So-called renewables only generate electricity but cannot make products or transportation fuels for our material economy.

Guest column by Ronald Stein and John McBratney

“Green” and “Net Zero” policymakers mistakenly believe that wind and solar renewable energy will replace fossil fuel energy.

• REALITY CHECK: Renewables and Fossil Fuels do different things.

From the 16th to the 19th centuries whale oil was inedible and was used principally for lighting, lubrication and the manufacture of soap, textiles, jute, varnish, explosives and paint. Whales were hunted almost to extinction in the mid 1800’s.

Today, “Green” and “Net Zero” policymakers setting policies are oblivious to the reality that so-called “renewables” only generate electricity but cannot make anything like the more than 6,000 products in our material economy derived from fossil fuels, nor the transportation fuels that supports cars, trucks, ships, construction equipment, and airplanes.

• In addition, everything that needs electricity, like iPhones, computers, X-ray machines, defibrillators, and datacenters, is made with petrochemicals manufactured from crude oil, coal, or natural gas.

Interestingly, going “Green” with wind and solar generates occasional electricity under favorable weather conditions is only affordable only to the few wealthy countries that can mandate the huge subsidies.

All “Green” and “Net Zero” policymakers remain unavailable to participate in educational conversations about energy literacy, as these sources do different things!

• Renewables only provide for the generation of electricity, totally dependent on favorable weather conditions.
• Crude oil once refined provides more than 6,000 products, plus transportation fuels, to economies around the world.

Infrastructures that did not exist 200 years ago demand continuously increasing supplies of the more than 6,000 products that are made from fossil fuels for widespread use by in many of our societies’ functions, including:

• Hospitals
• Airports
• Military
• Medical equipment
• Telecommunications
• Communications systems
• Space programs
• Appliances
• Electronics
• Sanitation
• Heating and ventilating
• Transportation – road, rail, ocean, and air
• Construction – roads and buildings

The world’s population is not addicted to fossil fuels, but it is dependent on all the products and transportation fuels. Today, “Green” and “Net Zero” policymakers that wish to “transition away from fossil fuels” need to offer a backup plan to maintain the supply chain of the products and fuels to support all the above-mentioned infrastructures, and to date there has been no such plan offered or suggested  There is no “Green” or “Net Zero” product or technology available anywhere in the world today that offers any form of reliable backup for wind and solar power generation—none!

Most people in the wealthier developed nations are unaware that 80% of the 8 billion people on planet Earth, in poorer developing nations, are living on under $10/day and cannot subsidize themselves out of a paper bag, thus any suggestion that heavily subsidized solar and wind systems are viable is simply stargazing.

Today, the homeless actually “represent“ how 80% of humanity live around the world as those homeless in the wealthier developed nations are a visual reality to a world without fossil fuels.

If those more than 6 billion people on this planet living on less than $10/day are ever going to join the Industrial Revolution, they will need a supply chain of the 6,000 products supporting the material demands of the infrastructures that did not exist 200 years ago, before we harnessed fossil fuels, as well as an increasing demand for continuous and uninterruptible electricity, i.e., the case for nuclear power.

A basic need for our “Green” and “Net Zero” policymakers is to understand that electricity did not exist before we learned how to refine raw crude oil.

• Electricity came after oil, as all electrical generation methods from hydro, coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, and solar are built with products, components, and equipment made from oil derivatives.
• All EV’s, solar panels, and wind turbines are also built with products, components, and equipment made from the oil derivatives.
• Most so-called renewable energy products are manufactured in countries that primarily use coal-fired power generation, so they are not “Green” at all. A good example is electric vehicles that utilize huge Lithium ion based batteries.
• All the transportation fuels for cars, trucks, merchant ships, aircraft, and military are made from raw crude oil.
• Getting rid of crude oil would eliminate all six ways of generating electricity, and the more than 6,000 products in demand by hospitals, airports, communications, and would paralyze virtually all transportation.

Another basic need for our “Green” and “Net Zero” policymakers is that they understand that raw crude oil is just black tar that is virtually useless, unless it can be refined into derivatives that are the basis of more than 6,000 products in society that did not exist before the 1800’s, and the various transportation fuels like gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuels that are also made from that raw crude oil.  They also need to understand that this process requires the availability of economically priced and reliable electric power.

Policymakers need to stop using the word energy and start referring to the demands of the economy for reliable supply chains of:

• Products, more than 6,000 made from oil derivatives of oil.
• Transportation fuels, for cars, trucks, ships, and airplanes.
• Electricity, economically priced, continuous and uninterruptable.

It is worrisome that the “Green” and “Net Zero” policy makers in all Western countries presently spending billions on solar and wind generated electricity completely ignore proven scientific and engineering research by widely qualified academics and engineers that shows conclusively that carbon dioxide has only a minuscule effect upon global temperatures, thus the whole world-wide Net Zero push is all for nothing.  The amount of money wasted upon Net Zero world-wide is staggering.

It’s scary that our “Green” and “Net Zero” policymakers are setting “energy” policies that are mandating subsidies, directions, and tax breaks, when they have no comprehension of the subject of energy.

This article is adapted from one first published at America Out Loud News and is used here by permission of the authors.

Ronald Stein, P.E., is an engineer, columnist on energy literacy at America Out Loud NEWS, and advisor on energy literacy. John McBratney, B. Tech (Electronic Engineering), is an engineer with over 50 years’ experience in hardware design and systems engineering. He contributes to an independent group of engineers and scientists in Australia that works to change government opinions on Net Zero back to sensible practicable strategies.

Photo by Gabriel Meinert on Unsplash.