I'll wait for final judgement until I see a transcript, but the assumption that the modern electric power industry is overlooking a cost-effective way to save power out of sheer inertia is insulting, and shows a lack of basic knowledge about how the industry runs.

Find somebody who knows something about the industry, or maybe do a little legwork of your own, and find out what a buried system of "low-loss" high voltage lines, DC or otherwise, would cost. Don't forget to include the new conversion stations.

Basically, solar and wind will become "competitive" when they're cheaper than existing sources, and transmission costs have very little to do with it. In fact, the most effective use of photovoltaic power is on-site.

It's considered ridiculous among the Enlightened that anyone with a technological, engineering, and science background other than a very specific climate science specialty should have anything useful to say on climate science.

Why assume that Hansen knows jack shit about the details of the electrical power industry?