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The Magnificent and Indispensable Heat Engine On Which Civil Society Depends Part 1, Heat-Engines 1-3 Million Horsepower

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The 20th century began with much farm work, transportation, heating and home chores being done with muscle power and wood burning. As coal, petroleum, natural gas and later nuclear energy were applied to replace muscle power, our country experienced rapid growth in industrial production, food production, shipping, travel and a growing economy. Also, comforts and conveniences at home and work such as air conditioning, refrigeration, cooking, dishwashers, automatic washers, and more. A previous article on the history of energy is here. That 105 year period 1850-1955 yielded incredible growth in both industrial output and economic growth. The strength of the U.S. grew and expanded for the U.S. to become the Greatest country in the world, with the largest economy in the world. This was made possible by many factors, including; the Judeo-Christian work ethic of the people, Liberty, Capitalism, Free Markets, creativity, inventiveness, innovation and the abundance of God’s given treasure of Domestic energy resources. Including the richest deposits of coal in the world, natural gas and petroleum. America, the Saudi Arabia of Coal!

An important point, not often discussed. Wherever there is coal, so is there oil and gas. In 2023, the U.S. produced more crude oil than any other country.(24) This in spite of excessive Federal regulations and an out of control EPA.

Reasonable cost and abundant energy was essential for America’s success, just as energy is essential for any other country’s success. America’s energy use is reported in British Thermal Units (BTU) and the U.S. uses about 100 Quadrillion BTUs each year. The Energy Institute and the International Energy Administration reports world energy use in Exajoules (EJ) and the world uses about 620 Exajoules per year. (0.947817 x 620 EJ= 587.6 Quadrillion BTU)

Why Horsepower?

I have written on this before and had some feedback from readers and friends that “The general public doesn’t understand it when they are told they use about 850,000 BTUs of energy each day or the U.S. used 100 Quadrillion BTUs in a year”. Therefore, for this two part essay I thought I would express electricity energy in “Horsepower”. Rather than BTUs, kWH, Joules or Foot-Pounds, this article expresses energy production in Horsepower because, especially my family and friends, horsepower is a term most folks look at when buying a new car or truck, whether it is a 250 Hp Diesel fueled Ford F-150 or a 1020 Hp Tesla Model S. The fuel for each must first be provided by Primary Energy used to create either motive force or electricity.

Primary Energy

About 92% of the Primary energy used in America is used in Heat-Engines to power our high quality of life. About a third of the primary energy used in the U.S. is used to generate electricity. This article is intended to be a primer on the massive Heat-Engines that keep our Grid energized. Part 2 will include smaller heat-engines used for electric power generation and those used for transportation. It is my goal to keep the Thermodynamics simple so that non technically trained people can understand the importance of the 92% conventional Primary energy that we depend on. Past articles that I have written attempted to explain the differences of Primary Energy and Secondary Energy. Here, Here and Here. Primary energy flows in the U.S. for the year 2022 is shown on the LLNL chart here. The World use of Primary energy is shown by the Energy Institute here.

Common Large Heat-Engines

Definition of a Heat-Engine: A heat engine is a system that converts heat to usable energy, particularly mechanical energy, which can then be used to do mechanical work. Such as a Steam Turbine which converts the heat energy of steam into rotational force to spin a generator to produce electricity.

Also, a gas turbine or turbo-jet engine that uses heat energy to create rotational force to a shaft. A portion of the heat energy is exhausted as waste. The difference of the heat content of the steam or hot gas at the inlet and at the exhaust is the net work that has been extracted for useful purposes. In this article steam and gas turbines will be discussed. In a power plant the steam turbine or gas turbine is sometimes referred to as the Prime Mover. A previous article touches on Heat-Engines. The illustration below is a graphical description of the conversion of coal fuel to provide heat used to generate steam. The steam is then used to spin a turbine providing the motive force creating shaft horsepower to spin a generator and ultimately generating electric power. The heat source to produce steam can be coal, nuclear, natural gas, oil, biomass or municipal waste. The basic steam cycle remains the same, referred to in our industry as the “Rankine Steam Cycle”.

From Storm Technologies Large Electric Utility Boiler Combustion & Performance Optimization Course

Thermal Power is important for everything we do!

One pre-requisite to understanding Heat-Engines, is to understand the difference between Primary Energy and Secondary Energy. Covered in previous articles, here, here and here.

Types of Heat-Engines

Let’s start with one of the largest first. Here is a photo of the Zimmer Coal Plant. This plant shut down in 2022 but when started up in 1991 it was amongst the largest single unit power plants in the world with 1351 MW capacity, Dispatchable 24/7, rain or shine, summer or winter. This plant was one of my favorites and in my opinion, it is an example of one of the most magnificent heat engines ever built.

Zimmer Steam Turbine Generator 1993 from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Zimmer_Power_Station

The photo above is just part of the power plant, showing the Low Pressure Turbine and generator. There is also a High Pressure turbine and separate generator. The entire Zimmer “Heat-Engine” comprises the entire power plant shown below in an aerial photo. Although I have been in the power generation business for over 50 years, it still amazes me that so much of the equipment involved in the total electrical energy production starting with a coal conveyer moving 500 tons per hour of coal can be pulverized and burned, produce steam to the turbines and generate electricity to the Grid (the equivalent of 1.8 million Hp) through three skinny high voltage wires that are smaller than 2″ in diameter and 1.8 million horsepower of energy.

Photo from Cincinnati Newspaper about 1994

The Zimmer Coal Plant when operating at full capacity of 1350 MW’s is equivalent to about 1,800,000 Horsepower. To generate this much power about one million pounds of 11,000 BTU/# coal would be pulverized and burned in suspension in the furnace each hour. That is one reason why I refer to this power plant as a Magnificent Heat Engine. The million pounds per hour (Imagine five 100 ton coal cars/hour) of coal is converted into electricity that flows through three high voltage conductors to the transmission lines feeding the Grid. The water flow to the steam generator is equivalent to about 20,000 gallons per minute. An Olympic swimming pool holds about 600,000 gallons. At maximum capacity the Zimmer steam generator will evaporate the equivalent of two Olympic swimming pools full of water each hour and heat that water to steam at over 3,845 pounds per square inch and 1,000 degrees F. The single turbine driven boiler feed water pump is powered by a 50 MW (67,000 Hp) steam turbine which is about as powerful as all the power consumed on a hot summer day in my old town (about 20,000 people) in Albemarle, NC. Fifty Megawatts is the power to drive just the feed water pump.

These are a few reasons why I consider Zimmer to be a magnificent Heat Engine. An excerpt from the POWER Magazine 1993 feature article is copied below.

Nuclear Power Generation

The Oconee Nuclear Plant is another example of Thermal power generation. Allow me to also call this a heat engine. Three units with a total capacity of 2,554 MW. The illustration below is from the Duke Energy Fact Sheet.

https://www.duke-energy.com/-/media/pdfs/energy-education/oconee-nuclear-station-fact-sheet.pdf?rev=8dd993b38d0a4e2fbbd0bc0d5db8e56b

This three unit nuclear powered “Heat-Engine” is about twice as large in total output as the Zimmer Coal Plant discussed above. Expressed as Horsepower, the three units together represent the equivalent of over 3.3 million horsepower.

Both the Zimmer and Oconee plants utilize the Rankine Steam Cycle.

Natural Gas Turbines

Modern gas turbines used for power generation are referred to as “Aeroderivative” Why? Because the gas turbine technology used is derived from jet engine designs. I wrote on the history of power generation in a previous article here. Two engineers, one German and one British are credited with the invention of the jet engine which came to be in the mid 1930’s. The first gas turbine application to power generation is generally thought to be by General Electric at the Belle Isle Station in Oklahoma, about 1949. The simple Gas Turbine single cycle is called the “Brayton Cycle”. An illustration of a modern Gas Turbine is shown below.

The generator is not shown in the above illustration but it will be similar to the generator shown above at the Zimmer coal plant. The point is that heat energy is used in each example thus far. For Zimmer coal is used to generate steam supply to power steam turbines as prime movers. Oconee uses nuclear fission to provide the heat to generate steam for the steam turbines there. Both use the Rankine steam cycle. The gas turbine shown above utilizes the Brayton cycle to create hot gases that flow through the gas turbine as the prime mover for the generator shaft.

Gas Turbine Combined Cycle Plants (GTCC)

One of the major advancements in the last twenty years or so has been the commercial application of gas turbines and steam turbine cycles working together. That is using both gas turbines with a shaft connected to a generator and then exhaust heat recovery of the gas turbine in a boiler to generate steam to provide a steam supply to a steam turbine which is the prime mover of a second generator.

By combining the gas turbine and steam turbine cycles, a much greater overall efficiency can be achieved. Modern GTCC plants achieve up to 65% thermal efficiency.

The plant below is 697 MW capacity. Fueled by natural gas.

The GTCC plant electrical output of 697 MW is equivalent to 927,000 Horsepower.

Summary

Heat engines power our lives and very little is stated in the Main Stream Media about the importance of conventional energy. Especially, Thermal Energy. In fact, if anything is written or discussed on TV, the MSM demonizes carbon and thermal power. This article is an attempt to explain the immensity of electric power generation systems on which we depend. There is a war to abolish fossil fuels which provide about 80% of the fuel needed to power our lives. This is best shown on the LLNL Energy Flow Chart below. Yes, it is expressed in BTU’s (British Thermal Units) and each BTU is equivalent to 778 foot pounds of work which may have been accomplished by muscle power 150 years ago, but now many politicians and leaders seem to have forgotten what conventional energy has made possible. The Zimmer plant and many other fine coal plants are being decommissioned and most demolished, without replacement of similar reliable, affordable generation capacity. I wrote on this before, here, here and here. So have many other people and respected organizations that understand generation by conventional fuels. Some references of these others are included below.

The 2023 LLNL Energy Flow Chart is not yet available. The most recent is for year 2022, shown below. Yes, 100.2 Quadrillion BTUs and only 4.96% of this Primary Energy was provided by wind and solar. This after decades of subsidies. Anyone that thinks wind and solar can replace the 92% conventional energy sources by 2030 or even 2050 are delusional. I wrote a previous article to discuss the “Impossibility of Achieving Net-Zero Carbon”. Then the Hawaii early adoption of the “Green New Deal” became public information. Hawaii is an “Energy Island” situated geographically with plenty of sunshine and wind. Their experiences with renewables has been very expensive and at reduced reliability. You can read more on the Hawaii experiences with renewable power here. Why? Hawaii is the perfect experiment to “Transition” to renewables with no Grid connection. Therefore, the availability, affordability and practicality is a perfect science experiment. Does anyone think electricity costs of over $0.40/kWH will improve the lives of Americans? Improve our economy and world competitiveness of manufacturing? I think not. EIA electricity costs by state here.

Americans use between 833,000 and 1,000,000 BTUs of energy each day to sustain our quality of life. There are some misguided leaders and politicians that are on a path to destroy the magnificent prime movers that power our lives.

Do you remember this poem from 1948?

First They Came, by
Pastor Martin Niemoller


First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

The environmental activists and Democrats in the U.S. have an anti-Carbon policy that has nothing to do with protecting human health or the environment. It is an agenda for one world government and control of our lives. We could paraphrase Martin Niemoller’s poem with the words….“First they came for Coal”. Trust me friends, the Biden-Harris and Democrat Party Climate Policies are NOT based on protecting your health. The (D’s) hate fossil fuels, including natural gas. The U.S. is on a path this year, to depend on about 50% (interruptible pipeline supplied) Natural gas fuel for power generation. I do not think this is wise. The Zimmer coal plant is an example of true “Energy Storage”. A coal pile plus, Coal barges tied up adjacent to the plant can provide weeks or months of Primary Energy storage. Pipelines are vulnerable to harm, whether accidental or malicious. Battery storage systems are for hours at best. Think about Grid Security and the many threats, within our country from Deep State Regulators (EPA, BLM and more) and Politicians, as well as from criminal minded foreigners. There are many threats to the energy supply to the country we love. Threats to your conventional energy powered lifestyle…..Please, THINK before you vote.

Thank you for reading and respectfully,

Dick Storm, July 30, 2024

References and Information for further research:

  1.  American Dream = 100 Quadrillion BTUs per Year April 7, 2022 https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/07/04/american-dream-100-quadrillion-btus/
  2. Providing a Sustainable Million BTUs per Day/Person, May 17,  2022: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/05/17/providing-a-sustainable-million-btus-per-day-per-person-by-fuel-source/
  3. Energy=Life as We Enjoy it, Aug. 22, 2022: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/08/22/energy-life-that-is-life-as-we-enjoy-it/
  4.  Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 1,  79 Quadrillion BTUs, The Enormity of the Fossil Energy Systems Providing Sustainable Lives, Jan. 11, 2024 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/01/11/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-part-1-79-quadrillion-btusthe-enormity-of-the-fossil-energy-systems-providing-sustainable-lives/
  5. The Reality of Electrifying Everything,  April 9, 2024: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/04/09/the-reality-of-electrifying-everything-and-the-primary-energy-required-to-generate-the-electricity/
  6. Visualizing 100 Quadrillion BTUs. Shouldn’t Coal Remain in our Energy Mix?” : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/07/02/visualizing-100-quadrillion-btus-of-primary-energy-coal-should-remain-in-our-energy-mix/
  7. The Importance of Heat-Engines, A Primer: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2020/09/09/the-importance-of-energy-part-3-heat-engines-a-primer/
  8. A Short History of Power Generation, 1850-1955, Part 1, January 2022: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/01/14/a-short-history-of-energy-electricity-and-how-our-high-quality-of-living-came-to-be-high-human-development-index-part-1-1850-1955/
  9. World Energy Statistical Review year 2023 by the Energy Institute, published June 2024: https://www.energyinst.org/statistical-review/resources-and-data-downloads
  10. Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory Energy Flow Chart for year 2022: LLNL Primary Energy Flow Chart, 2022 for U.S.: https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/sites/flowcharts/files/2023-10/US%20Energy%202022.pdf
  11. POWER Magazine, Brief History of G-E Gas Turbines for Power Generation: https://www.powermag.com/a-brief-history-of-ge-gas-turbines-2/
  12. Dick Storm Blog post, “Wake Up Americans!” Sept. 21, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/09/20/please-wake-up-america-your-energy-and-electricity-generation-reliability-are-at-risk/
  13. THE ERA OF RELIABLE, AFFORDABLE, ENERGY AND ELECTRICITY GENERATION: PART https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/10/04/the-era-of-reliable-affordable-energy-and-electricity-generation-part-1/
  14.  The Green Energy Crisis is Here, Part 1, Sept. 17, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/05/29/the-green-energy-crisis-is-here-part-1/
  15. The Green Energy Crisis, Part 2, “Meet Some of the People that Caused it”,  June 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/06/14/green-energy-crisis-part-2-meet-the-policy-makers-that-caused-it/
  16. The Green Energy Crisis, Part 3, June 26, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/06/26/green-energy-crisis-part-3-public-energy-education-is-needed-each-person-in-the-u-s-uses-about-315-million-btus-of-primary-energy-year-this-is-not-practical-or-even-possible-to-replace-with-win/
  17. FERC Summer Assessment, May 2024: https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/report-2024-summer-energy-market-and-electric-reliability-assessment?utm_source=www.gridbrief.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=data-center-overload-critical-mineral-supply-energy-grids-in-modern-warfare
  18. Grid Operators Warn of Blackouts due to Excessive EPA Rules, America’s Power, March 6, 2024: https://americaspower.org/operators-regulators-concerned/
  19. Energy Freedom by Thomas Shepstone: Kammie the Commie by Thomas Shepstone: https://open.substack.com/pub/energysecurityfreedom/p/kammie-the-commie-a-climate-cultist?r=kv1a9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
  20. Ron Stein article in America Out Loud, Harris is More Radical on Her Energy Policies than Joe Biden: https://www.americaoutloud.news/kamala-harris-is-more-radical-on-her-energy-policies-than-joe-biden/
  21. WSJ article on Kamala’s “Fracking Flip-Flop” July 2024: https://www.wsj.com/articles/kamala-harris-fracking-energy-oil-gas-biden-administration-9dd5a023?mod=latest_headlines
  22. Politico article on the Russian threat to natural gas supplies, 2022: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/02/gas-pipelines-cyber-risk-00011898
  23.  Threats to the Electric Grid, March 15, 2024:  https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/03/15/threats-to-the-grid-electricity-reliability/
  24. EIA-World’s Largest Producer of Crude: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61545#:~:text=The%20crude%20oil%20production%20record,of%2013.0%20million%20b%2Fd.
  25. Forbes article by David Blackmon on Democrat Party Energy Policy: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2024/07/23/energy-policy-would-shift-left-in-a-kamala-harris-presidency/
  26. Dick Storm Blog, “What is Endangered, “Climate or Freedom” 2021: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/02/27/what-is-endangered-climate-or-freedom-this-is-the-sub-title-of-the-book-blue-planet-in-green-shackles/
  27. Three more references on Kamala Harris: https://bwcentral.org/2021/03/kamala-harris-who-is-she
  28. https://radiopatriot.net/2024/07/23/kamalas-background-more-than-you-knew/
  29.  https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/08/18/kamala-harris-law-school-politics-503924
  30. Thomas Shepstone, Kammie the Commie: https://open.substack.com/pub/energysecurityfreedom/p/kammie-the-commie-a-climate-cultist?r=kv1a9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&comments=true
  31. American Energy Alliance, Profile of Kamala Harris on Energy policies and actions: https://www.americanenergyalliance.org/2024/07/candidate-profile-kamala-harris-on-energy/?unapproved=126046&moderation-hash=7ee47b970484ee52cae2263fe63f6287#comment-126046
  32.  Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 1,  79 Quadrillion BTUs, The Enormity of the Fossil Energy Systems Providing Sustainable Lives, Jan. 11, 2024 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/01/11/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-part-1-79-quadrillion-btusthe-enormity-of-the-fossil-energy-systems-providing-sustainable-lives/
     Influencers of U.S. Energy Policy, January 3, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/01/04/influencers-of-american-energy-policy/
  33. Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 2, The Reality of Replacing Conventional Forms of Energy, Jan. 2024: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/02/06/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-part-2-some-facts-on-the-reality-of-replacing-conventional-forms-of-energy/
  34. Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 3, The Transition that Isn’t, from the perspective of Minerals, Feb. 8, 2024: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/02/08/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-part-3-the-transition-that-isnt-from-the-perspective-of-minerals/
  35. Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 4, The True Agenda for Climate Policies, Feb. 13, 2024: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/02/13/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-electricity-generation-and-environmental-protection-part-4-what-is-the-true-agenda-for-climate-policies/
  36. Energy Matters! March 2024 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/03/11/energy-matters/
  37. Update on Hawaii’s “Green New Deal” March 2024: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/03/20/hawaii-a-glimpse-into-the-future-of-the-green-new-deal-aka-inflation-reduction-act-here-is-an-update/
  38. The Rise and Fall of Nations from the perspective of nuclear power systems manufacturing: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/08/15/the-rise-fall-and-rise-again-of-nations-and-the-realities-of-energy/
  39. USA Today Electricity Costs by State, July 19, 2024: https://www.usatoday.com/money/homefront/deregulated-energy/electricity-rates-by-state/
  40. he Impossibility of Achieving Net-Zero Carbon, Oct, 2021: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/10/13/the-stupidity-of-net-zero-carbon/

Coal Power, economic prosperity and energy, Education, Energy, Politics and Economic Prosperity, Keeping America Great, Regulations, Western Civilization

“We the People” vs. Net-Zero Indoctrination by the Ten Headed Swamp Monster

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Ten organizations or entities that are responsible for the policies that are weakening and destroying America aka “The Indoctrination SWAMP Monster”

Since the 1990’s I have been aware of some anti coal politicians including Bill Clinton and then EPA Head Carol Browner. Also numerous NGO’s that demonize coal, all fossil fuels and nuclear such as the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund, NRDC and many more.(75, 76, 77, 78, 79) Back in the early 2000’s when I was working hard to improve coal plant efficiencies, the EPA’s “New Source Review” (NSR) became an obstacle to plant upgrading and performance improvement. NSR was counter-productive to improving coal plant efficiency and reducing production costs. Curiously wrong for America? I wondered, “How can such reckless EPA Rules and policies prevail in this great country?” Based on problems my clients (mostly electric utilities) had with NSR, I started paying attention to the opponents of coal, nuclear and all conventional fuels. I subconsciously took in news and information to try to sort it out, Why? Also, I wrote articles for POWER Magazine, technical papers and gave presentations to Technical Societies or organizations on the topic of, “What if New Source Review Went Away?”

Many authors have written on the Washington “Swamp” Bureaucrats that set policies and laws which are against the best interests of America. The forces against the America I love are numerous and are pushing their agenda “as if” it is for the protection of human health or to save the planet. These well orchestrated organizations are what I have referred to as the “Seven Headed Monster”. Now, after thinking about it the Swamp Monster has ten heads and the policies and restrictions promoted are about control of our lives, one world government and yes, Socialism. The “Greens” are not about human health or saving the planet.(16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)

I am not alone. Fortunately, (but much later than it should have been), the Supreme Court has called out the D.C. Regulatory Swamp by weighing in on the Chevron vs. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) case. (2) Below is a copy of the depiction of Donald Trump and his Cabinet setting out to attack the SWAMP. This image is compliments of Patriotic artist Jon McNaughton. He captures the essence of excessive Regulations facing all of us Americans and President Trump. The artist describes his work, “Crossing the Swamp”. “Today, Trump endeavors to cross the “swamp” of Washington DC as he carries the light of truth, hope, and prosperity. The murky water of the deep state and the ten headed monster are laced with dangerous vermin, perfectly willing to destroy American prosperity for personal ideologies, financial gain and control of America by forces outside our borders. The establishment Democrats, Never-Trumper-Republicans, Deep State, and Fake News Media will do all they can to stop the majority of the American people from succeeding.” Also, some foreign involvement to support Green actions has been reported(71,72, 73, 74, 75, 76). Thank you Jon McNaughton for your outstanding painting! (1)

The purpose of this commentary is to summarize ten of the institutions, entities and organizations that function against the best interests of Americans and all of the people of the free western world. They call them “Climate Policies”, the agenda, however, is control over our lives and it is sinister.

The slide below is from one of my presentations. There are at least seven major groups within the U.S. that influence government energy policy. This illustration attempts to provide one graphic to show as the “Seven Headed Monster”. A short description of these people and organizations will follow. At the end of this essay is a list of references to support my conclusions and for further reading and research. America must win this battle. Currently, the “Indoctrination Swamp Monster” has ten heads when government agencies, government/social media/big tech and Dark Money from foreign adversaries are included.

1. Revolving Door of NGO Extremists Into Employment in High, Influential Government Positions

In 2007 there were over 100 new, clean coal plants planned for construction. Most of the proposed plants were cancelled.(3) During 2007, about 50% of America’s electric power generation was from coal fuel. America had the most reliable and affordable electric grid in the world. In 2008 President Obama came into office to “Change America”. In addition to dividing Americans, he immediately ramped up the war on coal. If you read on and check the references at the end, the connection between Socialism and environmental activism will be connected. During his two terms he appointed two extreme activists to head the EPA. First Lisa Jackson then followed by Gina McCarthy. Some of the Regulations (such as the Clean Power Plan of 2015) was later overturned in 2021 by SCOTUS in WVA vs. EPA. However, the damage to the supply-chain and new coal plant investment viability was done. Later ESG but that is a topic for another day.

Another huge factor was the masking of the high cost of renewables with a surge in availability of low cost natural gas production from Hydraulic Fracturing. The low cost gas fuel kept U.S. electricity prices stable and electricity production cost economical as many new highly efficient gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) plants were built.

To my knowledge after about 2010 only about four major new coal plants were started up, Longview in WVA, Turk in Ark, Sandy Creek Energy Station and Cliffside in S.C. It was during the Obama Administration that it became apparent (to me) that extremists were planning, scheming and lying in wait to kill coal plants . Many key people in the Obama Administration were employed by NGO’s before and after the Obama Administration. Even while employed at NGO’s they had much to do with EPA Rules and other Bureaucratic (SWAMP) Policies. The report by the 114th Congress details the “Revolving Door” of activist/extremists and then placement into influential high government positions. (4) I wrote previous commentaries on U.S. Energy policy influencers, here, here and here. (6,7,8, 51, 85) Green policies are not only weakening America’s productive capacity, but also our military strength and readiness. (32, 87)

2. Wealthy Billionaires and Foundations

There are very wealthy people and Foundations whom are not trained or experienced in electric power generation, but may feel they are doing something good for the world by demonizing carbon and conventional forms of energy. Examples are Michael Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos, Tom Steyer, Bill Gates, the Rockefeller Foundation, Arabella Network and more. These people and foundations together have provided well over two billion dollars in funding to NGO’s to fight coal, oil, gas, Hydraulic Fracturing and even nuclear plants. These reports are public information and many links are included below.

3. The United Nations

The U.N. has become distracted from the founding principles of promoting peace in the world. Russia is fighting Ukraine in an unprovoked war. The terror organization Hamas attacks Israel. Meanwhile, the top priority for the U.N. is more emphasis on Climate Policies for the Free western world. The policies are a path to Socialism and One World Government, but are called, “Climate Polices” I have written on this here. (9) China and Russia continue to produce and use record quantities of fossil fuels. China burns more coal than all of the rest of the world put together.

4. The World Economic Forum

The WEF includes thousands of wealthy individuals, companies, government officials and the U.N. Most unelected officials that come together periodically to promote policies for the countries of the world. Including Climate Policies. Make no mistake, the WEF is radical and unapologetic for the policies they promote. For example, De-growth, De-Industrialization, De-population and Restrictions on private ownership. (19, 20, 21, 22, 112)

5. The Main-Stream Media

Internationally circulated newspapers, magazines, TV stations and Internet News, other than a few exceptions such as the Epoch Times, Newsmax and Fox, tend to spread the U.N., WEF, IPCC, and Scare monger messages to misinform and indoctrinate the general public with the UN-IPCC messages and agenda.

6. Public Education, K-12, Universities, Public Service Messages to the General Public

Textbooks and teaching in our schools is based on the “Science being Settled” on manmade global warming. When in fact, the science is not settled. However, the scare tactics have been going on for a full generation of youth that are now voting adults. Billions of people of the world have been indoctrinated and scared about Global Warming.

7. Woke Corporations

Several years ago I visited Disney World in Orlando. The exhibit of the movie “Frozen” had messages regarding the need to reduce our carbon footprint, etc. Other companies and including some electric Utility companies, also contribute to the indoctrination of the public on the demonization of carbon. Few utilities push back or resist the destructive path to exit coal and depend on more expensive, less reliable, weather dependent generation from wind and sunshine.

8. Government Funding Using Our Tax Dollars, Used Against the Best Interests of America

The Biden-Harris funding of $2 Billion taxpayer dollars has gone to promote climate action. (109, 110) Included is $50 million dollars to support anti-Israel, pro-Hamas so called, Social Justice. The huge dollar flows however, are through Planned Parenthood and the alignment of Abortion and Environmental activism. (95, 96, 97)

9. Dark Money, Including from Foreign Adversaries

Foreign influence of U.S. energy and environmental policy has been documented for many years. Numerous references are included below of funds from Russia, China and other foreign governments to influence U.S. environmental policy. As nearly everyone is aware, the Climate Policies promoted by the Paris Agreement have not reduced the fossil fuels production and use of Russia, China and other BRICS. Meanwhile, the U.S. Climate Policies are weakening our country and including military preparedness.(50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 71, 72)

10. Big Tech and Social Media

The influence of Big Tech and Social Media is well known. The involvement and cooperation with government is concerning. Especially when the topic of social credit scores and control over our lives as is experienced in China. Therefore, it is only mentioned as everyone has a very good idea of the influence of Tik Tok, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. Especially on the younger generation.

Conclusion

The 2024 election is important to save America. This is not hyperbole. The alliances of the Deep State, entrenched Bureaucrats in our government, open borders, U.N. control of energy policy and ever greater influence from non-elected officials has our country on a path to destruction. The late Donn Dears wrote about a dozen books warning us about Net Zero policies. It was Donn Dears in one of his last conversations with me that said, “Dick, We have got to win this battle”. Yes we do Donn, RIP. You may not like Donald Trump’s mean Tweets or his sarcasm, however, there is no doubt about his policies are Pro-America and keeping our Pro-Constitutional Republic. I wrote on the “Saving America from Destruction, the Real Issues that Matter”. (111) Keeping in mind, Energy provides the basis for everything we do. Energy Independence and practical energy policies are a large part of keeping our freedoms. Please read some of the 113 references provided below.

