On energy and the west’s enormous errors
This depressing article about our energy policy and its consequences is well worth reading.
One caveat – I think this comment by Barry Meislin (which I believe was in response to a different piece) applies to the one I just linked as well:
…[I]t seems to be currently fashionable for all the “best people” to describe the Trump administration as “CHAOTIC”—as a terrible leader—while somehow(!) neglecting to mention that Trump’s presidency was—even before its inception—CONSTANTLY under attack, sabotaged and hog-tied by the Democratic Party machine and its loyal media lapdogs, and led by the Democratic candidate for president ably and willingly assisted by the outgoing (and spectacularly devious) president with tentacles reaching all the way down to the far-flung apparatus of government institutions, which comprehensive campaign of subversion resulted in the scurrilous allegations known as the Russiagate hoax.
“Chaotic”, they say (with no sense of irony at all…but a whole load of willful ignorance).
That’s also what I see the author of that article I just linked doing. He describes all sorts of terrible policies that Obama and Biden have implemented, but keeps saying that “we” did it – the “we” being the US.
And of course that’s correct: presidents make policy for the US. But the author ignores the fact that Trump was well aware of how destructive those things were and made every effort to reverse them. However, because Trump was followed by Biden – who reversed Trump’s reversals – and so we’re back at square one or actually much further back than that.
And all the author manages to say about Trump is that his administration was “chaotic,” without adding that Trump was under vicious attack from many sides during his entire presidency and even now.
The chaos was not caused by Trump – unless you consider mean tweets to be “chaos.”
Other than that, though, I recommend the article.
re Trump and ‘chaos’…anyone who attempts to make serious changes in the way things are being done will be accused of creating chaos. It’s much more comfortable to follow the existing well-worn procedures all the way to bankruptcy, defeat, and/or disappearance…more comfortable, that is, until you’re almost at the endpoint.
It is true, though, that Trump made the perception worse than it needed to be through his conceptual style, which is intuitive and pattern-recognizing more than deductive, and his inability to translate his thinking into forms that would be more meaningful to more conventional thinkers.
I have a new post up on energy and national power…linked it in a comment at Quillette, but here it is directly:
Deliberate Disempowerment
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/67338.html
The referenced article states nothing new to me. Everything mentioned is just a result of the fact that the Ds/left/greens have absolutely no concept of the physics of solar and wind, and don’t seem to want to learn. The total lack of concern regarding the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics is going to lead the US and the West to energy ruin. Now this is from the street level Ds/leftists that I run into. I suspect the leaders know that the Green dream is really a nightmare, but leading a culture to energy starvation is another route to the Great Reset.
A well-written piece, David Foster.
My husband, and his father before him, spent entire careers in the electric power generation and distribution field. Husband is apoplectic about the ignorance, if not deliberate malice, of the Obama/Biden approach.
There are people every day publishing articles that claim solar/wind (especially solar) are now cheaper on a per-kwh basis than are newly-built fossil fuel plants. The way these analyses are done is to calculate the plant cost and expected lifetime (including cost of capital, in the more sophisticated versions) and divide by the total kwh generated over the plant lifetime. The problem with this is that it ignores the *time* factor….a kwh generated at noon on a sunny day is a different commodity than a kwh that needs to be consumed on a snowy and overcast winter evening.
What wind/solar actually *can* do is to reduce fuel costs at the expense of additional capital costs. If you keep you existing fossil-fuel generation and supplement it with (say) solar, then you are going to save money on fuel during those periods when the sun is actually available…BUT, if you’re doing that to more than a trivial extent, you are also going to need to pay for sufficient storage to allow the fossil-fuel generators to have time to ramp up.
The economic attractiveness of this is a function of (a) fuel prices, and (b) cost of capital.
Kate…thanks!
There certainly does seem to be a certain level of deliberate malice going on, but there is also a *lot* of ignorance. Business journalists don’t seem much better at understanding energy than do regular journalists, and, interestingly, a lot of people in the so-called ‘tech’ industry have real gaps in their knowledge and understanding.
