No Climate Emergency; We Face a Manufactured Energy Emergency

A great post from "Energy Talking Points by Alex Epstein" at Substack  modified by myself:

Based on the reality that:

1.)  From Alex: "The developing world overwhelmingly uses fossil fuels because that is by far the lowest-cost way for them to get reliable energy. Unreliable solar and wind can’t come close. That’s why China and India have hundreds of new coal plants in development."  

2.) From Alex: ""The US causes < 1/6 of global CO2 emissions—and falling. The main reason global CO2 emissions are rising is because billions of people in the developing world are bringing themselves out of poverty by using fossil fuels to power factories, farms, vehicles, and appliances."  

3.) China, Asia and India are emitting far more CO2 emissions than the USA and EU combined. They will NEVER commit the kind of economic suicide the Greenies want for the West.  Why should the West unilaterally suffer?

4.) There is no Climate Emergency.  The climate is slightly warming but it's not a crisis or even close to an emergency. Even an Ex-climate activist, Michael Schellenberger admits that.  Climate models, ALL FUNDED BY GOVERNMENT, have shown to be entirely inaccurate and vastly exaggerate risks. 

5.) A climate emergency is being fabricated by captured government "sources" to seize control of governments and economies to create centralize authoritarian rule by entirely corrupt and CRAZY Davos men and their accomplices.  It is really corrupt, lying or stupid politicians are the BIGGEST danger to YOU, the world and civilization. This link shows the measured Earth temperatures vs. the climate models.

5.) The Earth has only warmed about 1.8 deg F in the past 100 years.  It is the arctic areas in the Northern Hemisphere that have warmed much more, by about 6 deg F. The Antarctic has warmed the least and Antarctic ice is stable to expanding.

6.) The seas have only risen 7 INCHES in the past 100 years and there is little reason to expect this rate to increase. The sea has risen 400 feet in the past 10,000 years (since the last ice age)----all natural.  400 feet! Mankind had nothing to do with that.

 

7.) CO2 is necessary for plant life and in no way harmful to humans at current or conceivable levels and the Clean Air Act should have ZERO jurisdiction here. Atmospheric levels of CO2 below 180 ppm would kill all plant life on earth! We're at ~400 ppm, up from 280 ppm 60 years ago. 

8.)  CO2 in the atmosphere is currently at historically low levels compared to most of Earth's history. See chart below. The earth was indeed warmer and greener with higher CO2 levels, for instance, in the carboniferous epoch (plenty of carbon?).  In fact, it is the buried, fossilized and compressed remains of micro-fauna/flora in sea beds and terrestrial beds of plant remains that have become the fuels of today. Yes, we are using a small fraction of these stored hydrocarbons for the benefit of humanity and higher standards of living. So, yes we're warming slightly. But it's not harmful, it's actually helpful.  Cold is by far the bigger problem.

9.) The (disastrous) central planners in the West are mandating wind, solar power.  But solar and wind are not even close to be able to reliably provide our total energy needs. The US TOTAL electricity use (only) represents only 30% of our TOTAL ENERGY that the US requires.  What about the other 70%??   

The remaining 70% of total energy required is for industrial use, manufacturing, transportation, locomotives, milling, mining, tanker fuels, commercial operations, etc all usually requiring fossil fuels especially diesel. Take a look at the USA energy balance (sources and uses) here.

So, let's say that you provide 20 or 30% of our electricity by "intermittents," that would only amount to 6 to 10% of our total energy needs.  What about the other 90 to 94%???  Who's going to provide that???  Greta??  Gates?

10.) If somehow you were able to (afford and) provide 50%, or even 100% of electricity by renewables/intermittents, ALL of that power would require 100% fossil fuel back-up. Afterall, the sun doesn't shine at night or even in the winter at higher latitudes. The wind doesn't always blow.  It would never make sense to build TWO TIMES the capacity and facilities. Plus, you'd have to pay big subsidies to the fossil-fueled utilities to remain on standby. Since nearly all these facilities would remain "hot" to be ready for sudden demand. It would be very expensive.

