Power FOR the People
The usual reliability of electricity became an issue for portions of America during the recent deep freeze experienced by, not just those living in our northern states, but others as well, as that unwelcome generational winter storm made its way across the entire United States. Residents in several states were asked to reduce their use of electricity during nighttime hours, especially, which was likely not welcome news for, among others, those recent purchasers of electric vehicles needing overnight charges!
The TVA and Duke Energy in the Carolinas reportedly ordered “rolling blackouts” as the sudden need for additional heating grew, within states not accustomed to such weather-related electricity demands, resulting from extraordinary pressure on the national power grid. You’ll recall that, back in February 2021, “hundreds of people in Texas died after frozen wind turbines triggered blackouts.” Wrote the Wall Street Journal editors: “The interconnected U.S. grid is supposed to be a source of resilience, but the government’s force-fed green energy transition is creating systemic vulnerabilities that politicians don’t want to acknowledge.” And this great concluding line: “Storms happened before climate change became the default political explanation for everything.”
Several European nations were duped by the “green scheme” in recent years, leading to more wind and solar dependence, and less fossil fuel and nuclear-powered energy production. Apparently realizing for the first time the extreme limitations of wind and solar (the wind don’t blow & the sun don’t shine) which had become major suppliers of increasing business and home energy demands, made all the more critical, at present, by Russia cutting off natural gas supplies (responding to Ukraine invasion-related imposed sanctions), so that countries in Europe are having to revert back to coal as a primary source of energy (with supposed anti-green nuclear plants having been shut down!), regardless of the climate change concerns with coal that dramatically reduced its usage. “In Germany, a country heavily dependent on Russian gas due to its shuttered nuclear power plants, candle sales have skyrocketed in anticipation of power blackouts.” In England, with prior, pre-green, heavy reliance on coal, its reliability (vs. wind & solar) has led now to “reinvestment in coal mines to keep the (coal-fired) plants open for business.”
Coal use has been increasing in several parts of the world, beyond just Europe. It was projected that coal use, globally, would hit an all-time high in 2021. And that includes the United States, with a 14% increase in coal ‘consumption’ in 2021, while India increased its use of coal for power generation by 15% that year. And as you would expect, by now, “China is the world’s largest carbon emitter, with more emissions than the U.S., Europe, and Japan combined, largely due to its manufacturing industry which is largely fueled by coal.” And China reportedly has been building even more coal plants in 2022. The principal reason for coal use increase, world-wide, by the way, was said to be the rising cost of natural gas.
Beyond coal dependence, note that in addition, China is now building what is considered to be a “huge” shale gas drilling facility. Seemingly another step toward increased fossil fuel use, despite the European Union’s and current American (Democrat) calls for decreased carbon emissions due to the alleged negative impact on climate, which has become, as stated earlier: “the default political explanation for everything.” With the heavy reliance by nation’s like China, India, and others on fossil fuels and the resultant heavy emissions spill into the world’s atmosphere from those nations, it is beyond ridiculous for the economic system, power needs, and overall well-being of the United States to be dictated, and conceivably ruined, by the political whims of national and global elites who appear bound and determined to impose an unreliable, irrational, leftist pipe-dream, national energy dependence on today’s seriously flawed “renewables” (wind & solar), which will never, ever adequately replace proven, reliable, and plentiful fossil fuels, readily available, despite federal efforts against, right here in America.
World-wide, per a 2020 analysis, fossil fuels provide almost 80% of the energy needs (oil, coal & natural gas, in that order). Renewables stood at 16%, with wood (!) making up 11% of the total, followed by nuclear (5%), hydro (3%), wind (1%), and solar (.8%). Over these past two years, with the irrational push for wind & solar, those two sources may very well have increased, likely receding currently due to the resurgence of coal, internationally, in the face of increased reliable power demands, due largely to adverse weather. Here in America, the dominant sources of electricity remain coal and natural gas.
At the present time, the most reliable “renewables” in America are hydropower and nuclear. Georgia stands out with the latter power source, as Georgia Power (Southern Company) expects its two new reactors at Plant Vogtle to finally come online this year. “They will produce enough carbon-free energy to power a million homes in Georgia.” While nuclear is clearly the most reliable non-damable form of power generation among current so-called “renewables,” with available federal funding, more U.S.-based reactors should be built. The only downside, and it’s a major one, is the time it takes to construct nuclear facilities. Hydropower is terrific for those areas of our country (or world) that have major available interior waterways that can be dammed. Interesting side note: Environmentalists in the U.S. are actually opposed to hydro, “in fact many state ‘renewable portfolio mandates’ deliberately exclude hydropower, because (wait for it…) dams are evil.” Amazing. Actually being against perhaps the most natural form of reliable power generation because you have to build-up and then momentarily capture and use the water flow before it continues on its way. No question: Evil. As opposed to, let’s say, giant, lurking, bird-killing, wind towers!
Wind and solar power will very likely never be able to replace the reliable power- generation attributes of American natural gas, oil, and coal (world’s cleanest burning) as our primary electric energy sources. Meanwhile, our Progressive-Democrat federal government continues to pump millions/billions of budget-busting, inflationary, taxpayer dollars to encourage private sector companies to continue eating up tens-of-thousands of acres of potential agricultural or commercial development land in order to build more and more huge wind and solar arrays, despite the known (and experienced) real negatives associated with those sources. Federal money is an enticing motivator, usually sourced to make it impossible to turn down.
Thus, as indicated, with ample supplies in the ground, fossil fuels will very likely continue to provide the foundation for America’s energy needs for perhaps generations to come. Accordingly, it is well past time to remove the stringent, clearly politically-motivated, federal regulatory handcuffs from America’s oil and natural gas prospectors/drillers/producers, so that we can return to the time when the U.S. was energy independent, and could even sell surplus fuel to our allied nations in need. If Congressional Republicans get past the embarrassing Speaker foolishness, it’s high time to take care of America’s reliable energy needs FIRST, and stop the fantasy jousting with climate-change windmills!
(Grid stress via The Wall Street Journal, Editors, 12-27-22; Texas 2021 freeze/candle sales in Germany/coal resurgence in England via foxnews.com, James M. Taylor, 12-22-22; Increased coal use via breitbart.com, John Hayward, 12-19-22; China’s coal use via dailycaller.com, Jack McEvoy, 11-4-22; China shale gas facility via breitbart.com, John Hayward, 10-28-22; World-wide power sources (2020), “evil” hydro, U.S. dominant sources via powerlineblog.com, Steven Hayward, 12-7-22; Georgia Power nuclear plants via Georgia Trend Magazine, Ben Young, January, 2023).