Saved by Pseudo-renewable Energy?

Townhall.com ^ | January 26, 2019 | Paul Driessen

[Kaslin]

So climate alarmists intend to carbon-tax, legislate and regulate our energy, factories, livelihoods, living standards, liberties and lives to the max. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal would eliminate and replace US fossil fuels by 2030. It’s an unprecedented economic and political power grab.

We went to war with King George over far less serious abuses and usurpations. And yet today we seem to have few Patrick Henrys or other stalwart, principled leaders willing to defy this insanity.

Those accusing someone of a crime must prove his guilt; the accused need not prove his innocence. But not only are alarmists bringing what amount to criminal charges against fossil fuels; wiping out the fuels that provide over 80% of our energy would bring widespread chaos, poverty, misery, disease and death.

As I said just days ago, those who claim fossil fuels and greenhouse gases are causing dangerous global warming and climate change must have the burden of proving their case. Not with allegations, computer models, headlines, mob rule and demands for instant sentencing. With solid, irrefutable evidence.

Those who intend to use climate change accusations to disrupt and destroy modern energy systems and industrialized economies likewise have the burden of proving that wind, solar and biofuel energy can actually replace fossil fuels. That they are actually clean, green, renewable and sustainable.

Thus far, they have offered no real-world evidence whatsoever. And there is no way they can do so.

Fossil fuels are compact and dense. Small land and raw material impacts provide bountiful, affordable, reliable energy. America and the world have enough of these fuels to last at least a century at current rates of consumption – by which time human ingenuity will doubtless provide workable alternatives.

By contrast, wind, solar and biofuel energy is dispersed, weather-dependent, expensive and land-intensive. Every industrial wind facility, solar installation and biofuel plantation requires far more land – and far more raw materials – than their energy-generation-equivalent fossil fuel counterparts. Add in backup fossil fuel generators or massive battery arrays, and those impacts become astronomical.

To eliminate our fossil fuel energy – and replace it with these pseudo-renewable systems – we would have to remove tens of billions of tons of rock, to extract billions of tons of ores, to create millions of tons of metals, concrete and other materials, to manufacture and install millions of wind turbines and solar panels, and grow billions of barrels of biofuels. Vast acreage of croplands, wildlife habitats and scenic areas would be torn apart, covered with mining debris and blanketed with “renewable” energy facilities.

Moreover, as long as anti-mining radicals have effective control of US courts, legislatures and regulatory agencies, America’s deposits of rare earth and other strategic metals and materials will remain off limits. As Ned Mamula and Ann Bridges point out in Groundbreaking! America’s new quest for minerals independence, that would leave the USA 100% dependent on often unfriendly foreign sources for the “next era” energy systems that we have repeatedly been promised are “just around the corner.”

The same well-funded radical groups also battle mining by Western companies all over the world. That means global raw material supplies will be rapidly depleted … utopian green energy dreams will never become reality … and nations will descend into deprivation, disease, starvation, anarchy and war.

To put it simply, so that even Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Al Gore and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can understand this energy reality: The wind and sun may be free, green, renewable and sustainable. But the energy, land and materials required to harness and utilize that energy certainly are not.

Wind and solar systems also break down faster and must be replaced earlier and more often than coal, gas or nuclear power plants – which have operational life spans of 30-50 years, and generate power about 95% of the time. Wind energy proponents claim turbines last 20-25 years. They don’t.

A 2018 UK analysis of 3,000 onshore wind turbines found that they generate electricity efficiently for just 12-15 years (about 25-30% of the time) and generate more than twice as much electricity in their first year than when they are barely 15 years old. So wind turbine raw materials depletion and land use impacts are far higher than advocates have admitted. These realities are no better for solar installations.

That also means the cost of wind and solar electricity is far higher than their advocates admit. Those costs may be partially hidden by taxpayer subsidies. But they are real, and punitive.

Electricity prices in US states that rely heavily on coal, gas, nuclear or hydroelectric generation hover around 9 cents per kilowatt-hour. In California, Connecticut, New York and other states that oppose these sources and impose hefty “green” energy mandates and feed-in tariffs, prices are twice as high. In Germany and Denmark, families must pay four times as much: 35-37 cents per kWh!

Try to run a factory, hospital, school, business, home, city or country on electricity priced at those stratospheric rates. Imagine trying to do so when fossil fuels are driven into oblivion – by the same “environmentalists” who detest and want to eliminate nuclear and hydroelectric power plants.

