Another Look at Energy

 

 

"Our new Energy Czar looks and talks like he escaped from Haight-Ashbury  in the 1960's..."

I believe when other countries look at how we struggle with energy, they must be scratching their heads. We really do stumble all over ourselves. We finally got rid of Steven (lets make our gas cost $10/gal) Chu, and replaced him with another refugee from academia. The madness continues.

Our latest fiasco is the green eggheads which "run" the city of Minneapolis would like to take over the management of electric and gas utilities which service the town. Why? Is it because the service is so expensive or lousy? No, of course not. It is because the green eggheads will be able to effect "change" on how much renewable energy is used to supply the city. In fact, one of the Lefties running for mayor has said he will be the Greenest Mayor in the history of the city. Good grief. 

Here is the truth on renewable energy as it stands in 2013. It is not yet ready for prime time. Period. Not opinion, just fact. For example, should the City of Minneapolis be successful in implementing this hair brained idea, energy for the city will become scarce and very, very expensive. In addition, there will be tens of thousands of dead birds and bats laying at the base of countless, ugly windmills. However, the green eggheads will feel good about themselves as they read their Henry David Thoreau by candlelight every evening.

When I was in high school (maybe it was junior high), I did a paper on coal. Back then, coal was not looked at as the "boogie man". In fact, the biggest concern about coal was the fact we were running short on Anthracite. Anthracite has always been the "Cadillac" of the coal industry. We do however, have a boat load of Bituminous and Sub-Bituminous coal left in the ground. As I have written about earlier, this country was made great on the back of the coal industry. We still get about 1/4 of our power from coal.

If we put all the hyperbole aside, here is the truth about coal today. It is much, much cleaner to use than it was a hundred years ago. New mining, scrubbing and reclamation techniques are very good and getting better all the time. That being said, we are still probably drawing to the end of the coal era. It will not be a hard stop, but rather a slow phase out. Once it ends, we will probably still have quite a bit left in the ground. The most logical near term replacement is another abundant fuel we have in this country - natural gas. Both coal and natural gas are abundant and cheap. Solar, wind and geothermal will have a place at the table, but not yet - not for a while. Today, they are still being developed and very, very expensive.

Back to our Energy Czar - sorry, I need to get with the times. I mean our Secretary of Energy. Where is the viable plan forward? Please don't insult me with talk of more wind farms and solar panels on roofs. As I have said, some renewables will be a part of our future, but not yet. We need clear thinkers on energy - not fuzzy headed intellectuals. Realism, not idealism. Build the damn pipeline and get on with it! Stop importing oil from countries that hate us - we have enough here, thank you. Most of all, stop bowing to the extreme left on this most important subject. None of us want dirty air - all of us want cheap abundant energy. As Jean-Luc Picard would say on Star Trek, "Make it so!"