Regardless of the intermittent weather, the electrical grid is expected to deliver continuous and uninterrupted electricity no matter what the weather to support computers for hospitals, airports, offices, manufacturing, military sites, and telemetry, that all need a continuous uninterruptable supply of electricity.
Yet, policymakers continue to subsidize wind turbines and solar panels (with taxpayers’ money) for the generation of electricity that do not work most of the time.
I find it amusing that twenty-three states have adopted goals to move to 100 percent clean ELECTRICTY by 2050.
Of the six electrical generation methods, wind and solar cannot compete with hydro, nuclear, coal, or natural gas:
- Wind and solar generate occasional electricity.
- Hydro, nuclear, coal, and natural gas generate continuous uninterruptible electricity.
The elephant in the room that no policymaker wants to discuss is that:
- Neither wind turbines nor solar panels can replace the supply chain of products from crude oil that are the foundation of our materialistic society demanded by the 8 billion on this planet.
- Occasional electricity generated from wind and solar CANNOT support computers for hospitals, airports, offices, manufacturing, military sites, and telemetry, that all need a continuous uninterruptable supply of electricity.
Interestingly, all the components of wind turbines and solar panels are also based on the products made from fossil fuels. Thus, in a fossil-free society, we’re decaying back in the 1800’s as there will also be NO electricity. Life was short and hard for the common man just a few hundred years ago!
Sarcastically, or more realistically, these are a few boomerang impacts of a society free of crude oil:
- Without oil, a significant loss of billions of lives of the 8 billion on this planet from starvation, diseases, and weather-related fatalities because of shortages of food, medications, and products, and a reduction in transportation infrastructures, that are all based on the components made from fossil fuels!
- Without oil, we would drastically reduce the homeless population as all the tents and sleeping bags utilized by the homeless are all made from fossil fuels! The homeless will need to live like the cavemen in a non-materialistic society like that in the pre-1800’s.
- Without oil, we would drastically reduce the unfunded pension liabilities associated with those that retire early from business or start collecting Social Security in their mid-60’s, and collect pensions well into their 80’s, as few people would live beyond their 40’s!
- Without oil, a smaller number of colleges would be needed because there would be no need for doctors for hospitals, or engineers for infrastructure development, that are all based on the components made from fossil fuels!
As a refresher for those pursuing net-zero emissions, wind and solar do different things than crude oil:
- Wind turbines and solar panels do not work most of the time, as they only generate occasional electricity AND manufacture NOTHING for society as renewables cannot make tires, insulation, or fuels for commercial and military aircraft, merchant ships, and the space program.
- Wind and solar cannot make any of the more than 6,000 products now in our materialistic world.
- Crude oil is virtually never used to generate electricity but when manufactured into petrochemicals, is the basis for virtually all the products in our materialistic society that did not exist before the 1800’s.
- We’ve become a very materialistic society over the last 200 years, and the world has populated from 1 to 8 billion because of all the products and different fuels for jets, ships, trucks, cars, military, and the space program that did not exist before the 1800’s.
- If the world governments want to rid the earth of crude oil usage, what’s the back-up source that can manufacture refrigerators, tires, asphalt, X-Ray machines, iPhones, air conditioners, and the other 6,000 products that wind and solar CANNOT manufacture?
- Crude oil use is essential to human flourishing for the foreseeable future. The pursuit of “net zero by 2050, without first identifying the crude oil replacement to support the supply chain of products now demanded by those in developed countries, would be one of the most destructive developments in human history.
- Without crude oil, there would be nothing that needs electricity!! Everything that needs electricity to function is made with petrochemicals manufactured from crude oil, from computers, iPhones, telemetry, and HVAC units!!
- Until a crude oil replacement is identified to manufacture products for society, the world cannot do without crude oil that is the basis of our materialistic “products” society.
We should be careful with what we wish for. From the proverb “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” tells us that:
- You can’t rid the world of crude oil and continue to enjoy the products and transportation fuels that are currently made with petrochemicals manufactured from crude oil.
The few wealthy countries of the United States of America, Germany, the UK, and Australia represent about 6 percent of the world’s population (515 million vs 8 billion) are mandating social changes to achieve net zero emissions.
Germany, the first country to go “green” with an electricity generation transition to renewables, now has electricity rates that are among the highest in the world, and threatens to be an unaffordable, unrealizable disaster, according to the government’s own independent auditors.
Looking beyond the few wealthy countries setting environmental policies for the other 94 percent of the world’s population, billions still struggle to meet basic needs. The poorer on this planet may never be able to enjoy the materialistic living styles of those in wealthier countries.
The few in the developed countries have come a long way in the last few hundred years from the zero emissions society that existed before the 1800’s when:
- There were no products for heating, cooling, or irrigation to prevent weather related fatalities and injuries before the 1800’s.
- Life longevity was about 40 years of age before the 1800’s.
- When people were born, they seldom traveled more than 100 miles from their birthplace before the 1800’s.
- There was no medical industry before the 1800’s.
- There were no electronics, computers, or iPhones before the 1800’s.
- There were no transportation infrastructures before the 1800’s.
- There were no tires or asphalt to support transportation infrastructures.
- There were no airplanes and thus no airports before the 1800’s.
- There were no cruise ships nor merchant ships, other than sailing vessels before the 1800’s.
- There were no military ships or planes before the 1800’s.
- There were no coal fired power plants before the 1800’s.
- There were no natural gas-powered plants before the 1800’s.
- There were no hydro or nuclear power plants before the 1800’s.
At the recent climate summit gathering in Dubai that attracted more than 70,000 from around the world that enjoy their materialistic lifestyles, as well as more than 600 emission-spewing private jets, the president of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28, Sultan Al Jaber stated that a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want to take the world back into caves”, i.e. back to the pre-1800’s !
Photo by Gage Skidmore. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic.
Ronald Stein is an internationally published columnist and energy consultant, and a policy advisor for The Heartland Institute.