Middle classes are already fleeing California’s and New York’s oppressive taxes, regulations, high energy and housing prices, job destruction, and predominantly Democrat politicians who blame every problem on manmade climate change. Just wait until their states go “100% renewable energy” by 2030 or so.

Meanwhile, more rational countries in Asia, Africa and elsewhere are building coal- and gas-fired generating units by the thousands, to power modern, industrialized societies and lift billions more people out of poverty. That means global emissions of plant-fertilizing carbon dioxide will continue to increase – even if climate alarmists succeed with their power plays in the USA, Canada, Europe and elsewhere. It means Asia and Africa could soon outpace many of today’s industrial and economic powerhouses.

As to biofuels, how are farmers going to grow enough corn, soybeans, sugar cane and switchgrass to replace the petroleum that radical greens want kept in the ground, if they don’t have modern equipment and fertilizers – which eco-fanatics also despise? Farmers may have to get human “fertilizer” from sewage treatment plants, since many “environmentalists” also demand that we stop raising cows, pigs and chickens … which means farmers won’t even be able to get enough animal manure.

One of the latest climate scare stories claims our warming planet will soon drive many insect species to extinction. What are people going to eat, when they can’t even find bugs to dine on?

All these are more reasons why the United States we must formally exit the Paris climate treaty by subjecting it to a two-thirds Senate “advice and consent” vote that would most assuredly fail. They are more reasons why we must revisit and reverse the EPA carbon dioxide “Endangerment Finding.”

The climate alarmists’ increasingly shrill claims … their refusal to engage climate and energy realists in debate … their escalating efforts to silence us – are proof that they are getting desperate. We need to continue ramping up our efforts – and cajole, embarrass and harangue politicians to show some spine, intestinal fortitude and intelligence, by standing up to the forces of climate dictatorship and darkness.

What can the average person do? Speak out. Write letters to editors, legislators, corporate executives and President Trump. Attend town meetings, press briefings, committee hearings and other events. Ask tough questions. Demand evidence to back up alarmist assertions. Above all, bombard politicians, climate activists and media talking heads with the F-word they detest and fear: Facts.

Your future, your children’s future, your country’s future, our planet’s future – depend on it.

[Dutch Boy]

I’ve recently been asking the alternative energy fans at work a simple question. Can alternative energy be needed to mine, smelt, create all of the materials and products what is needed for alternative energy solutions?

[buckalfa]

Well if there is money to be made, taxes collected, and political power enhanced, then the GOPe will be willing partners for a minority cut of the green action.

[CodeToad]

The energy it takes to create those windmills is far more than they could ever save.

[The Westerner]

Thank you for posting this well-written article! Here’s his message:

“...The climate alarmists’ increasingly shrill claims … their refusal to engage climate and energy realists in debate … their escalating efforts to silence us – are proof that they are getting desperate. We need to continue ramping up our efforts – and cajole, embarrass and harangue politicians to show some spine, intestinal fortitude and intelligence, by standing up to the forces of climate dictatorship and darkness.

What can the average person do? Speak out. Write letters to editors, legislators, corporate executives and President Trump. Attend town meetings, press briefings, committee hearings and other events. Ask tough questions. Demand evidence to back up alarmist assertions. Above all, bombard politicians, climate activists and media talking heads with the F-word they detest and fear: Facts.

Your future, your children’s future, your country’s future, our planet’s future – depend on it.”

[abclily]

OK!! Everybody pay attention!
Lesson for today:
1. The sun is 1,300,000 times as big as the earth.
2. The sun is a giant nuclear furnace that controls the climates of all its planets.
3. The earth is one of the sun’s planets.
4. The earth is a speck in comparison to the size of the sun.
5. Inhabitants of the earth are less than specks.
Study Question: How do less-than-specks in congress plan to control the sun?

[CodeToad]

“Can alternative energy be needed to mine, smelt, create all of the materials and products what is needed for alternative energy solutions?”

No, and that’s why they need taxpayers to fund their industry.

[immadashell]

Thus far, they have offered no real-world evidence whatsoever. And there is no way they can do so.

Once upon a time hypotheses were required to be tested using the disciplines of Scientific Method. Somewhere along the way that requirement was abandoned probably because it was not profitable. The institutions that previously required the discipline discovered that they could attract boatloads of grant money by ignoring the Method in favor of untested hypotheses that couldn't possibly pass muster as legitimate science. Quietly, but firmly, they forced Scientific Method into some closet, never to be used again. Consensus is not science. We don't get to vote on the outcomes of experiments. Einstein once said that no number of experiments could prove his theories correct but a single one could prove him wrong.

