World leaders continue experiencing a “dangerous delusion” of a global transition to “just electricity” that they believe will eliminate the use of the crude oil that made society achieve so much in a few centuries.

Crude oil is the basis of our materialistic society, as discussed in an educational and entertaining 27-minute podcast interview between Ronald Stein and Armando Cavanha in Brazil.

• All the components and equipment for generating electricity by wind, solar, coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydro are all made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil!

It’s shocking that the public has bought into the current rhetoric “lock, stock, and barrel” to STOP THE USE OF FOSSIL FUELS, which simulates the resurrection of the 1978 mass murder-suicide of religious cult members of the Peoples Temple, led by Jim Jones, Jonestown, Guyana?

In September 2023, 45 years after the Jim Jones tragedy in Jonestown, President Biden used his executive power to establish the American Climate Corps, which will employ and train 20,000 young people in the work of climate resilience without fossil fuels.

When this author watches the TV coverage of protesters, both politicians and teenagers, carrying signs to STOP THE USE OF FOSSIL FUELS, what he SEES on those posters is:

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

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! Energy Literacy at its best!!!

As John Stossel so often said, “give-me-a-break”!

The proverb “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” tells us that:

1. you can’t rid the world of crude oil
2. and continue to enjoy the products and fuels that are currently manufactured from crude oil.

Just a few hundred years ago, before oil, when the world’s population was around just one billion, the world was unspoiled, decarbonized, and dominated by Mother Nature and the wild animal kingdom. In the 1800s, there were no airports, automobiles, trucks, planes, cruise ships, coal-fired power plants, natural gas power plants, electronics, or space programs, as the Beverly Hillbillies had not yet discovered oil!

Fossil fuels make products for humanity and support more bountiful harvests and a measure of food security that allowed time and energy for innovation and the onset of the Industrial Revolution that allowed the world to populate from 1 to 8 billion in 200 years because oil can be manufactured into thousands of usable, life-enhancing and life-saving products.

On the other hand, renewables can only generate occasional electricity but cannot manufacture anything for humanity, while fossil fuels manufacture everything for humanity.

A couple of centuries ago, there were fewer humans competing with animals due to humanity’s limited ability to survive what mother nature provided. Before oil, life was hard and dirty, with many weather and disease-related deaths.

World leaders are not cognizant enough to recognize that there are no plans for the replacement of the products and fuels now manufactured from fossil fuels, which are the basis of every infrastructure segment supporting the 8 billion on this planet! The three fossil fuels, crude oil, coal, and natural gas, do different things for society. Crude oil is the only one seldom used to generate electricity as it is primarily used to manufacture fuels and products for society that are the basis of the worldwide economy.

• Crude oil: primarily used for transportation fuels, road asphalt, and aviation fuel, but less than one percent for electricity generation.

• Coal:  primarily used as fuel to generate electricity, coal also has a myriad of other uses, including in cement production, carbon fibers and foams, medicines, tars, synthetic petroleum-based fuels, and home and commercial heating.

• Natural Gas: generates electricity, heating, and industrial uses for producing chemicals, fertilizers, hydrogen, etc.

Eradicating the world of crude oil usage without first having a replacement in mind would be immoral and evil, as extreme shortages of the products now manufactured from fossil fuels will result in billions of fatalities from diseases, malnutrition, and weather-related deaths and could be a greater threat than climate change to the world’s eight billion population.

This Epoch Times TV 1-minute video about the lack of a backup plan to replace oil is short, educational, and entertaining. The video has already been viewed by more than 834,000 on social media at https://www.youtube.com/shorts/stf2YrznkZU.

By contrast, “transitioning” humanity to just electricity means converting to wind and solar systems that can manufacture none of the vital products now being used by humanity. That will very likely cause the death of BILLIONS of people from diseases, malnutrition, lowered living standards, and weather-related disasters, whereas projections of millions of fatalities from “carbon emissions” and climate change are based on computer models that take none of these realities into account.

Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping are great World War I and II historians. They both know there is no substitute for fossil fuel product dominance in the foreseeable future, even on a longer-term horizon. To believe a transition to just electricity from renewables is possible from the products now manufactured from fossil fuels and act accordingly is suicidal for humanity. As former Congressman Don Ritter of Pennsylvania wrote, “It’s the real “existential threat.”

Occasional electricity from renewables cannot run modern civilizations’ households, businesses, hospitals, militaries, space programs, jets, and cruise ships, and no products and fuels [that] are now based on crude oil!

The silence is deafening from billionaires like Bill Gates, John Kerry, Mark Zuckerberg, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, President Biden, and the media that continues to refrain from asking a John Stossel-styled “give-me-a-break” question: Can you imagine our world without jets, airports, merchant ships, cruise liners, militaries, hospitals, social media communications, space programs, and toilets?

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This article was published by CFACT, The Committee for A Constructive Tomorrow, and is reproduced with permission.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Increased labor costs are potentially insurmountable and uncontrollable challenges facing the automobile industry for the government mandates in wealthy countries for lower emission EVs.

The UAW strike that began September 14^th by 146,000 UAW union members seeking a 46 percent pay raise, a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay, and restoration of traditional pensions will most likely have one of two outcomes, both of which say perpetuate the death spiral for the automobile industry.

1. The increased cost of American manufacturing, which will further increase the cost of EVs that are already unaffordable to most, and/or,
2. Increasing the cost of U.S. manufacturing may result in more offshore manufacturing needed, which may decimate U.S. stateside manufacturing.

The UAW members are not fazed by the death spiral already mandated for the automobile industry. The few healthy and wealthy countries of the United States of America, Germany, the UK, and Australia, representing 6 percent of the world’s population (505 million vs. 7.8 billion), are mandating social changes to achieve zero emissions via EVs that may be fueling (no pun intended) a death spiral for the automobile industry.

Simply put, in those healthy and wealthy countries, every person, animal, or anything that causes emissions to rise harmfully could vanish off the face of the earth or even die off, and global emissions will still explode in the coming years and decades ahead over the population and economic growth of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, and Africa.

The UAW wants a more lucrative package and is not concerned with the “pieces of the EV puzzle” that may be the formula for an automobile industry death spiral:

1. Extremely limited supply chain for lithium to make current technology EV batteries.
2. Lack of a sufficient number of buyers outside the elite profile of existing EV owners.
3. Shortage and inflation for all the material supplies to make vehicles.
4. Due to EV battery fire potentials, questionable means of transporting EVs from foreign manufacturers to the USA consumers.
5. Concern about renewable electricity being able to charge EV batteries.
6. The Government’s lack of ethical, moral, and social responsibilities encourages the exploitation of people with yellow, brown, and black skin who are mining for exotic minerals and metals in poorer developing countries to support the green movement in wealthy countries.

Where are the batteries?

The UAW race is on for a better contract, while the race is on to produce more lithium in the United States as the supply chain for the major component of EV batteries, lithium, is already being compromised internationally. The following international dark clouds on the lithium supply chain may be a prelude to an American rejection of strip mining in the most environmentally regulated and controlled communities in the world:

The Chilean Supreme Court stopped the mining of lithium in Salar de Atacama, Chile – a massive chunk of terrain that holds 55 percent of the world’s known lithium deposits.

• Initiatives around the world to open mines and ore processing plants have caused a public uproar as environmentalists and the local population are fearful about the impact on nature and people’s livelihoods.
• The European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA) risk assessment committee is aiming to label three lithium compounds as dangerous for human health.

Where are the buyers?

Fair wages are number one to UAW, while EVs are already unaffordable to most. The current EV ownership profiles are reflected in the oligarchic elite that are highly educated, highly compensated, multi-car families with low mileage requirements for the family’s second car, are dramatically different from most vehicle owners that are single-car owners, not highly educated, nor highly compensated. Mandating a change to EV ownership and further austerity may face a rebellion from those who need transportation.

