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Breezes and sunshine cannot manufacture anything: electricity cannot exist without crude oil!

By Ronald Stein and Todd Royal - posted Monday, 15 January 2024


Energy literacy starts with the knowledge that renewable energy is only intermittent electricity generated from unreliable breezes and sunshine, as wind turbines and solar panels cannot manufacture anything forthe 8 billionon this planet.

All the parts and components for wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear, and hydro, and for all the mining equipment used to extract the metals and minerals to build clean "electricity" are made with the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil!

As an all-wind and sun-powered future unravels in Europe, rational thinkers are turning to the insatiable demand for minerals that comes when renewables are used for electricity. What Europe and particularly Germany highlights is an electrical grid solely powered by sunshine and wind is impossible. Some argue it is downright ludicrous.

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We are true energy agnostics. The main aspects of our publications are spreading awareness among the public about energy-related subjects to increase energy literacy. Being energy agnostics, we try to engage people in conversations about fossil fuels that collectively support lifestyles and economies worldwide, and intermittent electricity from renewables.

A few notes about electricity and "products":

As a refresher for those pursuing net-zero emissions, wind and solar do different things than crude oil.

1. Wind turbines and solar panels only generate occasional electricity but manufacture no products for society. Electricity from wind turbines and solar panels can charge the iPhone but cannot make the iPhone. Electricity can make the defibrillator work but cannot make the defibrillator.

2. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, manufacture everything for the 8 billion on this planet, i.e., products, and transportation fuels.

3. In fact, all the parts and components for wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear, and hydro, and for all the mining equipment used to extract the metals and minerals to build clean "electricity" are made with the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil!

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4. And MOST importantly, there is a lost reality that theprimary usage of crude oil is NOT for the generation of electricity, butto manufacture derivatives and fuels which are the ingredients of everything needed by economies and lifestyles to exist and prosper, i.e., all products that did not exist pre-1800's.

5. Energy realism requires legislators, policymakers, economic developers, and the media to understand the staggering scale of the decarbonization movement.

6. Thus, ridding the world of oil will eliminate wind, solar, nuclear, hydro, and all mining equipment!

7. Before we rid the world of crude oil usage, i.e., jumping out of an airplane with a parachute, what is the plan to identify the replacement for the oil derivatives that are the basis of more than 6,000 productsand all the fuels for more than 20,000 commercial aircraft and more than 50,000 military aircraft, as well as many of the more than 50,000 merchant ships and almost 500 ocean-worthy cruise ships worldwide that support the 8 billion on this planet?

8. The "Elephant in the Room", is that the ruling class, powerful elite, and media, avoid energy literacy conversations. Breezes and sunshine cannot manufacture anything. We are talking about the end of civilization if crude oil is no longer used.

The Wright brothers inaugurated the aerial age with the world's first successful flights of a powered heavier-than-air flying machine. The Wright Flyer was the product of a sophisticated four-year program of research and development conducted by Wilbur and Orville Wright beginning in 1899. The best flight of that December 17, 1903, day at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, covered 255.6 m (852 ft) in 59 seconds.

The Wrights pioneered many of the basic tenets and techniques of modern aeronautical engineering, and their achievement of establishing the foundation of aeronautical engineering.

The background to "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) is all components and equipment made from those petrochemicals manufactured from crude oil. Again, electricity can make AI equipment work, but electricity cannot MAKE anything.

Shockingly, very few parents, teachers, students, politicians, and those in the media, have any clues or understanding about the basis of the products in our daily lives! Obviously, a lack of Energy Literacy. As John Stossel so often says, "give-me-a-break"!

In summary, we had a zero-emissions world before the 1800's when we had less than one billion on this planet, that is now 8 billionsince we discovered crude oil and how it could be manufactured into usable "things" for mankind.

When we watch the TV coverage of protesters, both politicians and teenagers, carrying signs to STOP THE USE OF FOSSIL FUELS, what we see on those posters is:

RID THE WORLD OF PLANES, AIRPORTS, SHIPS, THE MEDICAL INDUSTRY, SPACE PROGRAMS, and STOP SOCIAL MEDIA, and PRODUCTION OF CELLPHONES, COMPUTERS, and PORCELAIN TOILETS that are dependent on the derivatives manufactured from crude oil!!

 

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A version of this article was first published by America Out Loud News.



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About the Authors

Ronald Stein is co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book Clean Energy Exploitations. He is a policy advisor on energy literacy for the Heartland Institute, and the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, and a national TV commentator on energy & infrastructure with Rick Amato.

Todd Royal has a Master of Public Policy and is author of over 250 articles on energy, national security, foreign policy, and geopolitics.

Other articles by these Authors

All articles by Ronald Stein
All articles by Todd Royal

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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