Not only does California’s la-la land have a minuscule impact on worldwide emissions, but its growing dependence on refineries in China to meet the enormous demand for transportation fuels to support the state's public and military airports is becoming a national security risk to the entire United States of America.
All countries need to pursue reliable, efficient, environmentally friendly electricity sources capable of generating and distributing dispatchable electricity to their industry and citizens. Nuclear generated electricity is undeniably the most reliable, cleanest and most sustainable way to do this.
California’s “Green” and “Net Zero” policymakers that wish to “transition away from fossil fuels” have focused on reducing just the SUPPLY of in-state oil production and refining to reduce emissions but have offered no backup plan to maintain the supply chain of the products and fuels to support the 4th largest economy in the world.
Perhaps it is time to weigh the benefits against the risks. If we do, nuclear power comes out way ahead of other electricity production methods. This Executive Order is at least a step in this direction. We need to ensure it is enforced and strengthened to allow for an improvement in quality of life at a cost of pennies per kWh of electricity for everyone in the world.
And now, as the early EV are aging, we need to deal with an even uglier side of Electric Vehicles –disposing of the toxic EV batteries from old or burned-out EV’s, that are polluting the air we breathe and the grounds we walk on.
It’s scary that our “Green” and “Net Zero” policymakers are setting “energy” policies that are mandating subsidies, directions, and tax breaks, when they have no comprehension of the subject of ENERGY.
While the economy DEMAND continues to increase for products and fuels, Newsom continues to destroy the SUPPLY of oil and refining to meet those DEMANDS – China coming to the rescue!
Electric vehicles are being mandated in California, but Governor Newsom is oblivious to the fact that it’s just another product that cannot exist without oil, as all the thousands of parts and components of EV’s, from tires, insulation, and computers, are made from the oil derivatives manufactured out of crude oil.
Over the last several decades, California’s passion to transition away from fossil fuels has overregulated and overly burdened just the SUPPLY of oil production and refining but has not reduced the increasing materialistic DEMANDS of the world for the more than 6,000 products and transportation fuels made from those fossil fuels.
Today, “Net Zero” policymakers setting “green” policies are oblivious to the reality that so-called “renewables”, ONLY generate electricity but CANNOT make anything. In addition, everything that NEEDS Electricity, like iPhone and computers, are made with petrochemicals manufactured from crude oil, coal, or natural gas.
Oil, coal, and gas are foundation to the global economy, contributing to thousands of products—estimated at over 6,000—that underpin modern living standards. These fossil fuels drive economic activity by providing energy and raw materials for industries, transportation, and manufacturing, while their derivatives permeate everyday life, from plastics to medicines.
All of us should be environmentalists at heart. Our daily purchases and actions should contribute to the preservation of clean air and water on the planet. Yet, we also care about our quality of life and our peaceful existence on this planet. So, we make compromises. One such compromise would be to ensure that any replacement for electricity production would be better than what we abandoned.
Net Zero, only in the wealthy countries that can subsidize renewables, is ineffective in achieving its primary goal and can never stop the weather changing. The impact of Net Zero policies is devastating for the economy and high productivity, electricity, all the more than 6,000 products made from oil derivatives, and the aviation, gasoline, and diesel fuels for our intensive industries in particular.
When we consider the needs of developing economies, we have no choice but to consider that access to electricity is a crucial cornerstone to alleviating poverty, promoting economic growth and improving living standards. It is an essential social and economic indicator. The link between electricity and GDP per capita is one of the strongest correlations in the social sciences.
Wealthy countries’ wish to rid the world of crude oil, coal, and natural gas, without replacements in mind, is immoral, since extreme shortages of the products manufactured from fossil fuels will result in the tragic loss of billions of lives from diseases, malnutrition and weather-related events, both in the developed world and in developing economies.
We have more than 50,000 merchant ships, more than 20,000 commercial aircraft and more than 50,000 military aircraft that use the fuels manufactured from crude oil. The fuels to move the heavy-weight and long-range needs of jets moving people and products, and the merchant ships for global trade flows, and the military and space programs, are also dependent on what can be manufactured from crude oil.
Instead of demonizing the energy sources for the products and fuels that built the world we know as home, we should seek balanced solutions that preserve the benefits of modernity while addressing genuine environmental concerns. A world without fossil fuels might look idyllic in the abstract, but in practice, it would resemble a dystopian world that is harsh, impoverished, and unrecognizably bleak.
Now, America seems to be fading into the wallpaper of greed and propaganda. It slinks to massive subsidies to support ancient power generated from breezes and sunshine, like wind and solar. America needs to reestablish its world-leading manifestation of this technology through our secret weapon called free enterprise.
Politicians in wealthier countries are pursuing the most expensive ways to generate intermittent electricity. Energy poverty is among the most crippling but least talked-about crises of the 21st century. We should not take electricity, products, and fuel for granted. Wealthy countries may be able to bear expensive electricity and fuels, but not by those that can least afford living in “energy poverty.”
By harnessing the power of waste, or utilizing new innovative technologies, we can focus on continuous and reliable electricity through recycling tires and plastic waste to help reduce our reliance on coal and natural gas, reduce the landfill footprint, protect the environment, and create a cleaner, healthier world for generations to come.
At the expense of its residents, who are now paying the highest costs for electricity and fuels in the nation, California’s Governor Newsom remains oblivious to the other 8 billion on this planet that are dependent on the products and fuels from oil, the same oil for which there is no known replacement.
Hope is on the horizon. The landmark US Supreme Court Chevron case has taken much of the teeth out of overzealous federal bureaucrats. US Senator Steve Daines of Montana has proposed legislation to keep coal mines operational.