Respectfully,

Dick Storm July 10, 2024

References and for further Research

  1. Artist Jon McNaughton website: https://jonmcnaughton.com
  2. Supreme Court Blog on Chevron vs. NRDC June 29, 2024: https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/06/supreme-court-strikes-down-chevron-curtailing-power-of-federal-agencies/
  3. Global Energy Monitor Coal Plants Planned or Proposed 2002-2012: https://www.gem.wiki/Category:Proposed_coal_plants_in_the_United_States
  4. 114th Congress, Majority Staff Report, Obama’s Carbon Mandate, August 2015: http://www.scientificintegrityinstitute.org/USSEWP080415.pdf
  5. EPA Administrators: https://www.epa.gov/history/epas-administrators
  6. Green Energy Crisis, Meet the Policy Makers That Caused it: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/06/14/green-energy-crisis-part-2-meet-the-policy-makers-that-caused-it/
  7. Influencers of U.S. Energy Polict, January 3, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/01/04/influencers-of-american-energy-policy/
  8. The War on Carbon, How it Came to Be” October 2021: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/10/16/the-war-on-carbon-how-it-came-to-be/
  9. Energy and World Peace, April, 2022: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/04/05/energy-world-peace/
  10. The Federal War on your Life-Style, WUWT, June 8, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/07/the-federal-war-against-your-lifestyle/
  11. Supreme Court Case Summary WVA vs. EPA 2021: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1530_n758.pdf
  12. Bjorn Lomborg Science Direct, July. 2020, “Welfare in the 21st Century” related to Climate Policies: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162520304157
  13. Forbes article on Environmental Groups Harming the Poor, https://www.forbes.com/sites/tilakdoshi/2023/05/23/environmental-ngos-in-the-global-south-saviors-of-humanity-or-predatory-special-interests/?sh=78c19c9e59aa
  14. Liberty Energy, “Bettering Human Lives Report”: https://www.libertyenergy.com/betteringhumanlivesv2/
  15. liberty Energy Updated 2024 Edition of “Bettering Human Lives” : https://libertyenergy.com/bettering-human-lives-2024/
  16. Vaclav Klaus’ 2006 book, “Blue Planet in Green Shackles, What is Endangered? The Climate or Freedom?” offers a prescient view of the political nature of Green policies: Dick Storm Blog https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/02/27/what-is-endangered-climate-or-freedom-this-is-the-sub-title-of-the-book-blue-planet-in-green-shackles/
  17. Biography of Socialist, Antonio Gutterres, U.N. Secretary General, Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antonio-Guterres
  18. Gutterres says, The World Needs One Body of Supreme Global Governance ”, Breitbart News, 2020: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/06/26/u-n-chief-guterres-calls-for-one-supreme-body-of-global-governance/
  19. World Economic Forum, Founder and Leader, Klaus Schwab, Bio:  https://www.weforum.org/about/klaus-schwab
  20. World Economic Forum Doesn’t Even Hide their Intent to Create Decline of the Western World: https://blackmon.substack.com/p/fridays-energy-absurdity-wef-isnt
  21. WEF Urban Mobility Paper, May 2023: https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Urban_Mobility_Scorecard_Tool_2023.pdf?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  22. WEF Report, Article on No Individual Ownership….”You Will Own Nothing and You Will Be Happy” by Science Direct: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328723001131
  23. John Kerry Speech on “The Great Reset” New American, Nov. 2020: https://thenewamerican.com/john-kerry-talks-great-reset-at-world-economic-forum/
  24. John Kerry Targets Agriculture at WEF Speech, May 2023, Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/john-kerry-targets-agriculture-part-climate-crusade
  25. The Uselessness of the United Nations to Improve World Peace, Prosperity and to Lift Poor Countries from Poverty. The U.N. Energy and World Peace: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/04/05/energy-world-peace/
  26. UN Climate News: https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/10/1129892?_gl=1*1nhukiq*_ga*MTM1NjA2Njg4OS4xNjgyODY3NDQ5*_ga_TK9BQL5X7Z*MTY4Mjg2NzQ0OS4xLjEuMTY4Mjg2NzYzOS4wLjAuMA
  27. UN-Climate page: https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement#:~:text=The%20Paris%20Agreement%20is%20a,France%2C%20on%2012%20December%202015
  28. Book: “Merchants of Despair” by Robert Zubrin, on Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism: Published 2012 by Encounter Books and again in 2016 by the Heartland Institute
  29. Capital Research Center video on China’s influence of American Environmental Policies: https://capitalresearch.org/article/how-china-designed-american-environmental-policy/
  30. Clintel Open Letter to U.N. Secretary General, June 23, 2023: https://clintel.org/open-letter-from-clintel-to-the-un-secretary-general-antonio-guterres/
  31. Washington Examiner: Gina McCarthy CEO of NRDC: https://eelegal.org/washington-examiner-gina-mccarthy-and-nrdc-together-again/
  32. Ken Braun’s article on Jennifer Graham background at Capital Research Center, “Green Watch”: https://capitalresearch.org/article/bonkers-about-batteries-the-unauthorized-biography-of-jennifer-granholm/
  33. Dept. of Interior Sec’y Deb Harland on Utah Land which has energy reserves: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/15/deb-haaland-national-monument-protections-joe-biden-trump
  34. E & E News June 6, 2023. How Green New Dealers became Washington Power Players: https://www.eenews.net/articles/how-green-new-dealers-became-washington-power-players/
  35. Profile of the Department of the Interior, compiled by Robert Stilson of CRC: https://www.influencewatch.org/government-agency/biden-administration-department-of-the-interior/
  36. CRC Profile of the Department of Energy: https://www.influencewatch.org/government-agency/biden-administration-department-of-energy/
  37. CRC on the EPA: https://www.influencewatch.org/government-agency/biden-administration-independent-agencies/#environmental-protection-agency
  38. CRC on the WH Council on Environmental Quality: https://www.influencewatch.org/government-agency/biden-administration-executive-office-of-the-president/#council-on-environmental-quality
  39. CRC on the WH Office of Domestic Climate Policy: https://www.influencewatch.org/government-agency/biden-administration-executive-office-of-the-president/#office-of-domestic-climate-policy
  40. CRC on the Office of Science and Technology Policy: https://www.influencewatch.org/government-agency/biden-administration-executive-office-of-the-president/#office-of-science-and-technology-policy
  41. CRC on environmental group connections in this blog post from June 2021: https://capitalresearch.org/article/nonprofits-in-the-biden-administration-special-interest-and-advocacy-groups/
  42. Science Matters on the Roots of Environmentalism, Jan 2023: https://rclutz.com/2023/01/06/from-nature-conservation-to-climate-calamity/#like-28807
  43. C. Paul Smith “Closing Argument on the Climate Change Hoax”:  https://www.cpaulsmith.com/palmyra-bookstore/the-climate-change-hoax-argument/
  44. The UK and European experiences with “Green Energy” should be a clear warning to the U.S.A., The Telegraph, June 11, 2023:
  45. How the Greens Went Mainstream, Foreign Policy, April 2021: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/04/23/how-the-greens-went-mainstream/
  46. Russian Funding of Anti-Fossil Fuels Groups in U.S. March 2022, The Hill: https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/596304-investigate-russias-covert-funding-of-us-anti-fossil-fuel-groups/
  47. Washinton Free Beacon article on EPA Requests DOJ to Investigate Dark Money to Environmental Activist Groups, October 2020:  https://freebeacon.com/national-security/epa-requests-doj-investigate-foreign-funding-of-environmental-groups/
  48. Dark Money accepted by Democrats from BlueGreen Alliance admission, Washington free Beacon May 24, 2023: https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/senate-finance-committee-dems-said-theyd-fight-dark-money-they-just-fawned-over-a-liberal-dark-money-operative/
  49. “So-Called” Democracy Alliance Investment Report, 2014: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1202744/da-portfolio2012-2014-042714.pdf
  50. Swiss Billionaire Bankrolls Biden Agenda through Arabella Advisors, Reported in Washington Free Beacon, April 4, 2023: https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/swiss-billionaire-bankrolls-biden-agenda-with-63-million-in-dark-money/
  51. Meet the Group behind Banning Gas Stoves, Rocky Mountain Institute Creates anti Gas Stove Campaign, partially funded by China, as reported in Washington free Beacon, January 16, 2023: https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/meet-the-green-energy-group-behind-the-study-thats-driving-calls-to-ban-gas-stoves/
  52. Stacey Abrams working with Group, Rewiring America, to Ban Gas Stoves. Group has ties with Chinese Funding, Washington Free Beacon, March 16, 2023: https://freebeacon.com/democrats/election-denier-stacey-abrams-is-now-working-to-eliminate-gas-stoves/
  53. Obama’s Man in China is now China’s Man in Washington, Max Baucus is talking head for China, Washington Free Beacon, May 21, 2020: https://freebeacon.com/national-security/obamas-man-in-china-now-beijings-man-in-washington/
  54. Numerous articles on Environmental Activists around the world, The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/us/topics/environmental-activism-3496
  55. BBC Report on 50 years of Activism, How the Biggest Environmental Movement Began April 2020: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200420-earth-day-2020-how-an-environmental-movement-was-born
  56. Meet the Activists, Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/explore/savingearth/meet-the-activists
  57. House Lawmakers Step Up Action on Green Groups Working with Foreign Countries, June, 2018, Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-environment-congress-idUSKBN1JG204
  58. Washington Examiner, June 2018: Russian Groups Gave Millions to Green Groups to Fight Fracking in U.S.: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/russian-funded-environmental-group-gave-millions-to-anti-fracking-groups  
  59. GAO Report on Foreign Influence of U.S. Research, Oct. 2021: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-105434
  60. FBI Investigating Foreign Influence of Jan. 6, 2020 Capital Riot, NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/fbi-probing-if-foreign-governments-groups-funded-extremists-who-helped-n1254525
  61. Capital Research Report on Combatting Foreign Influence of American Institutions, Robert Stilson, October 2020 : https://capitalresearch.org/article/combating-foreign-government-influence-in-american-institutions/  
  62. Report of Uranium One Deal sale to Russia and Russian Influence of the Obama’s and Clintons, Fox News 2018 : https://docs.house.gov/meetings/II/II06/20190625/109694/HHRG-116-II06-20190625-SD004.pdf
  63. The Hill, Wikileaks Releases Alleged John Podesta emails on Russian Business dealings of Clintons and Obama, Oct. 10, 2016: https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/299904-wikileaks-releases-alleged-podesta-emails/
  64. Politico, What you Need to Know About Hillary Clinton and Uranium One Deal, Nov. 14, 2017:https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/14/hillary-clinton-uranium-one-deal-russia-explainer-244895
  65. Oil Price.com report on Russia Owning some U.S. Nuclear Fuel as a result of the Uranium One Deal, May 6, 2015: https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Does-Russia-Really-Own-20-Of-The-US-Uranium-Reserves.html
  66. John Podesta was involved in a major deal with Russians in 2011-2019, Breitbart News, April 4, 2019: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/04/03/collusion-russians-gave-35-million-to-company-with-john-podesta-on-board/  
  67. John Podesta’s brother Tony received payments as a Lobbyist for Russia on Uranium One Deal and was not registered as a Foreign Agent,  Daily Caller, Nov. 2017  :  https://dailycaller.com/2017/11/05/tony-podesta-lobbied-for-russias-uranium-one-and-did-not-file-as-a-foreign-agent/
  68. Forbes, Oct. 25, 2017; “Why Was Justice Dept. Silent on Criminal Activity of Nuclear Agency During Obama’s Administration”: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2017/10/25/why-was-obamas-justice-department-silent-on-criminal-activity-by-russias-nuclear-agency/?sh=38d0c3fabe17  
  69. American Thinker, October 2017 article, So what was John Podesta’s now-collapsed Russian green energy scheme really all about?https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/10/so_what_was_john_podestas_nowcollapsed_russian_green_energy_scheme_really_all_about.html
  70. John Podesta And Podesta Group Under Investigation By FBI And DOJ Technocracy News, August 2016: https://www.technocracy.news/john-podesta-and-podesta-group-under-investigation-by-fbi-and-doj/
  71. Climate Depot, March 6, 2022, Investigate Russia’s covert funding of US anti-fossil fuel groups: https://www.climatedepot.com/2022/03/06/investigate-russias-covert-funding-of-us-anti-fossil-fuel-groups/
  72. The Hill, March 1, 2022, Russia Investigation on Involvement with U.S. Anti-Fossil Fuels Groups: https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/596304-investigate-russias-covert-funding-of-us-anti-fossil-fuel-groups/  
  73. BIV.com, Canadian Environmental Groups Received $1.3 Billion in Foreign Funding : https://biv.com/article/2021/10/canadian-environmental-groups-got-13-billion-foreign-funding-inquiry
  74. Natural Resources Defense Council Receives 100 Million from Jeff Bezos, Nov. 2020: https://www.nrdc.org/press-releases/nrdc-receives-100-million-bezos-earth-fund-accelerate-climate-action
  75. Big Green Radicals Funding, NRDC : https://biggreenradicals.com/group/natural-resources-defense-council/
  76. Washington Free Beacon report on Foreign Funding through Bermuda of Environmental Extremist Groups, August 2013 : https://freebeacon.com/national-security/liberal-foundation-distributed-money-from-bermuda-to-liberal-nonprofits/
  77. Washington Examiner, Leftists Activists Demand Democrats Keep Nuclear and Carbon Capture Out of Green Energy Bill, May 12, 2021: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/activists-demand-renewable-energy-standard
  78. Here are 36 Organizations Helping to Solve the Climate Crisis (and weaken the U.S.A.) FoodTank.com, 2020 : https://foodtank.com/news/2020/10/36-organizations-helping-solve-the-climate-crisis/
  79. Russia Funding Activist Groups in U.S. Center for Security Policy, March 2019 : https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/moscow-secretly-funded-us-anti-fracking-groups-is-it-now-attacking-us-energy-companies/
  80. Robert Bryce, No Uranium for Nuclear, June 9, 2023: https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/no-u
  81. Tom Steyer in Philanthropy News, 2014, Donates 50 million to NextGen Climate Action in Florida for Climate Change: https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/hedge-fund-billionaire-to-step-up-climate-change-advocacy-efforts
  82. Sheldon Whitehouse’s new book where he will claim the opposition party does what he and his party have done very effectively, for decades: “The Scheme, where He accuses Republicans of using Dark Money”, when in fact, the Democrats do it much more: https://thenewpress.com/books/scheme
  83. Ron Clutz Blog “Science Matters” June 12, 2023 on the Climate Blame Game & “Energy Absurdities” in Canada: https://rclutz.com/2023/06/12/absurd-climate-blame-game/#like-31517
  84. Dick Storm Blog post, “The War on Carbon, How it Came to Be”: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/10/16/the-war-on-carbon-how-it-came-to-be/
  85. West Virginia Shelly Moore Capito Opinion in WVA “Intelligencer” Newspaper, July 2022 on Joe Goffman as nominee to EPA position: https://www.theintelligencer.net/opinion/local-columns/2022/07/joe-goffman-the-wrong-choice-to-help-lead-epa/
  86. Pentagon to Electrify the Military, Nov. 2021, Military.com: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/11/09/electric-military-vehicles-are-part-of-biden-climate-agenda-pentagon-says.html
  87. C. Paul Smith “Closing Argument on the Climate Change Hoax”:  https://www.cpaulsmith.com/palmyra-bookstore/the-climate-change-hoax-argument/
  88. Environment America.org, Why Environmentalists Back Ed Markey: https://environmentamerica.org/articles/supporting-ed-markey/
  89. The Guardian on Bill Gates views on Climate, Feb. 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/13/bill-gates-on-the-climate-crisis-i-cant-deny-being-a-rich-guy-with-an-opinion
  90. John Kerry Targets Agriculture at WEF Speech, May 2023, Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/john-kerry-targets-agriculture-part-climate-crusade
  91. WEF Calls for Limiting Private Car Use, June 2022:  https://www.internationalfreepress.com/2023/06/wef-document-calls-for-limiting-private.html
  92. WEF on Population Degrowth, June 2022: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/06/what-is-degrowth-economics-climate-change/
  93. WEF Calls to reduce vehicles by eliminating ownership, Climate Depot, Aug. 2022: https://www.climatedepot.com/2022/08/01/world-economic-forum-calls-to-reduce-private-vehicles-by-eliminating-ownership/
  94. Greta Thunberg Time Line, April 2021, Independent, UK: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/greta-thunberg-bbc-documentary-timeline-b1830225.html
  95. Sierra Club and Abortion Alignment, On the Issues, : https://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Sierra_Club_Abortion.htm
  96. U.N., Planned Parenthood and Sierra Club Alignment Sept. 2015:  https://unfoundation.org/media/un-foundation-planned-parenthood-federation-of-america-sierra-club-announce-winners-of-first-ever-why-we-care-youth-emerging-leaders-for-reproductive-rights-contest
  97. Sierra Club & Planned Parenthood Join Conferences to Explain Sex and the Environment. Nov. 2007, Catholic News Agency,: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/11091/sierra-club-joins-planned-parenthood-to-offer-conferences-on-sex-and-the-environment
  98. Lecture by Michael Rectenwald at Hillsdale College on “What is the Great Reset”, The Great Reset movement toward World Totalitarianism: https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/what-is-the-great-reset/
  99. Daily Skeptic, Feb. 23, 2023, by 30 year Reuter’s veteran Journalist “I Thought CO2 Was Causing Global Warming, I was Wrong”: https://dailysceptic.org/2023/02/23/when-i-covered-climate-change-for-reuters-i-thought-co2-was-to-blame-for-rising-temperatures-i-was-wrong/
  100. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, 60 years later, Fails Test of Time, WUWT: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/17/carsons-silent-spring-fails-test-of-time-new-york-times-verdict-in-2007/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=carsons-silent-spring-fails-test-of-time-new-york-times-verdict-in-2007
  101. John Kerry, Ties to Radical Environmental Groups, but kept secret, Oct. 2022, Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-probe-john-kerrys-ties-eco-groups-efforts-shield-oversight
  102. Daily Signal list of companies that donate to Planned Parenthood, Aug. 2015: https://www.dailysignal.com/2015/08/19/more-companies-that-have-donated-to-planned-parenthood/ 
  103. Daily Signal July 2015, https://www.dailysignal.com/2015/07/21/meet-the-41-companies-that-donate-directly-to-planned-parenthood/
  104. More companies that donate to Planned Parenthood, Partners for Ethical Care: https://www.partnersforethicalcare.com/planned-parenthood-donors
  105. JTF (Jewish Task Force) donations of 25 million to Democrats: https://jtf.org/follow-the-money-planned-parenthood-donated-25m-to-democrats-since-2000/
  106. INTEL and others that promote Zero Population Growth and Planned Parenthood: https://www.christianpost.com/voices/meet-the-biggest-planned-parenthood-supporter-in-corporate-america.html
  107. Open Secrets Donations to Planned Parenthood, 2022:  https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/detail/2022?cmte=Planned+Parenthood&tab=donors
  108. Capital Research Center video on influence of teen females by Leftist organizations such as Arabella Advisors: https://capitalresearch.org/article/teen-vogue-training-young-female-leftists/
  109. EPA Funding of $ 2 Billion IRA Funds for Climate Action for Climate Justice, May 2023: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration-announces-2-billion-fund-environmental-and-climate-justice
  110. Fox News report on Climate Action Fund being used to support Anti-Israel, Pro-Hamas Social Justice: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-epa-granted-50m-anti-israel-climate-justice-group
  111. “Saving America from Destruction, The Real Issues that Matter”: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/04/29/saving-america-from-destructive-policies-the-real-issues-that-matter-part-1/
  112. Carol Roth Book, describing WEF policies and the path to control of our lives, “You Will Own Nothing”:
  113. Donn Dears books: “Clean Energy Crisis” and Net-Zero Carbon-The Climate Policy Destroying America”

Coal Power, economic prosperity and energy, Education, Energy and Electricity Fundamentals, Energy, Politics and Economic Prosperity, Fossil Fuels are Important, Regulations

Coal’s Final Battle

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Reasonable cost, Dependable, Affordable and Dispatchable coal power generation has been mortally wounded.

We, the American People Must win the War on Coal

From Sierra Club website, May 18, 2024; https://coal.sierraclub.or

Who are the Enemies of Coal?

On enemies, Sun Tzu said “Know the enemy and know yourself in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril”.(1)

Most of the American people have no idea of who the enemies of coal are. In fact, I worked in the coal power industry for about thirty years before I became aware of some of them. The true facts are, that there are multiple entities and organizations that are enemies. Let’s call them “Carbon Hating Tribes”. These Tribes include rogue Bureaucrats (alphabet agencies of the U.S. Federal Gov’t) politicians, Well funded NGO’s, Public education K-12 plus many Universities, Public Broadcasting, Billionaires who do not understand the importance of Domestically produced Primary energy, U.S. elected politicians, the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the MSM, the Entertainment Industry, celebrities and foreign participants that wish to weaken the U.S.A. I tried to capture some of the prominent anti Carbon Tribes in one meme which I have used in my public presentations. Most of the leaders and the members of these anti-coal Tribes, are NOT elected by the U.S. citizens . I have written several previous commentaries naming some of the individuals and organizations. (6, 207, 208) A Congressional report also outlined the escalation of the war on coal during the McCarthy years at EPA in the Obama Administration. (10)

More on the influencers of Net-Zero Carbon before. Here, here and here. After years of observations from the industry and research, I am of the strong opinion that the priorities and goals of “Climate Policies” are really not about improving human health or saving the planet. Thomas Shepstone captured my thoughts in his Substack entitled, “Energy Matters If You Value the Life You Now Have and Don’t Want to Live Under Socialism” (210)

Those of us that understand energy and electricity generation are a small minority that I estimate at 3% of the population. The “Good Guys” that understand energy and electricity generation are vastly outnumbered and out shouted. The enemies of coal are also the enemies of Liberty, Freedom and Capitalism.

Are You Worried About the Future of the U.S.A.?

This excerpt from my previous blog post and it is worth repeating. This is from my commentary entitled, “Are You Worried about the Future of the U.S.A.?” I posted this the day after inauguration day, January 21, 2021.

“The November 2020 Presidential Election to put it politely did not end with the best interests of America as a priority. President Biden disingenuously said at the inauguration, that he wants to unite the country. Then he went to the Whitehouse to sign Executive Orders to Cancel the foundation of our economic growth during President Trump’s four years. He is in the highest office of the world and he has plans to use the power of that office to do as much harm as possible to America. I don’t know why the Democrat Party, Liberals & the Mainstream Media can be so hateful of America. But they are.

Their Goals seem to be to Dismantle America’s #1 Position in the world as a Beacon of freedom and to harm or kill the largest Economy on the planet. Biden’s first step to weaken the U.S.A. is to reduce Domestic Energy Production. Reasonable cost energy is a huge component of world manufacturing competitiveness. Abundant production of reasonable cost energy also creates and sustains “Jobs” too! To put it into in a four letter word Mr. Biden may understand.

I will be perfectly honest, I am concerned for the future of America. Here are some of the reasons why I am concerned…...”Continue reading on blog post here

Background of The War on Coal

I have followed the war on coal since the 1990’s and the enemies of coal have gained strength and political power. Now with a rogue, out of control EPA and Biden as President, they have near Totalitarian Control over the entire government. In fact, Biden’s #1 Priority is/are the bogus, “Climate Policies” which have weaponized all of the government swamp Bureaucrats and all alphabet soup agencies including the EPA, BLM, SEC, Dept. of Defense, DOJ and more. This is a War on the American people and America’s productive capacity. This is a war that we must win. I have completed presentations to groups and written on the beginnings of the war on coal since about 1995 when it first dawned on me that these people in the EPA are trying to kill coal. Yes, it started during the Bill Clinton Presidency when Carol Browner was EPA Chief, and was escalated with Obama. (See the 2015 Congressional report on the Obama Carbon Mandate(10) , Here. ) Up to about 2012 about 50% of our electricity was generated by coal fueled power plants and I thought it was inexplicable and not possible that the government would wage a continuing war on the American Treasure of coal. Since 2012 over 102,000 MW’s of reliable, affordable, Dispatchable coal power generation capacity has been shut down. I presented this at the ENERUM energy Forum in Columbus, OH in 2022. (215) A modern, new clean coal plant has not been built since 2013, yet hundreds have been shut down and Demolished. (11, 12, 13, 14, 215) The two photos below are typical of how U.S. Utilities dispose of coal plants. This one is Genoa #3 of Dairyland Power, near Lacrosse, Wisconsin. Yes, it was old, but it should have been replaced with a new coal plant. The other is the Duke Sutton #3 which I was the manufacturer’s lead startup engineer in 1972.

Dairyland Power Demolition of Genoa #3 Coal Plant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68N2IFQuk70
Duke energy implosion video on you tube-https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/2016/11/09/watch-implosion-bring-down-last-boiler-at-sutton-steam-plant-outside-wilmington-video/24585489007/

The U.S. Government is Choosing Euthanasia for our Energy & Electricity Generation Infrastructure. Why?

I saw a bizarre story in the “Free Press” about a perfectly healthy young woman that has decided to end her life. The article title: “I’m 28. And I’m Scheduled to Die in May.“I did not make this up, read it here in the Free Press. After a dozen years of watching Obama, Biden, Swamp Bureaucrats, NGO’s, the MSM, Entertainment and energy ignorant but wealthy celebrities demonize coal….the planned death of Zoraya ter Beek seems similar. The big difference is, Zoraya Ter Beek has made her decision by herself. The American people are having Euthanasia of our energy and electricity infrastructure forced on us and likely to cause economic harm, pain, suffering and deaths of our American citizens. Being done in plain sight, eyes wide open and the perpetrators have about 50% of the voters support. Wake up America!

So much for “We the People” having a say into policies that impact all of us and all that we do. (Note the meme above of energy policy influences, none were elected by the people of the U.S.)Think about loss of power, loss of gasoline availability and cancellation of public transportation. Loss of heating, HVAC, refrigeration and just about everything we depend on, including food production and distribution. Dr. Robert Hargraves wrote an excellent article on “Energy IS the Economy“. It is here in Grid Brief, Nov. 2022. I live in Hilton Head, SC. The last time I remember losing power and having gasoline shortages was Hurricane Mathew in 2016. It has been very easy for many residents to forget what loss of power meant for just a few days. In February 2021, Texas suffered a massive statewide Blackout. That was in winter and cold kills more people than summer heat. The Texas Blackout killed a minimum of 246 people. I predict that, If the EPA and the Biden Administration is not reined in, more people will die in the near future. Why? Because of Bureaucratically enacted and foolish Climate Policies. Keep in mind electricity supply is comfortably easy to sustain during the spring and fall months. The challenge is PEAK Demand periods in the summer and winter. Perhaps that is one reason the EPA and the administration release these excessively restrictive rules in the spring and fall? I wrote my commentary on “Threats to the Grid” last month. It is here. An excerpt of that commentary listing the ten largest threats to Grid Reliability follow. These are based on my experience and my opinion:

The top 10 “Threats” are ranked, with the greatest risks first. All of these risks could be mitigated if energy and environmental policies were in effect the same as they were in 2012 when the U.S. had amongst the cleanest air in the industrialized and Developed world. There is a lot of blame to be spread around, but these policies are threats to Grid reliability.

  1. Government Agency Climate Policies, EPA at the top, SEC, BLM, DOD, DOJ and all of government is wrongly applying “Climate First” policies rather than the Best policies for America and younger Americans to experience the “American Dream” as my generation did
  2. Creation of RTO’s that absolved most utilities from planning for future electric generation growth, ie, plants can be shut down without a Utility being required to replace it with like, Dispatchable generation
  3. Environmental Extremist/Activists that use enormous wealth to demonize carbon (and support (D) politicians against the Best interests of the U.S.A.
  4. Wealthy Business people who fund NGO’s to Decarbonize the western world
  5. The United Nations IPCC, Agenda 21, Agenda 30 and other so called “Climate Policies”
  6. The World Economic Forum and the members who under the guise of saving the planet are forcing policies of De-Growth, De-Industrialization and Energy Poverty on all of the people of the western world, but not the BRICS, and other countries aligned with Russia and China
  7. “Woke” or “Politically Correct” companies including electric Utilities and Co-Operatives that espouse solar and wind power as being capable of replacing coal, oil, gas and nuclear energy
  8. Public Education, K-12 and Universities that promote climate scare tactics to sway public opinion toward accepting higher energy costs and reduced reliability of energy and electricity
  9. World Bank, IMF, Large Banking and Investment companies that determine which infrastructure projects to finance
  10. Terrorists or criminal acts of sabotage When I first wrote this commentary, I placed terrorsists as last in the hierarchy of risks. Now, with millions of illegal immigrants from dozens of countries, some that are enemies of the U.S. Perhaps the priority should be higher. It is in fact, a risk to Grid reliability and Green Policies have made the Grid more vulnerable to attack.

If you are interested, here are three previous blog posts on the beginning of the War on Coal and the some of the individuals and groups that have been involved. Here, here and here. The IER has prepared an excellent report which enumerates on the vast energy resources within America’s borders. (6)

The American Coal Council Letter to Elected Officials-May 17, 2024

Emily Arthun, President of the American Coal Council prepared a letter for supporters to sign and submit to Congress. The letter is copied below and I support Ms. Arthun’s comments 100%! I have submitted to my elected officials:

“Dear Senator Graham, Senator Scott and Congresswoman Mace,

As you know, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a number of new regulations, such as the Clean Power Plan 2.0 (CPP 2.0), the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), new rules around coal combustion residuals (CCR), and others that will have direct and detrimental impact on coal-fired power plants and the people that depend on them for reliable and affordable power. I urge you to hold agencies accountable for overreach and careless rulemaking which is intended to force coal plant closures and endangers the reliability of our electric grid.

Coal supplies affordable power when other sources cannot. It plays a critical role during times of intense demand, such as during cold snaps and heat waves, ensuring that the lights stay on and the grid remains reliable. According to recent reports, electric utilities have nearly doubled their forecasts of how much additional power they’ll need by 2028 given the torrid pace of data center development and other manufacturing demands that are putting new pressures on the grid. Despite the promise of renewable energy technologies, coal remains a critical energy source that must remain in use to prevent crippling energy costs to low-income families and to ensure energy shortages do not put unmanageable pressures on the grid.

The EPA has crafted a suite of rules specifically designed to force the closure of reliable and efficiently operating coal plants. These plants are the primary source of power generation in many states, and a significant source of grid-saving baseload power across the country. Further, the EPA issued these rules while conducting zero analysis of the collective impact of the new rules on grid reliability. EPA’s rules fail to account for the fact that electricity prices are increasing above the rate of inflation, demand is expanding, grid experts are already issuing warnings concerning plant closures, and there is no adequate replacement ready for the sorely needed, dispatchable generating capacity coal provides. Further shuttering coal generation will have a devastating impact to communities and our economy.

Thank you for considering my concerns, and I hope you will take swift action to support reliable and affordable energy for United States citizens and industry.”

I hope each reader will send a similar letter to your elected officials. The EPA and extremists are at War with the American People. We the People MUST win this final battle.

America is Blessed With Enormous Natural Resources of Critical Minerals and Including Coal, Uranium, Oil and Natural Gas. We Should Use them All!

Why would “We the People”...Not use the God given natural resources that America is Blessed with? A good question. My previous commentaries have expounded on the individuals, NGO’s, and others that have created the insane Net-Zero Carbon policies. Because I have written so much on this, I will not repeat my concerns and some would say, my rant. However, if you are interested, here are fourteen blog posts that attempt to show who and how the anti-American Climate Policies have come to be. The Biden Climate Policies must be reversed to win the War on America’s Productive capacity and the Best interests for the American People;

  1. Energy=Life as We Enjoy it, Aug. 22, 2022: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/08/22/energy-life-that-is-life-as-we-enjoy-it/
  2. America Needs 100 Quadrillion BTUs of Primary Energy Each Year, May 16, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/05/16/back-to-basics-the-u-s-needs-100-quadrillion-btus-year-of-primary-energy/  
  3.  Pillars of Modern Civilization, Ammonia, Food, Steel, Concrete, Plastics, Aluminum, July 2022: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/07/25/pillars-of-modern-civilization-all-dependent-on-energy/
  4. THE ERA OF RELIABLE, AFFORDABLE, ENERGY AND ELECTRICITY GENERATION: PART 1 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/10/04/the-era-of-reliable-affordable-energy-and-electricity-generation-part-1/
  5. The Green Energy Crisis is Here, Part 1, Sept. 17, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/05/29/the-green-energy-crisis-is-here-part-1/
  6. The Green Energy Crisis, Part 2, “Meet Some of the People that Caused it”,  June 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/06/14/green-energy-crisis-part-2-meet-the-policy-makers-that-caused-it/
  7. The Green Energy Crisis, Part 3, June 26, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/06/26/green-energy-crisis-part-3-public-energy-education-is-needed-each-person-in-the-u-s-uses-about-315-million-btus-of-primary-energy-year-this-is-not-practical-or-even-possible-to-replace-with-win/
  8. Without New Thinking on Nuclear Power, Anti-Carbon Policy Can’t Succeed, Nov. 11, 2021 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/11/13/without-new-thinking-on-nuclear-power-anti-carbon-climate-policy-cant-succeed/
  9. Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 1,  79 Quadrillion BTUs, The Enormity of the Fossil Energy Systems Providing Sustainable Lives, Jan. 11, 2024 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/01/11/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-part-1-79-quadrillion-btusthe-enormity-of-the-fossil-energy-systems-providing-sustainable-lives/
  10. Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 2, The Reality of Replacing Conventional Forms of Energy, Jan. 2024: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/02/06/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-part-2-some-facts-on-the-reality-of-replacing-conventional-forms-of-energy/
  11.  Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 3, The Transition that Isn’t, from the perspective of Minerals, Feb. 8, 2024: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/02/08/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-part-3-the-transition-that-isnt-from-the-perspective-of-minerals/
  12. Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 4, The True Agenda for Climate Policies, Feb. 13, 2024: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/02/13/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-electricity-generation-and-environmental-protection-part-4-what-is-the-true-agenda-for-climate-policies/
  13. Energy Matters! March 2024 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/03/11/energy-matters/
  14. America Needs 100 Quadrillion BTUs of Primary Energy Each Year, May 16, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/05/16/back-to-basics-the-u-s-needs-100-quadrillion-btus-year-of-primary-energy/  

Closing Thoughts

Remember the poem by Martin Niemoller to describe events leading up to the Holocaust? We could paraphrase and say: First they came for coal…..

FIRST THEY CAME 

First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak outBecause I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

There is a parallel strategy by the enemies of coal. Today it is a war on coal, later they will (actually, they already are) attack natural gas and oil, your freedom of transportation, what you eat, how you cook and more.. Even worse, the forces against coal are also against the one zero carbon source of carbon-free dependable, Dispatchable Bulk Power, nuclear. The Sierra Club and other extremist NGO’s have been opposed to nuclear power. So, if it is not protecting human health or the environment, then what is their motive? My friend Thomas J. Shepstone has an answer in a Substack post we corroborated on titled, “Energy Matters If You Value the Life You Now Have and Don’t Want to Live Under Socialism“

Please Consider…..