  

11.) Too many 'intermittent sources' in the mix (>10 to 20%) renders the power grids difficult to manage. Germany relies on it's numerous connections to neighboring country's power grids to "dump excess power" or "buy power" when the sun or wind appears/dissappears. Their conventional utilities require a subsidy by the taxpayers to remain in standby. Germany's electrical power is more than 3X the cost of power in the US. See Here.  (today, German power costs more than 10X our rate due to shortage of natural gas currently THAT THEY CAUSED). 

12.) Because affordable hydrocarbon energy is slowly reaching it's limits of what consumers and economies can pay, as the easiest-to-recover reserves are being depleted, we need an alternative to fossil fuels. Translated, that means we had better find new and affordable energy sources.  And if we need it in 20, 30 or 40 years, we'd better start now. 

 

13.) Therefore: It is essential to consider nuclear energy in some new ways, such as Small Modular Reactors that vastly improve contruction, use and decommissioning costs.   Thorium (molten salt reactor) is also interesting for a number of reasons. Much of the remaining barrels of oil and natural gas will be left unextracted. Let's get going!

 

The Energy Freedom Solution (from Alex Epstein)

• The only moral and practical way to reduce emissions long-term is liberating innovation that makes low-carbon energy globally cost-competitive—while ending all policies that punish America via rapid short-term emissions reduction.
  
  Some key policies👇

• Reject the false idea of “climate emergency.”
  

  Our government’s disastrous anti-fossil fuel policies are justified by the disastrous conflation of “climate impact,” which is real, with “climate emergency,” which is not, given today's unprecedented safety from climate danger.

• Withdraw from the Paris Agreement and encourage others to do the same.
  

  The Paris Agreement is an immoral agreement that calls for rapidly eliminating fossil fuels, which are the only near-term way to provide reliable energy for billions of people at prices they can afford.

• Reject and eliminate all carbon taxes.
  

  Carbon taxes increase our energy costs based on the false premise that the “negative externalities” of fossil fuels’ CO2 emissions outweigh the “positive externalities” of the uniquely low-cost, reliable energy they provide for billions.

• Amend the Clean Air Act to explicitly reject the bogus “endangerment finding.”
  

  Much of today’s “punish America” CO2 policy is rooted in EPA's “endangerment finding,” which treats fossil fuel use as a net harm to “public health and welfare” even though it radically improves both.

• Decriminalize nuclear energy.
  

  The overregulation of low-carbon nuclear verges on criminalization, making nuclear costs 10X higher than they need to be. Decriminalizing nuclear, including radical reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Environmental Protection Agency, will make energy far cheaper, safer, and cleaner.

• End all preferences for unreliable electricity.
  

  Today's electric grids are being ruined by systemic preferences for unreliable electricity, which causes prices to rise and reliability to decline.
  

  Eliminating them can help make America a leader in low-cost, reliable electricity.

• Allow free-market competition for EVs.
  

  The proper policy toward EVs, which are promising but not cost-effective for the vast majority of Americans, is 1) let them compete on a free market and 2) make sure we have plenty of low-cost, reliable electricity.

• Summary: The pro-human CO2 policy is to reduce CO2 emissions long-term through liberating innovation, not punishing America.
  

  This will ensure plenty of energy for the foreseeable future and enable truly promising alternatives such as nuclear to be globally cost-competitive.

 Other relevant Gulfcoastcommentary posts about energy:

• Large Scale Solar & Wind Power Not The Solution: Too Many Problems and Costs
• Germany's Solar Projects Are a Bust  
• What Are The Sources of Electricity and All Other Energy in the US?
• Thorium Reactors May Solve World's Energy Crisis 
• NuScale SMR Modular Nuclear Power: The Future of Carbon Free Energy?? 
• Don't Buy the Climate Hype: Slight Global Warming Is No Cause For Alarm
• Man Has Caused Global Warming, But Forget Cap and Trade
• Reverse the EPA's Carbon Regulation Power Grab (the US Supreme Court just did this)
  
• Cap and Trade: All About Taxing, Not Warming 
• Global Warming Made Easy
• ESG = Energy Stops Growing; an Energy Crisis is Here
• "Clean Energy" Delusions Will Take the World Back to the Dark Ages
• Climate Activist Apologizes: "Climate Change Is Happening. It’s Just Not the End of the World"