Where is the transportation from the foreign manufacturers to the car dealers?

Increasing production costs in the U.S. may increase manufacturing outside the borders of America. In 2019, China, Japan, India, Germany, and South Korea were manufactured more than 50 million vehicles compared to the 11 million manufactured in the USA.

Bringing those foreign-built cars to America may be an insurmountable insurance problem. The Felicity Ace, a 650-foot-long cargo ship carrying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of luxury cars sunk in March 2022. The salvage crew working on the burning ship said electric vehicle batteries were part of the reason it was still aflame after several days. The estimated market value of the Felicity Ace was $24.5 million, while the total value of the 3965 vehicles was over $500 million.

With potential fires from the EV batteries in vehicles, who is going to take the insurance responsibility for their safe passage from the foreign manufacturers to American ports, the cargo ships, or the manufacturers?

Where are the vehicle materials?

Most people, as well as UAW members, do not know that crude oil is useless unless it can be manufactured into something usable. All the materials for the EV, from electronics, plastics, glass, leather, tires, etc., are all made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil.

Today’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) divesting in fossil fuels are all the rage to divest in all fossil fuels. ESG is working but will result in shortages and inflation as the new norm as society’s demands for the products from crude oil exceed the supply from the diminishing number of manufacturers.

There were almost 700 oil refineries in the world as of January 2020, but as a result of continuous over-regulations, permitting delays, and aging equipment, over the next five years, 20 percent of them are projected to close. That is a whopping 140 manufacturers that will close. Shortages and inflation in perpetuity may be the new norm as society’s demands for the products manufactured from crude oil continually exceed the supply from the diminishing number of manufacturers.

Where is the electricity?

The government’s zest for zero-emissions electricity in favor of intermittent electricity from breezes and sunshine is eliminating coal-fired and natural gas power plants that have been generating continuous uninterruptable electricity.

We have all read about the concerns toward “grid stability” to be able to charge those EV batteries. Well, the UK may have given the world a heads-up on why electricity rates may be rising in perpetuity.

In the UK, their concerns for grid stability with fewer and fewer continuous uninterruptible power generation facilities have implemented regulations that went into force in June 2022 that restrict charging times.

In the UK, new chargers in the home and workplace now automatically switch off in peak times to avoid potential blackouts. New UK chargers are pre-set to not function during 9 hours of peak loads, from 8 am to 11 am (3 hours) and 4 pm to 10 pm (6 hours).

In addition, all home-installed UK electric vehicle chargers are required to be separately metered and sent this information to a Smart meter data communications network. Potentially, this UK legislation allows the electricity used for charging EVs to be assessed and taxed at a higher rate than domestic electricity. Obviously, the EV electricity users are the ones who will be paying to upgrade and maintain the grid.

Where is the ethical, moral, and social responsibility for the lithium supplies to meet the mandate toward EVs? 

The Pulitzer Prize-nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations – Helping Citizens Understand the Environmental and Humanity Abuses That Support Clean Energy does an excellent job of discussing the lack of transparency regarding the environmental degradation and humanity atrocities occurring in developing countries mining for those exotic minerals and metals to support the “green” movement.

The subsidies to purchase EVs are financial incentives encouraging further exploitation of yellow, brown, and black-skinned residents in developing countries. Are those subsidies ethical, moral, and socially responsible to those being exploited?

In summary, the UAW strikers want more compensation and are not influenced by the passion of the few wealthy countries to achieve zero emissions at any cost. They will face major supply chain issues of lithium and all body parts, affordability, safety from spontaneous fires, availability and affordability of electricity from breezes and sunshine, and the ethical challenges that are exploiting folks in poorer countries just for the elites to drive an EV manufactured by the few that survive the government mandated death spiral.

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This article was published at The Heartland Institute and is reproduced with permission.