Do yourself and all Americans a favor. If you already understand energy and electricity generation, help teach those that are not well informed. My estimate is that only about 3% of the American population really understands Primary energy, electricity generation and energy economics. Here are some examples of my attempts.(23, 30, 31)

If you are one of the 97% that does not understand energy and electricity generation, (or have been indoctrinated to demonize carbon) please ask me or anyone else who does understand energy to please take time to explain how government policies and cultural indoctrination has placed America on a path of self destruction.

Yours very truly,

Dick Storm, May 18, 2024

If you are interested in digging down for more research, then here are hundreds of references to support my claim that the EPA and Environmental Zealots have America on a Net Zero Path to Destruction:

  1. Defense Department article on “Knowing your Enemy”: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA440962#:~:text=Abstract%3A,battle%20to%20be%20in%20peril
  2. NERC Summer Reliability Report, May 2024: https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/ra/Reliability%20Assessments%20DL/NERC_SRA_2024.pdf
  3. Good Substack contribution to explain Who/Why/How the Grid Reliability became “Undermined-Electrons Have Consequences” Energy IQ, by Pandreco, April 14, 2024: https://pandreco.substack.com/p/undermining-electrons-have-consequences
  4. Quanta Technology Study Report on Power Generation Shortages, report for America’s Power, Feb. 2024: https://americaspower.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Quanta-Final-Feb-2024-3.pdf
  5. You Tube Lars Schernikau on Honest Pay Back of Renewables, : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa8Q8MoWfrU
  6. IER Report on U.S. Treasure of Energy Resources, May 2024: https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024-North-American-Energy-Inventory.pdf
  7. Wide Awake Media website. Videos and info from the Common Sense Viewpoint: https://wide-awake-media.com
  8. FERC Order #1920 is a costly shell game”,  Increased Transmission & Distribution is Not Helpful, by Travis Fisher, May 2024: https://travisfisher.substack.com/p/fercs-order-no-1920-a-costly-shell
  9. “We Keep Being Told Renewables are Cheap, But Our Electric Bills Keep Getting Higher” A review of the true costs of renewables in WUWT, May 2024: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/05/17/debunking-the-cheap-renewables-myth/
  10. Congressional Report on the Obama Carbon Mandate, 2015: http://www.scientificintegrityinstitute.org/USSEWP080415.pdf
  11. Dick Storm Presentation to Columbus Energy Forum, Columbus, Ohio August 2022:  https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_presentation-and-speakers-notes-from-august-activity-7068650158862827520-B-_W?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  12. Dick Storm Panel comments at Powergen International-2024: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_i-had-the-honor-of-being-on-a-powergen-panel-activity-7156046708139782144-zPoZ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  13. Dick Storm Blog post, What would it take to achieve Net-Zero Carbon by 2050? : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/01/12/what-would-it-take-for-net-zero-electricity-generation-by-2050/
  14. Dick Storm Blog post, Wake up Americans: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/09/20/please-wake-up-america-your-energy-and-electricity-generation-reliability-are-at-risk/
  15. Grid Brief, “Energy IS the Economy” by Robert Hargraves, Nov. 15, 2022: https://www.gridbrief.com/p/guest-feature-energy-economy
  16. A Thriving Economy and Clean Air Too, Oct. 23, 2020 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2020/10/23/part-6-a-thriving-economy-and-clean-air-too/
  17. “Energy Matters If You Value the Life You Now Have and Don’t Want to Live Under Socialism” https://open.substack.com/pub/energysecurityfreedom/p/energy-matters-if-you-value-the-life?r=kv1a9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email  
  18. 114th Congress, Majority Staff Report, Obama’s Carbon Mandate, August 2015: http://www.scientificintegrityinstitute.org/USSEWP080415.pdf
  19. War on Carbon Accomplishes Two Things, Jan. 30, 2021: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/01/30/us-war-on-carbon-accomplishes-two-things/
  20. Dick Storm Blog, “The Stupidity of Net-Zero Carbon”. Oct. 2021: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/10/13/the-stupidity-of-net-zero-carbon/
  21. Dick Storm Blog, “What is Endangered, “Climate or Freedom” 2021: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/02/27/what-is-endangered-climate-or-freedom-this-is-the-sub-title-of-the-book-blue-planet-in-green-shackles/  
  22. Dick Storm Blog on Biden EO to Cancel Keystone Pipeline, March 2021: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/03/03/presidential-executive-order-signed-by-biden-that-will-harm-the-u-s-economy/
  23. Short Link to OLLI Course Understanding Net Zero, March 20, 2023: https://wp.me/p5DzAo-No
  24.  Website: https://dickstormprobizblog.org https://wordpress.com/posts/dickstormprobizblog.orgDick Storm Link: What Would it Take to Reach Net Zero Carbon by 2050: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/01/12/what-would-it-take-for-net-zero-electricity-generation-by-2050/
  25. America Has No Energy Policy, So What are You Going to do About it”: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/12/03/america-has-no-energy-policy-so-what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it
  26. Comparison of China and U.S. Energy Use, January 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/01/18/comparison-of-china-energy-electricity-generation-with-u-s-a/
  27. Energy and Economic Prosperity, Dick Storm Blog, Nov. 18, 2022: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/11/18/energy-and-economic-prosperity-2/  
  28. Americas Treasure of Fossil Fuels, Nov. 2022: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/11/26/americas-treasure-of-fossil-fuels/ Short link: https://wp.me/p5DzAo-Bn
  29. America’s Treasure of Fossil Fuels: https://wp.me/p5DzAo-Bn
  30. Dick Storm March USCB-OLLI Course LinkedIn Link, Part 1: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_my-uscb-olli-course-understanding-net-zero-ugcPost-7039925623305248769-Qe6u?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  31. Part 2: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_uscb-olli-understanding-net-zero-part-2-activity-7039928018206695424-s6i7?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  32. Energizing the Public on the Impossibility of Achieving Net-Zero Carbon: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/03/20/educating-and-energizing-the-public-on-energy-policy-and-the-impossibility-of-powering-america-with-wind-and-solar/
  33. Back to Basics, America Needs 100 Quads per Year of Energy: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/05/16/back-to-basics-the-u-s-needs-100-quadrillion-btus-year-of-primary-energy/
  34. Energy=Life, The Importance of Energy to Power our Lives: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/08/22/energy-life-that-is-life-as-we-enjoy-it/  
  35. Liberty Energy Report, “Bettering Human Lives” : https://www.libertyenergy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Bettering-Human-Lives-Liberty-Energy-ESG-Report-2021-Spreads-Web-2.pdf
  36. Science Matters on the Roots of Environmentalism, Jan 2023: https://rclutz.com/2023/01/06/from-nature-conservation-to-climate-calamity/#like-28807
  37. EIA 2021 Electricity Generation Statistics: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us-generation-capacity-and-sales.php
  38.  Bjorn Lomborg Science Direct, Jan. 2023: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162520304157
  39. TVA Rolling Blackouts report in Tennessean, Jan, 2023: https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2022/12/23/why-tennessee-valley-authority-ordered-rolling-blackouts-in-nashville/69754538007/
  40. N.C. Utilities Commission Testimony of Bradford Muller of Charlotte Pipe and Foundry, Blackouts, Christmas 2022:https://starw1.ncuc.gov/NCUC/ViewFile.aspx?Id=54fbaba6-76d3-4367-abe2-ee3f8fade516
  41. North State Journal article on NC Electricity Policies by Bradford Muller: https://nsjonline.com/article/2023/01/muller-the-christmas-catastrophe-near-miss/
  42. WUNC Report on Cold Weather Blackouts in N.C. https://www.wunc.org/2023-01-06/cold-weather-blackouts-challenge-conventional-wisdom-on-reliability
  43.  Great Plains Institute Warning, Aug 2022 of Blackouts due to insufficient Generation capacity:  https://betterenergy.org/blog/qa-blackout-risks-underscore-resilience-reliability-investment-needs-for-us-power-grid/
  44. MISO Blackout Warning from Riverland Energy: https://riverlandenergy.com/miso-maximum-generation-warnings
  45.  E&E News on Blackout warning, August 2022: https://www.eenews.net/articles/why-the-midwest-worries-about-future-blackouts/
  46.  American Experiment Article, in Minnesota discussing Blackout risks, June 2022: https://www.americanexperiment.org/why-the-risk-of-blackouts-in-minnesota-continues-to-grow/
  47.  Net Zero Watch, UK Experience with Wind Farms, January 7, 2023: https://mailchi.mp/86e68627c77f/payments-for-windfarms-to-switch-off-soar-to-quarter-billion-pounds-193411?e=9e46528ac6
  48. World Nuclear Association Info on Nuclear Power Contribution to Reducing Manmade Carbon Dioxide Emissions:  https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/energy-and-the-environment/nuclear-energy-and-sustainable-development.aspx
  49. Solar Disappointment in the Southwest, National Review, Jan 4, 2023:  https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/01/a-bright-shining-disappointment/
  50. ESG Directive from Biden, reported in Oil & Gas Journal, Jan. 2023: https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/government/article/14288039/biden-administration-directs-agencies-to-prioritize-ghg-reductions  
  51. CO2 Coalition: https://co2coalition.org
  52. Physicist Wallace Manheimer on CO2, January 2023: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/view/0/47745  Abstract here: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/view/0/47745
  53. National Mining Assoc.: https://nma.org/facts-stats-and-data/
  54. E&E News, TVA Bellefonte Nuclear Plant for auction: https://www.eenews.net/articles/for-sale-2-unfinished-reactors-with-hope-for-jobs/
  55. E&E News Electric Hummer fueling EV Backlash: https://www.eenews.net/articles/how-the-hummer-is-fueling-a-backlash-against-electric-trucks/
  56. Ron Clutz Post, Before Biden, Trump Accomplishments: https://rclutz.com/2023/01/15/the-good-old-days-b-b-before-biden/#like-28933
  57. Elements Visualization of sources of Power by Fuel, U.S. & Canada: https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/biggest-sources-of-electricity-by-state-and-province/
  58. Elements Best Commodities of 2022: https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/the-top-10-best-and-worst-performing-commodities-of-2022/
  59. China to Build 16 GW POWER Mag: of Solar-Coal-Wind, Jan. 2023: https://www.powermag.com/china-breaks-ground-on-massive-16-gw-solar-wind-coal-project/  
  60. Forbes on China Generating Capacity, about 2,390 GW, Feb 2022: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thebakersinstitute/2022/04/26/coal-to-power-chinas-energy-transition/?sh=7437abc81b9e
  61. EIA China Energy Facts, 2021 : https://www.eia.gov/international/overview/country/CHN
  62. IEA China Energy Feb 2022: https://www.iea.org/countries/china
  63. Carbon Brief.org: https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-what-does-chinas-coal-push-mean-for-its-climate-goals/
  64.  World of CO2 new website, Jan. 2023: https://www.the-world-of-co2.org
  65.  Science Matters by Ron Clutz: https://rclutz.com/2023/01/17/world-of-co2-infographics-2/comment-page-1/#comment-44254
  66. Carbon Footprint by country, World Population Review : https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/carbon-footprint-by-country
  67. WUWT Weaponizing Alarmism on Climate, Steven Koonin and Jordan Peterson: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/17/unsettled-climate-and-science-dr-steven-koonin/
  68. Davos 2023, China to Boost Oil Demand by at least 500,000 BBL’s/day: https://energynow.com/2023/01/davos-2023-china-to-boost-oil-demand-by-up-to-500000-bpd/
  69. State of American Energy by API President, Jan. 2023: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm&ogbl#search/vbourdonneau%40gmail.com/FMfcgzGrcFgJPkrZzLBrPqccDjVNsTTl
  70. State of American Energy Report by API: https://events.api.org/reports/soae-2023/
  71. Rare Earths from coal: https://www.renuva.com
  72. PA Pundits, Pursuit of the Impossible” Net Zero: https://papundits.wordpress.com/2022/12/21/net-zero-the-pursuit-of-the-impossible/?blogsub=subscribed#subscribe-blog
  73. WSJ, Chinese Projects around world are failing, January 19, 2023: https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-global-mega-projects-infrastructure-falling-apart-11674166180?mod=trending_now_news_1
  74.  Jay Lehr Tribute with many references on page, Jan. 21, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/21/climate-change-weekly-459-remembering-jay-lehr-scholar-truth-seeker-friend-eternal-optimist/
  75. C. Paul Smith “Closing Argument on the Climate Change Hoax”: https://www.cpaulsmith.com/palmyra-bookstore/the-climate-change-hoax-argument/
  76.  Grid Down PowerUp:  https://griddownpowerup.com
  77. Global Electricity Prices: https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/electricity_prices/
  78.  EMP Commission Reports: http://www.empcommission.org
  79.  Energy Dept. Report on Transformers for Grid: https://www.energy.gov/oe/addressing-security-and-reliability-concerns-large-power-transformers
  80. Detailed report on Transformer Manufacturers of world, see pgs 19-23 on suppliers: https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/04/f15/LPTStudyUpdate-040914.pdf  
  81.  WSJ AMERICA SELF-SABOTAGES GRID: https://www.wsj.com/articles/america-self-sabotages-its-electrical-grid-renewable-fossil-fuel-power-11672685320
  82.  US Grid Real Time power: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/gridmonitor/dashboard/electric_overview/US48/US48
  83. WUWT The Future of Oil : https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/24/does-the-oil-industry-have-a-future-part-i/
  84. WUWT The Future of Oil pt 2: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/26/should-nations-stop-using-fossil-fuels-part-ii/
  85. WUWT The Future of Oil Pt #3: Master Resource: https://www.masterresource.org/mexico-energy-policy/oil-inustry-salazar-2/
  86. National Review, Russians Fund Environmentalists: https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/12/how-russia-backed-environmentalism-is-leading-to-blackouts-in-new-england/
  87. German Extremists, Funded by Russia: https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/01/putins-green-fifth-column/
  88.  Harvard Misinformation/Study on Fossil Fuels: https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2021/02/deaths-fossil-fuel-emissions-higher-previously-thoughthttps://thethoriumnetwork.com/2022/04/21/episode-15-clean-air-and-water-not-with-fossil-fuels-around-death-by-fossil-unintended-consequences-chapter-7-part-1/
  89. Dr. Timothy Ball Paper on the Deliberate Corruption of Science, 2014: https://www.alachuacounty.us/Depts/epd/EPAC/BOOK%20REVIEW%20-%20‘THE%20DELIBERATE%20CORRUPTION%20OF%20CLIMATE%20SCIENCE%20by%20TIM%20BALL.pdf
  90. Tim Ball, CO2 is not a pollutant 2018: https://www.technocracy.news/tim-ball-the-evidence-proves-that-co2-is-not-a-greenhouse-gas/
  91.  Ugly Wind Farms Headed for Magic Valley Idaho, The Federalist, January 26, 2023: https://thefederalist.com/2023/01/27/climate-extremists-hideous-wind-farms-are-coming-to-your-backyard/
  92.  World Nuclear Assoc. and EPRI Presentations, Dec. 2022:  https://epri.box.com/s/8uu46f5hoo3x9loni23qvvmdopz7eg62  
  93. Real Clear Energy, “Are you Really against Fossil Fuels?”:  https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2023/01/24/are_you_really_against_fossil_fuels_read_this_before_you_answer_877363.html  
  94. WUWT Climate Alarmists Greatest Fear, Jan. 29, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/29/the-climate-alarmists-greatest-fear/
  95. Being Pro-Nuclear isn’t enough, POWER Magazine, Feb. 2023: https://www.powermag.com/being-pro-nuclear-wont-be-enough-heres-why/?oly_enc_id=6322G7698190D8A
  96. Charlie Munger’s Warning on printing too much cash. Interesting and worrisome, Jan. 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH2ddOyw8KU
  97. Washington Examiner Feb, 2, 2023: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/anti-police-and-environmentalist-activists-share-the-same-goal-the-destruction-of-the-american-system
  98. Ken Wilson, P. Eng. Canada, IPCC vs. Facts, CO2 Coalition Feb.. 2023:  https://co2coalition.org/publications/ipcc-vs-the-facts-the-case-for-climate-realism/
  99. CO2 Coalition, Publications, All Excellent: https://co2coalition.org/publication_category/member-publications/
  100. GWPF UK Study, Where are the Engineers” By Professor Michael Kelly : https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2020/05/KellyDecarb-1.pdf
  101. GWPF NZ Professor, Michael Kelly: http://www.bryanleyland.co.nz/power-industry-stuff.html
  102.  Samuel Furfari,  “Hydrogen, an old Idea and still Windy”: https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/features/hydrogen-a-century-old-idea-and-still-windy/
  103. New England Electricity Sources during cold February week: https://blackmon.substack.com/p/saturdays-energy-absurdity-meredith/comments
  104. U.S. Dept of Energy Plan to Net Zero on NPR Feb. 4, 2023:  https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1148370220/biden-renewable-energy-goals
  105. Paul Harvey, “If I Were the Devil” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9NoQHgjM_0
  106. Canary Media Electrify Everything, Feb. 6, 2023:  https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/electrification/home-of-the-future-climate-friendly-electrified-and-closer-than-ever?utm_campaign=canary&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=244754760&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–6rlMJjZBNphFujAKeUSOclhM7MDo3MAq3t8u3MAn-Hv5pscN1RZ8R1qq_RNf10dSqng0r9Wbyq214_bxo0U_i_LgE4Bn5CS-Zttgn5ClFXBvgoBU&utm_source=newsletter
  107. Judith Curry Blog, 2016, “Balancing the Grid” : https://judithcurry.com/2016/09/12/balance-and-the-grid/
  108. American Coalition of Clean Coal Energy, 2016 Report on Economics: http://www.americaspower.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Family-Energy-Costs-2016.pdf
  109. WUWT on Use of Academic Studies, Feb 7, 2023, Includes good links to Planning Engineer and Economic consequences of unreliable power: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/12/academics-and-the-grid-part-i-i-dont-think-that-study-means-what-you-think-it-means/
  110. USGS List of Critical Materials/Metals: https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/us-geological-survey-releases-2022-list-critical-minerals
  111. Stanford Univ. Clean Energy Course: https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/WWSBook/WWSBook.html
  112. NMA Blog (National Mining Assoc): https://mineralsmakelife.org/blog/how-to-make-2023-the-year-of-minings-renaissance/
  113. Master Resource, Does the Oil Industry Have a Future?: https://www.masterresource.org/mexico-energy-policy/oil-industry-salazar-1/
  114. Capital Research Center Publication, Dec. 2022: https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/Capital-Research-2022-8.pdf?blm_aid=59207
  115. The Critic: “The End of Civilization, 2035” : https://thecritic.co.uk/2035-the-end-of-civilisation/
  116. New York Post, Get Ready for Lights out and Heat off in 2040: https://nypost-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/nypost.com/2023/02/09/get-ready-for-the-lights-and-heat-to-go-out/amp/
  117. The Critic: Energy Planning in the UK, a Horror Story: https://thecritic.co.uk/british-energy-planning-a-horror-story/
  118. WUWT Climate Activists Celebrate your Utility Bill Pain, Profitability of Protesting Fossil Fuels: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/02/12/atlantic-climate-activists-celebrate-your-utility-bill-pain/
  119. Ron Clutz, “There will be Hell to Pay from Social and IRA Spending Binge: https://rclutz.com/2023/02/11/therell-be-hell-to-pay/#like-29514
  120. Power Outage Tracking web sites:
    https://lnkd.in/gEyJJX-Y
    https://poweroutage.us/
    https://www.iso-ne.com/
  121. Daniel Yergin on LinkedIn, Energy Transition Confronts Reality, Feb. 14: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/energy-transition-confronts-reality-daniel-yergin/?trackingId=tuMcIZAi2b0pHD5sopvB9w%3D%3D 
  122. Energy World, Feb. 13 “EU Warns US on A Crisis Mode Overhaul of Energy Market” and Change to Green Energy: https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/power/countries-warn-eu-against-crisis-mode-overhaul-of-energy-market/97855704 
  123. Finland GTK Time to Wake up Slide Presentation: https://www.gtk.fi/en/research/time-to-wake-up/
  124. Heartland Institute 2015 Summary of Obama Carbon Rules: https://heartland.org/opinion/senate-exposes-epa-green-group-secret-collusion-on-carbon-rules/
  125. CNBC Interview with Liberty Energy CEO, Chris Wright: https://lnkd.in/gyeD9Jdf  
  126. NZ/UK Professor Michel Kelly & Bryan Leyland Web page:  http://www.bryanleyland.co.nz/power-industry-stuff.html
  127. Professor Michael Kelly web page:   https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2020/05/KellyDecarb-1.pdf
  128. WUWT Electricity Prices Rising Due to Wind & Solar Installations, Feb. 22, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/02/20/wind-solar-and-household-electricity-prices/
  129. Climate Depot website for renewables production costs: https://www.climatedepot.com/2018/01/25/who-would-have-thought-nations-with-more-renewables-have-more-expensive-electricity/
  130. Vogtle Nuclear Plant Update, also info on SCE&G Summer 2&3, Feb. 20, 2023:  https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/02/21/still-more-vogtle-nuclear-delays-how-will-it-end/ 
  131. Union of Concerned Scientists Clarification on Nuclear Power, 2018: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/11/23/ucs-clarifies-stance-on-nuclear-power/
  132. “Renewables are cheaper than 99% of coal plants” Utility Dive, Feb. 9, 2023: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/renewables-cheaper-energy-than-99-percent-of-us-coal-plants-just-energy-transition/642393/
  133. Presentation by Nat Bullard on Renewables and total world energy, January 2023:  https://www.nathanielbullard.com/presentations
  134. Electricity Rates in U.S. : https://quickelectricity.com/cost-of-electricity-per-kwh-by-state/
  135.  Power Lines Map, U.S. Geosciences: https://atlas.eia.gov/apps/eia::all-energy-infrastructure-and-resources/explore
  136. Daily Skeptic, Feb. 23, 2023, by 30 year Reuter’s veteran Journalist “I Thought CO2 Was Causing Global Warming, I was Wrong”: https://dailysceptic.org/2023/02/23/when-i-covered-climate-change-for-reuters-i-thought-co2-was-to-blame-for-rising-temperatures-i-was-wrong/
  137. Europe’s Industry Crippled by high Energy Costs NYT, Sept. 2022: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/business/europe-energy-crisis-factories.html
  138. Power Engineering article on Hydrogen Hub: https://www.power-eng.com/policy-regulation/doe-encourages-33-groups-to-submit-regional-clean-hydrogen-hub-applications/
  139. Is Green Energy China’s Trojan Horse? Western Standard by Joseph FOURNIER, OCT. 2022: https://www.westernstandard.news/opinion/is-green-energy-the-chinese-communist-partys-trojan-horse/article_6bbc2b04-50a5-11ed-bdc4-9b18b8d01f80.html
  140. China to build 106 GW of new coal plants March 2023: https://chinadialogue.net/en/energy/two-sessions-chinese-provinces-push-coal-and-clean-energy/
  141. WUWT Post, ”Gas Generated Electricity is less expensive than Wind”: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/03/gas-power-is-cheaper-than-wind-despite-carbon-briefs-claims/
  142. Dr. Judith curry, Climate Uncertainty review by WUWT: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/03/judith-curry-part-1-presentation-about-her-new-book-tom-nelson-podcast-77/
  143. WSJ LNG Paths from Texas to France: https://www.wsj.com/articles/american-fracked-gas-ukraine-invasion-europe-import-9e5cc725?mod=hp_lead_pos7
  144. Alex Epstein, Talking Points on the Importance of Energy for Human Flourishing: https://alexepstein.substack.com/p/some-of-my-favorite-talking-points?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  145. WUWT Energy and Military Strength, March 3, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/03/russias-biggest-weapon-and-chinas-too-is-fossil-fuel-energy/
  146. Has Al Gore ever been right on Climate? Capital Research Center, March 2023: https://capitalresearch.org/article/al-gores-30-years-of-climate-errors-part-1/?blm_aid=59207
  147. Feasibility of Achieving Net-Zero Carbon by 2050, by Professor Michael Kelly: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/04/feasibility-for-achieving-a-net-zero-economy-for-the-u-s-by-2050/
  148. Wind Power Report by IRENA : https://www.irena.org/Energy-Transition/Technology/Wind-energy
  149. Judith Curry Website on Cost of wind power: https://judithcurry.com/2015/05/12/true-costs-of-wind-electricity/f https://judithcurry.com/2015/05/12/true-costs-of-wind-electricity/
  150. The Conversation on Why are Household Electricity Prices Going Up If Wind is so Cheap?: https://theconversation.com/renewables-are-cheaper-than-ever-so-why-are-household-energy-bills-only-going-up-174795
  151. Boston Energy Costs High, Feb. 2023: https://www.bostonsolar.us/solar-blog-resource-center/blog/why-are-energy-costs-so-high-this-winter/
  152. Electricity Prices U.S. by EIA, Feb. 2023: https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/tables/pdf/7ctab.pdf
  153. PSU-Basic Economics of Power Generation: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/eme801/node/530
  154. Global Energy Institute, Chamber of Commerce, Electricity Costs across the U.S.A. :https://www.globalenergyinstitute.org/average-electricity-retail-prices-mapc
  155. Combustion Engineering Archived photos,: https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2018/jun/01/made-chattanooga/
  156. You Tube, Foreign video of Nuclear Reactor being manufactured: https://www.nuclear-power.com/nuclear-power-plant/nuclear-reactor/reactor-pressure-vessel/
  157. 41 Realities on Energy, By Mark Mills: 
    https://fee-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/fee.org/articles/41-inconvenient-truths-on-the-new-energy-economy/amp      
  158. WSJ EV Sales Jolt, Jan 2023:  https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-ev-sales-jolted-higher-in-2022-as-newcomers-target-tesla-11672981834
  159. CFACT Electricity Prices Soaring where Wind Power is high % of generation: https://www.cfact.org/2023/03/07/electricity-prices-are-soaring-in-heavy-wind-energy-states/?mc_cid=993d261e3e&mc_eid=2f8550900e
  160. Climate Fact Check from Junk Science, March 7, 2023: https://junkscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Climate-Fact-Check_February-2023-Edition_v2.pdf
  161. CFACT, Ron Stein excellent essay on the importance of Energy, March 2023: https://www.cfact.org/2023/03/08/american-suppression-of-fossil-fuels-courts-a-national-security-disaster/
  162. Climate Policies will Cost Germany 960 + Billion and still will not make much difference…..:https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/08/claim-climate-change-will-cost-germany-960-billion-by-2050/
  163. WSJ Coal Provides the Fuel Needed for Germany to Keep the Lights on in 2022: https://www.wsj.com/articles/germany-coal-energy-electricity-renewables-4700b442?mod=opinion_lead_pos2
  164. Visual Capitalist Coal in Asia, March 2023: https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/asias-biggest-sources-of-electricity-by-country/
  165. Daily Caller. Biden’s EPA Rule to Kill Off Coal Plants, March 8, 2023: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://dailycaller.com/2023/03/08/biden-epa-new-regs/&source=gmail&ust=1678615516765000&usg=AOvVaw0di3ndkkR73iVUOKpvIzfh
  166. World Nuclear News, France to Build more Nuclear Plants: https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/French-Senate-adopts-bill-on-accelerating-nuclear
  167. Capital Research Center on Al Gore’s 30 years of wrong predictions: https://capitalresearch.org/article/al-gores-30-years-of-climate-errors-part-1/
  168. James Brooks, RBAC on bringing improved living conditions to Billions: https://rbac.com/rbacs-role-in-bringing-energy-to-a-billion-people/
  169. Cyrus Brooks Video on Renewables, Outstanding communication in 2 minutes: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cyrus-brooks-03274713_energy-power-energybills-ugcPost-7040102595239055360-BoVt?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop 
  170. The Real Price of Wind and Solar: https://www.wsj.com/articles/renewable-energy-balancing-costs-united-kingdom-energy-bills-9795e48d?mod=opinion_lead_pos4
  171. Cowboy State Daily, March 2023: https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/03/10/letter-to-the-editor-children-should-be-taught-what-energy-is-so-they-can-fight-idiocy/
  172. NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer: https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/#/layer/slr/2/-8988661.48972888/3793092.6353016817/12/satellite/none/0.8/2050/interHigh/midAccretion
  173. Maurice Strong Story: http://ielts-yasi.englishlab.net/wizard_baca_grande_1990.pdf
  174. China, Sinopec CCS Plant, Feb. 2023:  https://cen.acs.org/business/investment/Sinopec-completes-China-first-large-carbon-capture-plant/100/i5
  175. Self Sabotage the Electric Grid: WSJ January 2023:  https://www.wsj.com/articles/america-self-sabotages-its-electrical-grid-renewable-fossil-fuel-power-11672685320
  176. The Christmas Grid Emergency: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-christmas-electric-grid-emergency-11672091317?mod=article_inline
  177. Capital Research Testimony by Scott Walter May 2022: https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/2022-May-4-Testimony-Finance-Subcom-IRS.pdf
  178. Capital Research Center, Green watch: https://capitalresearch.org/category/green-watch/
  179. NRDC Activist Facts, Influence Watch: https://www.activistfacts.com/organizations/19-natural-resources-defense-council/
  180. Donn Dears website, Politics of Energy Policy part 2 and links to purchase his books: https://ddears.com/2022/08/08/the-politics-of-energy-part-2/
  181. Ron Clutz “Science Matters”, website and his take on green Energy: https://rclutz.com/2023/03/17/multiple-choice-question-re-green-energy/#like-30057
  182. Dr. Roy Spencer Website on Atmospheric Science https://www.drroyspencer.com/
  183. Slavery and Child Labor at the Core of Elites’ Green Energy Obsession, by H. Sterling Burnett,   https://heartland.org/opinion/climate-change-weekly-464-slavery-and-child-labor-at-the-core-of-elites-green-energy-obsession/
  184. American Suppression of Fossil Fuels Courts a National Security Disaster, By Ronald Stein P.E.  https://heartland.org/opinion/american-suppression-of-fossil-fuels-courts-a-national-security-disaster/
  185. WSJ The Real Price of Wind and Solar, Renewables Cost More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/renewable-energy-balancing-costs-united-kingdom-energy-bills-9795e48d?mod=opinion_lead_pos4
  186. World’s Climate Scientists Told to Cover Up the Fact the world has not warmed in 15 years, Daily Mail, UK: https://www-dailymail-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2425775/amp/Climate-scientists-told-cover-fact-Earths-temperature-risen-15-years.html  
  187. TED Talk Nuclear Power Is Our Best Hope to Ditch Fossil Fuels | Isabelle Boemeke on the need for more nuclear power: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESAaz9v4mSU
  188. WUWT March 20th, 2023, UN- IPCC Climate Warming Report: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/20/ipcc-issues-their-annual-final-climate-warning/
  189. David Blackman Energy Absurdity , EU Renewables, March 25, 2023: https://open.substack.com/pub/blackmon/p/sundays-energy-absurdity-about-those?r=kv1a9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
  190. Ed Ireland SubStack on Gas Pipelines, March 21, 2023: https://edireland.substack.com/p/energy-factoid-the-least-us-interstate?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  191. Texas Grid Stability example: https://edireland.substack.com/p/the-texas-power-grid-was-minutes
  192. Who is Brave Enough to Enter the Oil Patch These Days? BOE Report by Terry Etam:  https://boereport.com/2023/03/21/column-who-is-brave-enough-to-enter-the-oil-patch-these-days-a-salute-to-the-few-courageous-and-needed/
  193. WUWT, March 22, 2023, World Energy Use Will Continue to Grow and so Will the Demand for Fossil Fuels: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/22/world-energy-data-confirms-fossil-fuels-will-dominate-future-global-energy-use/
  194. Ron Clutz, Science Matters on Greta Thunberg, March 23, 2023: https://rclutz.com/2023/03/23/greta-thunberg-phd-theology/#like-30179
  195. Climate Etc, Dr.  Judith Curry web site: https://judithcurry.com
  196. Utility Dive article on NuScale SMR: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/nuscale-power-small-modular-reactor-smr-ieefa-uamps/645554/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter%20Weekly%20Roundup:%20Utility%20Dive:%20Daily%20Dive%2003-25-2023&utm_term=Utility%20Dive%20Weekender
  197. WUWT Summary of Technical Arguments with IPCC Report, March 27, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/27/weekly-climate-and-energy-news-roundup-545/
  198. The Great Food Reset, Unherd, EU by Thmoas Fazi, March 28, 2023: https://unherd.com/2023/03/the-great-food-reset-has-begun/
  199. George’s Musings (George Angwin) March 23, 2023 Replacing Fossil with Renewables: https://gtangwin.substack.com/p/renewables-only-grid
  200. March 29, 2023, Dr. Samuel Furfari, Hydrogen, A 100 year Old Windy Idea, Still Windy:https://blog.friendsofscience.org/2023/03/29/hydrogen-a-century-old-idea-and-still-windy/  
  201. Power Engineering Magazine, March 2023, Brown’s Ferry New Generator Field: https://www.power-eng.com/nuclear/browns-ferry-nuclear-reactor-back-in-service-with-a-new-main-generator/?utm_source=power_engineering_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2023-03-31  
  202. Framatome You Tube video of steam generator replacement: https://youtu.be/RqGFI76yj9E
  203. Framatome Manufacturing video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9WfWIKkXsc
  204. Bjorn Lomborg Science Direct, Jan. 20233: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162520304157
  205.  Transformers, WUWT Nov. 2022: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/14/power-transformer-shortage-is-wreaking-havoc-in-the-u-s/
  206. The interaction between heliophysics and the U.S. power grid, this technical webpage is a good place to start. https://www.aer.com/science-research/space/space-weather/
  207. Dick Storm Blog post, “Wake Up Americans!” Sept. 21, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/09/20/please-wake-up-america-your-energy-and-electricity-generation-reliability-are-at-risk/
  208. Influencers of U.S. Energy Policy, January 4, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/01/04/influencers-of-american-energy-policy/
  209.  A good introduction to Grid vulnerability, June 18, 2020 by Chris Said, Ph.D. is at https://chris-said.io/2020/06/18/everything-ive-learned-about-solar-storm-risk-and-emp-attacks/  
  210. An assessment of threats to the American power grid” by Weiss and Weiss (2019) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13705-019-0199-y
  211. The web link for the 2008 DTIC report cited above regarding transformer vulnerability has changed. See page 41 of 208 of the report at https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA484672.pdf or http://www.empcommission.org/docs/A2473-EMP_Commission.pdf
  212.  “Ensuring Electricity Infrastructure Resilience Against Deliberate Electromagnetic Threats” https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47339
  213. Newsweek article on Transformer Attacks, Dec. 2022: https://www.newsweek.com/physical-attacks-power-substations-multiple-states-1765225
  214. Wind and Inadequate Batteries for Backup: https://stopthesethings.com/2023/03/24/permanent-no-hopers-batteries-no-solution-for-wind-solars-inherent-intermittency/
  215. Dick Storm presentation to ENERUM, August 2022: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_presentation-and-speakers-notes-from-august-activity-7068650158862827520-B-_W?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktophttps://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7056884647858765824?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A%28V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7056884647858765824%29
  216. Reuters, Old Nukes Threatened by Parts Obsolescence, April 2023: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/nuclear-life-extension-plans-tested-by-obsolete-components-2023-04-05/
  217. China Permits Two Coal Plants each Week during 2022: https://energyandcleanair.org/publication/china-permits-two-new-coal-power-plants-per-week-in-2022/  
  218. Energy and Clean Air GEM: www.energyandcleanair.org 
  219. Energy Transfer Video, Life, it Takes Energy: https://ittakesenergy.com
  220. Alex Epstein, Fossil Fuels Improve Life: https://www.prageru.com/video/fossil-fuels-the-big-picture?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_6613857
  221. Why are Electric Bills Increasing if more installations of cheap renewable power are being installed?: https://www.prageru.com/video/why-are-utilities-so-expensive
  222. Daily Caller, Earth Day, Celebrating Failures 2023: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://dailycaller.com/2023/04/21/opinion-earth-day-celebrates-a-half-century-legacy-of-failure-mike-mckenna/&source=gmail&ust=1682352284111000&usg=AOvVaw0rbUb-Jii4B5UE4dV41uuU
  223. WSJ on What Drives the Division of Rural and Urban Voters, April 18, 2023: https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-drives-political-polarization-geography-republicans-democrats-manufacturing-culture-elites-4256ab4c?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1
  224. NY Electricity Generation, “Non-Reassuring” Future, WUWT April 22, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/04/23/another-non-reassuring-report-on-new-yorks-energy-future/
  225. Dick Storm Blog, “Pillars of Modern Civilization, Energy & Food & Quality of Life”: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/07/25/pillars-of-modern-civilization-all-dependent-on-energy/
  226. Dick Storm Blog “Educating & Energizing the Public on the Impossibility of Powering America with Wind and Solar” March 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/03/20/educating-and-energizing-the-public-on-energy-policy-and-the-impossibility-of-powering-america-with-wind-and-solar/
  227. Canadian Pipeline Sabotage by Anarchists, Feb. 2023: https://www.vancouverislandfreedaily.com/news/trend-of-escalating-violence-coastal-gaslink-decries-pipeline-sabotage-claims-on-anarchist-site/
  228. EPRI Post on the CAISO “Duck Curve changed to Canyon Curve” of Electric Load: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7056612841755181056-SCPK?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  229. CAISO Website: https://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/default.aspx
  230. Our World in Data Carbon Intensity of countries of the world: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/carbon-intensity-electricity
  231. CFACT, “Why Net Zero Is Neither Possible Nor Desirable, the Canadian Example”: https://www.cfact.org/2021/07/12/why-net-zero-is-neither-possible-nor-desirable-the-canadian-example-part-one/ 
  232. Hackaday “New Renewables are Overwhelming the U.S. Grid” April 2023: https://hackaday.com/2023/04/17/new-renewable-energy-projects-are-overwhelming-us-grids/
  233. Dick Storm, LinkedIn Post of “America Has No Energy Policy”, ENERUM Presentation, August 2022:  https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_storm-presentation-to-columbus-energy-forum-ugcPost-7056884646923440128-ZQLR?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  234. Harvard Wind Study shows Greater Environmental Impact & Land Requirements than Originally Thought for Renewables: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/10/large-scale-wind-power-has-its-down-side/
  235. Solar and Wind Turbine Materials Requirements, from LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/arihashahi_energy-renewableenergy-renewableenergy-activity-7053119817586778112-4XZy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  236. Dick Storm Blog, Santee-Cooper IRP Comments: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/04/27/how-can-a-6000-mw-regional-utility-in-2030-which-likely-will-be-a-9000-mw-utility-in-2050-achieve-net-zero-carbon/
  237. EIA April Energy Outlook Charts and Data, April, 2023: https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/
  238. WUWT Military Urged to go Total Electric by Biden-Granholm, April 29, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/04/29/joe-biden-wants-every-us-military-vehicle-to-be-climate-friendly/
  239. The Right Stuff Climate Stuff, Tom Moser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-gHWcrCK7w
  240. Why Batteries Cannot Backup solar and Wind generation: https://stopthesethings.com/2023/04/29/grand-delusion-why-battery-storage-cant-fix-wind-solars-intermittency-problem/
  241. Blackrock and U.N. start of “ESG” Investing Policies: https://unherd.com/2023/03/blackrocks-tyrannical-esg-agenda/
  242. EIA 2011 Report on Energy, Good reference 1900-2011: https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/aer.pdf
  243. NREL Report on Electrification to 2050: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy18osti/72096.pdf
  244. UN Climate News: https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/10/1129892?_gl=1*1nhukiq*_ga*MTM1NjA2Njg4OS4xNjgyODY3NDQ5*_ga_TK9BQL5X7Z*MTY4Mjg2NzQ0OS4xLjEuMTY4Mjg2NzYzOS4wLjAuMA.. 
  245. UN-Climate page: https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement#:~:text=The%20Paris%20Agreement%20is%20a,France%2C%20on%2012%20December%202015. 
  246. Our World in Data Charts of CO2: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions
  247. IEA Executive Summary 2022 World Energy Outlook: https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2022/executive-summary
  248. EPA Air Quality, National Summary: https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/air-quality-national-summary
  249. Yale Report on Deaths from “Blackouts” : https://environment-review.yale.edu/true-cost-power-outages-0
  250. Sutton Plant Implosion video, 2016: https://youtu.be/miSapiaJTpM
  251. Boardman Plant Implosion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0azahkPUVA
  252. 60 Minutes program on Vulnerability of Electric Grid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65siHaUPsRM
  253. EIA October 2022 Energy Outlook: https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2022-11/05%20October%2027%20-%20EIA%20Annual%20Energy%20Outlook%202022.pdf
  254. EEI EV’s in market 2030: https://www.eei.org/News/news/All/eei-projects-26-million-electric-vehicles-will-be-on-us-roads-in-2030
  255. EIA NZE 2050 Report: https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2022-06/IEA%2C%20Net%20Zero%20by%202050_1.pdf
  256. WUWT Energy Crisis creates a Food production crisis due to fertilizer shortages: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/11/entire-global-food-supply-at-risk-from-disastrous-response-to-so-called-nitrogen-crisis/
  257. ELECTREK article on Chinese EV’s to dominate market: https://electrek.co/2023/05/11/chinas-ev-surge-threatens-legacy-automakers-market-dominance/
  258. Dr. Judith Curry Review of CLINTEL report analyzing IPCC-AR6: https://judithcurry.com/2023/05/13/clintels-critical-evaluation-of-the-ipcc-ar6/ 
  259. CLINTEL website: https://clintel.org
  260. Capital Research Center, Green Watch: https://capitalresearch.org/category/green-watch/
  261. WUWT Disclosure of Billionaire Climate Extremists influencing state and Federal Climate policy, good links within the document, May 22, 2024: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/05/22/more-billionaire-climate-machinations/
  262. Biggest engine in the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiwMJe9_vcQ
  263. LLNL Energy Flow Chart: https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/sites/flowcharts/files/2022-04/Energy_2021_United-States_0.png
  264. Dick Storm Blog, May 16, 2023, U.S. Needs 100 Quads/year: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/05/16/back-to-basics-the-u-s-needs-100-quadrillion-btus-year-of-primary-energy/
  265. Heritage.org interview, Keeping the Lights on,  event page is here https://www.heritage.org/energy-economics/event/keeping-the-lights-america-looking-ahead-power-grid-reliability and I believe the recorded video will be posted soon
  266. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant History, started in 1958: https://jackdevanney.substack.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-yankee-rowe?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  267. Energy Markets Time to complete new connections to Grid, Berkely Lab: https://emp.lbl.gov/queues
  268. Washington Post article on Grid connections: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/05/18/permitting-reform-clean-energy-debt-ceiling/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202023-05-18%20Utility%20Dive%20Newsletter%20%5Bissue:50602%5D
  269. Copied link of post of NERC Summer Reserves Warning May 18, 2023: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_two-thirds-of-north-america-is-at-risk-of-activity-7064912009884041216-DNHX?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  270. Ron Clutz Blog, including You Tube of Jimmy Dore explanation of Google Biasing Propaganda on “Climate Change”: https://rclutz.com/2023/05/22/google-screens-your-climate-info/#like-31222
  271. WUWT on Smearing Journalists that do not agree with “Woke & UN-IPCC Manmade Global Warming narrative: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/23/regime-climate-censorship-enforcer-newsguard-the-tragic-case-of-zack-fishman/
  272. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, 60 years later, Fails Test of Time, WUWT: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/17/carsons-silent-spring-fails-test-of-time-new-york-times-verdict-in-2007/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=carsons-silent-spring-fails-test-of-time-new-york-times-verdict-in-2007
  273. WUWT-Global Surface Temperature comparison of MSM and science based trend by data: https://wattsupwiththat.com/uah-version-6/
  274. Forbes article on Environmental Groups Harming the Poor, https://www.forbes.com/sites/tilakdoshi/2023/05/23/environmental-ngos-in-the-global-south-saviors-of-humanity-or-predatory-special-interests/?sh=78c19c9e59aa
  275. NextEra Energy web site: https://www.nexteraenergy.com
  276. Congressional Research Service State of Electric Utilities, 1973-1984: https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/99th-congress-1985-1986/reports/doc10b-entire_1.pdf
  277. Earth Overshoot.org on world population: https://www.overshootday.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/
  278. https://www.overshootday.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/
  279. Paul Harvey, 1964, “If I Was the Devil” You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9NoQHgjM_0
  280. Mining of Rare Earth Minerals has a Dirty Little Secret, by FEE, May 2023: https://fee.org/articles/green-energy-has-a-dirty-secret/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2020_FEEDaily
  281. EPA opposes Petrochemical Industries in Louisiana using Taxpayer funds, Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2023/05/25/how-epa-funds-the-petrochemical-industrys-opposition/?sh=7c39025a7176
  282.  Rigzone-“Will We Hit Net Zero Carbon by 2050” May 30, 2023: https://www.rigzone.com/news/will_the_world_hit_net_zero_by_2050-30-may-2023-172906-article/?utm_campaign=DAILY_2023_05_30&utm_source=GLOBAL_ENG&utm_medium=EM_NW_F1
  283. Germany Loses Trust in Automotive Manufacturing of the Future, June 1, 2023: https://www.euractiv.com/section/transport/news/germany-loses-trust-in-its-future-as-the-worlds-automotive- leader/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9717&pnespid=vONsDj0fa6YB3fWaozvrE4vTu0KuBJd4J.jlxrB69EVmIi05WkT6eEKuNWblScX1gKHYP2iqCw 
  284. The Decline of the American Empire, By “The Burning Platform” June 2023 : https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/05/31/fall-of-american-empire-and-descent-into-a-new-dark-ages/
  285. Master Resource, Free Markets Energy Blog: https://www.masterresource.org/reading-list/
  286. Ed Ireland on China and EV’s June, 5, 2023: https://edireland.substack.com/p/electric-vehicle-boom-may-force-china?r=kv1a9&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
  287. Top Ten Energy Companies by Energy Digital : https://energydigital.com/articles/top-10-energy-companies-by-market-cap
  288. The Federal War on your Life-Style, WUWT, June 8, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/07/the-federal-war-against-your-lifestyle/
  289. Robert Bryce, No Uranium for Nuclear, June 9, 2023: https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/no-u
  290. Ken Braun on Leftist Organizations Funding anti Fossil Fuels: https://capitalresearch.org/article/nuclear-power-hating-hypocrites-part-1/
  291. World Economic Forum Doesn’t Even Hide their Intent to Create Decline of the Western World: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ogbl#inbox/FMfcgzGsnBbvwcrFHbjLsNkzqTMKjvCP
  292. WEF Urban Mobility Paper, May 2023: https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Urban_Mobility_Scorecard_Tool_2023.pdf?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email 
  293. David Blackmon Energy Absurdities: https://blackmon.substack.com/?utm_source=cross-post&utm_campaign=434821&utm_medium=email
  294. David Blackmon, Democrats Patiently Wait for Power Positions: https://blackmon.substack.com/p/the-energy-absurdity-of-the-week-031
  295. E&E News Democrats into Power Positions, May 2023: https://www.eenews.net/articles/how-green-new-dealers-became-washington-power-players/
  296. John Kerry Speech on “The Great Reset” New American, Nov. 2020: https://thenewamerican.com/john-kerry-talks-great-reset-at-world-economic-forum/
  297. The Great Reset movement toward World Totalitarianism, Hillsdale College Lecture by Michael Rectenwald: https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/what-is-the-great-reset/
  298. John Kerry Targets Agriculture at WEF Speech, May 2023, Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/john-kerry-targets-agriculture-part-climate-crusade
  299. WEF Limiting Private Cars:  https://www.internationalfreepress.com/2023/06/wef-document-calls-for-limiting-private.html
  300. WEF on Degrowth, June 2022: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/06/what-is-degrowth-economics-climate-change/
  301. WEF Calls to reduce vehicles by eliminating ownership, Aug. 2022: https://www.climatedepot.com/2022/08/01/world-economic-forum-calls-to-reduce-private-vehicles-by-eliminating-ownership/
  302. Sierra Club and Abortion Alignment, On the Issues, : https://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Sierra_Club_Abortion.htm
  303. U.N., Planned Parenthood and Sierra Club Alignment Sept. 2015: https://unfoundation.org/media/un-foundation-planned-parenthood-federation-of-america-sierra-club-announce-winners-of-first-ever-why-we-care-youth-emerging-leaders-for-reproductive-rights-contest/
  304. Sierra Club & NRDC Environmental Groups Urge Support for Affordable Care Act and Reproductive Rights, March 2017: https://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2017/03/environmental-groups-urge-support-affordable-care-act-and-planned-parenthood
  305. Sierra Club & Planned Parenthood Join Conferences to Explain Sex and the Environment. Nov. 2007, Catholic News Agency, : https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/11091/sierra-club-joins-planned-parenthood-to-offer-conferences-on-sex-and-the-environment
  306. Professor Michael Kelly, UK, June 2017: https://www.soci.org/news/general-news/professor-michael-kelly-lecture
  307. FERC Energy Regulator States, “Power Grid is Facing Dire Consequences Due to Coal & Gas Retirements”, “WUWT June 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/13/federal-energy-regulatory-commissioner-mark-christie-power-grid-is-facing-dire-consequences-due-to-coal-gas-retirements/
  308. Donations to DeSantis Election Campaign by Duke and NextEra Utilities, June 2023: https://jacobin.com/2023/03/ron-desantis-florida-utility-companies-power-shutoffs-republican-party
  309. Electrical Disconnection by Utilities, June 2023 : https://bailout.cdn.prismic.io/bailout/49a01c18-5c8d-4821-ae22-5ee09a089cba_Powerless+in+the+US_Report.pdf?ref=the-lever
  310. Dark Money from Utilities to Elected Officials or Candidates, The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/15/us-power-companies-political-lobbying-donations-nonprofit
  311. Electric Power Company Donations; https://www.energyandpolicy.org/campaign-finance-reports-reveal-utility-industry-contributions/
  312. Daily Signal list of companies that donate to Planned Parenthood, Aug. 2015: https://www.dailysignal.com/2015/08/19/more-companies-that-have-donated-to-planned-parenthood/ and
  313. https://www.dailysignal.com/2015/07/21/meet-the-41-companies-that-donate-directly-to-planned-parenthood/
  314. More companies that donate to PP: https://www.partnersforethicalcare.com/planned-parenthood-donors
  315. JTF donations of 25 million to Democrats: https://jtf.org/follow-the-money-planned-parenthood-donated-25m-to-democrats-since-2000/
  316. INTEL and others that promote Zero Population Growth and Planned Parenthood: https://www.christianpost.com/voices/meet-the-biggest-planned-parenthood-supporter-in-corporate-america.html
  317. Open Secrets Donations to Planned Parenthood, 2022: https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/detail/2022?cmte=Planned+Parenthood&tab=donors
  318. AMAC Article on Planned Parenthood Funding, 2017, over 962,000 abortions and $1.3 Billion in “Donations”: https://amac.us/may-not-support-planned-parenthoodbut-favorite-companies/
  319. 2nd Vote website of companies that contribute $1.3 Billion to Planned Parenthood, 2017: https://www.2ndvote.com/planned-parenthood/
  320. John Kerry on BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57135506
  321. John Kerry coordination with Green Groups, Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-probe-john-kerrys-ties-eco-groups-efforts-shield-oversight
  322. Robert Bryce Substack on the “Iron Law of Electricity” Increases in coal use around the world, June 17, 2023: https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/the-iron-law-of-electricity-strikes
  323. California Globe, California’s Electricity Policy Failure, June 18, 2023: https://californiaglobe-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/californiaglobe.com/articles/the-failure-of-california-electricity-policy-in-one-image/amp/
  324. World Bank report, June, 2023, De-Tx Development, Mis-Use of Fertilizers & DeGrowth:  https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/61d04aca-1b95-4c06-8199-3c4a423cb7fe/content?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  325. NJ ROI (Return On Info) : https://www.roi-nj.com/2023/05/17/roi-influencers/energy-utilities-roi-influencers/roi-nj-presents-the-roi-influencers-energy-and-utilities/?utm_source=ROI-NJ+MAIN+Newsletter+List+%282%2F4%2F19%29&utm_campaign=ee9cbf68df-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_06_20_02_53&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-ee9cbf68df-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D
  326. Capital Research Video on Green Ties to China: https://capitalresearch.org/article/how-china-designed-american-environmental-policy/
  327. China Influence of U.S.  Green Groups and U.S. Environmental Policy, Capital Research Center video:  https://capitalresearch.org/article/how-china-designed-american-environmental-policy/    
  328. Capital Research Center on Teen Vogue Influence of young female voters on Democrat policies: https://capitalresearch.org/article/teen-vogue-training-young-female-leftists/
  329. Good Energy News Reference: https://oilprice.com
  330. German Industry Shutting Down and Moving, due to high energy process, CNBC June 21, 2023 : https://www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/06/21/high-german-energy-prices-are-seeing-some-companies-relocate-bdi.html
  331. EIA Notice of Change in Calculating/Reporting Solar Primary Energy to use 3412 Btus/kWh, June 23, 2023: https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/change/
  332. WUWT Global Surface Temperature Chart 1880-2022: https://wattsupwiththat.com/uah-version-6/
  333. “Why Climate Change is Not an Emergency”, CO2 Coalition Presentations, May 27, 2023: https://co2coalition.org/media/why-climate-change-is-not-an-emergency/  
  334. Time Magazine, “The Modern World Can’t Exist Without These Four Ingredients. They All Require Fossil Fuels”, Vaclav Smil May 2022: https://time.com/6175734/reliance-on-fossil-fuels/
  335. ERCOT Dashboard: https://www.ercot.com
  336. EU Report and long list of references on the “DeIndustrialization of Europe” by forcing wind power on the citizens: 
    https://us1-campaign–archive-com.translate.goog/?u=a15449610a1df64c85f7499e1&id=5b33ebcfdc&e=59342c48f8&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=auto
  337. Causes of Blackouts in Europe, excellent paper, Jan. 2022: https://www-science–climat–energie-be.translate.goog/2022/01/07/les-blackouts-leurs-causes-et-consequences-economiques/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=auto
  338. Energy Institute Resources for Data and Statistics, June 2023: https://www.energyinst.org/statistical-review/resources-and-data-downloads
  339. NERC Summer Reliability Report, May 2023: https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/ra/Reliability%20Assessments%20DL/NERC_SRA_2023.pdf
  340. Balancing Energy Security, Affordability, the Economy, Decarbonization and Security, Energy Policy Research Foundation: https://assets.realclear.com/files/2023/06/2210_eprinc_balancing_energy_security_affordability_and_decarbonization.pdf
  341. The Rise and Fall of the American Grid, American Affairs Journal, Fall, 2022: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2022/08/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-american-electrical-grid/
  342. WSJ article on $400 Billion Loans for Green Energy: https://www.wsj.com/articles/green-energy-climate-loans-49fda73b?mod=hp_lead_pos7
  343. WSJ Small towns benefit in green IRA spending: https://www.wsj.com/articles/climate-legislation-inflation-reduction-act-small-towns-eb0ce798?mod=article_inline
  344. WUWT on the “Myth of Replacing Fossil Fuels”: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/07/03/the-myth-of-replacing-fossil-fuels/
  345. Brattle Group Podcast: https://energymarketspodcast.buzzsprout.com/1568110/13142849
  346. Nuclear Power in the 1960’s. Great info: https://whatisnuclear.com/news/2023-07-03-film-about-pm1-microreactor-in-wyoming.html
  347. National Center for Education Statistics, Degrees in 2021: https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=37 and https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cta
  348. America’s Power, Editorial on the Importance of Coal, July 10, 2023: https://americaspower.org/the-need-for-sensible-epa-rules/
  349. America’s Power Key Takeaways of Winter Storm Elliott Report on the importance of coal: https://americaspower.org/new-report-evaluates-the-performance-of-electricity-resources-during-storm-elliott/
  350. Net Zero Reality Coalition: https://www.cfact.org/netzerorealitycoalition/
  351. WUWT On National Academy of Engineering Summer Report on decarbonization, July 11, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/07/11/national-academies-climate-junk-summit-7-11-7-12-is-open-to-all/
  352. EPA Regulations will Destroy the American Power Grid, Ed Ireland Substack: https://edireland.substack.com/p/epa-proposes-anti-fossil-fuel-regulations?r=kv1a9&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
  353. Energy & Economic Prosperity of Various Countries of the world, There are no Rich Countries that do not Manufacture Products: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_electricity-income-activity-7084913097718562816-foX7?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  354. Nuclear in the 1960’s. Our predecessors got lots of things done: 
    https://whatisnuclear.com/news/2023-07-03-film-about-pm1-microreactor-in-wyoming.html
  355. Robert Bryce Substack on “Carbon Myopia” and the need of 3 Billion people on the planet that need to be lifted from poverty: https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/carbon-myopia/comments
  356. I, Pencil, by Foundation for Economic Education, 1958: https://fee.org/resources/i-pencil/
  357. Rivotto Clean Energy Now: https://rivotto.webflow.io 
  358. Clintel Report, “There is No Climate Emergency” : https://clintel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/WCD-version-06272215121.pdf?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  359. Daily Skeptic on John Clauser Slamming the Corrupt Science used to create a “Climate Emergency” : https://dailysceptic.org/2023/07/14/nobel-physics-laureate-2022-slams-climate-emergency-narrative-as-dangerous-corruption-of-science/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