Both Omaha Public Power and Nebraska Public Power are committed to net carbon zero by 2050. I learned in January that OPPD is planning on spending $28 billion by 2050. The problem is that OPPD only has $1b in revenue. Electric rates will triple in Nebraska.
Today I learned that the Union Pacific Railroad is committed to net carbon zero. This means battery operated trains. The batteries will be charged by OPPD and NPPD at a very high cost.
I regularly confront the OPPD Board about their insanity, but they are Green Zealots and are committed to spending other people’s money to save the planet.
I’m trying to get some Nebraska politicians interested in this vital issue.
If Nebraska follows through, Cornhead, there are going to be a lot of Nebraskans freezing in the dark a few winters from now, and they’ll wonder what went wrong.
UPRR plans:
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/union-pacific-targets-net-zero-emissions-by-2050/
I knew a very smart executive, a sales vp, who had a disagreement the (also very smart) senior vp that he reported to. The issue was how sales should be organized: the senior vp favored an entirely industry-focused structure, whereas the sales vp favored the existing primarily-geographic structure.
“Jim”, said the sales vp. “You’re absolutely right. That’s the direction that we need to ultimately go. But over the next couple of years, we have this little thing called *revenue* that we need to worry about.”
I suspect a lot of executives are doing something similar, agreeing ‘in principle’ (to stay the wrath of the Woke) while figuring they can actually keep the impact down to a sane level, a couple of years at a time.
The linked to Quillette article states; “Ultimately, the West may have to choose between the current climate agenda and the hegemony of the authoritarians.”
The West’s current political leadership has already chosen to prioritize the climate agenda above all else. In doing so, it is capitulating to the hegemony of authoritarian regimes.
physicsguy states, “I suspect the leaders know that the Green dream is really a nightmare, but leading a culture to energy starvation is another route to the Great Reset.”
Klaus Schwab and the West’s political and economic elite apparently imagine that when they succeed in the west with their Great Reset, that Xi will be content with just being on the board of directors.
All the while Xi must be quietly smiling as he contemplates the foolish West selling him the rope with which he will hang them.
I have long notices, as I believe the rest of the readers here have, that Progressives are generally not well informed, but believe themselves to be all wise, and knowing, that all they have to do, is decree that something is to be done, and it will be.
Progressivism truly is a religion.
I just watched a video of an OPPD director at his fundraiser. He had on clown tennis shoes with red shoelaces. Not a word about the $28 billion.
That “chaos” line has been adopted by a lot of progressives who apparently have no clear idea what it refers to. My neighbor stays in touch with a niece in California who firmly maintains that anything bad that’s happened in the last several years can be attributed to Trump’s “chaos.” She’s completely unable to point to any particular action or explain the supposed effect on events. The word is enough for her.
SCOTTtheBADGER,
Progressivism is a secular substitute for religion. One that rejects biological realities, certain aspects of human nature and key operative principles that govern the external reality within which we all exist. It is thus unsustainable without ever greater coercion.
David Foster wrote a pretty good article, at his link.
Meanwhile, the crisis in Europe is becoming explosive:
“Italian Truckers Declare Force Majeure Over Gas Pains…”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/italian-truckers-declare-force-majeure-over-gas-pains-halt-deliveries-starting-monday
…while Putin plays the Fauci card (that somehow fell into his lap—no one’s quite sure how, though maybe someone at the NIH, CIA, or NSA can tell us…or maybe Jen Psaki will do another of her patented tap dance routines?):
Anyway—
“Russia Calls For UN Security Council Meeting Over “Biological Activities” In Ukraine”—-
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-calls-un-security-council-meeting-over-biological-activities-ukraine
File under: Joker’s Wild!
Trump was attacked from all directions for pressuring NATO members to step up their committment/investment in self-defense AND their self-destructive reliance on energy from Russia.
Current events prove he was correct.