Posted on 01/12/2018 8:24:23 AM PST by Kaslin
Following the recent record-setting low temperatures, the importance of reliable, abundant, and inexpensive energy is now more obvious than ever. It was certainly appropriate that the 2017 National Security Strategy (NSS), released on December 18, three days before the start of winter, emphasized energy security.
To “Promote American prosperity” and “Advance American influence,” two of the four vital national interests identified in the NSS, the Trump administration asserts that “our Nation must take advantage of our wealth in domestic resources.” And one of the most important of its domestic resources, one America is no longer taking full advantage of, are its vast coal reserves, the largest of any nation on Earth.
Testifying on Nov. 28 at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) public hearing on the withdrawal of the Clean Power Plan in Charleston, W.Va., Robert E. Murray, president and CEO of Murray Energy Corp., summarized the bleak state of affairs:
“Prior to the election of President Obama, 52% of America’s electricity was generated from coal, and this rate was much higher in the Midwest. That percentage of coal generation declined under the Obama Administration to 30%. Under the Obama Administration, and its so-called Clean Power Plan, over 400 coal-fired generating plants totaling over 100,000 megawatts of capacity were closed with no proven environmental benefit whatsoever.”
Much of this was driven by Obama’s determination to be seen to be contributing to “arresting climate change,” to quote from his 2015 NSS, by mandating severe reductions of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants. Unbelievably, Obama’s 2015 NSS listed “Climate change” ahead of “Major energy market disruptions” in its “list of top strategic risks to our interests.” That made no sense. Climate is, and always will be, variable. There is nothing we can do to stop it. And many scientists do not support the hypothesis that our CO2 emissions will cause dangerous climate change.
Following the recent record-setting low temperatures, the importance of reliable, abundant, and inexpensive energy is now more obvious than ever. It was certainly appropriate that the 2017 National Security Strategy (NSS), released on December 18, three days before the start of winter, emphasized energy security.
To “Promote American prosperity” and “Advance American influence,” two of the four vital national interests identified in the NSS, the Trump administration asserts that “our Nation must take advantage of our wealth in domestic resources.” And one of the most important of its domestic resources, one America is no longer taking full advantage of, are its vast coal reserves, the largest of any nation on Earth.
Testifying on Nov. 28 at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) public hearing on the withdrawal of the Clean Power Plan in Charleston, W.Va., Robert E. Murray, president and CEO of Murray Energy Corp., summarized the bleak state of affairs:
“Prior to the election of President Obama, 52% of America’s electricity was generated from coal, and this rate was much higher in the Midwest. That percentage of coal generation declined under the Obama Administration to 30%. Under the Obama Administration, and its so-called Clean Power Plan, over 400 coal-fired generating plants totaling over 100,000 megawatts of capacity were closed with no proven environmental benefit whatsoever.”
Much of this was driven by Obama’s determination to be seen to be contributing to “arresting climate change,” to quote from his 2015 NSS, by mandating severe reductions of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants. Unbelievably, Obama’s 2015 NSS listed “Climate change” ahead of “Major energy market disruptions” in its “list of top strategic risks to our interests.” That made no sense. Climate is, and always will be, variable. There is nothing we can do to stop it. And many scientists do not support the hypothesis that our CO2 emissions will cause dangerous climate change.
Tom Harris is executive director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition. He writes from a province, Ontario, that seriously damaged its economy by banning all coal-fired power generation.
Reminds me it’s cold in the winter and globul warming is a crock.
This is why the tremendous expansion of natural gas supplies (thanks to “fracking”) has scared the daylights out of OPEC—no wonder PR firms representing Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates were lobbying to slow down the expansion of “fracking.”
This country needs to use Thorium energy.
Clean, safe, very inexpensive, and about as abundant as anything else.
Not against hydrocarbons, but the 0bama’s and Cuomo’s and DeBlasio’s of the world won’t be able to politicize it like coal and oil.
Get a woodstove! :-)
Windmills are shut down when the wind is too strong.
Solar panels don’t work well when they are covered with snow.
Coal is reliable.
Replant trees
Yes so you will have plenty of fuel for your wood stove. :-)
It's winter and it's supposed to be cold. I'd be worried if we had a heat wave of 100° plus in the middle of Winter.
The residue of dead dinosaurs steaming out of the ground keeps my house warm and spiltting atoms keeps the lights on, but the sooner America wises-up and invests in distributed generation including wind and solar where appropriate (i.e. in high wind and solar resource areas) and in distributed thorium power plants that can be safely located underground near points of major consumption (e.g. cities) the sooner we can wean ourselves away from the traditional and what will ultimately be more expensive forms of energy. Every source of energy on this planet has a common origin: the Sun. When it’s used to create biomass that takes millions of hears to gassify or turned directly into electrical energy in a solar panel or through the heat generated by nuclear reactions, the choice of “solar power” is non-negotiable. We just need to use the more efficient forms of it.
My great grandmother told of picking up cow chips for the fire on the way to the outhouse on sub-zero mornings - with the frozen Volga creaking like thunder.
Today’s “architects”, and their poodles, have a panic attack at the thought of not having toilet paper.
I think things won’t end well for them. Their kind of BS doesn’t cook biscuits.
BTW in Germany every tree that is cut down in the forest has to be replaced by two or three tree saplings and the underbrush is always cleaned out.
Agree.
Energy requirements for habitable conditions, costs of sustaining good human health, deaths due to extreme weather are all higher the colder it gets compared to the warmer it gets.
All anyone needs to do to judge that is to look at the disbursement of the human population and notice how much more human population has naturally settled where it is “hotter than average” compared to where it is “colder than average”.
Cold costs more in many aspects of sustaining life than does heat.
The power went out for about 4 min on one of those 10 degree days last week and I did crap a brick!
I saw a great cartoon. A woman was hanging laundry on a clothesline and saying, “It’s the latest in renewable energy - solar and wind.”
Without dependable energy there is no economy and not much civilization. When “renewable” becomes dependable let us know.
And why is that? PS this is a trap. You have been fed a line of bull by someone. There is no advantage that Thorium has over Uranium. The cost of nuclear safety is largely invariant, and the fact that capital and operating costs sharply disadvantage nuclear right now is an economic fact.
same question as my post above. What do you thing thorium does for anyone that uranium doesn't do. And don't give me this horsehockey about some sort of uranium shortage.
You are in error, Mr. Jackson.
There are incredible advantages to using Th over Uranium.
The liquid fluoride reactors are a major reason why.
And no weapons grade plutonium.
Thorium is widely available, in fact we throw it away every day. Uranium is rare in comparison. Thorium energy is cheap!
Many differences.
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