economic prosperity and energy, Energy and Electricity Fundamentals, Energy, Electricity, Economic Prosperity and Environmental Protection, Regulations

The Reality of Electrifying Everything and the Primary Energy Required to Generate the Electricity…..

2 Comments
Coal Fueled Santee-Cooper Cross Generating Plant 2390 MW Capacity

Conventional fuels, including coal provide most of the power needed to sustain our high quality of life. During 2022 coal use in the world reached a new high and provides the fuel for about 35.4% of the world’s electricity generation. Asia’s electricity generation was 82% from coal fuel in 2022(40, 41)

Meanwhile, the current U.S. government policy, green religion, renewable energy policies and crushing regulations are geared toward electrifying everything. Including transportation. The emphasis on phasing out internal combustion engines for autos is well publicized. This outlawing without Congressional action of internal combustion engines in spite of the majority of Americans desire to keep gasoline and Diesel powered vehicles seems unlawful to me? Then, on Good Friday Biden’s EPA issued new rules on electrifying heavy trucks. The EPA is out of touch, not only with their purpose of protecting human health, but also with Physics, Thermodynamics and Reality. The Demand for electricity is increasing because of increased use by Data Centers, EV’s and the natural organic growth of electricity as people of the world are lifted from poverty.(60) The surge in EV Demand has not really been felt yet because EV’s are still a small percentage of the total U.S. vehicle fleet.

Electrify Everything vs. Energy Reality

The EPA is on a mission to kill coal plants regardless of the harm to our country, it is a rogue government agency, staffed by extremists, guided by extremists in the Biden Administration that are using the regulations as a weapon against the Best interests of America and the citizens. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) America needs to use all fuels which are within our borders and including coal. America is the Saudi Arabia of coal and has the highest quality & richest coal deposits on planet earth. We should use this God given Primary Energy Treasure to keep America strong.

The lure of billions of dollars in tax subsidies has made otherwise well run organizations and corporations to become “Woke & Green Biased”. It is extreme fantasy to believe that wind and solar can power the economies of Developed Countries. Yet, policies of many otherwise well run companies and organizations, even when they employ well trained and experienced engineers that know better, promote the “Green narrative. One example of this green wokeness is the “PowerGen” Conference. This conference was one of my favorites and I have been a presenter for decades since the 1980’s. In January I was asked by a Utility engineer friend, Mark Barton, along with two other senior power engineers, Frank Mitchell and John Grusha, to serve on a panel. The title of the Panel: “Legacy Perspective of 100 Years of Power Generation Experience”. I wrote my take aways here. (35) Frank Mitchell, retired from AEP and now active as an independent consultant also has published many technical papers on power generation. One entitled, “Analysis of Variable Renewable Energy and Reserve Margins” is available from the ASME. (36) Suffice it to say, the panelists involved do not agree with the Net-Zero Carbon path our country is on. We are not alone.

Also hard to understand is the well respected POWER Magazine embracement of renewable power to “Electrify Everything”. Here is an excerpt from this month’s POWER Magazine. This is written by Matt Helgeson, head of Sustainability for Siemens USA. (8) He also should know better.

“The “electrification of everything” is

underway to not only decarbonize,

but also support optimized, safer and

more resilient processes and systems.

This concept means that we are replacing

our fossil fuel economy with wind,

solar, hydro, electric vehicles (EVs), heat

pumps, and more. This transformation

will be made possible—at scale—with

the application of digital technologies.

However, the challenge arises to electrify

everything before the grid is fully “green”

if we are going to appropriately and effectively

address climate change.

From electrifying buildings and vehicles,

and navigating the impact to the

grid, the technology to accomplish a fully

electric transformation is available today.

And now’s the time to utilize these technologies

to ensure that everything that

can be connected to the grid is electrified.

We’re running parallel races to transition

power generation to renewable sources,

improve the grid to manage those sources,

and replace infrastructure that’s ready

to use the power delivered to it.

Electrification of Transportation

An exciting and rapidly advancing industry

transformation is the electrification of transport.

According to Car and Driver, 2024 is

expected to set a new record for EVs sold

and their share of the total market. Further,

the EV market is projected to have a compound

annual growth rate of about 10%

projected through 2028, leading to more

than $900 billion in sales that year.

As the need to reduce carbon emissions

has become clear, we’re seeing

unprecedented support and funding from

the federal government to deploy EV infrastructure.

State and local governments”

Dick Storm’s Love of Power, Articles and Commentary in POWER Magazine….

POWER Magazine has been my favorite power generation magazine since 1959 when I was a teen and just beginning preparation for a career I loved in power generation. I was inspired by Steve Elonka’s fictional character “Marmaduke Surfaceblow” who was a “Globe Trotting Consulting Engineer” that solved power engineering problems around the world. I wanted to become an engineer like Marmaduke Surfaceblow. I pretty much succeeded in that goal. Thank you POWER for the inspiration! Later in my career I was a contributing editor to POWER Magazine where I shared the Storm Technology team’s experiences in improving combustion and efficiency. As recent as 2021, my commentary was published in POWER, which I still believe and stand behind. (9) Linked Here and it is a contrast with the Siemens commentary this month. A few other POWER articles I contributed are listed below in the references. (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) I remain very proud of what I did to make a small contribution of helping generate reliable, efficient and clean coal power. Yes, I remain a friend of coal! And so should all Americans embrace coal, oil, gas and uranium use, all are fuels that are capable of being produced in the quantities we need from within our borders. More later on the need for 833,000-1,000,000 Btus per day/person to power our economy and our lives.

Reminder of the vast coal reserves in the U.S. and on the planet.

Getting back to the reality of Primary Energy and the sources of Primary energy that can meet our needs:

Meet Energy Reality

America uses right at 100 Quadrillion Btus of energy each year. This is likely to increase, that is if we maintain our high quality of life, over time. The IEA believes that with increased Data Center consumption, electricity growth will likely be over 3.4%/year. (67) Also, with more electrification, large new Data Centers, more EV’s and a growing population, Demand for electricity will grow. The entire world uses about 600 Quadrillion Btus of energy. These amounts of U.S. and world energy use are reported by numerous references. Amongst them, the IEA, EIA, Our World in Data and the Energy Institute. Most of the rest of the world is using coal. The greatest amount of coal ever used in history was the year 2023.

