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.
California Governor Gavin Newsom refuses to address the hydrocarbon elephant in the room, namely that The End of Oil Would be the End of Civilization as the products manufactured from crude oil played a major role in building the world from one billion to eight billion people in the past 200 years.
With his narrow focus on the useless transition to so-called renewables, no matter what, Newsom is apparently unable to understand that renewables of wind turbines and solar panels cannot manufacture anything.
Today’s dangerous emphasis on wind and solar power for intermittent electricity is creating a lack of investment in the future. It is also causing a shortage of fuels for planes, ships, militaries and space programs, all of which are manufactured from the substance Newsom seems to hate most – oil, that is, black [gold], Texas Tea or petroleum. But Newsom stubbornly refuses to talk about the “products crisis” his energy policies are creating.
The governor’s efforts to tax California out of its energy crisis will fail, and consumers and businesses will pay the price. After all, 6,000 products in our daily lives are made from oil derivatives that are manufactured out of crude oil. And how about the fuels needed for the 50,000 merchant ships and the 50,000 jets in the world? They are all dependent on fuels manufactured from crude oil, the same substance that Newsom wants to eliminate.
Newsom has set aspirational goals for an energy transition, but it is only for electricity generation, from natural gas and coal electricity generation to electricity from intermittent breezes and sunshine. Newsom’s single-minded focus is to reduce emissions no matter the consequences. He fails to comprehend that, without a planned replacement for crude oil to make those same products that support the economy, limiting the crude oil will inflict massive shortages and inflation in perpetuity on everyone’s lifestyles.
Governor Newsom could benefit from a few takeaways about energy literacy that he, and others in America’s ruling class, and the media refuse to discuss. Let’s list some of the more important ones:
- The potential for nuclear fusion for unlimited zero-emission electricity is exciting. In the decades ahead, it has the potential to wean the world from coal and natural gas for electricity generation. But this is still a long way in the future.
- But fusion (and fission, used in today’s nuclear power plants), wind, solar and hydro, ONLY generate electricity. None can manufacture any products or fuels for transportation infrastructures needed by the growing population on this planet.
- Crude oil is never used for generating electricity AND is virtually useless until it’s manufactured into usable products via the seven hundred refineries around the world.
- Again, and this cannot be over-emphasized, more than 6,000 products are made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil, and the 50,000 merchant ships and 50,000 jets, militaries and space programs are powered on fuels manufactured from crude oil.
- We may have long-range plans to generate electricity from wind, solar and nuclear fusion, but no plans to replace crude oil that is manufactured into everything in our daily lives.
By continually decreasing in-state oil production, Newsom’s energy policies continue to force California, the fourth largest economy in the world, to be the only state in contiguous America that imports most of its crude oil energy from foreign countries. That dependence, via maritime transportation from foreign nations for the state’s crude oil energy demands, has increased imported crude oil from five per cent in 1992 to almost 60 per cent today of total consumption.
California’s growing dependency on other nations, some not particularly friendly to America, is a serious national security risk for all of us. It also deprives Californians of jobs and business opportunities and forces drivers to pay premium prices for fuel.
Since 1995, California’s crude oil demands have been increasing year over year, except for pandemic years. But given that maritime transportation is one of the greatest contributors of GHG emissions, the state continues to “leak” emissions to others outside the California clean air bubble.
In 2021, imported foreign crude oil approached 300,000 barrels per year. It took 150 Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) oil tankers, each with two million barrels of crude oil, which were required to meet the demands of California. That number of VLCCs, emit about double the annual emissions as the entire Californian transportation sector. So, even if it were necessary to decrease GHG emissions, Newsom’s approach is a total failure.
Economists and experts have consistently pointed to the same fundamental factors driving high gas prices in California: high taxes and fees, expensive environmental mandates on fuel manufacturers and policies that limit refining capacity. All these factors create a tight market for transportation fuels.
Back in 2018, Senator John Moorlach and the senior author of this article testified in support of Senate Bill 1074: “Disclosure of government-imposed costs”. The bill would have required gas stations to post near each gas and diesel pump a list of all cost factors, all taxes as well as the costs associated with the state’s numerous environmental regulations being imposed on the manufacturers. This transparency would help Californians understand why they are paying more than a dollar a gallon for fuel more than the rest of the country.
Newsom’s Democratic party controlled the 2018 committee considering the issue, and they clearly did not want the public to see all these costs included in the posted pump price. So, they killed the bill from future consideration.
Today, we are hearing the same concerns that Senate Bill 1074 would have remedied. So, the Newsom energy dance continues, and Californians continue to pay the piper.
To discuss all this, during a captivating and candid 58-minute podcast discussion, we invited California-based engineer and author Ronald Stein to be our guest this week on The Other Side of the Story on America Out Loud Talk Radio on Saturday, January 7, and Sunday, January 8, at both 11 am and 8 pm Eastern each day.
