Green Energy Conundrums [semi-satire]

The political push to force people to buy electric vehicles (EVs) has run into problems. The State of California has decreed that no fossil-fueled vehicles will be allowed to be sold in the state after 2035. About a dozen other states that have linked their vehicle emission rules to the "California Standard" are now legally obligated to follow whatever regulations California adopts.

Left unconsidered in this bold stride toward clean energy is how enough electricity to power the growing number of EVs these rules will mandate. Right now only 1% of the vehicles on the road are EVs. Even with this paltry number the California Government is advising EV owners not to recharge their cars during peak demand periods lest they cause the power grid to fail.

EVs aren't the only threat to the power grid. Homeowners' preference for running their air conditioners at comfortable settings is also posing a danger of grid failure. In Denver, the local provider of electricity has taken control over the thermostats of 22,000 customers who signed up for the Colorado AC Rewards program. These customers receive a $100 credit for enrolling in the program plus a $25 annual bonus for remaining in the program. Due to an "energy emergency" their thermostats could not be turned to a temperature any lower than 78 degrees.

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm called "centralized thermostat control an integral measure for preventing climate change. When you think about it, the idea that individuals should be allowed to control their home's thermostat is crazy. We can't allow selfish individuals to consume as much electricity as they're willing to pay for. They don't have the knowledge necessary for making a socially optimal choice. The government needs to dole out the appropriate quantity of electricity to each person based on their value to the social collective. Air conditioning is a luxury, not a necessity. People have a biological evap-cooler we call sweat. If there isn't enough electricity to go around what little there is must be reserved for more important uses like heating and cooling government buildings and the homes of important government officials."

If you missed any of the other Semi-News/Semi-Satire posts you can find them at...

https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Opinion/331529-2022-09-03-semi-news-semi-satire-september-4-2022-edition.htm

There ain’t no such animal as “fossil fuel”. Petroleum is formed, for the most part, by abiotic means.

At the boundary layer between the earth’s outer stony crust and the molten mantle beneath, lies the Mohorovičić discontinuity, a vast chemical factory that generates a surprising number of hydrocarbon compounds on a continuing basis. Under the extreme conditions of heat and pressure, water is split into free hydrogen, and carbon dioxide acts as a liquid solvent. The free hydrogen then attaches to the carbon dioxide molecule, forcing off the oxygen and forming a methane molecule. Now for those of you who flunked chemistry in high school, the rest of this discussion is going to look like babbling and magical incantations, but it is very real. Under the continued pressure and heat, the methane molecules are converted, in the presence of certain metallic elements known as catalysts, into longer and longer carbon chains, and distilled by the constant heat source upwards, into the rocky crust above, where the hydrocarbon compounds are trapped in the interstices between the compounds that make up the rocks, mostly silicates of some kind. Sometimes, great pockets of these hydrocarbon compounds form into gaps between the rock layers, and a petroleum well is formed, which humanity has learned how to extract, by drilling into these pockets, and with the internal pressure of the natural gas that is also a part of the mix of hydrocarbons, the whole mix is forced out of the well, in a “gusher”. The shower of hydrocarbons is collected, and by fractional distillation, is rendered into all the oils, waxes, fuels and raw materials for the manufacture of plastics, that grace our world with prosperity today.

Now this process of hydrocarbon formation at the Mohorovičić discontinuity is an ongoing process, which explains why some supposedly “dry” oil wells replenish and begin producing years later. We will NEVER run out of petroleum, the myth of “peak petroleum” is just that, a myth. And if need be, we can PRODUCE a pretty good grade of crude oil, known as kerogen, by a process known as thermal depolymerization. Take a quantity of organic materials, whether it be lawn clippings, lumberyard waste, sewage, turkey intestines, or whatever, put it in a retort with enough water to make a slurry, and heat it at temperatures of about 600 degrees Fahrenheit for about four to six hours under pressures of six times normal atmospheric pressure, and the yield is kerogen, the composition depending on what the original organic material was. We need never run out of petroleum, and the products made from it, not ever. We shall be using these products for as long as civilization and technology continue to exist.

“Take a quantity of organic materials, whether it be lawn clippings, lumberyard waste, sewage, turkey intestines, or whatever, put it in a retort with enough water to make a slurry, and heat it at temperatures of about 600 degrees Fahrenheit for about four to six hours under pressures of six times normal atmospheric pressure, and the yield is kerogen, the composition depending on what the original organic material was. “

Would that produce a net positive amount of energy?

If you need heat energy to run the system, a very good source would be from a nuclear reactor. A version of thorium-fueled molten salt reactor, set up as a heat source (and ultimately that is a major product of EVERY nuclear reactor), can supply all the energy needed to make the system run on an near-continuous basis, if several several such retorts and a constant supply of organic materials suitable for thermal depolymerization could be assured. In essence, this would be duplicating some of the hellish chemical reactions that take place in the Mohorovičić discontinuity, under a more controlled environment.

We never have to have an environmental problem with the waste stream again. We have the technology, we have the need, it is only a political problem of getting the projects in gear and adopted.

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