I have written on the 100 Quadrillion Btus that the US uses on a previous blog posts Here, Here, Here Here and Here(17, 18, 19, 20)

The “Count on Coal” Blog article quoting a conversation with worldwide energy expert, Daniel Yergin, sums up the energy transition very accurately. (27) Yergin’s comments are supported by the “Our World in Data” world energy use chart above and numerous other references included at the end. An excerpt from the Count on Coal Blog is copied below. The bold font and underlining is my emphasis:

“Renowned energy analyst and historian Dan Yergin recently observed that the world isn’t just using more coal than ever before but three times what it did in the 1960s. While Yergin recognizes significant changes in the global energy mix, he said, “I’m sick of the energy transition discussion. It sometimes loses touch with economic history and reality. If you look at the history of energy transitions, they all last for over a century. To try and make change happen in 25 years, or even half of that time is highly unlikely.”

For Yergin – and energy analysts the world over – the coal age has miles to run. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects coal consumption in India and Southeast Asia to in fact “grow significantly.”

By 2026, the IEA expects just China and India together to account for 70% of global coal demand. Those two nations and Indonesia opened 59 gigawatts of new coal generating capacity last year. India has 85 GW of new coal generating capacity already under construction with more expected.

Both China and India are rapidly adding renewable energy but see coal as essential to helping meet rising power demand and view it as an energy security and reliability backstop. China is on track to add 200 GW of new coal capacity by 2030. For comparison, that’s more new capacity than the entire existing U.S. coal fleet.  

As Dan Yergin observed, we need a better energy transition discussion. Globally, we remain firmly in an era of energy addition. Just ask China and India.  “

Energy provides life as we know it

China and India are rising as economically prosperous nations and they are doing so powered by all available sources of energy, including coal.(33, 34, 65) We in America should do likewise. The last new highly efficient and clean coal plants built in America started up in 2013. We have not built a major coal plant in the U.S. in over twelve years. However, hundreds have been shut down without replacing the reliable, affordable and dispatchable generation capacity in kind. (28,29, 30, 68)

Electrifying Everything is Not Possible

To say Electrifying Everything is possible, is a ludicrous fantasy and a lie. More politely, but factually it simply is not possible. (25) For example: Ammonia, Food production, Steel, Plastics, Aluminum and Concrete all are dependent on vast amounts of Primary Energy for production. It is not an exaggeration to say Energy = Life.(25)

Further, for all of the talk on the news about inflation and the rising cost of living, this inflation, in my opinion, is based largely on the government climate policies (more correctly described as a war on carbon) that are making it harder to produce Primary energy from conventional sources and also, forcing more expensive, less reliable, variable, intermittent, renewable energy on all of us. The so called, “Energy Transition” is not a transition, it is only a “War on Carbon and Conventional Forms of Energy” Daniel Yergin said it and so did I in previous Blog posts and presentations. (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 68) A previous article I wrote used Hawaii as an example. The Islands of Hawaii are an excellent case study in applying green only power generation. Why? Because Hawaii has plenty of sunlight and wind and it is separated from the U.S. Grid. Therefore, as the green only generation is built, with Diesel fuel backup, then the natural and high cost of intermittent green power is experienced by more use of expensive Diesel fuel. Hawaii is an ideal “Science Experiment” in using Green Power. (38)

833,000-1,000,000 Btus of Primary Energy/Day/Person

This is how much primary energy we have become accustomed to having available and at a reasonable cost. Replacing this quantity of reasonable cost, reliable and abundantly available conventional energy with renewables as stated before, is impossible. To attempt to decarbonize America will contribute to the decline of our quality of life and even worse, contribute to the decline of America. Here below is the U.S. Energy Flow Chart for Primary Energy. Prepared by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The primary energy flow chart shows the energy flows from all of the sources of energy and how they are used. This is done in BTU equivalents to include non-thermal sources such as Hydroelectric, solar and wind. As shown on the chart, for 2022 Americans used a total of 100.3 Quadrillion BTUs of energy.

A reminder: one BTU is equivalent to 778 foot pounds of work at 100% efficiency. One kWh of electricity is equivalent to 3,412.6 BTUs.

After decades of tax subsidies the quantity of primary energy provided by wind and solar is less than 6%. The fact is, over 90% of our primary energy was in 2022 and remains in 2024, provided by conventional forms of energy: Oil, gas, coal, nuclear, Biomass and old hydroelectric dams. Remember the key words “Primary Energy” when you are told we should “Electrify Everything“. Electricity and Hydrogen are Secondary Energy that must be produced using Primary Energy.

Reality of Bulk Power Supply

Most authors refer to the Grid, (aka Largest Machine Ever Built).(59, 60) I chose to use the term, “Bulk Power Supply” because the term “Bulk Power” better describes generation from conventional power stations. When I reported for work to Carolina Power & Light Company in 1973, the sign on the office door in the central general office stated, “Bulk Power Supply”. I thought it a curious term and wondered why it was not called the “Electric Generating Department”. Apparently, many others have found the term “Bulk Power Supply” awkward too because I do not see references to “Bulk Power Supply” much anymore. However, after all of these years, I think it is the right term to describe Bulk Power Generation when discussing “Megawatt or Gigawatt Hours” not kilowatts of generation.

Let’s take a look at (Bulk Power Supply) electricity generation, by fuels over the last few years during peak summer and winter Demand periods. These are screen shots of actual data. The first is PJM on June 30, 2018. Note that about a third of the generation is by coal fuel.

Since de-regulation of electricity markets in the 1990’s, the U.S. has been divided up into Regional Transmission Operator or RTO’s and Independent System Operators or ISO’s. Here is a map to show what PJM, MISO, ERCOT, etc.

FERC.gov

First, let’s look at PJM on a high Demand day: Notice the importance of coal generation? In this example, coal power provides about a third of the total generation.

The next example is the 48 state Grid for the week January 28-Feb. 4th 2023. Note the generation by fuels. Coal is providing about 22% of the total 544,000 MWh generation on Feb. 1.

Next, let’s look at Duke Energy Carolinas for the first week of September 2023. Duke has a very balanced generation portfolio including a lot of nuclear, gas and coal generation capacity. At the moment shown, coal was providing 21% of total generation.

The neighboring Utility in SC, Santee-Cooper. A much smaller Utility than Duke, with much more dependence on coal fuel. In this example, about two thirds coal power generation is from coal. The lead photo at the top is the 2390 MW Cross Generating Station. This is a very important generating plant for my area of S.C.

The Midcontinent System Operations (MISO) is shown below for a summer day in 2022. Coal is delivering about 42% of the electricity generation at that moment. (68)

From Dick Storm Presentation to ENERUM, Columbus, Ohio, August 2022 Data from MISOENERGY.org

These illustrations are taken from past presentations I have given to show the importance of coal generated power.(68) As this is written, it is spring time and what we in the power plant maintenance business used to call “Outage Season”. Why, because power demand in the spring and fall is the lowest due to mild weather and it is the time to perform major maintenance overhauls. Typical demand curves for different seasons are shown below. From these you can imagine the risk of coming Blackouts is not in the spring and fall, but in the high demand summer or winter months. Remember Texas in Feb. 2021 with over 240 people killed by cold and power shortages?

The PJM load profile shows peak demand in the summer with high air conditioning loads. In the south many states electricity demand peaks in the winter (South Carolina as an example).

Blackouts are forecasted and warnings have been loud and clear. However, the EPA and the government continue their “War on Carbon”. This is intentionally weakening America.

Planning for Blackouts

The illustration below is from the Santee-Cooper IRP. It shows how the forecast of increasing load Demand that is greater than the installed, Dispatchable generation capacity. Some more history of failed S.C. Energy policy is on LI here. (69)

North of Santee-Cooper’s service territory is Duke Energy Carolinas. Their IRP shows a similar gap of Demand and installed capacity. Why? Because the Legislatures in both states have pressured the Utilities to stop using coal. Much of the Duke Energy Coal Plants have been demolished and they plan to completely exit coal use by 2036. The chart below is from one of the Duke Energy IRP’s and it shows an actual deficit of required generation capacity as the coal plants are shut down.

Stopping the use of coal is unnecessary. The Climate Policies are, in my analysis, not to protect the environment or human health. The Climate Policies that have been cooked up to scare the public are all about “One World Government”, Socialism and control of the citizens. Have you noticed that these Climate Policies are only being applied in the Free Western World? Yet, Asia burns over 75% of the world’s coal. Americans need to wake up and here below are some books and references to shed some more light on Climate Policies and sustaining our high quality of life.

Excellent books that forecasted the future of Electric Power shortages and the worldwide misinformation on climate science.

We Have Been Warned!

I am one of many who have warned of coming Blackouts. That’s right, I am not the first skeptic. Let me give credit to Mr. Donn Dears for being one of the first that published books on these harmful policies. Then, after over 100,000 MW of reliable coal plants have been shut down, FERC and NERC and other reputable organizations finally started to chime in. At this time, Blackouts during peak extreme weather in the summer or winter periods are expected. My previous article discussed what I consider to be the largest threats to energy and electricity generation reliability. (64)

FERC, NERC, America’s Power and many others have provided warnings. (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 68)

Yet, the government agencies, especially the EPA continues the same misguided path toward Net Zero Carbon. My friend, I am sad to say, my late friend, Donn Dears wrote about a dozen books to highlight foolish and un-American energy policies. Four of his books are correctly titled: “Nothing to Fear-A Bright Future for Fossil Fuels”, “Looming Energy Crisis”, “Net-zero Carbon: The Climate Policy Destroying America” and “Clean Energy Crisis”. Donn was a solid American Patriot; Navy Veteran and he had a long career as an executive engineer at General Electric. This was back when G-E was a world leader in conventional power generation equipment. Donn was truly an energy expert’s Expert! Donn’s books are available on Amazon. Worth the read, each is only about 100 pages and they are packed with facts. Donn did his best to save America, even in the last days of his life he was contributing articles and posts on his web site, “POWER for the USA” and communicating with me (and others) to review articles or presentations I prepared and then asked for his advice and review. What a wonderful man and engineer Donn was. RIP my friend, we miss you.

Donn Dears was the one that inspired me to start this Blog. I offer my experiences and my knowledge in all humility, and in memory and respect for my friend, Donn Dears. I miss his friendship and shared wisdom.

America is heading for an energy crisis and it will be hard to correct the harm that has been self inflicted by alphabet government agencies and a rogue, energy ignorant administration.

Please wake up American’s! Please do some research into the importance of energy and reasonable cost, reliable and Dispatchable electricity. Then, pass on the information to your friends and family. Do this for Donn, your own good and for your grandchildren. In my opinion, only about 3% of Americans really understand energy and electricity generation. The Marxist Left has done an effective job of indoctrinating the public with green misinformation. All of us that understand energy and electricity generation need to get involved in preaching the true facts on the unachievable “Net-Zero Carbon and Electrify Everything” nonsensical path of U.S. energy policy.

Yours very truly,

Dick Storm April 9, 2024

References and Information for further research:

  1. The Green Energy Crisis, Part 2, “Meet Some of the People that Caused it”,  June 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/06/14/green-energy-crisis-part-2-meet-the-policy-makers-that-caused-it/
  2. The EPA Awards Billions From Misnamed Inflation Reduction Act To Orgs Tied To Biden, Dems by Nick Pope, Billions of our tax dollars to Extremist Organizations, Stephen Heins Substack, April 4, 2024: https://open.substack.com/pub/stephenheins/p/epa-awards-billions-from-misnamed?r=kv1a9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
  3. 114th Congress, Majority Staff Report, Obama’s Carbon Mandate, August 2015: http://www.scientificintegrityinstitute.org/USSEWP080415.pdf
  4. The True Agenda of Climate Policies is Not to Protect Public Health of the Planet’s Environment: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/02/13/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-electricity-generation-and-environmental-protection-part-4-what-is-the-true-agenda-for-climate-policies/
  5. Capital Research Center, Report on the History of Global Warming Fears:  https://www.climatedollars.org/full-study/a-short-history-of-global-warming-fears/
  6. CRC Full Report, 2017, Climate Dollars: https://www.climatedollars.org/app/uploads/2017/05/CRC_ClimateDollars_Study_finalv3.pdf
  7. CO2 You Tube, “Climate Killer or Essence of Life” By Patrick Baeuerle:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6daGgUI-keg
  8. Leveraging the ‘Electrification of Everything’ to Reduce Carbon Emissions Power Magazine Commentary April 2024: https://www.powermag.com/leveraging-the-electrification-of-everything-to-reduce-carbon-emissions/
  9. POWER Magazine Commentary by Dick Storm, March 2021: https://www.powermag.com/blog/all-fuels-are-important-but-thermal-power-generation-is-still-number-1/
  10. 2007 Power, Optimize Furnace Performance, start at the Pulverizers http://www.powermag.com/to-optimize-performance-begin-at-the-pulverizers/
  11. Power Magazine, “Blueprint” Your Pulverizers for Improved Performance http://www.powermag.com/blueprint-your-pulverizer-for-improved-performance/
  12. Power Magazine, Coal Pulverizers, Part l http://www.powermag.com/pulverizers-101-part-i/
  13. Power Magazine, Coal Pulverizers, Part ll http://www.powermag.com/pulverizers-101-part-ii/
  14. Coal Pulverizers Series, Part lll http://www.powermag.com/pulverizers-101-part-iii/
  15.  Stealth Combustion Losses Lower Plant Efficiency Part 1 https://www.powermag.com/how-stealth-combustion-losses-lower-plant-efficiency-part-1-the-problem/
  16. Improving Plant Heat-Rate POWER, 2014: https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Dick+Storm+POWER+Magazine+article+on+Improving+Heat+Rate&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#ip=1
  17. Dick Storm Blog post, America Needs and uses 830,000 BTUs per Day/Person, Sept. 2021: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/09/16/830000-btus-per-day-person/
  18.  American Dream = 100 Quadrillion BTUs per Year April 7, 2022: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/07/04/american-dream-100-quadrillion-btus/
  19.   Providing a Sustainable Million BTUs per Day/Person, May 17,  2022: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/05/17/providing-a-sustainable-million-btus-per-day-per-person-by-fuel-source/
  20. The Importance of Energy to Power Our High Quality Lives, Aug. 25, 2020: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2020/08/25/the-importance-of-energy-to-power-high-quality-of-life-part-1/
  21. EIA World Energy Consumption, in 2021: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=527&t=4
  22. IEA Key World Energy Statistics, 2021: https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/52f66a88-0b63-4ad2-94a5-29d36e864b82/KeyWorldEnergyStatistics2021.pdf
  23. Our World in Data, “World Energy Production/Consumption” by country, 2021: https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption
  24. Energy Institute Statistics, 2023: https://www.energyinst.org/statistical-review
  25.  Pillars of Modern Civilization, Ammonia, Food, Steel, Concrete, Plastics, Aluminum, July 2022: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/07/25/pillars-of-modern-civilization-all-dependent-on-energy/
  26. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 2022 Energy Flow Chart for U.S. : https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/sites/flowcharts/files/2023-10/US%20Energy%202022.pdf
  27. American Coal Council, “Count On Coal” Blog: https://www.countoncoal.org/category/blog/
  28. “The War on Carbon, How it Came to Be”, Oct. 16, 2021: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/10/16/the-war-on-carbon-how-it-came-to-be/
  29. THE ERA OF RELIABLE, AFFORDABLE, ENERGY AND ELECTRICITY GENERATION: PART 1 https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/10/04/the-era-of-reliable-affordable-energy-and-electricity-generation-part-1/
  30.  The Green Energy Crisis is Here, Part 1, Sept. 17, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/05/29/the-green-energy-crisis-is-here-part-1/
  31. The Green Energy Crisis, Part 2, “Meet Some of the People that Caused it”,  June 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/06/14/green-energy-crisis-part-2-meet-the-policy-makers-that-caused-it/
  32. The Green Energy Crisis, Part 3, June 26, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/06/26/green-energy-crisis-part-3-public-energy-education-is-needed-each-person-in-the-u-s-uses-about-315-million-btus-of-primary-energy-year-this-is-not-practical-or-even-possible-to-replace-with-win/
  33. The Importance of Energy for Economic Prosperity, Part 4, The Rise of the U.S and the Rise of China from an energy perspective:  https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2020/09/21/part-4-the-importance-of-energy-to-economic-prosperity/
  34. China’s Influence in the World and the Need to Reshore American Manufacturing, Nov. 3, 2020 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2020/11/03/chinas-economic-influence-in-the-world-and-some-thoughts-on-the-need-to-reshore-american-manufacturing/
  35. PowerGen International, 2024 Panel Discussion Take Away’s of Dick Storm on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_i-had-the-honor-of-being-on-a-powergen-panel-activity-7156046708139782144-zPoZ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  36. Frank Mitchell, Anthony Licata and Angelos Kokkinos ASME Paper, “Analysis of Variable Renewable Energy and Reserve Margins”, July 2022: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/POWER/proceedings-abstract/POWER2022/85826/1146684
  37. PowerGen International 2024, Speaker Info on Dick Storm: https://www.powergen.com/speakers/richard-storm?&azletter=R&searchgroup=libraryentry-speakers
  38. “Update on Hawaii’s Glimpse of the Future of the Green New Deal” March 20, 2024:  https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/03/20/hawaii-a-glimpse-into-the-future-of-the-green-new-deal-aka-inflation-reduction-act-here-is-an-update/
  39. FERC Description of RTO’s and ISO’s: https://www.ferc.gov/power-sales-and-markets/rtos-and-isos
  40. Coal Use in World Reaches New Record in 2023, Reuters Jan. 2024: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/global-coal-exports-power-generation-hit-new-highs-2023-2024-01-18/#:~:text=LITTLETON%2C%20Colorado%2C%20Jan%2018%20(,cut%20back%20on%20fossil%20fuels.
  41. Visual Capitalist on Electricity Generation by Fuels in the World, Jan 2024: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/electricity-sources-by-fuel-in-2022/#:~:text=Coal%20is%20Still%20King,%2C%20and%20hydroelectric%20at%2014.9%25.&text=Over%20three%2Dquarters%20of%20the,consumed%20in%20just%20three%20countries.
  42. IER (Institute for Energy Research) 200 Ways Biden and Democrats Have Made it Difficult to Produce Oil & Gas in the U.S. : https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/regulation/200-ways-the-biden-administration-and-democrats-have-made-it-harder-to-produce-oil-gas/
  43. “Clean Energy Crisis”, Book by Donn Dears, 2023. An excellently written, short and concise review of the energy crisis we are facing. Available on Amazon.
  44. POWER Magazine article on NERC Warning: https://www.powermag.com/nerc-identifies-energy-policy-as-key-risk-to-grid-reliability-amid-evolving-challenges/
  45. NERC State of Reliability Review, June 2023: https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/PA/Performance%20Analysis%20DL/NERC_SOR_2023_Overview.pdf
  46. NERC December 2023 Report on Grid Reliability: https://subscriber.politicopro.com/f/?id=0000018c-64e3-db4d-abac-efef87a50000&source=email
  47. America is Running Out of Electricity Generation, Washington Post, March 7, 2024: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/amid-explosive-demand-america-is-running-out-of-power/ar-BB1jtM69
  48. FERC Energy Regulator States, “Power Grid is Facing Dire Consequences Due to Coal & Gas Retirements”, “WUWT June 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/13/federal-energy-regulatory-commissioner-mark-christie-power-grid-is-facing-dire-consequences-due-to-coal-gas-retirements/
  49. Marc Christie to Gulf States, March 10, 2024: https://www.rtoinsider.com/73336-ferc-christie-warns-very-dark-place/
  50. CATO’s Travis Fisher Testimony to Congress, on Electricity Security, March 12, 2024: https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Testimony-Fisher.pdf
  51. America’s Power report on coal plants saving Grid during Jan. 2024 winter storms, Feb. 2024: https://americaspower.org/issue/operation-of-the-u-s-power-grid-during-the-january-2024-storm/https://americaspower.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024_02_14-Jan-2024-Winter-Storms-Analysis-FINAL.pdf
  52. Fox News report on Biden’s Crusade of Shutting Coal Plants Down will Cause Blackouts and Higher Electricity prices, Feb. 2024: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/crazy-things-bidens-anti-coal-crusade-will-ordinary-americans
  53. Grid Operators Warn of Blackouts due to Excessive EPA Rules, America’s Power, March 6, 2024: https://americaspower.org/operators-regulators-concerned/
  54. E & E News, Warnings of Blackouts due to Excessive EPA Rules, Dec. 2023: https://www.eenews.net/articles/grid-monitor-warns-of-blackout-risks-as-coal-plants-retire/
  55. WUWT Steve Goreham article “Electricity Generation vs Green Goals” Feb. 28, 2024: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/02/27/electric-power-vs-green-goals/  
  56. Robert Bryce article on Increasing T&D is not the answer: https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/out-of-transmission-revisited/comments
  57. Grid Down, Power Up YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kErOyJ0u-8&t=180s
  58. Dick Storm Blog post on Santee-Cooper Growth of electric generation and the Futility of achieving 9,000 MW capacity by 2050 with carbon free power: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/04/27/how-can-a-6000-mw-regional-utility-in-2030-which-likely-will-be-a-9000-mw-utility-in-2050-achieve-net-zero-carbon/
  59. Bloomberg, “The Largest Machine in the World, The Electric Grid, Oct 2014: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/quicktake/u-s-electrical-grid
  60. Yahoo Finance, “Greasing the Largest Machine in the World, the Electric Grid, by Sonia Aggarwal, Sept. 2014 : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/greasing-electric-grid-worlds-largest-machine-op-ed-150237367.html
  61. Donn Dears book, “Net-zero Carbon: The Climate Policy Destroying America”  Paperback – January 2, 2022, available on Amazon.
  62. Donn dears book, “Looming Energy Crisis”
  63. Donn Dears book, “Nothing to Fear-A Bright Future for Fossil Fuels”
  64. Threats to the Electric Grid, March 15, 2024:  https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/03/15/threats-to-the-grid-electricity-reliability/
  65. Ron Stein’s website w/articles and podcasts on the importance of conventional fuels, “America Out Loud” : https://www.americaoutloud.news/author/ronald-stein-p-e/
  66. Visual Capitalist on Data Center Power Demand, Jan. 2024. Example, Data Centers in Northern Virginia alone uses over 2550 MW: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/top-data-center-markets/
  67. Yahoo Finance on Virginia Data Center Bulk Power Demand, May 28, 2024: https://www.yahoo.com/news/virginia-explained-data-center-expansion-095928981.html
  68. IEA Electricity Growth Report, 2024: https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-2024/executive-summary
  69. Dick Storm Presentation to Columbus Energy Forum, Columbus, Ohio. “The U.S. Does NOT Have an Energy Policy, Only a Policy of Decarbonization”, August 2022:  https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_presentation-and-speakers-notes-from-august-activity-7068650158862827520-B-_W?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  70. Dick Storm post on LinkedIn on S.C. Energy policy and the background of the failed 1200 MW Pee Dee Supercritical Coal Plant and Summer Units 2 & 3 Nuclear plant expansion. Post has links to Post and Courier articles, Duke, Santee-Cooper, Dominion IRP’s and SC Energy Office: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7184184178920312833?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  71. Good Substack contribution to explain Who/Why/How the Grid Reliability became “Undermined-Electrons Have Consequences” Energy IQ, by Pandreco, April 14, 2024: https://pandreco.substack.com/p/undermining-electrons-have-consequences
  72. WUWT article on unexpected growth of electricity demand from Data Centers, April 2024: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/04/19/wash-post-admits-reality-amid-explosive-demand-america-is-running-out-of-power-u-s-power-grid-being-pushed-to-the-brink-utilities-can/
  73. You Tube Lars Schernikau on Honest Pay Back of Renewables,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa8Q8MoWfrU
  74. Energy Policy Institute.org: https://www.energyinst.org/my-ei/preferences
  75. Grid Status website/Dashboard: https://www.gridstatus.io/homehttps://www.gridstatus.io/home
  76. Data Centers embrace nuclear, April 2024: https://www.datacenters.com/news/the-data-center-industry-s-transition-to-nuclear-power
  77. Data Center Power, 2020: https://www.datacenters.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-data-center-power
  78. EPOCH Times on Data Center Power Demand, April 2024: https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/rapid-expansion-of-cloud-computing-may-hit-a-wall-with-limited-supply-of-power-water-5630195?utm_source=Morningbrief&src_src=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2024-04-18&src_cmp=mb-2024-04-18&utm_medium=email&est=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAc%2BsofRIezY%2Fb%2BLwcs0VKH7toxkYAIGcN2s7GwqwC0GkGTSTCcgh%2FABHe
  79. Quanta Technology Study Report on Power Generation Shortages, report for America’s Power, Feb. 2024: https://americaspower.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Quanta-Final-Feb-2024-3.pdf
  80. Georgia Power IRP Revised 2023, April 2024 to update the increased Demand for Electricity will require more new generation capacity:  https://www.georgiapower.com/content/dam/georgia-power/pdfs/company-pdfs/2023-irp-update-main-document.pdf
Coal Power, Energy, Politics and Economic Prosperity, Environmental

Hawaii: A Glimpse Into the future of the “Green New Deal” aka “Inflation Reduction Act”, Here is an Update

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This post was written in June 2020 when Hawaii Electric announced they would shut down the Barber’s Point Coal Plant. I thought this would be a very good experiment of applying the “Green New Deal”. Why? Because Hawaii is an outstanding location for sunshine and wind, so wind and solar have the natural geography and climate to succeed and do well in Hawaii. Another reason this is an ideal experiment is, Hawaii is an Energy Island with no ties to the U.S. Grid. Therefore, the production costs and reliability are the result of the production capacity that has been installed (or shut down). Here is the update:

Huge Kapolei Battery Plant Replaces Coal at Hawaii Electric

That is the headline of the Canary Media in December 2023. Here is the background as reported in the American Civil Engineering Society article, by Jay Landers:

“Among U.S. states, Hawaii has some of the most ambitious mandates for shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources to generate electricity. To achieve these mandates, the state aims to rely heavily on battery energy storage systems to provide backup power when intermittent sources such as solar and wind are insufficient or unavailable. On the Hawaiian island of Oahu, a large and sophisticated battery energy storage system recently came online, marking a key point in the state’s efforts to move toward a future of 100% renewable energy.

December startup

Situated on 8 acres of industrial land, the Kapolei Energy Storage project comprises 158 Tesla Megapack 2 XL lithium iron phosphate batteries, which are about the size of a shipping container. All told, the KES project provides 185 MW of total rated power capacity, or the largest possible instantaneous discharge, and 565 MWh of energy capacity, or the maximum amount of stored energy.

The system can meet 17% of Oahu’s electricity demand for three hours at peak load or six hours at half load, Brandon Keefe, the executive chair of Plus Power — the company that developed the project — told USA Today. Plus Power “develops, owns, and operates standalone battery energy storage systems that provide capacity, energy, and ancillary services, enabling the rapid integration of renewable generation resources,” according to the company’s Jan. 11 news releaseannouncing the start of operations at its KES facility.

As a percentage of the electricity system that it serves, the KES project is larger than any other battery storage project in the world, Colton Ching, the senior vice president of planning and technology for the Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc., told USA Today. Hawaiian Electric serves 95% of Hawaii’s 1.4 million residents on the islands of Hawaii, Lanai, Maui, Molokai, and Oahu. Each of the islands has its own independent power grid. On Oahu, Hawaiian Electric serves approximately 307,000 customers.”

Back to Dick Storm Article, June 2020:

Hawaii is a model of the impact of applying carbon free electricity generation policies before storage technology catches up. “Green Policies” do not necessarily result in “Green Power” as I will close with the actual power generation in real time.  As an engineer specializing in efficient and clean coal power generation for five decades, whenever a coal plant shutdown is in the news, it catches my attention. So, when I read about the plans to shut down the 180 MW, AES Barbers Point Coal Plant near Honolulu, it caught my eye.

https://www.civilbeat.org/2017/08/oahus-cheapest-source-of-power-is-about-to-go-away/

The title of the article in the Honolulu newspaper sums it up nicely: “Our Cheapest Power Is About to Go Away……. In 2016, HECO paid AES Hawaii an average of 5 cents per kilowatt hour. During the same period, wind was about 20 cents per kilowatt hour, solar about 21 to 23 cents.”

Hawaii is a perfect laboratory to show the effect of implementing extreme green policies on electric generation. Why? Because as islands, they are not connected to the US Grid. Therefore, the policies as implemented will create a fairly swift impact on electricity prices. According to the EIA, the highest retail electricity price in the U.S.A.:  Hawaii at $0.3099/kWh. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a

Digging a little deeper the plans for the future are for 52% Renewables by 2021 and 100% Renewables by 2045. https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/clean-energy-hawaii/integrated-grid-planning/power-supply-improvement-plan

As the Democrats in congress push for the new Green Deal, Hawaii offers an example of the adverse impact on electricity prices. Later, when Barbers Point is shut down, reliability could also become an issue. 

If you are interested in the fuel mix for generation on the island of Oahu, here is a link for the real time power generation. https://www.islandpulse.org  As this is written (0700 3/24/2020), I checked and 86% of the power was Fossil Fuels and of the 14% Renewables, they include 9% from the thermal waste to energy facility, 5% wind and because it was early morning, 0% solar.

I have always advocated a “Balanced Portfolio of Generation”. A plan to include LNG, Coal, Renewables, Oil and Waste to Energy would have been wiser, in my opinion.

Summary and Conclusions

Here is the update on electric rates by the EIA, Residential rate, $0.416/kWh. Yes, Hawaii Electric remains the highest cost electricity provider in the U.S. This did not need to happen to Hawaii and there is time to stop the Climate Policy madness for the rest of the states.

Many of my knowledgeable friends have suggested that if the U.S. was to try to apply 100% Renewables, it would be a very good idea to first apply this to one electric supply system, rather than force green energy on all of the states. Well, here we have a completed experiment. Hawaii has passed the test of being the first experiment of applying the “Green New Deal”. Thank you Hawaii Electric for providing this outstanding example of applied renewables. My state of S.C. and also neighboring states are planning similar renewables plus battery storage. Your experiences are helpful.

Dick Storm, March 20, 2024

References

  1. Dick Storm Blog post, Hawaii, Green New Deal, A Glimpse into the Future, June 3, 2020: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2020/06/03/hawaii-a-gimpse-into-the-future-of-the-green-new-deal/
  2. Huge Kapolei Battery Plant Replaces Coal at Hawaii Electric, Canary Media: https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/energy-storage/a-huge-battery-has-replaced-hawaiis-last-coal-plant
  3. ASCE Report/update on the 180 MW Battery storage at Hawaii Electric, March 12, 2024: https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/civil-engineering-source/civil-engineering-magazine/article/2024/03/large-battery-energy-storage-system-now-operating-in-hawaii
  4. EIA List of U.S. Electricity Rates, December 2023, Hawaii Top Rate for Residential $0.416/kWh: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a
  5. “Biden Officials Mull Quicker Death of Coal Plants”, Physics.org News, March 19, 2024: https://phys.org/news/2024-03-biden-mull-quicker-death-coal.html
  6. An update on another “Energy Island” which also uses mostly Diesel generation to replace unobtainable 24/7 Green Power, Zero Emissions Grid Follies. Francis Menton and Stephen Heins on Spanish Island with 100% Green Power: https://open.substack.com/pub/stephenheins/p/the-zero-emissions-grid-demonstration?r=kv1a9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Coal Power, economic prosperity and energy, Regulations

Threats to the Grid & Electricity Reliability

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It has now become noticed by the mainstream news that much of the U.S. will suffer Blackouts and electricity shortages as a result of insufficient reliable, dispatchable, affordable generation being built to replace the coal plants that are currently out of favor by government Regulations and climate policy. I have been predicting this and preaching for common sense energy policies for years. Now, even the MSM has acknowledged this unfortunate truth. There is insufficient new electricity generation 24/7 capacity to replace the reliable, affordable and Dispatchable coal plants that have been shut down and many demolished. No one likes an “I Told You So”, but, I did start warning folks with paid energy advertisements in the newspaper, published presentations and energy fact minutes (my friend Matt Smith and me called them EFM’s) on the local radio station WSPC. This was between the years 2008-2015 when then President Obama escalated the “War on Carbon”. It was Obama that mandated Electric vehicles during his second term in office. Then codified by the Pelosi led, Democrat controlled House to force the “Green New Deal” on us, as the so called, Inflation Reduction Act”. Now we are on a dangerous path of Net-Zero Carbon. Yes, decarbonizing our energy industries will cause Blackouts and worse if not reversed.