[Pollster1]

One interesting side note on all-renewable energy. If AOC’s genius can actually make this happen successfully, OPEC goes from an economic powerhouse to a side note. We’ll still need petroleum for certain plastics and similar chemical engineering applications, but the Gulf States will find themselves back in an economic era that matches their culture.

[_Jim]

It doesn’t really matter ... the Hydrino-powered economy is around the corner ... this is all just fighting over “table scraps”.

[Pontiac]

Electricity prices in US states that rely heavily on coal, gas, nuclear or hydroelectric generation hover around 9 cents per kilowatt-hour. In California, Connecticut, New York and other states that oppose these sources and impose hefty “green” energy mandates and feed-in tariffs, prices are twice as high. In Germany and Denmark, families must pay four times as much: 35-37 cents per kWh!

And some people wonder why the Yellow-shirts are protesting in Europe.

They started with ludicrously expensive electricity and then they wanted to pile on with enormous taxes on gasoline and diesel.

The Leftist in government couldn’t have the working man walking around with money in his pocket.

[ckilmer]

Climate Changes all the time. Most of it is caused by the sun. From time to time volcanos get in the game. More infrequently climate change is caused by comets..

These days a big contributer of climate change world wide is desertification. Think US 1930's dust bowl on a global scale. Some countries like Pakistan that were once 100 percent forested are now 98% deforested. Expose the soil to the sun and the soil just blows away. Yearly the Sahel region of Central Africa moves south. Why? because people impoverish the soils. Countries that impoverish their soils become impoverished. Its all because of terrible land practices like over lumbering, over grazing, slash and burn farming, even tilling the soil and under grazing have been shown to weaken soils.

Have you seen pictures of Chinese cities enveloped in a red cloud. People have masks on. Have you seen pictures of European cities with refugees camped out in their streets. In both cases, the land has gone bad. Only in Europe you don't see the red sky. You just see the people who have fled from the deserts they have made of their own lands.

There are a few countries where things have turned around 100%. China --which went from losing nearly 1000 square miles a year to desertification until about 2013-- now is recovering nearly 800 square miles a year from the desert. They have spent nearly 100 billion dollars on the project--much of it in the last 5 years. They think that effort will get them from about 19% forested to 22% forested by 2022. They hope to be 36% forested by 2036 or there about.

The USA could actually turn much of the US southwest into forest land--even in areas with only +-10 inches of rain a year--by intelligently contouring the land to capture all the rainwater via swales on contour, sand dams, water pits and other water capture methods.

On the renewable fuels--wind is half the price of fossil fuels including natural gas and coal in the midwest. Even with storage-- wind is cheaper than fossil fuels in the midwest. The fall of wind and solar prices has been very steep in the last five years. Steeper than most people realize. That fall will slow over the next couple years but the fall in storage prices will continue apace. Utility scale solar has followed the same price curve downward as wind--but in the southwest from texas to southern california. So there are places in the USA where utility scale alternative energy does make sense. Luckily there is plenty of natural gas and coal available for the rest of the USA.

[Ben Ficklin]

I read in the renewable energy news that New York was doubling down on offshore wind and was planning on trying to get out in front of California.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Forty years ago many of the “Back-to-nature” magazines were suggesting wood fired power plants. It was figured that 25 square miles of land could be constantly cut and replanted in trees.
They didn’t figure on the cost of how many extra people would be needed and the fuel used to transport the fuel to the plant.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Green New Deal would eliminate and replace US fossil fuels by 2030...I'm looking to the first flight of the windmill airplane....

[Do the math]

What is wrong with the culture of the Gulf States????

[zeestephen]

Re: “The sun is a giant nuclear furnace that controls the climates of all its planets.”

That is true, but the sun’s total energy output stays within a very, very narrow range - plus or minus 0.1%.

If the temperatures on Earth varied just 0.1%, there would be no political or scientific debate.

However, over thousands of years, the average temperature of the same location on Earth can change by 10 degrees Celsius.

Other crucial factors in Earth’s temperature are the shape of the Earth’s orbit around the sun, the position of the Earth above or below the sun’s equatorial plane, and the angle of precession (wobble) of the Earth’s axis.

Perhaps most important is cloud cover, which can reflect heat into space during the day, or trap heat against Earth’s surface during night time.

Until science completely understands how clouds form and dissipate, and how to accurately calculate cloud cover, no one can fully understand Earth’s temperature.

[Pollster1]

What is wrong with the culture of the Gulf States????

Not enough Christians. Not enough freedom.