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A Real “Existential Threat” to People and the Planet – Is It Emerging With That?


Government policies promote green energy and block fossil fuels

Don Ritter

That is ironic. The Biden administration and the policies of the European Government are supposed to address the stated “existential threat” of climate change, which are in themselves a real existential threat to the economy. modern civilization.

As a science and engineering trained, lifelong hiker, polar gardener and nature lover, I want a healthy, sustainable planet just like anyone who promotes climate change agenda. It’s not that “green” energy is bad. It is the rate of “going green” and the huge investments required, which are extremely disproportionate to the energy needs of society, now and in the near future.

Elon Musk has it, but most government leaders don’t – or choose to stay silent. “Reality, civilization will fall If we don’t continue to use oil and gas in the short term,” Musk said.

Civilization collapse is clearly an “existential threat”. And this guy sells electric cars! He also recommends “continued oil and gas drilling and exploration” as he understands that producing and fueling electric vehicles will require significant fossil fuel-based electricity generation for many years to come.

“Existential” issues such as war, peace, economic vitality, employment and living standards all share an important dynamic: energy – all forms of energy. Energy to transport people and goods, operate farms and provide food, heat and cool homes, power manufacturing, and fuel ships, planes and military vehicles our team. Natural gas is essential for fertilizer to feed a starving world. Petroleum and natural gas are the building blocks of plastics, pharmaceuticals, synthetic fibers, paints and thousands of other products.

Today, significant gains are said to come almost entirely from oil, gas, and coal. Those who have it will have power; those who don’t won’t. China and Russia know this well.

Europe has dealt with the devil by entrusting its energy supplies to Vladimir Putin and energy-rich Russia – while crippling its own energy future with policies to fight climate change with fossil fuel. Europe has shut down coal, gas and nuclear power plants, and built expensive, unreliable, weather-dependent wind and solar facilities. Putin’s war on Ukraine could not have happened without his dominance over Europe’s supplies of gas, oil and coal.

And where is the US government in terms of energy reality? It is copying Europe, with its vast green energy subsidies and the “whole government’s” relentless regulatory battle over fossil fuels.

America should say to an energy insecure world, “We will do everything in our power to increase energy supplies,” in an all-encompassing approach: not just fossil fuels and energy renewable energy, but also nuclear and hydroelectric power when feasible. Instead, we beg hostile dictatorships – with no regard for human rights or ecological values ​​- to increase of them production, because we refuse to raise ours.

Isn’t that just a little embarrassing? We can be the “gas station for democracy” for the Free World. But our government’s climate change policies are getting in the way.

Simple arithmetic tells the story. Fossil fuels still provide about 80% of the world’s and America’s energy consumption. The rest comes from hydro, nuclear, solar, wind and biomass. In the United States, solar and wind power provide less than 5% of our total energy consumption – and less than 2% for transportation, to fuel 290 million cars, trucks and bus. For aircraft, the percentage is zero.

Coal accounts for about 33% of total energy consumption in the US and 37% worldwide. However, it is soon being withdrawn from the global energy supply by climate change policies. This is devastating, especially for poor countries.

Developing nations need to expand coal mining to generate electricity, create jobs, and lift billions of people out of poverty. But they are denied access to capital by climate-obsessed bureaucracies in international financial institutions and government aid agencies such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. USAID. This is hypocritical, especially since the West industrialized mainly with coal.

Climate campaigners at all levels of government and in the revenue-driven private sector have created a new energy economy based on massive subsidies for solar and wind, to replace coal, oil and gas. It spells disaster, for Europe and America, because they are doing it too soon – before the replacement devices are almost ready for the critical time.

The Biden Administration’s “Inflation Reduction Act” includes about $370 billion in new green energy subsidies, intentionally tilts massive private investment into solar and wind, and away from fossil fuels that still remain necessary – in practical terms, economically and geopolitically.

Before governments offer such huge subsidies, they need to analyze all the environmental impacts of the production and installation of wind turbine, solar panel and battery facilities. Huge backup. On a U.S. and global scale, those technologies will require the extraction and processing of metals and materials — virtually all with fossil fuels — on a scale unprecedented in human history; indeed, at a level unattainable for decades to come.

Wind, solar and battery facilities also impact and destroy large amounts of land: wildlife habitats, croplands, and scenic areas. They kill birds, bats and other wildlife. Without expensive, explosive backup batteries, they require inefficient hydrocarbon “peak” devices to operate continuously, whenever the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining.

Ghosted energies carry the risk of power outages, factory closures, and freezing people in the dark during the long winter. The so-called “clean, green, renewable” energy simply cannot meet the growing electricity demand of the United States and the world.

Substituting natural gas for coal in power generation is why the United States leads the Free World in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Natural gas should not be viewed as a pariah, but as a “bridge fuel” for any fossil fuel-free future.

The Biden administration is making long-range, uncertain, potentially faulty, and potentially exaggerated predictions about the climate for Ukrainian life and independence, the security of our European allies. me – and even America’s own security and happiness. India, Brazil, Indonesia and many other countries in the “Global South” need oil, gas and coal to survive and modernize. However, the Biden Administration will not assure them that the US will work to fill the void if it tries to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels. Is it any wonder they remained neutral in the face of Putin’s brutal invasion?

Sadly, the debate about expanding American energy to replace Russian energy – and ensure our own energy security – is virtually non-existent in the Administration, many think tanks. and the media. In fact, they all work together to moderate and silence debate.

This is not only strange, because rising energy costs are a major factor driving inflation and threatening a recession, not just in the US but around the world. In fact, it’s even worse than weird.

The government’s crackdown on fossil fuel production is threatening the national security and economies of countless countries. The needs for which we are constantly “going green” represent the greatest “existential threat” – to the existence of modern industrialized nations, to nations. development and the existence of our planet as we know it.

Don Ritter received his PhD in Metals and Materials from MIT. He served 14 years on the House Energy and Commerce and Science and Technology Committees; is a Ranked Member of the Parliament’s Helsinki Committee, and is the founder of the Co-Chair of the Baltic-Ukrainian Caucus. Ritter led the National Institute of Environmental Policy after leaving Congress. He is a Trustee of the Victims of Communism Memorial Fund, Trustee and Honorary President & CEO of the Afghan American Chamber of Commerce.


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