Here are my thoughts on the ranking, in my opinion, of some of the threats to America’s Lifeblood of electricity from the “Largest Machine Ever Built”, the U.S. Electric Grid. Credit the Smithsonian Institute for coining the name, “Largest Machine Ever Built”. (1) It took over a 100 years to build and the Green’s want to destroy it in a decade or less. So, who are these anti-American organizations?

Threats to Grid Reliability

The top 11 are ranked in my opinion, with the greatest risks first. Most are policy actions of “Self-Sabotage”.

  1. Government Agency Climate Policies, EPA at the top, SEC, BLM, DOD, DOJ and all of government is wrongly applying “Climate First” policies rather than the Best policies for America and younger Americans to experience the “American Dream” as my generation did
  2. Creation of RTO’s that absolved most utilities from planning for future electric generation growth
  3. Environmental Extremist/Activists that use enormous wealth against the Best interests of the U.S.A.
  4. Wealthy Business people who fund NGO’s to Decarbonize the western world
  5. The United Nations IPCC, Agenda 21, Agenda 30 and other so called “Climate Policies”
  6. The World Economic Forum and the members who under the guise of saving the planet are forcing policies of De-Growth, De-Industrialization and Energy Poverty on all of the people of the western world, but not the BRICS, and other countries aligned with Russia and China
  7. “Woke” or “Politically Correct” companies including electric Utilities and Co-Operatives that espouse solar and wind power as being capable of replacing coal, oil, gas and nuclear energy
  8. Public Education, K-12 and Universities that promote climate scare tactics to sway public opinion toward accepting higher energy costs and reduced reliability of energy and electricity
  9. World Bank, IMF, Large Banking and Investment companies that determine which infrastructure projects to finance
  10. Terrorists or criminal acts of sabotage (28)
  11. Foreign adversary to sabotage transformers or controls of the Grid. Due to the reporting of China influence of embedding chips or other devices into inverters and possibly large transformers, this needs to be included. (32-44)

Physical Damage Vulnerability

Extreme weather has created rare but occasional Blackouts, such as Texas in Feb. 2021. That Blackout and winter storm killed over 240 people.

Then there is another concern, I have thought about for years. That is, criminal and terrorist acts on our Grid and quite honestly, I did not want to write about it because I was concerned that it would give ideas to criminal minded individuals or groups to use for nefarious purposes. But then in checking for references on Grid vulnerability, I easily found over a dozen references including the widely watched CBS-60 Minutes TV show done in February 2023, Technical Society organizations and Congressional Research Service reports for Congress. So, what I am about to say should be no surprise to anyone in the industry. As for protecting America, we have a massive government agency with 260,000 employees in Homeland Security. Certainly, they are aware and are engaged in protecting the Grid. At least, that is what they are supposed to be doing as their name implies?

What Could Happen?

The open border of the U.S. is a concern for all of us. Maybe not a concern for President Biden or the Political Science trained Democrats in Congress, but all of the rest of us are concerned. Let me paraphrase ex FERC Commissioner John Wellinghoff, in his statement on the Feb. 2023, 60 Minutes program. Wellinghoff was asked, “How many substations would need to be damaged to create a U.S. wide Blackout” His answer, less than 20. Take a look at the 60 Minutes video here. The “60 Minutes” nationally distributed TV program is not the only wake up call. There are six reports below in the references for confirmation of the risk. Including a IEEE report which states 9 major substations could create a nationwide Blackout.(5)

Isaac Orr shared his outstanding presentation to Dairyland Power. It is here. His conclusion is similar to mine and his slides on Substack are worth reviewing: (29) The EPA either does not know what they are doing or they are intentionally destroying the largest machine ever built by man, the American Electric Grid.

Back to Current Events and News

It has been widely documented that the open border has allowed many “Military Age Men” from 170 nations to enter the U.S. My concern for this article is, what if say a task force of 100 military and energy infrastructure trained individuals are in fact in a sleeper cell within our country? Waiting for the command to act. Let’s suppose that the 100 men disperse across the country and position themselves to coordinate attacks on crucial sub stations and transmission lines. Yes, it is unthinkable. So was 911.

Conclusion

America’s electric grid is vulnerable and at risk from not only wrongly imposed regulations for forcing renewable energy on us, but also from foreign actors that wish to harm our country. It is not just my warning. Kindly read the references and view the videos listed below. It is my belief that the 2020 election was heavily influenced by Covid and perhaps not by a lab accident half way around the planet. This is an election year and a very small group of trained individuals could create loss of critical electricity for nefarious reasons. The individuals could be surrogates for a nation state, a religious movement or a military act. I feel that the RTO’s and increasing interconnectivity of Utilities is playing into the hands of our enemies to make the Grid more vulnerable, not less.

Compounding the risk is the move towards more dependence on “Just in Time” pipeline supplied natural gas. This exacerbates the risk of Blackouts because so much backup power is provided by pipeline provided primary energy. See reference #4 below.

If I had two wishes, One would be that all of our Electric Utilities were once again independent, Regional Utilities in the model of Carolina Power & Light for eastern NC. Duke Power for western NC, SCE&G for portions of SC, Santee-Cooper for the east coast of SC, etc. The Regional Utility Model is more secure than connecting the Grid as many proponents of green energy wish to do, in my opinion.

My second wish would be that all of our electric generation was from a Balanced Portfolio of varied fuel supplies, with at least 75% coal and nuclear to provide the base load. Nuclear and Coal can store months or years of fuel on site. That is good for Grid Resilience, reliability, affordability and improved national security. That is how I see it.

Yours very truly,

Dick Storm, March 15, 2024, updated May 19, 2025

References and materials for further research to support my conclusions

  1. Smithsonian Institute, “Largest Machine Ever Built, the U.S. Electric Grid” : https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/history/the-largest-machine-ever-built/
  2. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Overview: https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2024-03/2024_0311_department_of_homeland_security_overview.pdf
  3. CBS 60 Minutes Program, Feb. 27, 2022, “Protecting the U.S. Grid”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65siHaUPsRM
  4. Canadian Pipeline Sabotage by Anarchists, Feb. 2023: https://www.vancouverislandfreedaily.com/news/trend-of-escalating-violence-coastal-gaslink-decries-pipeline-sabotage-claims-on-anarchist-site/
  5. IEEE Spectrum Report on Grid Vulnerability, 2014: https://spectrum.ieee.org/attack-on-nine-substations-could-take-down-us-grid
  6. Congressional Research Service on Grid Vulnerability, Feb. 2023: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12074
  7. Time Magazine article on Grid Attacks by Terrorists, March 2023 https://time.com/6244977/us-power-grid-attacks-extremism/
  8. POLITICO Report on Extremists Attacks on Power Grid, Sept. 2023: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/10/power-grid-attacks-00114563
  9. POLITICO, Power Grid Attacks, Dec. 26, 2022:  https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/26/physical-attacks-electrical-grid-peak-00075216
  10.  FERC Energy Regulator States, “Power Grid is Facing Dire Consequences Due to Coal & Gas Retirements”, “WUWT June 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/13/federal-energy-regulatory-commissioner-mark-christie-power-grid-is-facing-dire-consequences-due-to-coal-gas-retirements/
  11. Power Hungry Google Data Centers to be Built in S.C. Charleston Business Journal, Feb. 15, 2024: https://charlestonbusiness.com/tech-giant-google-coming-to-dorchester-county/
  12. America is Running Out of Electricity Generation, Washington Post, March 7, 2024: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/amid-explosive-demand-america-is-running-out-of-power/ar-BB1jtM69
  13. “Clean Energy Crisis”, Book by Donn Dears, 2023. An excellently written, short and concise review of the energy crisis we are facing. Available on Amazon: https://ddears.com/2023/01/03/clean-energy-crisis/ 
  14. Understanding Data Center Electricity Demand by C&C Techgroup, June 2023: https://cc-techgroup.com/data-center-energy-consumption/
  15. Paul Boardman Report: www.boardmanreport.com
  16. Grid Down, Power Up, Video on Paul Boardman website: https://boardmanreport.com
  17. Congressional Report from 2014 which documents funding of NGO’s to use toward Decarbonization and Green Energy Policies. Worth perusing through because this shows much of how the general public has become indoctrinated with Green Energy and it supports much of another 114th Congress report on Obama’s Carbon Mandate about a year later (next reference, below): http://stillwatertechservices.com/files/tms/EAC-HAVA-CARES/The_Chain_of_Command_-_How_Billionaires_and_Foundations_Control_Environmental_Movement_US_Senate_Report_July_30_2014.pdf
  18. Congressional Report on Obama’s Carbon Mandate, August 2014: 114th Congress, Majority Staff Report, August 2015: http://www.scientificintegrityinstitute.org/USSEWP080415.pdf
  19. Good Substack read on a take off of Obama’s quote, “Elections Have Consequences” modified by Pandreco to “Undermining (Grid Security)Electrons Have Consequences”. My note: The consequences are not helpful for a strong energy infrastructure : https://pandreco.substack.com/p/undermining-electrons-have-consequences
  20. U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Overview March 2024: https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2024-03/2024_0311_department_of_homeland_security_overview.pdf
  21. What Happens if the Grid Goes Down: https://techevaluate.com/what-happens-if-the-american-power-grid-goes-down/#:~:text=If%20the%20American%20Power%20Grid%20went%20down%2C%20the,from%20minor%20inconveniences%20to%20grave%20losses%20of%20life  
  22. Electricity Growth in Demand is causing Utilities to Struggle, WUWT and WAPO, April 2024: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/04/19/wash-post-admits-reality-amid-explosive-demand-america-is-running-out-of-power-u-s-power-grid-being-pushed-to-the-brink-utilities-can/
  23. NERC Summer Reliability Report, May 2024: https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/ra/Reliability%20Assessments%20DL/NERC_SRA_2024.pdf
  24. IER Report on U.S. Treasure of Energy Resources, May 2024: https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024-North-American-Energy-Inventory.pdf
  25. FERC Order #1920 is a Costly Shell Game”,  Increased Transmission & Distribution is Not Helpful, by Travis Fisher, May 2024: https://travisfisher.substack.com/p/fercs-order-no-1920-a-costly-shell
  26. Grid Brief, May 28, 2024, Electric Growth to be 2.7%, Critical Minerals supply and Energy Grids in Warfare Concerns: https://www.gridbrief.com/p/data-center-overload-critical-mineral-supply-energy-grids-modern-warfare?utm_source=www.gridbrief.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=data-center-overload-critical-mineral-supply-energy-grids-in-modern-warfare
  27. FERC Summer, 2024 Assessment, May 23, 2024: : https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/report-2024-summer-energy-market-and-electric-reliability-assessment?utm_source=www.gridbrief.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=data-center-overload-critical-mineral-supply-energy-grids-in-modern-warfare
  28. This is not good. Capital Research Center report on Chicago Protesters and Violent Acts of Terror Against the U.S., May 23, 2024: https://capitalresearch.org/article/chicago-campus-protestors-announce-terror-campain-against-the-us/
  29. Isaac Orr Presentation Slides to Dairyland Power on the Impact of EPA Regulations on Electric Reliability, June 22, 2024: https://energybadboys.substack.com/p/nine-slides-from-my-keynote-address
  30. Politico on Russian Threats to Natural Gas Supplies, March 2022: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/02/gas-pipelines-cyber-risk-00011898
  31. Dick Storm Blog:  Threats to the Electric Grid, March 15, 2024:  https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/03/15/threats-to-the-grid-electricity-reliability/
  32. Updated, FBI’s Christopher Wray on 60 Minutes, Jan. 2025: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/thesilentpartner_thinblueline-lawenforcement-activity-7284569912348426241-Dvhg?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  33. China Transformers with hidden “Backdoors” for Cyber Attack: Texas, 2021: https://texasscorecard.com/commentary/waller-chinese-backdoor-threatens-next-texas-blackout/
  34. Industrial Cyber:  https://industrialcyber.co/threats-attacks/chinese-transformers-in-critical-electric-sector-confirmed-by-two-us-administrations/
  35. WSJ on Houston Transformer from China being taken to Sandia Labs for Inspection, 2020: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-seizure-of-chinese-built-transformer-raises-specter-of-closer-scrutiny-11590598710
  36. CBN Report 2022 on Risk of Chinese Transformers to our Grid: https://cbn.com/news/us/cyber-pearl-harbor-how-china-built-backdoor-threat-could-take-down-us-electric-grid
  37. Energy Supply-Chain Risks- Lawfare Media- 2020: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/energy-grid-supply-chain-risks-and-us-china-entanglement  
  38. Utility Dive on Vulnerability of Grid to Chinese Transformers April- 2023: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/chinese-supply-chains-for-critical-infrastructure-threaten-the-us-power-gri/644505/
  39. Center for Security Policy Sept. 2021: https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/houston-has-a-problem-chinese-backdoor-threatens-next-texas-blackout/
  40. Power Transformer News, May 2023: https://www.powertransformernews.com/2023/03/28/extent-of-chinese-made-components-in-u-s-electrical-grid-still-unknown/
  41. POWER Magazine, June 2024 on Power Transformers long lead times: https://www.powermag.com/the-transformer-crisis-an-industry-on-the-brink/
  42. Utility Dive article on long lead times (80-120 months for large high voltage transformers) Feb. 2025 : https://www.utilitydive.com/news/electric-transformer-shortage-nrel-niac/738947/
  43. Wood Mackensie report on large Transformers, April 2025: https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/supply-shortages-and-an-inflexible-market-give-rise-to-high-power-transformer-lead-times/
  44. Electric Contractor on Transformer long lead times: https://www.ecmag.com/magazine/articles/article-detail/transformer-availability-still-lagging-behind-demand

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ENERGY MATTERS!

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Ken Haapala is President of the organization, “Science and Environmental Policy Project. Ken has been publishing TWTW (The Week That Was) Newsletter since the 1990’s. His informative Newsletters can be found here. This week, Mr. Haapala’s quote of the week is apropos for the importance of energy in our lives.

“The cavemen had the same natural resources at their disposal as we have
today, and the difference between their standard of living and ours is a difference between the knowledge they could bring to bear on those resources and the knowledge used today…..”

Thomas Sowell

I would continue from Sowell’s quote….

To produce sufficient energy that drives our economy, industry and nearly every comfort and convenience that we have come to enjoy since muscle power provided most of the energy for farming and transportation only 125 years ago….

The path to Net-Zero carbon is a path to Socialism, decarbonizing electricity and transportation energy will not improve human health or improve air quality. The so-called transition to reduced carbon dioxide production (aka Net-Zero or IRA) is disconnected from reality and there is no plan to keep an adequate energy supply for sustaining our current life styles, industrial production, freedom of travel and economic prosperity. The current government policies are Anti-American. The Institute for Energy Research has chronicled 200 actions by the Biden Administration which make it harder to produce oil and gas. Link here. Expansion of the government Regulations that are a large part of the “War on Coal” are detailed by Paul Driessen and PA Pundits, “Congress And The Courts Enable Climate And Energy Fantasies And Government Expansion” Here. Coal power restrictions and the likely electricity Blackouts in the future is chronicled by America’s Power, Here. Also, the author’s presentation to the ENERUM Energy Forum, stating “There is NO Energy Policy, only a policy of Decarbonization”, August 2022, Here. More recently, my takeaways of my PowerGen Panel discussion, here.

I used to think the Democrats and Swamp Bureaucrats in government were trained in, “Political Science”, and not real technical engineering science. At one time I thought they just did not understand the technical details of energy and electricity generation and were naive. However, the fact is, there are enough smart, technically trained engineers in the Bureaucracy (14,000 in the DOE & NETL plus 95,000 contractors and 18,000 in the EPA. with an almost $10 Billion Budget) Biden has the engineering talent resources to have become informed if he chose too. The Department of Energy, NETL, EPA, DOD all employ thousands of engineers. Now after observing the energy and electricity policies of the last three years of the Biden Administration I am of the strong opinion that the weakening of America through the “CCP Trojan Horse” Climate Policies…are in fact, all intentional. Many references are provided to support this conclusion in this and previous articles I have written. Links to these articles are provided below.

Eliminating or attempting to eliminate hydrocarbons from use in America is a movement toward de-growth, de-industrialization, food shortages, more inflation and restrictions on our freedoms. Simply stated: Over Regulated & Restrictive Big Government Socialism.

Net-Zero carbon is a path of the politicians to wield even more control over our lives. It is a political movement by unelected NGO’s to influence government officials. The “Swamp Bureaucrats” are out of touch with Reality and the current “Green New Deal” Climate Policies, are codified as the (mis-named) “Inflation Reduction Act“. This sadly, is the result of years of very well organized scare tactics and court actions intended to instill fear and used effectively to demonize the fuels that our society depends on. The war on carbon is not based on science. Net-Zero Carbon is a path to weaken the people of the free western world. This began with the Presidency of Bill Clinton and the ramping up of New Source Review lawsuits and then was further expanded by the revolving door of employment of radical extremists into high government positions during the Obama Administration. An informative report by the 114th Congress is here. My take on the beginning of the War on Carbon is here. My thoughts on the major U.S. Energy policy influencers, here.

Depending on 100% carbon free fuels (and continuing our high quality of life) by 2050 is delusional and impossible!

I have written much on the origins of the war on carbon and the destructive path of prematurely shutting down coal plants for reliable electricity generation. An Energy Forum presentation and three previous articles are here , here and here. In this article I will attempt to consolidate previous thoughts into one to discuss reality. Also a realistic approach to reducing carbon emissions while keeping America’s productive capacity and economy energized.

Energy is the Economy & Energy is the Sustainer of Our High Quality of Life.

We must be realistic about how fast we can reduce carbon emissions without destroying America as we know and love it. Energy powers life as we have come to enjoy it. Each American uses between 830,000 to 1,000,000 BTUs of energy each day. The energy we need and depend on each day is described in numerous articles, three of these previous articles are here, here and here. This quantity and reliability of energy from conventional sources cannot be replaced with wind and solar. Period. See my previous article on the enormity of the energy we depend on, Here. We have come to depend on this quantity of affordable, reliable energy of which 87% is sourced from gasoline, natural gas, Diesel, coal, Jet fuel and nuclear. The current government path is attempting to abolish fossil fuels which provide over 79% of our energy. The figure above showing 89%+ conventional fuels including nuclear and old hydroelectric plants. I consider these (Nuclear, Gas, Coal, Petroleum and Old Hydroelectric plants) all conventional forms of energy. America will continue to require a minimum of 100 Quadrillion BTUs of energy per year and grow to more than 100 Quads with population growth and more application of technology, such as Data Centers and AI. Read more about the increase in electricity growth, here, here and here. These new Data Centers use nearly as much power as aluminum smelting operations. Some over 250 MW each. It will take much more electricity generation to electrify vehicles and power data centers. Data centers today use about 4% of total electricity use. The future of “Electrifying Everything” suggests an increase in electricity use and instantaneous demand, not a decrease.

Reliable Primary Energy and Electricity = Continued and Sustainable High Quality of Life

Energy and affordable/reliable electricity generation is a pre-requisite to sustain our current quality of life and freedom. The sources for this energy beyond 2050, in my opinion, will be from conventional forms of energy: Natural Gas, Nuclear, Coal, Gasoline, Diesel, Jet Fuel and yes, including Coal

Furthermore, Crude oil, natural gas and coal provide the feedstock for production of thousands of products, and including food production. Energy is required for our high quality of life and including all basic essentials. Including Food, Steel, Cement, Plastics, Water Purification, Sewage Treatment and Fertilizer. When energy costs rise, they do in fact contribute to inflation. Why? Because energy is used for everything! From fertilizer for food production to the processing and transportation of ice cream. Primary metals, such as aluminum, copper & steel use enormous quantities of primary energy to produce. Much of that production has been shut down in the U.S. and moved to Asia.

Take aluminum as an example. This is from an article in the WSJ and a presentation I made in 2016. This shows how China climbed from nearly zero aluminum production in the year 2000 to becoming the major producer of over 50% of the world’s aluminum production by 2016. This rise of China’s economy is fueled by energy use. A reminder, it takes about 5 kWh’s of electricity to produce one pound of aluminum. (about 45,000 BTU’s to smelt one pound) This is for just smelting, and it does not include refining of Bauxite to Alumina, transportation or manufacturing energy to produce final products. China uses mostly coal fuel for their aluminum production. The rise of China’s energy and economy is covered by previous articles here and here.

From Dick Storm presentation to the Delaware County Bar Association, July 2016

The IEA report on energy costs impacting food report is here. The production cost component of most grains is about 50% energy related. The small red circles represent the energy cost component of production. Therefore, it is a fact that rising energy costs contribute to inflation.

From IEA Report, How Energy Crisis is Exacerbating the Food Crisis

A Realistic Approach to Electricity Generation with Reduced Carbon Dioxide Emissions

America has led the world in the reduction of the rate of carbon dioxide emissions since 2007. How? Largely due to the substitution of electric power generation using natural gas fuel for power generation. That is, replacing power generation once accomplished with coal fuel, with natural gas powered generation. Natural gas power generation in a modern combined cycle gas turbine plant produces about 50% of the CO2 emissions as produced by coal power generation. The U.S. total carbon dioxide emissions are shown on the chart below. CO2 emissions dropped from a high of about 6,000 million metric tons to about 4,600 million metric tons in 2020. The sharp drop 2019-2020 was due to Covid and shrinking economic activity. However, the reduction in U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide is almost 25%. As the economy recovers CO2 is expected to increase to about 5,000 million metric tons in 2023. This is still a 16 % reduction from 2007. The most effective path to further reductions in total carbon dioxide emissions is to use more nuclear power for power generation. However, due to supply-chain limits and restrictive Federal NRC Regulations, sufficient capacity of new nuclear plants to replace the over 102,000 MW of coal plants shut down since 2012 will take decades. See previous articles here and here.

Just to put the U.S. CO2 Emissions in perspective. Here is a chart from Our World in Data which shows the CO2 emissions of various countries. The U.S. produces about 16% of the world’s CO2 emissions. China produces about 26%. The comparisons of China and U.S. energy and manufacturing was discussed in a previous article.

Carbon dioxide emissions are primarily a matter of hydrocarbon chemistry. Both coal and gas fuels contain carbon and when combusted the products of combustion form CO2 . The creation of CO2 from combustion is impossible to change. Fuels that have fewer carbon atoms, such as methane, create less CO2 than coal. Coal fuel derives most of it’s energy from the combustion of the carbon molecules. Methane derives most of it’s energy from the combustion of the hydrogen molecules. The figure below shows the electric power production 2004 and 2019. The greater use of natural gas is due to the Hydraulic Fracturing Revolution which greatly increased U.S. natural gas production with a consequent reduction is natural gas pricing. Harold Hamm’s book, “Gamechanger” chronicles the Shale Gas Revolution. The increased supply of low cost natural gas kept electricity prices stable until current times.

The electric power generation from natural gas in 2024 is expected to be over 50%. Is This Good?

Why? Because of increased solar and wind generation facilities need to be backed up with reliable, dispatchable Bulk Power generation capacity. Also, reliable coal plants are being prematurely retired and demolished, which I discussed in a previous article here. Therefore natural gas generation has grown rapidly from both the shutdowns of coal plants and the increased CCGT (Combined Cycle Gas Turbine) plants built to provide power when the wind is not blowing and sun not shining.

Greater dependence on natural gas is good for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, as the U.S. has demonstrated since 2007. See chart below.

However, Dependence on “Just in Time” pipeline supplied natural gas is risky for a reliable electricity supply. Why is it risky? Because if pipelines are compromised whether by extreme weather, mechanical failure, government regulations, or by criminal sabotage, the fuel supply can be interrupted. With no fuel on site storage, a major highly efficient and state of the art, 600 MW CCGT power plant will reach zero power output in minutes when pipeline gas stops. However, Coal and nuclear plants can store sufficient primary energy for months and in the case of nuclear, years of generation. A Balanced generation portfolio of at least 75% Dispatchable nuclear and coal plants is preferred, in my experience.

Slide from Dick Storm USCB-OLLI Course, Energy and Electricity Generation 2021

One of the main reasons the total CO2 emissions of the U.S. dropped since 2007 is largely due to the increased use of natural gas to replace coal for power generation. Good, as long as a reliable gas supply is maintained. As mentioned above, and worth repeating, the U.S. will likely reach 50% + dependency on natural gas fueled power plants for fuel in 2024. I see this as an unbalanced and risky generation portfolio. But, then most of my career was as a coal power generation engineer.

Air Quality has Improved since 1970

The overall trend of improving air quality is shown on the chart from the EPA below. Yes, in 1970, the EPA was needed to clean our air. The six major pollutants of CO, Sulfur, Lead, Ozone, Particulates and Nitrogen Oxides have been drastically reduced to healthy levels, even as population, GDP and vehicle miles driven have increased.

https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/air-quality-national-summary

Chemistry of Combustion and CO2

Let’s get back to the fundamental chemistry of natural gas and why natural gas produces less carbon dioxide than coal for the same unit of power generation. Gas power generation produces about half the CO2 of a similar unit of electricity generation from coal. Why? Primarily because natural gas is over 95% methane. The chemical symbol of Methane is CH4 . That is four molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of carbon. This compared to coal which, depending on the coal rank, and on an ash and moisture free basis, derives about 95% of its heating value from carbon. This is the main reason of why and how America has led the world in carbon dioxide reductions since 2012. Substituting coal power generation with natural gas can provide the same primary energy as coal with about 50% of the carbon dioxide emissions, due mostly to the differences of carbon intensity of methane and coal. Another factor in power generation is, that “Combined Cycle Gas Turbine” (CCGT) plants are much more efficient than Rankine Cycle coal fueled steam plants. Modern gas fueled CCGT plants can achieve up to about 65% efficiency, Ultra-supercritical Steam plants up to about 42% efficiency.

Here are examples of coal and methane molecules to illustrate the different carbon intensity of coal and natural gas.

A molecule of methane gas has one central atom of carbon with a molecular weight of 12 surrounded by four atoms of hydrogen, each with a molecular weight of 1.

A coal molecule, by comparison is mostly carbon and derives most of it’s heating value (primary energy) from carbon.

Fundamentals of Energy and Work

America uses right at 100 Quadrillion BTUs of Primary energy. Previous article here. Each BTU (British Thermal Unit) when converted to work at 100% efficiency is equivalent to 778 Foot Pounds of work and when 3,412.6 BTU’s are converted to electricity at 100% efficiency can generate 1 kWh. Human muscle power/energy is equivalent to about 100 watts. Think about using a hand pushed lawnmower, (if you remember those), and compare to cutting your lawn with a 2 Hp gasoline powered lawnmower with less than a gallon of gas in the tank. More on replacing muscle power, energy and economic prosperity are written on previous articles, here, here, here and here.

Energy and Economic Prosperity

Designing and manufacturing products provides jobs. Manufacturing provides funding for R&D to create new and better products. It is best for America if manufacturing was mostly within our borders. I have written on this before and the quote below is copied from substack, Doomberg (3)

Energy is not an input into the economy, IT IS THE ECONOMY. Humanity organizes its economic activities to ensure a steady growth in the extraction and exploitation of primary energy because energy is life, standards of living are defined by how much energy is available to be exploited, and all humans everywhere are perpetually seeking a higher standard of living.

Primary energy is what powers a modern economy and America needs about 100 Quadrillion BTUs of energy each year. This was described in the series parts 1-4.(50, 51, 52, 53)

So, Where Does the 100 Quadrillion BTUs of Primary Energy Come From?

Here are the sources of Primary Energy for the U.S. in 2022.

As can be seen conventional fuels of natural gas, petroleum, nuclear and coal provide 87% of the energy we need (more than 89% if old hydroelectric plants are included). Eliminating fossil fuels (79%) will create great harm to our economy. Those of us that were adults in the 1970’s remember the economic pain and disruption of our lives due to the Oil Embargoes. Temporary loss of industrial capacity, jobs, and restrictions on travel and our way of life. The Oil Embargoes of 1973-1980 were temporary and America solved the energy shortages! Now, Forcing Net-Zero Carbon by current government Regulations will be irreversible and permanent. Our politicians could take a look at the impact on the German economy from their attempt to replace coal and nuclear with wind and solar. It has not worked and is well documented. Here are two references, Here and here.

Loss of Supply-Chains are Nearly Irreversible

Once Net-Zero Carbon is imposed, the Domestic supply chains will be lost. Therefore, without a rational transition Net Zero Carbon policies, aka “Inflation Reduction Act or Green New Deal”, will literally plunge us into darkness and despair if we do not wake up to the need to do much more with natural gas, coal and nuclear power to generate the electricity. We must have reliable, affordable and Dispatchable energy and electricity to sustain our lives. More energy to grow and prosper. I wrote and article covering the path of the U.S. nuclear power industry here. Long story short, we mortally wounded the nuclear steam system supply-chain with over-regulations by the NRC and other government decrees.

Summary and Conclusions

Reduction of Federal Regulations should be top priority. The total government Swamp Bureaucracy has been engaged to restrict conventional forms of energy. This must stop.

A rational path forward is to roll back EPA Rules to those in effect in 2012. It is my strong opinion and observation that any rules applied after 2012, especially those overly restrictive on coal plant emissions are simply weaponization of government against coal. Similar restrictive rules by other government agencies have been applied toward the production, refining and transport by pipeline of oil and gas. The Congressional report here, explains why I picked 2012 as a Roll back year..

Replacing much (but not all) of the 100 Quadrillion BTUs of needed energy in America could be done with carbon free nuclear electrification and even including hydrogen production from nuclear generated electric power. However, with current regulations and supply chain limitations, expanding nuclear beyond the current fleet will take decades. In my view nuclear power is a very good approach. As it was in 1954 when the head of the Atomic Energy Commission proclaimed, “Electricity from nuclear will be too cheap to meter”. It took about 30 years to reach 20% of U.S. electricity generation from nuclear. Since then, enormous regulatory roadblocks have been enacted into law that make a repeat 30 year success story very unlikely. So, what do I recommend? I recommend rolling back EPA rules to those in effect in 2012 and building new coal and nuclear plants. Coal and nuclear generation is the foundation of electricity reliability even today when there is extreme weather, especially extremely cold winter periods. So, why not build some more proven coal and nuclear plants to strengthen our energy and electricity reliability and security with a “Balanced Portfolio” of generation?

In closing, let me quote chapter 8 of Donn Dears book, “Clean Energy Crisis“. This is what Mr. Dears calculated that it would take to replace fossil fuels with carbon free power. Build these:

881 new nuclear power plants similar in size to one of Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle Units

BTW it took over ten years to just build two 1,100 MW units at Vogtle

995,141 new 2.5 MW wind turbines

3,919,006 MW of PV of solar power

Read Mr. Dears book. It is only 128 pages including the index, Dears Bio and references. Please also read the other references below. Most importantly, become an energy savvy voter in November. America needs a realistic path forward for energy and electricity production. Thank you for reading this.

