Curious minds may wonder if the phrase “net zero” was cooked up by media consultants to evoke the Coke Zero brand, something nice, desirable and merely a choice. The net-zero branding has certainly worked, not only captivating the green-energy punditry but, more importantly, it has deeply and dangerously infected energy policymaking and government spending. Given the ubiquity of the term, it hardly seems necessary to define it, but “net zero” is, to put it simply,...