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.
President Joe Biden continues his pursuit of the generation of electricity from wind turbines and solar panels while simultaneously moving to rid the world of fossil fuels. He has a short memory of petrochemical products and human ingenuity being the reasons for the world populating from one to eight billion in less than 200. America now represents a mere four per cent of the world’s population.
The world’s population explosion was not just based on the discovery of oil alone a couple of hundred years ago. We have learned that crude oil is useless unless it can be manufactured into something usable. The eight billion now on this planet are dependent on the oil derivatives and fuels that are manufactured from crude oil.
Today, the societies and economies within the diverse eight billion people are now dependent on more than 6,000 products in their daily lives, as well as manufacturing the fuels for 50,000 jets moving people and products and more than 50,000 merchant ships for global trade flows and the military and space program.
Ridding the world of oil, without a replacement in mind, is immoral and evil, as extreme shortages will result in billions of fatalities from diseases, malnutrition and weather-related deaths, necessitating lifestyles being mandated back to the horse and buggy days of the 1800s, and could be the greatest threat to the planet’s eight billion residents.
President Biden should be advised of the old proverb “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” which tells us that you can’t rid the world of fossil fuels and continue to enjoy the products and fuels manufactured from fossil fuels.
Under Biden’s watch, nine refinery closures in America have occurred in the last several years, the same manufacturers that are providing the derivatives for products and fuels for transportation that are the basis of a thriving economy. Those closures have resulted in the United States losing nearly one million barrels per day of oil refining capacity, with more set to be shuttered in the next few years.
These are the refiners that have closed recently or cut capacity under Biden’s watch:
- LyondellBasell, Houston, Texas: Capacity: 263,776 barrels-per-day (bpd)
- Phillips 66 Alliance, Belle Chasse, Louisiana: Capacity: 255,000 bpd
- Limetree Bay, St Croix, US Virgin Islands: Capacity: 210,000 bpd
- Shell Convent, St. James, Louisiana: Capacity: 240,000 bpd
- Marathon, Martinez, California: Capacity: 161,000 bpd
- Marathon, Gallup, New Mexico: Capacity: 27,000 bpd
- Phillips 66, Rodeo, California Capacity: 120,200 bpd
- HollyFrontier, Cheyenne, Wyoming: Capacity: 52,000 bpd
- Calcasieu Refining, Lake Charles, Louisiana: Capacity: 135,500 bpd
The same time that Biden is diminishing the supply of manufactured products and fuels, he was emphatic during his State of the Union speech that products for the American economy would be “Made in America” and the “Supply chain begins in America” to support our growing economy. Logic and economics have proven that increased demands concurrent with reductions [in] supply will be the catalyst to shortages and inflation in perpetuity.
Life without oil is not as simple as you may think as renewable energy is only intermittent electricity from breezes and sunshine and neither wind turbines nor solar panels can manufacture anything for society.
Climate will continue to be a challenge, like it has for billions of years, but now, we have eight billion on this planet that we didn’t have a few centuries ago that we need to maintain healthy and productive in the decades ahead. Depriving them of the products and fuels manufactured from fossil fuels could be a much greater threat to mankind than any climatic challenges facing humanity.
Restricting the supply of oil feedstock to be manufactured by refineries into usable products for society is not helpful in meeting the growing demands by society. Further, Biden seems oblivious to one in five oil refineries that are expected to cease operations over the next five years which may [mean] another 20 refinery closures in America.
President Biden’s plans to reduce emissions from manufacturing fossil fuels into usable products is a commendable objective, but he has no plans for the replacement of what is now manufactured from fossil fuels, which are supporting the eight billion on this planet.
In addition to the refinery closures occurring under Biden’s watch, the future does not bode well for the 80 per cent of the world’s 700 refineries that are located outside of America. Projections are that 20 per cent of the 700 worldwide refineries are expected to close in the next five years. Further inflation and shortages in perpetuity are guaranteed, as refineries manufacture crude oil into the derivatives and fuels for the world’s eight billion.
President Biden could enhance his energy literacy by viewing a short one-minute video produced by Epoch Times TV about renewables that only generate electricity – but manufacture nothing for society. The video has already been viewed by more than 800,000 on social media …