Yours very truly,

Dick Storm, March 9, 2024

References for further reading and research

  1. Wall Street Journal Editors Opinion, “Big Climate (Government) Censors Opposition to EV’s” : https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-electric-vehicle-mandate-american-fuel-and-petrochemical-manufacturers-ads-fcc-climate-power-578876e5?mod=latest_headlines
  2. NASA Goddard Space Center information on the Environment and methane gas: https://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/features/archive/200409_methane/
  3. Doomberg, Atlas Won’t Shrug”, Energy is the Economy, feb. 20, 2024: https://doomberg.substack.com/p/atlas-wont-shrug
  4. Comparisons of China and U.S. from an energy perspective, Jan. 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/01/18/comparison-of-china-energy-electricity-generation-with-u-s-a/
  5. China CO2 Emissions about 26% of world total in 2022, by Statista: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1037051/china-global-carbon-emission-share/#:~:text=China%27s%20share%20in%20the%20global%20carbon%20emissions%202002%2D2022&text=China%20accounted%20for%2026%20percent,rapid%20industrialization%20and%20economic%20growth.
  6. Without New Thinking on Nuclear Power, Anti-Carbon Policy Can’t Succeed, Nov. 11, 2021 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/11/13/without-new-thinking-on-nuclear-power-anti-carbon-climate-policy-cant-succeed/
  7. Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 2, The Reality of Replacing Conventional Forms of Energy, Jan. 2024: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/02/06/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-part-2-some-facts-on-the-reality-of-replacing-conventional-forms-of-energy/
  8. Review of Harold Hamm’s Book, “Gamechanger” on Dick Storm blog: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/09/17/harold-hamms-book-game-changer-a-must-read-for-elected-officials-and-candidates-for-elective-office/
  9. “The War on Carbon, How it Came to Be”, Dick Storm blog, Oct. 16, 2021: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/10/16/the-war-on-carbon-how-it-came-to-be/
  10. Thomas J. Shepstone article, ” Wake up America, Your Energy Security is Being Sabotaged from Within” March 4, 2024 : https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tom-shepstone-b70b04b_wake-up-america-your-energy-security-is-activity-7170753138457567233-SqI3?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  11. The Importance of Energy to Power Our Lives, Part 2, Aug. 28, 2020 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2020/08/28/the-importance-of-energy-part-2-our-energy-sources/
  12. The Importance of Energy, Part 3, Heat Engines, Sept. 9, 2020: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2020/09/09/the-importance-of-energy-part-3-heat-engines-a-primer/
  13. 830,000 BTUs per Day/Person, Sept. 2021: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/09/16/830000-btus-per-day-person/
  14. Understanding Data Center Electricity Demand by C&C Techgroup, June 2023: https://cc-techgroup.com/data-center-energy-consumption/
  15. Power Hungry Google Data Centers to be Built in S.C. Charleston Business Journal, Feb. 15, 2024: https://charlestonbusiness.com/tech-giant-google-coming-to-dorchester-county/
  16. America is Running Out of Electricity Generation, Washington Post, March 7, 2024: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/amid-explosive-demand-america-is-running-out-of-power/ar-BB1jtM69
  17. EPA Air Quality Trends, Nov. 2023: https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/air-quality-national-summary
  18. Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 1,  79 Quadrillion BTUs, The Enormity of the Fossil Energy Systems Providing Sustainable Lives, Jan. 11, 2024 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/01/11/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-part-1-79-quadrillion-btusthe-enormity-of-the-fossil-energy-systems-providing-sustainable-lives/
  19. The Green Energy Crisis is Here, Part 1, May 29, 2024 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/05/29/the-green-energy-crisis-is-here-part-1/
  20. The Green Energy Crisis, Part 2, The Influencers that Caused it, :
  21. The Green Energy Crisis, Part 3, June 26, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/06/26/green-energy-crisis-part-3-public-energy-education-is-needed-each-person-in-the-u-s-uses-about-315-million-btus-of-primary-energy-year-this-is-not-practical-or-even-possible-to-replace-with-win/
  22. The German De-Industrialization Experience from Too Much Dependence on Green Power, Politico on German Indstry Shutting Down, Moving to China due to shortages and high Costs of energy: https://www.politico.eu/article/rust-belt-on-the-rhine-the-deindustrialization-of-germany/
  23. Bloomberg, German Industry Days as Industrial Superpower Coming to an End, due to Energy Costs/shortages: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-02-10/why-germany-s-days-as-an-industrial-superpower-are-coming-to-an-end?embedded-checkout=true
  24. ENERUM Energy Forum in Columbus, Ohio, August 2022. Dick Storm Presentation on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_presentation-and-speakers-notes-from-august-activity-7068650158862827520-B-_W?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktophttps://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7056884647858765824?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A%28V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7056884647858765824%29
  25. Wake Up Americans, Your Energy and Electricity Reliability is At Risk!:
  26. Hawaii Electric, “A Glimpse Into The Future of The Green New Deal” : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2020/06/03/hawaii-a-gimpse-into-the-future-of-the-green-new-deal/
  27. American Dream=100 Quadrillion BTUs of Energy/Year, July 4th, 2022 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/07/04/american-dream-100-quadrillion-btus/
  28. You Tube Video, “Juice” Part #1, Texas 2021 Blackout and concerns for the Grid: https://juicetheseries.com
  29. Five Great Videos about the Grid, Feb. 2024: https://open.substack.com/pub/blackmon/p/meredith-angwin-5-great-videos-about?r=kv1a9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
  30. The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Nations and the Realities of Energy, Dick Storm Blog, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/08/15/the-rise-fall-and-rise-again-of-nations-and-the-realities-of-energy/
  31. Institute for Energy Research (IER) listing of 200 actions by the Biden Administration and Democrats to make it harder to produce oil and gas in the U.S. March 2024: https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/200-Ways-the-Biden-Administration-Has-Made-it-Harder-to-Produce-Oil-Gas.pdf
  32. NRC Archives on the History of the Lewis Strauss, then AEC Head, phrase, “Nuclear Power Will Be Too Cheap to Meter”: https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/students/history-101/too-cheap-to-meter.html
  33. Excellent article by Paul Driessen on the expansion of Government Regulations that restrict America’s Energy and Electricity Producers, PA Pundits, Feb. 2024: https://papundits.wordpress.com/2024/02/13/congress-and-the-courts-enable-climate-and-energy-fantasies-and-government-expansion/
  34. Robert Bryce article on NGO’s and how they impact Federal Regulations, March 2024: https://open.substack.com/pub/robertbryce/p/these-10-charts-caused-an-ngo-hissy?r=kv1a9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
  35. Grid Operators Warn of Blackouts due to Excessive EPA Rules, America’s Power, March 6, 2024: https://americaspower.org/operators-regulators-concerned/
  36. 114th Congress, Majority Staff Report, Obama’s Carbon Mandate, August 2015: http://www.scientificintegrityinstitute.org/USSEWP080415.pdf
  37. Dick Storm USCB-OLLI Courses, Energy and Electricity Generation 2021, 2022 and 2023
  38. Stanford University Report on Human Energy by Muscle power: http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2014/ph240/labonta1/#:~:text=The%20average%20human%2C%20at%20rest,can%20output%20over%202%2C000%20watts.
  39. Dick Storm Rotary Club and Sun City, “Money Talks” Club presentations.
  40. Ron Stein LinkedIn article on the importance of crude oil: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ronaldstein_are-policymakers-oblivious-to-the-importance-activity-7165495295676461056-v58C?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  41. “Clean Energy Crisis”, Book by Donn Dears, 2023. An excellently written, short and concise review of the energy crisis we are facing. Available on Amazon: https://ddears.com/2023/01/03/clean-energy-crisis/
  42. Energy and Economic Prosperity, Comparison of China and U.S. Dick Storm Blog, Sept. 9, 2020 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2020/09/21/part-4-the-importance-of-energy-to-economic-prosperity/
  43. The rise of China’s Influence in the World and the Need to Reshore Manufacturing to the U.S. , Dick Storm Blog, Nov. 3, 2020: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2020/11/03/chinas-economic-influence-in-the-world-and-some-thoughts-on-the-need-to-reshore-american-manufacturing/  
  44. How the Energy Crisis is Exacerbating the Food Crisis, IEA, 2023: https://www.iea.org/commentaries/how-the-energy-crisis-is-exacerbating-the-food-crisis
  45. Dick Storm presentation to the “Delaware County Bar Association in Media, PA, “Energy and Economic Prosperity, My Thoughts” July 2016: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2016/07/25/energy-and-economic-prosperity-my-thoughts-dick-storm/
  46. Ken Haapala’s Science Engineering and Environment Policy Project Newsletters, Main page: http://www.sepp.org/the-week-that-was.cfm
  47. Hawaii’s Green New Deal, A Glimpse into the Future of Electricity Reliability and Cost, based on the “Energy Island of Hawaii, June, 2020: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2020/06/03/hawaii-a-gimpse-into-the-future-of-the-green-new-deal/
  48. Dick Storm Panel Discussion Takeaways at PowerGen 2024, LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_i-had-the-honor-of-being-on-a-powergen-panel-activity-7156046708139782144-zPoZ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  49. U.S. Energy Policy Influencers from Dick Storm’s viewpoint, Jan. 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/01/04/influencers-of-american-energy-policy/
  50. Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 1,  79 Quadrillion BTUs, The Enormity of the Fossil Energy Systems Providing Sustainable Lives, Jan. 11, 2024 : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/01/11/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-part-1-79-quadrillion-btusthe-enormity-of-the-fossil-energy-systems-providing-sustainable-lives/
  51. Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 2, The Reality of Replacing Conventional Forms of Energy, Jan. 2024: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/02/06/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-part-2-some-facts-on-the-reality-of-replacing-conventional-forms-of-energy/
  52.  Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 3, The Transition that Isn’t, from the perspective of Minerals, Feb. 8, 2024: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/02/08/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-part-3-the-transition-that-isnt-from-the-perspective-of-minerals/
  53. Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 4, The True Agenda for Climate Policies, Feb. 13, 2024: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/02/13/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-electricity-generation-and-environmental-protection-part-4-what-is-the-true-agenda-for-climate-policies/
  54. PJM Triples Annual Load Growth Projections Due to New Data Center Demand, Utility Dive, January 2024: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/pjm-interconnection-load-forecast-data-center-ev-dominion-firstenergy/704040/
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Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Electricity Generation and Environmental Protection, Part 4: What is the True Agenda for Climate Policies?

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Energy and climate policies, if not reversed, are progressing toward shortages of not only fuels for transportation and electricity, but also the supply of products for our materialistic society.(359) This includes food supplies, freedom of travel, quality of life in the western world, weakening of the Free World economy and including an acceleration in the decline of American influence in the world and more…. There is no climate emergency and there are thousands of credible atmospheric and climate scientists that have studied, researched, spoken out and written science based and scholarly articles on the impact of human involvement on climate. However……

The policy makers, including the U.S. EPA, Congress and the Bureaucrats in the Biden Administration have not paid attention to or seemed the least bit interested in digging into the facts.

Climate has changed naturally and with some influence from human behavior. A long list of references are copied below done by credible scientists that understand Meteorology, Atmospheric Science, Engineering and Physics who have analyzed climate and weather patterns. Eight of my individual favorite experts are Dr. Judith Curry, Donn Dears, Dr. Roy Spencer, Dr. John Christy, Dr. Richard Lindzen, the NASA Right Climate Stuff Team, Dr. William Happer and Anthony Watts. Some of these and other experts have joined the CO2 Coalition, Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), CLINTEL, the Heartland Institute, Heritage Foundation and others. There are over 330 references included below. I am not an expert on climate or weather so I defer to those mentioned (and listed below, most with live links) to explain why we should not destroy our country in the name of so called, Climate Policies” to save the planet. (347) There is no Climate Emergency, so why is the Free World Sabotaging our Energy and Electricity Infra-structure? Please bear with me and read on. It is very complicated and cleverly done so that scare tactics with no accountability has been thoroughly obfuscated….According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the meaning of Obfuscate is: “to make something less clear and harder to understand, especially intentionally“

Origins of Anti-American, Anti-Human, De-Industrialization and De-Growth Environmental Policies

So, how did such wrong headed policies come to be? I wrote a couple years ago, on my thoughts (and with references) how the war on carbon began. That article and references is here. I also, wrote on the Czech Republic’s Vaclav Klaus book, Freedom is not free, What is Endangered, Climate or Freedom? ”Blue Planet in Green Shackles” here and the relationship of energy policies and economic growth for the U.S. here and comparison of U.S. energy and electricity use to that used by China, here. These articles were written more than a year ago.

Last week I finished reading an interesting book on the history of the Federal Reserve. Not expecting to find information on energy or climate policy, one chapter turned out to be quite informative on the world-wide environmental movement. The meticulously researched book is entitled, “The Creature from Jekyll Island” by Edward Griffin. (341) Here are some excerpts from chapter 24, “Doomsday Mechanisms”. here is a scan of pages 531 & 532.

Attempting to De-Obfuscate the topic of Climate Policies?

This is referring to world financial/economic leaders meeting about the time of the drafting of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Also known as the “Earth Summit” More info on the U.N. conference and the IPCC here. (1, 66, 342, 343, 344 )

Interestingly, the author of “The Creature from Jekyll Island” does not mention the “World Economic Forum” but many of the same individuals or the organizations the WEF members are part of, or have been involved all along with the World Economic Forum. (171, 172, 173, 174, 175)

The WEF influencers are linked. Examples are the Environmental activist. NGO’s, U.S. government Bureaucrats, Billionaire Climate activists and the United Nations. Check the references below to verify for yourself. (170, 195, 196, 197, 198, 345, 346, 358)

In addition to the links to the credible organizations with Internet articles listed below, There are numerous books published which also corroborate the twisting of science by the IPCC. (47, 344, 354) These and more are also shown in the references below.

Conclusions

  1. Anthropogenic Climate change policies are not needed and are in fact, weakening America and the western world.
  2. Much of the science behind the Climate Policies is distorted and flawed
  3. The true agenda of the U.N., WEF, Environmental activist NGO’s, Billionaires (358) and politicians(360) is Control over the citizens, not protection of the environment. (355)

Please check and read the references listed below, then decide for yourself.

Yours very truly,

Dick Storm, Feb. 13, 2024

Here are some References for further reading to support my conclusions:

