Table of Contents
Ronald Stein
Ronald Stein is an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book Clean Energy Exploitations.
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish environmental activist, scolded the world’s leaders by exclaiming, “How dare you?” in reference to their perceived indifference and inaction to the climate crisis. More accurately, Ms Thunberg’s question should have been, “How dare ME for demanding the products and fuels manufactured from crude oil that make MY life more comfortable?”
Politicians and environmentalists never discuss the need to maintain the supply chain of the products and fuels, now based on crude oil, which is essential to human flourishing. Nobody ever uses “raw crude oil;” thus, there would be no need for oil without people demanding PRODUCTS and FUELS made from crude oil!
Looking back at the history of the petroleum industry it illustrates that black, cruddy-looking crude oil was virtually useless unless it could be manufactured (refined) into oil derivatives. These derivatives are now the basis of the oil used to manufacture products such as medications, waxes, asphalt, lubricating oil, various plastics, solvents, and transportation fuels, which are essential for supporting modern lifestyles.
Policymakers are unaware that crude oil is not used in its natural, unrefined state. Crude oil is extracted from the earth and later refined into various fuels and oil derivatives that are the basis of products such as waxes, asphalt, lubricating oil, various plastics, transportation fuels, and a wide variety of other consumer goods.
Realistically, it’s a continuing increase in demand by the public for the PRODUCTS and FUELS manufactured from oil which is causing an increase in oil demand.
More than 6,000 products in today’s society that did not exist before the 1800s are based on oil derivatives manufactured from raw crude oil. These derivatives are used for the health and well-being of humanity and for the generation of electricity.
Interestingly, all electrical generation from hydro, coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, and solar is built with products, components, and equipment made from the same oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil. Electricity came AFTER humanity discovered how to extract usable derivatives from that raw crude oil to make things. Before oil, we’re back to the pre-1800s.
Energy literacy starts with the knowledge that crude oil is the basis of our materialistic society. Conversations are needed to discuss the difference between just “ELECTRICITY” from wind turbines and solar panels that don’t work most of the time and the “PRODUCTS” that are the basis of society’s materialistic world. Wind turbines and solar panels are themselves made from oil derivatives and only generate occasional electricity but manufacture NOTHING for society.
World leaders have little comprehension that ridding the world of crude oil without a replacement in mind would be immoral and evil, as extreme shortages of the products now manufactured from fossil fuels will result in billions of fatalities from diseases, malnutrition, and weather-related deaths, and could be the greatest threat to the world’s population of 8 billion.
In 1977, after the 1973 oil crisis, the Department of Energy was established to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. However, today, with its 14,000 employees and a $48 billion budget, the DOE continues to remain dead silent and has allowed California, the fourth-largest economy in the world, to increase imported crude oil from five per cent in 1992 to almost 60 per cent of total consumption.
California is home to nine international airports, 41 military airports, and three of the largest shipping ports in America. California’s growing dependency on other nations for crude oil poses a serious national security risk!
In addition, the Department of Energy has remained silent while electric vehicle policies have made America increasingly dependent on rare earth minerals and metals mined for those batteries under atrocious slave labor and environmental conditions in other countries that the DOE and bureaucrats ignore.
China controls a stranglehold of 80 per cent of the global supply monopoly on rare earth minerals and metals, with the Congo in Africa a 90 per cent source of vital cobalt.
In addition, life longevity is increasing with the support of products in our materialistic world, and weather-related fatalities are almost nonexistent, all because of the different fuels for planes, ships, trucks, cars, militaries, space programs, and all the PRODUCTS that did not exist before the 1800s.
The more than 6,000 products in today’s societies that were not around 200 years ago are based on crude oil now support:
- Reliable supplies of continuous electricity that are being generated by hydro, nuclear, coal, and natural gas
- Unreliable supplies of intermittent electricity from wind turbines and solar panels
- Airports that accommodate 20,000 commercial aircraft and more than 50,000 military aircraft
- Shipping terminals that accommodate 50,000 merchant ships
- Hospitals
- Communications
- Electronics
- Data Centers
- Mining for industrial and precious metals
- More than 1.4 billion vehicles in the world
- Almost 300 million trucks in the world
- Each year, approximately 2.5 billion tires are produced globally
We’re a materialistic society and need to replace oil to maintain the supply chain of products and fuels. None of the six ways to generate electricity (hydro, nuclear, coal, natural gas, wind, and solar) can make products for society; thus, electricity is not a source to support the supply chain of products and fuels.
I am NOT pro-fossil fuels, but I am pro for the products we get from fossil fuels. Ridding the world of crude oil without a ‘replacement’ that can continue to support the supply chain of the more than 6,000 products now demanded by the eight billion on this planet could result in the loss of billions from starvation, diseases, and weather-related fatalities.
So, before we jump out of the airplane without a parachute and revert to the pre-1800s, let’s identify the backup ‘source’ that can continue to support the supply chain for making more than 6,000 products and the various fuels for the materialistic society of the eight billion people on this planet.
