America: Don’t Be Energy Foolish
Europe is purposely making carbon-based energy unaffordable for its citizens, preventing them from heating their homes. And winter is coming.
We humans do not use carbon-based fuels because we insist on murdering the Earth. We use them because these fuels are reliable, readily available and have predictable cost structures. To replace these fuels with something that has lower density, is difficult (or even impossible) to transport, has unpredictable reliability and a wildly variable cost structure is to destroy our standard of living.
Right now, in Europe, there is the sobering reality of not having enough carbon-based fuel to heat homes and run industries this winter. All of this is self-inflicted.
The hopelessly corrupt and inept European Union (EU) bureaucracy believed the "Green” energy delusion that coal-fired energy generating plants, with a 100-year history of affordable energy delivery with price stability, could be shut down and effectively replaced with solar panels and wind farms. It turned out to be a lie; because of the unpredictability and inefficiency of “Green” energy, Europe is now facing energy costs of up to ten times from that of just two years ago.
In the absence of affordable natural gas, the German people are cutting down trees for firewood so they might heat their homes and cook food this winter. France has gone from an exporter of energy to a country where energy must be rationed. And because of soaring energy prices, Britain is planning for blackouts, closed schools and restaurants shutting down possibly forever. All due to ruinous policy-making driven by “Green” zealotry.
The entirety of our standard of living comes from affordable energy. Over the past century, the evolution of technology has delivered increasingly reliable , affordable and plentiful energy that has gradually become cleaner and more sustainable. Following Europe’s example, the setting of unrealistic carbon emission rules against a completely arbitrary timetable turns this affordable energy scenario into an economically unsustainable nightmare.
If your $100 electric bill becomes $1,000 a month, can you pay it? How does your grocery store keep the fresh and frozen food cases running for meats, dairy, eggs and frozen items if powering the food cases is unaffordable? Can you afford a grocery bill ten times higher than what you’re experiencing today?
The EU has bowed down to a ruthless and determined ideology, which is changing society by forcing people to reduce their demand for energy and accept a leap back to an impoverished past. The existential consequences of reducing or eliminating carbon-based fuel usage are of no concern to policy-makers in Europe; they will certainly maintain their personal standard of living while expecting others to carry the extreme burden of a “Net Zero” existence.
These EU leaders are blaming their skyrocketing energy prices on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Russia has throttled natural gas supplies to Europe in response to the EU’s economic sanctions. However, European energy prices hit all-time highs months before the invasion due to lower-than-expected wind power generation. Some EU member countries are even returning to coal in their desperation to meet their country’s energy needs. Yet these leaders continue to demand more unreliable “Green” energy while eliminating the carbon-based and nuclear energy solutions that have sustained the European population for generations.
Perhaps Europeans are easier to fool than Americans. Years of having affordable carbon-based energy and the resulting exceptional standard of living it generates has given Americans strong motivation to view alternative “Green” energy with skepticism.
Speaking of “Green” energy, it is always worth exposing the lying hypocrisy that inspires the “Green” movement.
How many of those in the “Green” movement acknowledge the catastrophic damage to the Earth’s landscapes and ecosystems resulting from the mining and processing of lithium and cobalt, two requirements for the manufacturing of the batteries needed to store electricity from their precious solar panels and wind turbines? Who will admit that many rare earth elements needed for these batteries come from the Democratic Republic of Congo in which child labor is routinely used? Will anyone disclose the fact that in order for solar panels to be produced, you need carbon-based energy and petroleum-based synthetics? Has anyone noted that each wind turbine contains up to eighty gallons of oil to lubricate its moving parts?
By all means, we should continue to research and test the idea of renewable energy, putting all options on the table – including another look at fourth-generation nuclear power. By promoting the combination of renewable energy with backup sources such as nuclear we can finally prove whether the radical push toward carbon-neutral energy is scientifically based or merely a pseudo-religious belief that carbon-neutral energy from ONLY wind and solar can meet our needs and sustain our standard of living. Spoiler Alert: It can’t.
The terrible “Green” energy decisions made in Europe over that past decade are having immediate consequences with no short-term solutions. Re-starting coal, natural gas and nuclear power generating plants takes time…and winter is coming.
Will we learn from what is happening right now in Europe or will we bow down to the ruinous “Green” energy agenda and return to a standard of living resembling that of the 14th Century? Reduce or remove the presence of carbon-based fuel from society and you have exactly that – a world with more death, disease, darkness and human suffering.
Europe had a choice and it chose poorly. Is America willing to take this risk?