IT’S HARDER TO BE MERRY AND BRIGHT WHEN THEY KEEP TURNING OUT THE LIGHTS: Climate Alarmism Behind Christmas Energy Shortages: Never forget that Ebenezer Scrooge was inspired by Thomas Malthus.

As recently as December 1, PJM’s grid operators said they could handle the winter cold. “PJM Interconnection and its members,” it claimed, “are prepared to meet the forecast demand for electricity this winter.”

But the nonprofit North American Reliability Corporation (NERC) warned in November that this would happen. “Limited natural gas infrastructure can impact winter reliability,” it wrote. It pointed to the closure of coal and nuclear power plants as threatening shortages.

In other words, the underlying reason for the electricity emergency is the lack of natural gas, nuclear, and coal, which can provide reliable electricity in all weather conditions, unlike solar panels and wind turbines.

It’s true that solar panels and wind turbines can still operate in cold weather. There is often still sunlight and wind when it is cold. Snow can be brushed off of solar panels, and it is possible to de-ice frozen wind turbines.

But the sun often doesn’t shine during the hours people most need electricity and wind is not reliable enough to provide electricity during the winter. Right now, PJM is generating very little electricity from wind and has had to resort to burning oil, which is dirtier and less efficient than coal, and far worse than natural gas or nuclear.

It’s as if green policies are designed to fail.