A Stanford professor didn't just debate his scientific critics — he sued them for $10 million

In 2015, Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford and several colleagues predicted that wind, solar and hydroelectric power could provide 100 percent of the energy demand in each of the 48 contiguous American states, "at low cost," by about 2050.

When their conclusions were published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they created a sensation. Jacobson seemed to have produced a road map toward a power grid based on fully renewable sources, without even using "natural gas, biofuels, nuclear power, or stationary batteries," his paper stated.

Jacobson was widely quoted in the scientific and law press. Climate activists including Sen. Bernie Sanders and actor Mark Ruffalo picked up on his vision. He boasted of having laid to rest all the usual doubts about wind, solar and water power.

"What we've shown is that all the claims