 billion in subsidies to select, favored corporations.

In one instance, Michigan paid out $600 million to a General Motors and Ultium joint venture before it created any jobs, The Detroit News reported.

About 50,000 electric vehicles are registered in Michigan. Whitmer wants 2 million EVs by 2030, according to the MI Healthy Climate plan.

To reach that goal, Michiganders must register 32,500 EVs monthly for five years.

Electric vehicles aren’t the only car choice, Rep Dave Prestin, R-Cedar River, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in a text message.

“This one-track mindset has devastated the auto industry by crippling the free market and taking choices away from Michigan drivers,” Prestin wrote.

A rule from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency required about 67% of new light-duty and medium-duty sales to be electric by 2032.