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.
Regardless of 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, which all need a continuous, uninterrupted supply of electricity.
Yet, policymakers continue to subsidize wind turbines and solar panels (with taxpayers’ money) for generating electricity that DOES NOT work most of the time.
I find it amusing that 23 states have adopted goals to move to 100 per cent clean electricity 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, which is the foundation of our materialistic society demanded by the eight billion on this planet.
- Occasional electricity generated from wind and solar CANNOT support computers for hospitals, airports, offices, manufacturing, military sites, and telemetry, which all need a continuous, uninterruptible supply of electricity.
Interestingly, all the components of wind turbines and solar panels are also based on products made from fossil fuels. Thus, in a fossil-free society, we’re decaying back to the 1800s, as there will also be NO electricity. Life was short and hard for the common man just a couple hundred years ago!
Sarcastically, or more realistically, these are a few boomerang impacts of a society free of crude oil:
- Without oil, there would be a significant loss of billions of lives of the eight 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, all of which are based on 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 cavemen in a non-materialistic society like that in the pre-1800s.
- Without oil, we would drastically reduce the unfunded pension liabilities associated with those who retire early from business or start collecting Social Security in their mid-60s and collect pensions well into their 80s, as few people would live beyond their 40s!
- 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, which 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, it is the basis for virtually all the products in our materialistic society that did not exist before the 1800s.
> Over the last 200 years, we’ve become a very materialistic society, and the world has populated from one to eight billion because of all the products and different fuels for jets, ships, trucks, cars, the military, and the space program that did not exist before the 1800s.
> If the world governments want to rid the earth of crude oil usage, what’s the backup 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, which is the basis of our materialistic “products” society.
We should be careful with what we wish for. 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 – the United States of America, Germany, the UK, and Australia — represent about six per cent of the world’s population (515 million vs 8 billion) and 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 per cent of the world’s population, billions still struggle to meet basic needs. The poor 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 1800s when:
- There were no products for heating, cooling, or irrigation to prevent weather-related fatalities and injuries before the 1800s.
- Life longevity was about 40 years of age before the 1800s.
- When people were born, they seldom traveled more than 100 miles from their birthplace before the 1800s.
- There was no medical industry before the 1800s.
- There were no electronics, computers, or iPhones before the 1800s.
- There were no transportation infrastructures before the 1800s.
- There were no tires or asphalt to support transportation infrastructures.
- There were no airplanes and thus no airports before the 1800s.
- There were no cruise ships or merchant ships other than sailing vessels before the 1800s.
- There were no military ships or planes before the 1800s.
- There were no coal-fired power plants before the 1800s.
- There were no natural gas-powered plants before the 1800s.
- There were no hydro or nuclear power plants before the 1800s.
At the recent climate summit gathering in Dubai, which attracted more than 70,000 people from around the world who enjoy materialistic lifestyles and 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-1800s!
This article originally appeared at America Out Loud.