  1. U.N. 1992 Earth Summit: https://www.un.org/en/conferences/environment/rio1992
  2. Dick Storm Blog post on the Origins of the “War on Carbon, How it Came to Be”: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/10/16/the-war-on-carbon-how-it-came-to-be/
  3. Living with Agenda 21, Surrendering Our Freedoms by Dr. H. Lawrence Zillmer, Copyright 2012
  4. U.N. Agenda 21 Info: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/Agenda21.pdf
  5. U.N. Sustainable Development Report, 2021: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/UN-DESA_Back_Common_Future_En.pdf
  6. Capital Research Center, Report on Climate Dollars https://www.climatedollars.org/full-study/a-short-history-of-global-warming-fears/
  7. The NEW Leviathan, Crown Forum, NY 2012 Check Appendix X and summary of $9 Billion in Assets
  8. Wikipedia, “War on Coal” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_coal
  9. Politico, “War on Coal” https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/05/inside-war-on-coal-000002/
  10. Dick Storm Blog post, “Comparing U.S. and China Energy & Electricity Use” Jan. 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/01/18/comparison-of-china-energy-electricity-generation-with-u-s-a/
  11. “Energy & Economic Prosperity”, Jan. 2023 on Dick Storm Blog: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/01/18/comparison-of-china-energy-electricity-generation-with-u-s-a/
  12. Bloomberg, China to Build 150 new nuclear plants, valued about $440 Billion. November 2021: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-climate-goals-hinge-on-440-billion-nuclear-power-plan-to-rival-u-s#xj4y7vzkg
  13. POWER Magazine, 1,000 MW Chinese Coal Plant starts up in Mongolia, Dec 2021: https://www.powermag.com/first-1-gw-unit-of-major-china-coal-fired-plant-comes-online/
  14. U.S.- ASME- Nuclear Status Report July 2022: https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/infographic-nuclear-s-aging-issue
  15. U.S. IRA Funds Given to China for Green Power, Cowboy News Jan. 2023: https://cowboystatedaily.com/2022/12/31/energy-dept-gives-more-taxpayer-money-to-chinese-companies-barrasso-demands-answers/
  16. 14.9 GW of Coal Generating Capacity to be shut down in 2022, WUWT January 2022, David Middleton: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/01/12/us-to-shutter-14-9-gw-of-coal-fired-and-add-46-1-gw-of-utility-scale-solar-pv-in-2022/
  17. The Magic Washing Machine, Hans Rosling, TED Talk. Very informative on the importance of energy to improve the quality of life for millions of people living in poverty:  https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_magic_washing_machine
  18. World Nuclear Organization. China continues to dominate the market for new nuclear build, with 21 reactors under construction at the end of July 2022. In 2018 China became the first country to commission two new designs – the AP1000 and the EPR. China is marketing the Hualong One for export, a largely indigenous reactor design.:  https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/nuclear-power-in-the-world-today.aspx
  19. Jan 4th Blog, Dick Storm’s Nominations of top 16 Energy Policy Influencers: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/01/04/influencers-of-american-energy-policy/(opens in a new tab)
  20. Rise of China and Need to Reshore American Manufacturing: https://wp.me/p5DzAo-57
  21. IEA China Energy Feb 2022: https://www.iea.org/countries/china
  22. Forbes on China Generating Capacity, about 2,390 GW, Feb 2022: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thebakersinstitute/2022/04/26/coal-to-power-chinas-energy-transition/?sh=7437abc81b9e
  23. EIA China Energy Facts, 2021 : https://www.eia.gov/international/overview/country/CHN
  24. Carbon Brief.org: https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-what-does-chinas-coal-push-mean-for-its-climate-goals/
  25. World of CO2 new website, Jan. 2023: https://www.the-world-of-co2.org
  26. Carbon Footprint by country, World Population Review : https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/carbon-footprint-by-country
  27. World Nuclear Association Info on Nuclear Power Contribution to Reducing Manmade Carbon Dioxide Emissions:  https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/energy-and-the-environment/nuclear-energy-and-sustainable-development.aspx
  28. BP Statistical Review 2021 (released (July 2022): https://www.bp.com
  29. POWER Magazine, Sonal Patel, Sept 9, 2022, EPA Rules likely to shut down about 86 GW of coal generation in next few years: https://www.powermag.com/group-epas-coordinated-regulatory-assault-on-coal-power-could-push-retirements-beyond-86-gw-by-2030/?oly_enc_id=3247D5884312C9W
  30. China and World Carbon Dioxide emitters Columbia Univ.: https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/research/report/getting-30-60-how-china-s-biggest-coal-power-cement-and-steel-corporations-are-responding-national
  31. Davos 2023, China to Boost Oil Demand by at least 500,000 BBL’s/day: https://energynow.com/2023/01/davos-2023-china-to-boost-oil-demand-by-up-to-500000-bpd/
  32. WSJ, July 19, 2022, Climate Policy Causes Power Shortages : https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-wests-climate-policy-debacle-global-warming-energy-putin-russia-fossil-fuel-power-summer-heat-11658084481
  33. WSJ July 19, 2022, Importance of Nuclear: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-global-nuclear-comeback-green-energy-fossil-fuels-supply-climate-mandates-power-generation-11658170860?cx_testId=3&cx_testVariant=cx_4&cx_artPos=1&mod=WTRN#cxrecs_s
  34. Canary Media, “China Owns the Solar Supply Chain, Jeopardizing the Energy Transition”, July 23, 2022: https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/china-owns-the-solar-supply-chain-jeopardizing-the-energy-transition?utm_campaign=canary&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=220673447&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9qdplyTWSJwNbSUcaZsyQqMfEGosX_vUIpTFtv0RmnmBdVZVFKyZrThPLeb_nvaJ635TpzDjz8qaeF7K3f2mujCqjbtm3ezmo3tQu9mry8L1boHrk&utm_source=newsletter
  35. IEA Solar Supply Chain Report, July 2022: https://www.iea.org/reports/solar-pv-global-supply-chains?utm_content=buffer2109b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
  36. IEA Energy and Food Production: https://www.iea.org/commentaries/how-the-energy-crisis-is-exacerbating-the-food-crisis
  37. Liberty Energy, “Bettering Human Lives Report” An excellent resource to show the importance of energy to living a High Quality of Life: https://www.libertyenergy.com/betteringhumanlivesv2/
  38. WNA Uranium Suppliers: https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/mining-of-uranium/world-uranium-mining-production.aspx
  39. POWER Magazine, August 1, 2022, OSAKI-CoolGen Plant J-Power, Japan: https://www.powermag.com/a-japanese-project-demonstrates-a-carbon-neutrality-pathway-for-coal-power/
  40. Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage, Global CCS: https://www.globalccsinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/State-of-the-Art-CCS-Technologies-2022.pdf
  41. Global CCS Institute Library:  https://www.globalccsinstitute.com/resources/multimedia-library/
  42. What are SMR’s? By International Atomic Energy Agency: https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/what-are-small-modular-reactors-smrs
  43. Dr. Nicolas Kokel Report on the importance of conventional forms of energy, August 2022: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/energy-transitions-reboot-dr-nicolas-kokel/
  44. Andy May, Petro-Physicist, Report on increased energy use in the world 2020-2021: https://andymaypetrophysicist.com/2023/01/05/energy-use-2020-to-2021/
  45. CLINTEL Scientists on Climate Change info, website: https://clintel.org
  46. World of CO2 new website, Jan. 2023:  https://www.the-world-of-co2.org
  47. Tim Ball, Corruption of Science, 2014: https://www.alachuacounty.us/Depts/epd/EPAC/BOOK%20REVIEW%20-%20‘THE%20DELIBERATE%20CORRUPTION%20OF%20CLIMATE%20SCIENCE%20by%20TIM%20BALL.pdf
  48. Donn Dears New Book, “Clean Energy Crisis”: https://wp.me/p5DzAo-Fg
  49. Bjorn Lomborg Science Direct, Energy and Social Changes, Jan. 2023: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162520304157
  50. CO2 Facts on Climate Change and Science Based Information: https://co2coalition.org
  51. WUWT Weaponizing Alarmism on Climate, Steven Koonin and Jordan Peterson: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/17/unsettled-climate-and-science-dr-steven-koonin/
  52. State of American Energy Report by API, The Solution is Here!:  https://events.api.org/reports/soae-2023/
  53. This report reveals much of what is wrong with the EPA. 114th Congress Report on Obama Carbon Policies and the revolving door of key people from well funded & Influential NGO Green Groups: http://www.scientificintegrityinstitute.org/USSEWP080415.pdf
  54. Washington Examiner: Gina McCarthy CEO of NRDC: https://eelegal.org/washington-examiner-gina-mccarthy-and-nrdc-together-again/
  55. Ken Braun’s article on Jennifer Graham background at Capital Research Center, “Green Watch”: https://capitalresearch.org/article/bonkers-about-batteries-the-unauthorized-biography-of-jennifer-granholm/
  56. Dept. of Interior Sec’y Deb Harland on Utah Land which has energy reserves: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/15/deb-haaland-national-monument-protections-joe-biden-trump
  57. E & E News June 6, 2023. How Green New Dealers became Washington Power Players: https://www.eenews.net/articles/how-green-new-dealers-became-washington-power-players/
  58. Profile of the Department of the Interior, compiled by Robert Stilson of CRC: https://www.influencewatch.org/government-agency/biden-administration-department-of-the-interior/
  59. CRC Profile of the Department of Energy: https://www.influencewatch.org/government-agency/biden-administration-department-of-energy/
  60. CRC on the EPA: https://www.influencewatch.org/government-agency/biden-administration-independent-agencies/#environmental-protection-agency
  61. CRC on the WH Council on Environmental Quality: https://www.influencewatch.org/government-agency/biden-administration-executive-office-of-the-president/#council-on-environmental-quality
  62. CRC on the WH Office of Domestic Climate Policy: https://www.influencewatch.org/government-agency/biden-administration-executive-office-of-the-president/#office-of-domestic-climate-policy
  63. CRC on the Office of Science and Technology Policy: https://www.influencewatch.org/government-agency/biden-administration-executive-office-of-the-president/#office-of-science-and-technology-policy
  64. CRC on environmental group connections in this blog post from June 2021: https://capitalresearch.org/article/nonprofits-in-the-biden-administration-special-interest-and-advocacy-groups/
  65. Science Matters on the Roots of Environmentalism, Jan 2023: https://rclutz.com/2023/01/06/from-nature-conservation-to-climate-calamity/#like-28807
  66. C. Paul Smith “Closing Argument on the Climate Change Hoax”:  https://www.cpaulsmith.com/palmyra-bookstore/the-climate-change-hoax-argument/
  67. The UK and European experiences with “Green Energy” should be a clear warning to the U.S.A., The Telegraph, June 11, 2023: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/britain-s-green-energy-disaster-should-be-an-awful-warning-to-americans/ar-AA1compu?OCID=ansmsnnews11
  68. How the Greens Went Mainstream, Foreign Policy, April 2021: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/04/23/how-the-greens-went-mainstream/
  69. Russian Funding of Anti-Fossil Fuels Groups in U.S. March 2022, The Hill: https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/596304-investigate-russias-covert-funding-of-us-anti-fossil-fuel-groups/
  70. Russian funding of greens in Europe, reported by the Guardian, June 19, 2014: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/19/russia-secretly-working-with-environmentalists-to-oppose-fracking
  71. Washinton Free Beacon article on EPA Requests DOJ to Investigate Dark Money to Environmental Activist Groups, October 2020:  https://freebeacon.com/national-security/epa-requests-doj-investigate-foreign-funding-of-environmental-groups/
  72. Dark Money accepted by Democrats from BlueGreen Alliance admission, Washington free Beacon May 24, 2023: https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/senate-finance-committee-dems-said-theyd-fight-dark-money-they-just-fawned-over-a-liberal-dark-money-operative/
  73. “So-Called” Democracy Alliance Investment Report, 2014: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1202744/da-portfolio2012-2014-042714.pdf
  74. Swiss Billionaire Bankrolls Biden Agenda through Arabella Advisors, Reported in Washington Free Beacon, April 4, 2023: https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/swiss-billionaire-bankrolls-biden-agenda-with-63-million-in-dark-money/
  75. Meet the Group behind Banning Gas Stoves, Rocky Mountain Institute Creates anti Gas Stove Campaign, partially funded by China, as reported in Washington free Beacon, January 16, 2023: https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/meet-the-green-energy-group-behind-the-study-thats-driving-calls-to-ban-gas-stoves/
  76. Stacey Abrams working with Group, Rewiring America, to Ban Gas Stoves. Group has ties with Chinese Funding, Washington Free Beacon, March 16, 2023: https://freebeacon.com/democrats/election-denier-stacey-abrams-is-now-working-to-eliminate-gas-stoves/
  77. Obama’s Man in China is now China’s Man in Washington, Max Baucus is talking head for China, Washington Free Beacon, May 21, 2020: https://freebeacon.com/national-security/obamas-man-in-china-now-beijings-man-in-washington/
  78. Numerous articles on Environmental Activists around the world, The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/us/topics/environmental-activism-3496
  79. BBC Report on 50 years of Activism, How the Biggest Environmental Movement Began April 2020: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200420-earth-day-2020-how-an-environmental-movement-was-born
  80. Meet the Activists, Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/explore/savingearth/meet-the-activists
  81. House Lawmakers Step Up Action on Green Groups Working with Foreign Countries, June, 2018, Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-environment-congress-idUSKBN1JG204
  82. Washington Examiner, June 2018: Russian Groups Gave Millions to Green Groups to Fight Fracking in U.S.: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/russian-funded-environmental-group-gave-millions-to-anti-fracking-groups  
  83. GAO Report on Foreign Influence of U.S. Research, Oct. 2021: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-105434
  84. FBI Investigating Foreign Influence of Jan. 6, 2020 Capital Riot, NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/fbi-probing-if-foreign-governments-groups-funded-extremists-who-helped-n1254525
  85. Capital Research Report on Combatting Foreign Influence of American Institutions, Robert Stilson, October 2020 : https://capitalresearch.org/article/combating-foreign-government-influence-in-american-institutions/  
  86. Report of Uranium One Deal sale to Russia and Russian Influence of the Obama’s and Clintons, Fox News 2018 : https://docs.house.gov/meetings/II/II06/20190625/109694/HHRG-116-II06-20190625-SD004.pdf
  87. The Hill, Wikileaks Releases Alleged John Podesta emails on Russian Business dealings of Clintons and Obama, Oct. 10, 2016: https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/299904-wikileaks-releases-alleged-podesta-emails/
  88. Politico, What you Need to Know About Hillary Clinton and Uranium One Deal, Nov. 14, 2017:https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/14/hillary-clinton-uranium-one-deal-russia-explainer-244895
  89. Oil Price.com report on Russia Owning some U.S. Nuclear Fuel as a result of the Uranium One Deal, May 6, 2015: https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Does-Russia-Really-Own-20-Of-The-US-Uranium-Reserves.html
  90. John Podesta was involved in a major deal with Russians in 2011-2019, Breitbart News, April 4, 2019: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/04/03/collusion-russians-gave-35-million-to-company-with-john-podesta-on-board/  
  91. John Podesta’s brother Tony received payments as a Lobbyist for Russia on Uranium One Deal and was not registered as a Foreign Agent,  Daily Caller, Nov. 2017  :  https://dailycaller.com/2017/11/05/tony-podesta-lobbied-for-russias-uranium-one-and-did-not-file-as-a-foreign-agent/
  92. Forbes, Oct. 25, 2017; “Why Was Justice Dept. Silent on Criminal Activity of Nuclear Agency During Obama’s Administration”: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2017/10/25/why-was-obamas-justice-department-silent-on-criminal-activity-by-russias-nuclear-agency/?sh=38d0c3fabe17  
  93. American Thinker, October 2017 article, So what was John Podesta’s now-collapsed Russian green energy scheme really all about?https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/10/so_what_was_john_podestas_nowcollapsed_russian_green_energy_scheme_really_all_about.html
  94. John Podesta And Podesta Group Under Investigation By FBI And DOJ Technocracy News, August 2016: https://www.technocracy.news/john-podesta-and-podesta-group-under-investigation-by-fbi-and-doj/
  95. Climate Depot, March 6, 2022, Investigate Russia’s covert funding of US anti-fossil fuel groups:https://www.climatedepot.com/2022/03/06/investigate-russias-covert-funding-of-us-anti-fossil-fuel-groups/
  96. The Hill, March 1, 2022, Russia Investigation on Involvement with U.S. Anti-Fossil Fuels Groups: https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/596304-investigate-russias-covert-funding-of-us-anti-fossil-fuel-groups/  
  97. BIV.com, Canadian Environmental Groups Received $1.3 Billion in Foreign Funding : https://biv.com/article/2021/10/canadian-environmental-groups-got-13-billion-foreign-funding-inquiry
  98. Natural Resources Defense Council Receives 100 Million from Jeff Bezos, Nov. 2020: https://www.nrdc.org/press-releases/nrdc-receives-100-million-bezos-earth-fund-accelerate-climate-action
  99. Big Green Radicals Funding, NRDC : https://biggreenradicals.com/group/natural-resources-defense-council/
  100. Washington Free Beacon report on Foreign Funding through Bermuda of Environmental Extremist Groups, August 2013 : https://freebeacon.com/national-security/liberal-foundation-distributed-money-from-bermuda-to-liberal-nonprofits/
  101. Washington Examiner, Leftists Activists Demand Democrats Keep Nuclear and Carbon Capture Out of Green Energy Bill, May 12, 2021: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/activists-demand-renewable-energy-standard
  102. Here are 36 Organizations Helping to Solve the Climate Crisis (and weaken the U.S.A.) FoodTank.com, 2020 : https://foodtank.com/news/2020/10/36-organizations-helping-solve-the-climate-crisis/
  103. Russia Funding Activist Groups in U.S. Center for Security Policy, March 2019 : https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/moscow-secretly-funded-us-anti-fracking-groups-is-it-now-attacking-us-energy-companies/
  104. Robert Bryce, No Uranium for Nuclear, June 9, 2023: https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/no-u
  105. Tom Steyer in Philanthropy News, 2014, Donates 50 million to NextGen Climate Action in Florida for Climate Change: https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/hedge-fund-billionaire-to-step-up-climate-change-advocacy-efforts
  106. Sheldon Whitehouse’s new book where he will claim the opposition party does what he and his party have done very effectively, for decades: “The Scheme, where He accuses Republicans of using Dark Money”, when in fact, the Democrats do it much more: https://thenewpress.com/books/scheme
  107. Ron Clutz Blog “Science Matters” June 12, 2023 on the Climate Blame Game & “Energy Absurdities” in Canada: https://rclutz.com/2023/06/12/absurd-climate-blame-game/#like-31517
  108. Dick Storm Blog post, “The War on Carbon, How it Came to Be”: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/10/16/the-war-on-carbon-how-it-came-to-be/
  109. West Virginia Shelly Moore Capito Opinion in WVA “Intelligencer” Newspaper, July 2022 on Joe Goffman as nominee to EPA position: https://www.theintelligencer.net/opinion/local-columns/2022/07/joe-goffman-the-wrong-choice-to-help-lead-epa/
  110. Pentagon to Electrify the Military, Nov. 2021, Military.com: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/11/09/electric-military-vehicles-are-part-of-biden-climate-agenda-pentagon-says.html
  111. C. Paul Smith “Closing Argument on the Climate Change Hoax”:  https://www.cpaulsmith.com/palmyra-bookstore/the-climate-change-hoax-argument/
  112. Environment America.org, Why Leading Environmentalists Back U.S. Senator Ed Markey: https://environmentamerica.org/articles/supporting-ed-markey/
  113. The Guardian on Bill Gates views on Climate, Feb. 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/13/bill-gates-on-the-climate-crisis-i-cant-deny-being-a-rich-guy-with-an-opinion
  114. John Kerry Targets Agriculture at WEF Speech, May 2023, Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/john-kerry-targets-agriculture-part-climate-crusade
  115. WEF Calls for Limiting Private Car Use, June 2022:  https://www.internationalfreepress.com/2023/06/wef-document-calls-for-limiting-private.html
  116. WEF on Population Degrowth, June 2022: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/06/what-is-degrowth-economics-climate-change/
  117. WEF Calls to reduce vehicles by eliminating ownership, Climate Depot, Aug. 2022: https://www.climatedepot.com/2022/08/01/world-economic-forum-calls-to-reduce-private-vehicles-by-eliminating-ownership/
  118. Greta Thunberg Time Line, April 2021, Independent, UK: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/greta-thunberg-bbc-documentary-timeline-b1830225.html
  119. Sierra Club and Abortion Alignment, On the Issues, : https://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Sierra_Club_Abortion.htm
  120. U.N., Planned Parenthood and Sierra Club Alignment Sept. 2015:  https://unfoundation.org/media/un-foundation-planned-parenthood-federation-of-america-sierra-club-announce-winners-of-first-ever-why-we-care-youth-emerging-leaders-for-reproductive-rights-contest/
  121. Sierra Club & NRDC Environmental Groups Urge Support for Affordable Care Act and Reproductive Rights, March 2017: https://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2017/03/environmental-groups-urge-support-affordable-care-act-and-planned-parenthood
  122. Sierra Club & Planned Parenthood Join Conferences to Explain Sex and the Environment. Nov. 2007, Catholic News Agency,: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/11091/sierra-club-joins-planned-parenthood-to-offer-conferences-on-sex-and-the-environment
  123. Lecture by Michael Rectenwald at Hillsdale College on “What is the Great Reset”, The Great Reset movement toward World Totalitarianism: https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/what-is-the-great-reset/
  124. Daily Skeptic, Feb. 23, 2023, by 30 year Reuter’s veteran Journalist “I Thought CO2 Was Causing Global Warming, I was Wrong”: https://dailysceptic.org/2023/02/23/when-i-covered-climate-change-for-reuters-i-thought-co2-was-to-blame-for-rising-temperatures-i-was-wrong/
  125. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, 60 years later, Fails Test of Time, WUWT: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/17/carsons-silent-spring-fails-test-of-time-new-york-times-verdict-in-2007/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=carsons-silent-spring-fails-test-of-time-new-york-times-verdict-in-2007
  126. John Kerry, Ties to Radical Environmental Groups, but kept secret, Oct. 2022, Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-probe-john-kerrys-ties-eco-groups-efforts-shield-oversight
  127. Al Gore’s 30 Years of Errors, by Capital Research Center: https://capitalresearch.org/article/al-gores-30-years-of-climate-errors-part-2/
  128. Military.com News article on electrifying military vehicles, Nov. 2021: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/11/09/electric-military-vehicles-are-part-of-biden-climate-agenda-pentagon-says.html
  129. Heritage Foundation Report on Biden’s Energy Policies Hurting Producers and Consumers: Dec. 2021: https://www.heritage.org/energy-economics/commentary/bidens-many-anti-energy-policies-are-hurting-producers-consumers-alike
  130. ER (Institute for Energy Research) reports on Biden Energy Policies: https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/about/ier-site-manager/articles/
  131. United Nations web page for Agenda 21/30: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/
  132. Harold Hamm’s book review, “Game Changer” recommendation on Dick Storm blog: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/09/17/harold-hamms-book-game-changer-a-must-read-for-elected-officials-and-candidates-for-elective-office/
  133. North American Electricity Generation Council (NERC) August 2023 Report: https://www.nerc.com/comm/RISC/Related%20Files%20DL/RISC_ERO_Priorities_Report_2023_Board_Approved_Aug_17_2023.pdf
  134. EPOCH Times, Is ESG Illegal?: Kevin Stocklin on the New ‘High Priests of Society’ Transforming Corporate America video on the harm of ESG policies: https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/is-esg-illegal-kevin-stocklin-on-the-new-high-priests-of-society-transforming-corporate-america-5491828?utm_source=ref_share&src_src=ref_share&utm_campaign=gv-cc&src_cmp=gv-cc
  135. America’s Power statement on the importance of coal plants to provide reliable power generation during the recent heat wave: https://americaspower.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Heat-Wave-Blog-September-202378.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2y0Tb8H7_fnsIYut1IRFdAWQx5ljYW5d3B-Yg9p6oQ1FTXRTU_y4EKVWg_aem_AfK9EPeglWxPOB-g_fIJWyhi9CwXDutc_uZ1rODmrxd2VD1EDQ2ikj4Ersx10d79bUw&mibextid=2JQ9oc
  136. Hillsdale College video series summary of the World Economic Forum and “What is the Great Reset?” by Michael Rectenwald
  137. “Woke Capitalism vs. Profit” by Vivek Ramaswamy
  138. “Cashless Society” by James Rickards
  139. “Is ‘Environmental Justice’ Good for the Environment?” by Mark P. Mills
  140. “The Great Reset from China’s Perspective” by David P. Goldman
  141. “The Alternative to the Great Reset” by Brian Wesbury
  142. POWER article on Reliability concerns of NERC, May 2023: https://www.powermag.com/nerc-identifies-energy-policy-as-key-risk-to-grid-reliability-amid-evolving-challenges/
  143. Donn Dears book, “Clean Energy Crisis”: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/12/30/clean-energy-crisis/
  144. Inside Lines, PJM Announcement of Power Shortages due to EPA Rules, August 8, 2023: https://insidelines.pjm.com/pjm-ercot-spp-and-miso-join-together-on-comments-on-epa-emissions-rule/
  145. Rio Times article on the World Economic Forum: https://www.riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/modern-day-censorship/meet-all-3800-graduates-of-klaus-schwabs-globalist-wef-education-programs-by-name/
  146. CO2 is Not A Pollutant, WUWT, Sept 8, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/09/10/why-co2-is-not-a-pollutant/
  147. U.S. Navy CO2 limits in submarines: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30511437/
  148. WUWT “Does CO2 Affect Human Performance?” https://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/10/17/claim-co2-makes-you-stupid-as-a-submariner-that-question/
  149. Science Matters, Ron Clutz, Climatism History  Science Matters, Sept. 11, 2023: https://rclutz.com/2023/09/11/climatism-based-on-history-of-errors/#like-32981
  150. One Barrel of Oil, What Can it Provide? A Great Graphic: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/can-made-oClintel Report, “There is No Climate Emergency” : https://clintel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/WCD-version-06272215121.pdf?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  151. Daily Skeptic on John Clauser Slamming the Corrupt Science used to create a “Climate Emergency” : https://dailysceptic.org/2023/07/14/nobel-physics-laureate-2022-slams-climate-emergency-narrative-as-dangerous-corruption-of-science/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  152. Robert Bryce Substack on “Carbon Myopia” and the need of 3 Billion people on the planet that need to be lifted from poverty: https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/carbon-myopia/comments
  153. EPA Regulations will Destroy the American Power Grid, Ed Ireland Substack: https://edireland.substack.com/p/epa-proposes-anti-fossil-fuel-regulations?r=kv1a9&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
  154. WUWT On National Academy of Engineering Summer Report on decarbonization, July 11, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/07/11/national-academies-climate-junk-summit-7-11-7-12-is-open-to-all/
  155. America’s Power, Editorial on the Importance of Coal, July 10, 2023: https://americaspower.org/the-need-for-sensible-epa-rules/
  156. America’s Power Key Takeaways of Winter Storm Elliott Report on the importance of coal: https://americaspower.org/new-report-evaluates-the-performance-of-electricity-resources-during-storm-elliott/
  157. WUWT on the “Myth of Replacing Fossil Fuels”: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/07/03/the-myth-of-replacing-fossil-fuels/
  158. The Rise and Fall of the American Grid, American Affairs Journal, Fall, 2022: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2022/08/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-american-electrical-grid/
  159. Balancing Energy Security, Affordability, the Economy, Decarbonization and Security, Energy Policy Research Foundation: https://assets.realclear.com/files/2023/06/2210_eprinc_balancing_energy_security_affordability_and_decarbonization.pdf
  160. EU Report and long list of references on the “DeIndustrialization of Europe” by forcing wind power on the citizens: https://us1-campaign–archive-com.translate.goog/?u=a15449610a1df64c85f7499e1&id=5b33ebcfdc&e=59342c48f8&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=auto
  161. Time Magazine, “The Modern World Can’t Exist Without These Four Ingredients. They All Require Fossil Fuels”, Vaclav Smil May 2022:  https://time.com/6175734/reliance-on-fossil-fuels/
  162. “Why Climate Change is Not an Emergency”, CO2 Coalition Presentations, May 27, 2023: https://co2coalition.org/media/why-climate-change-is-not-an-emergency/
  163. German Industry Shutting Down and Moving, due to high energy process, CNBC June 21, 2023 : https://www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/06/21/high-german-energy-prices-are-seeing-some-companies-relocate-bdi.html
  164. China Influence of U.S.  Green Groups and U.S. Environmental Policy, Capital Research Center video:  https://capitalresearch.org/article/how-china-designed-american-environmental-policy/
  165. California Globe, California’s Electricity Policy Failure, June 18, 2023: https://californiaglobe-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/californiaglobe.com/articles/the-failure-of-california-electricity-policy-in-one-image/amp/
  166. Robert Bryce Substack on the “Iron Law of Electricity” Increases in coal use around the world, June 17, 2023: https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/the-iron-law-of-electricity-strikes
  167. Dark Money from Utilities to Elected Officials or Candidates, The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/15/us-power-companies-political-lobbying-donations-nonprofit
  168. FERC Energy Regulator States, “Power Grid is Facing Dire Consequences Due to Coal & Gas Retirements”, “WUWT June 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/13/federal-energy-regulatory-commissioner-mark-christie-power-grid-is-facing-dire-consequences-due-to-coal-gas-retirements/
  169. Professor Michael Kelly, UK, June 2017: https://www.soci.org/news/general-news/professor-michael-kelly-lecture
  170. U.N., Planned Parenthood and Sierra Club Alignment Sept. 2015: https://unfoundation.org/media/un-foundation-planned-parenthood-federation-of-america-sierra-club-announce-winners-of-first-ever-why-we-care-youth-emerging-leaders-for-reproductive-rights-contest/
  171. WEF Limiting Private Cars:  https://www.internationalfreepress.com/2023/06/wef-document-calls-for-limiting-private.html
  172. WEF on Degrowth, June 2022: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/06/what-is-degrowth-economics-climate-change/
  173. WEF Calls to reduce vehicles by eliminating ownership, Aug. 2022: https://www.climatedepot.com/2022/08/01/world-economic-forum-calls-to-reduce-private-vehicles-by-eliminating-ownership/
  174. John Kerry Speech on “The Great Reset” New American, Nov. 2020: https://thenewamerican.com/john-kerry-talks-great-reset-at-world-economic-forum/
  175. World Economic Forum Doesn’t Even Hide their Intent to Create Decline of the Western World:  https://open.substack.com/pub/blackmon/p/fridays-energy-absurdity-wef-isnt?r=kv1a9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
  176. Capital Research’s Ken Braun on Leftist Organizations Funding anti Fossil Fuels: https://capitalresearch.org/article/nuclear-power-hating-hypocrites-part-1/
  177. Robert Bryce, No Uranium for Nuclear, June 9, 2023: https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/no-u
  178. The Federal War on your Life-Style, WUWT, June 8, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/07/the-federal-war-against-your-lifestyle/
  179. The Decline of the American Empire, By “The Burning Platform” June 2023 : https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/05/31/fall-of-american-empire-and-descent-into-a-new-dark-ages/
  180. Rigzone-“Will We Hit Net Zero Carbon by 2050” May 30, 2023: https://www.rigzone.com/news/will_the_world_hit_net_zero_by_2050-30-may-2023-172906-article/?utm_campaign=DAILY_2023_05_30&utm_source=GLOBAL_ENG&utm_medium=EM_NW_F1
  181. Germany Loses Trust in Automotive Manufacturing of the Future and other EU Industrial News:  https://www.euractiv.com/sections/industrial-policy-economy-jobs/
  182. EPA opposes Petrochemical Industries in Louisiana using Taxpayer funds, Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2023/05/25/how-epa-funds-the-petrochemical-industrys-opposition/?sh=7c39025a7176
  183. Mining of Rare Earth Minerals has a Dirty Little Secret, by FEE, May 2023:  https://fee.org/articles/green-energy-has-a-dirty-secret/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2020_FEEDaily
  184. Congressional Research Service State of Electric Utilities, 1973-1984: https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/99th-congress-1985-1986/reports/doc10b-entire_1.pdf
  185. Forbes article on Environmental Groups Harming the Poor, https://www.forbes.com/sites/tilakdoshi/2023/05/23/environmental-ngos-in-the-global-south-saviors-of-humanity-or-predatory-special-interests/?sh=78c19c9e59aa
  186. Dr. Judith Curry Review of CLINTEL report analyzing IPCC-AR6: https://judithcurry.com/2023/05/13/clintels-critical-evaluation-of-the-ipcc-ar6/
  187. Dr. Judith Curry book, “Climate Uncertainty and Risk”
  188. CLINTEL website: https://clintel.org
  189. Capital Research Center, Green Watch: https://capitalresearch.org/category/green-watch/
  190. WUWT Energy Crisis creates a Food production crisis due to fertilizer shortages: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/11/entire-global-food-supply-at-risk-from-disastrous-response-to-so-called-nitrogen-crisis/
  191. 60 Minutes program on Vulnerability of Electric Grid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65siHaUPsRM
  192. Why Batteries Cannot Backup solar and Wind generation: https://stopthesethings.com/2023/04/29/grand-delusion-why-battery-storage-cant-fix-wind-solars-intermittency-problem/
  193. Harvard Wind Study shows Greater Environmental Impact & Land Requirements than Originally Thought for Renewables: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/10/large-scale-wind-power-has-its-down-side/
  194. American Policy Center publication, “Agenda 21, The Wrenching Transformation of America”, americanpolicy.org
  195. Competitive Enterprise Institute, report of some of the wealthiest environmental activists, 2019: https://cei.org/blog/the-millionaires-and-billionaires-of-environmental-politics/
  196. Capital Research Center, Influence Watch website on “Stop the money pipeline” to activist groups: https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/stop-the-money-pipeline/
  197. The Heartland Institute information on Climate Science and Environmental Activists: https://heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/paul-driessen/
  198. Dick Storm post on the U.N., Energy and World Peace: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/04/05/energy-world-peace/
  199. Dick Storm Blog, “What is Endangered, “Climate or Freedom” 2021: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/02/27/what-is-endangered-climate-or-freedom-this-is-the-sub-title-of-the-book-blue-planet-in-green-shackles/
  200. Dick Storm, March 2021 Power Magazine Commentary: https://www.powermag.com/blog/all-fuels-are-important-but-thermal-power-generation-is-still-number-1/
  201. Green Energy Crisis, Part1: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/05/29/the-green-energy-crisis-is-here-part-1/  
  202. Green Energy Crisis Part 2, June 14, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/06/14/green-energy-crisis-part-2-meet-the-policy-makers-that-caused-it/
  203. Green Energy Crisis Part 3, June 26, 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/06/26/green-energy-crisis-part-3-public-energy-education-is-needed-each-person-in-the-u-s-uses-about-315-million-btus-of-primary-energy-year-this-is-not-practical-or-even-possible-to-replace-with-win/
  204. Dick Storm Green Energy Crisis, Part 4, August 2, 2023, How to Solve it,  Improve Perceptions of Coal and all other Conventional Fuels: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/08/02/green-energy-crisis-part-4-how-to-solve-it-improve-the-perception-of-coal-and-all-conventional-fuels/
  205. Part 5, Green Energy Crisis: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/05/19/part-5-green-energy-crisis-a-look-back-on-public-energy-electricity-education-in-the-1950s-and-1960s/c
  206. Dick Storm Blog, “The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Nations and the Realities of Energy”:  https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/08/15/the-rise-fall-and-rise-again-of-nations-and-the-realities-of-energy/
  207. Dick Storm Blog post on “How the U.S. War on Carbon” came to be: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/10/16/the-war-on-carbon-how-it-came-to-be/
  208. Energy and Economic Prosperity, my Thoughts: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/11/18/energy-and-economic-prosperity-2/
  209. Texas Missing over 6,000 MW and Rockdale Aluminum Smelter 2021: https://wp.me/p5DzAo-7R
  210. Rise of China and Need to Reshore American Manufacturing: https://wp.me/p5DzAo-57
  211. China Goes All In for All Fuels are Important: Dick Storm Blog: https://wp.me/p5DzAo-n4
  212. Top 16 Influencers of U.S. Energy Policy: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/01/04/influencers-of-american-energy-policy/
  213. Net Zero Watch, UK Experience with Wind Farms, January 7, 2023: https://mailchi.mp/86e68627c77f/payments-for-windfarms-to-switch-off-soar-to-quarter-billion-pounds-193411?e=9e46528ac6
  214. World Nuclear Association Info on Nuclear Power Contribution to Reducing Manmade Carbon Dioxide Emissions:  https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/energy-and-the-environment/nuclear-energy-and-sustainable-development.aspx
  215. Solar Disappointment in the Southwest, National Review, Jan 4, 2023: https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/01/a-bright-shining-disappointment/
  216. ESG Directive from Biden, reported in Oil & Gas Journal, Jan. 2023: https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/government/article/14288039/biden-administration-directs-agencies-to-prioritize-ghg-reductions  
  217. CO2 Coalition: https://co2coalition.org
  218. Physicist Wallace Manheimer on CO2, January 2023: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/view/0/47745  Abstract here: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/view/0/47745
  219. State of American Energy Report by API: https://events.api.org/reports/soae-2023/
  220. Rare Earths from coal: https://www.renuva.com
  221. PA Pundits, Pursuit of the Impossible” Net Zero: https://papundits.wordpress.com/2022/12/21/net-zero-the-pursuit-of-the-impossible/?blogsub=subscribed#subscribe-blog
  222. Grid Down PowerUp:  https://griddownpowerup.com
  223. Global Electricity Prices: https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/electricity_prices/
  224. EMP Commission Reports: http://www.empcommission.org
  225. Energy Dept. Report on Transformers for Grid: https://www.energy.gov/oe/addressing-security-and-reliability-concerns-large-power-transformers
  226. Detailed report on Transformer Manufacturers of world, see pgs 19-23 on suppliers: https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/04/f15/LPTStudyUpdate-040914.pdf  
  227. WSJ AMERICA SELF-SABOTAGES GRID: https://www.wsj.com/articles/america-self-sabotages-its-electrical-grid-renewable-fossil-fuel-power-11672685320
  228. US Grid Real Time power: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/gridmonitor/dashboard/electric_overview/US48/US48
  229. WUWT The Future of Oil, Part 1 : https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/24/does-the-oil-industry-have-a-future-part-i/
  230. WUWT The Future of Oil pt 2: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/26/should-nations-stop-using-fossil-fuels-part-ii/
  231. WUWT The Future of Oil Pt #3: Master Resource: https://www.masterresource.org/mexico-energy-policy/oil-inustry-salazar-2/
  232. National Review, Russians Fund Environmentalists: https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/12/how-russia-backed-environmentalism-is-leading-to-blackouts-in-new-england/
  233. German Extremists, Funded by Russia: https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/01/putins-green-fifth-column/
  234. World Nuclear Assoc. and EPRI Presentations, Dec. 2022:  https://epri.box.com/s/8uu46f5hoo3x9loni23qvvmdopz7eg62  
  235. Real Clear Energy, “Are you Really against Fossil Fuels?”:  https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2023/01/24/are_you_really_against_fossil_fuels_read_this_before_you_answer_877363.html
  236. GWPF UK Study, Where are the Engineers” By Professor Michael Kelly : https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2020/05/KellyDecarb-1.pdf
  237. GWPF NZ Professor, Michael Kelly: http://www.bryanleyland.co.nz/power-industry-stuff.html
  238. Samuel Furfari,  “Hydrogen, an old Idea and still Windy”: https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/features/hydrogen-a-century-old-idea-and-still-windy/
  239. New England Electricity Sources during cold February week: https://blackmon.substack.com/p/saturdays-energy-absurdity-meredith/comments
  240. Canary Media Electrify Everything, Feb. 6, 2023: https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/electrification/home-of-the-future-climate-friendly-electrified-and-closer-than-ever?utm_campaign=canary&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=244754760&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–6rlMJjZBNphFujAKeUSOclhM7MDo3MAq3t8u3MAn-Hv5pscN1RZ8R1qq_RNf10dSqng0r9Wbyq214_bxo0U_i_LgE4Bn5CS-Zttgn5ClFXBvgoBU&utm_source=newsletter
  241. Judith Curry Blog, 2016, “Balancing the Grid” : https://judithcurry.com/2016/09/12/balance-and-the-grid/
  242. American Coalition of Clean Coal Energy, 2016 Report on Economics: http://www.americaspower.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Family-Energy-Costs-2016.pdf
  243. WUWT on Use of Academic Studies, Feb 7, 2023, Includes good links to Planning Engineer and Economic consequences of unreliable power: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/12/academics-and-the-grid-part-i-i-dont-think-that-study-means-what-you-think-it-means/
  244. 252. Power Outage Tracking web sites: 
  245. https://lnkd.in/gEyJJX-Y
  246. https://poweroutage.us/
  247. https://www.iso-ne.com/
  248. Daniel Yergin on LinkedIn, Energy Transition Confronts Reality, Feb. 14: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/energy-transition-confronts-reality-daniel-yergin/?trackingId=tuMcIZAi2b0pHD5sopvB9w%3D%3D 
  249. Energy World, Feb. 13 “EU Warns US on A Crisis Mode Overhaul of Energy Market” and Change to Green Energy: https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/power/countries-warn-eu-against-crisis-mode-overhaul-of-energy-market/97855704 
  250. Outstanding! Finland GTK Time to Wake up Slide Presentation: https://www.gtk.fi/en/research/time-to-wake-up/
  251. Heartland Institute 2015 Summary of Obama Carbon Rules: https://heartland.org/opinion/senate-exposes-epa-green-group-secret-collusion-on-carbon-rules/
  252. CNBC Interview with Liberty Energy CEO, Chris Wright: https://lnkd.in/gyeD9Jdf  
  253. NZ/UK Professor Michel Kelly & Bryan Leyland Web page:  http://www.bryanleyland.co.nz/power-industry-stuff.html
  254. Professor Michael Kelly web page:   https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2020/05/KellyDecarb-1.pdf
  255. WUWT Electricity Prices Rising Due to Wind & Solar Installations, Feb. 22, 2023:https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/02/20/wind-solar-and-household-electricity-prices/
  256. Climate Depot website for renewables production costs: https://www.climatedepot.com/2018/01/25/who-would-have-thought-nations-with-more-renewables-have-more-expensive-electricity/
  257. Daily Skeptic, Feb. 23, 2023, by 30 year Reuter’s veteran Journalist “I Thought CO2 Was Causing Global Warming, I was Wrong”: https://dailysceptic.org/2023/02/23/when-i-covered-climate-change-for-reuters-i-thought-co2-was-to-blame-for-rising-temperatures-i-was-wrong/
  258. Europe’s Industry Crippled by high Energy Costs NYT, Sept. 2022: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/business/europe-energy-crisis-factories.html
  259. Is Green Energy China’s Trojan Horse? Western Standard by Joseph FOURNIER, OCT. 2022: https://www.westernstandard.news/opinion/is-green-energy-the-chinese-communist-partys-trojan-horse/article_6bbc2b04-50a5-11ed-bdc4-9b18b8d01f80.html
  260. China to build 106 GW of new coal plants March 2023: https://chinadialogue.net/en/energy/two-sessions-chinese-provinces-push-coal-and-clean-energy/
  261. WUWT Post, ”Gas Generated Electricity is less expensive than Wind”: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/03/gas-power-is-cheaper-than-wind-despite-carbon-briefs-claims/
  262. Dr. Judith curry, Climate Uncertainty review by WUWT: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/03/judith-curry-part-1-presentation-about-her-new-book-tom-nelson-podcast-77/
  263. WSJ LNG Paths from Texas to France: https://www.wsj.com/articles/american-fracked-gas-ukraine-invasion-europe-import-9e5cc725?mod=hp_lead_pos7
  264. Alex Epstein, Talking Points on the Importance of Energy for Human Flourishing: https://alexepstein.substack.com/p/some-of-my-favorite-talking-points?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  265. WUWT Energy and Military Strength, March 3, 2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/03/russias-biggest-weapon-and-chinas-too-is-fossil-fuel-energy/
  266. Feasibility of Achieving Net-Zero Carbon by 2050, by Professor Michael Kelly: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/04/feasibility-for-achieving-a-net-zero-economy-for-the-u-s-by-2050/
  267. Wind Power Report by IRENA : https://www.irena.org/Energy-Transition/Technology/Wind-energy
  268. Judith Curry Website on Cost of wind electricity: https://judithcurry.com/2015/05/12/true-costs-of-wind-electricity/fwind power, 2015: https://judithcurry.com/2015/05/12/true-costs-of-wind-electricity/
  269. The Conversation on Why are Household Electricity Prices Going Up If Wind is so Cheap?: https://theconversation.com/renewables-are-cheaper-than-ever-so-why-are-household-energy-bills-only-going-up-174795
  270. Why are Boston Energy Costs High, Feb. 2023: https://www.bostonsolar.us/solar-blog-resource-center/blog/why-are-energy-costs-so-high-this-winter/
  271. Electricity Prices U.S. by EIA, Feb. 2023: https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/tables/pdf/7ctab.pdf
  272. CFACT, Ron Stein excellent essay on the importance of Energy, March 2023:  https://www.cfact.org/2023/03/08/american-suppression-of-fossil-fuels-courts-a-national-security-disaster/
  273. Climate Policies will Cost Germany 960 + Billion and still will not make much difference…..:https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/08/claim-climate-change-will-cost-germany-960-billion-by-2050/
  274. WSJ Coal Provides the Fuel Needed for Germany to Keep the Lights on in 2022: https://www.wsj.com/articles/germany-coal-energy-electricity-renewables-4700b442?mod=opinion_lead_pos2
  275. Visual Capitalist Coal in Asia, March 2023: https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/asias-biggest-sources-of-electricity-by-country/
  276. Daily Caller. Biden’s EPA Rule to Kill Off Coal Plants, March 8, 2023: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://dailycaller.com/2023/03/08/biden-epa-new-regs/&source=gmail&ust=1678615516765000&usg=AOvVaw0di3ndkkR73iVUOKpvIzfh
  277. World Nuclear News, France to Build more Nuclear Plants: https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/French-Senate-adopts-bill-on-accelerating-nuclear
  278. WUWT, “Claims Net Zero Will be Easy are Completely Insane”, Czech Scientist Thoughts on Net-Zero Carbon: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/11/07/czech-physicist-claims-net-zero-would-be-cheap-and-easy-are-completely-insane/
  279. Anthony Watts on the Polar Vortex Weather Pattern: https://climaterealism.com/2024/01/false-axios-climate-change-isnt-altering-the-polar-vortex/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Heartland+Weekly%3A+Heartland+Friend+Willie+Soon+KILLS+IT+on+Tucker+Carlson+s+New+Show+on+Elon+Musk+s+X+Platform&utm_campaign=HW+%2801-12-23%29
  280. CO2 Coalition home page: https://co2coalition.org
  281. Dr. Richard Lindzen on Temperature of the Earth: https://climateactiontracker.org
  282. Clintel Declaration (European Scientists): https://clintel.org/world-climate-declaration/
  283. WUWT Timeline of Failed Climate Doomsday Predictions: https://wattsupwiththat.com/failed-prediction-timeline/
  284. Roy Spencer Web site: https://www.drroyspencer.com
  285. Heartland Institute: http://climatechangereconsidered.org
  286. Real Clear Wire, “Here’s the Climate Dissent You’re Not Hearing About Because it is Muffled by Society’s Top Institutions” :  https://realclearwire.com/articles/2023/09/13/heres_the_climate_dissent_youre_not_hearing_about_because_its_muffled_by_societys_top_institutions_978511.html?utm_medium=email&utm_content=iJgazUr_XAtMm8bXcO-NbIzld7XNG9xSjxbQsPeA5uyvxxlevtyy6INEIV4bUTjx
  287. Professor Richard Lindzen, MIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lindzen#Views_on_climate_change
  288. Prof. Lindzen article in Tablet Magazine on China and his views on AGW: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/science/articles/china-warming-richard-lindzen
  289. Professor Judith Curry Interview January 30, 2021 on AGW: https://judithcurry.com/2021/01/30/interview-climate-change-a-different-perspective-with-judith-curry/
  290. Professor Willliams Happer and Professor Richard Lindzen Testimony to SEC June 2022: https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-10-22/s71022-20132171-302668.pdf
  291. The Right Stuff Climate Team (Retired NASA Engineers): https://www.therightclimatestuff.com
  292. Climate Science Book by Vinos with forward by Judith Curry:  https://judithcurry.com/2022/09/22/the-winter-gatekeeper-hypothesis-vii-a-summary-plus-qa/
  293. Climate, Past, Present and Future: https://judithcurry.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Vinos-CPPF2022.pdf
  294.  Australian Scientific Paper: World Atmospheric CO2, Its 14C Specific Activity, Non-fossil Component, Anthropogenic Fossil Component, and Emissions (1750–2018) https://journals.lww.com/health-physics/fulltext/2022/02000/world_atmospheric_co2,_its_14c_specific_activity,.2.aspx
  295. GWPF Sept 22, 2022, Richard Lindzen Paper: https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2022/09/Lindzen-global-warming-narrative.pdf
  296. Dr. Timothy Ball Paper on the Deliberate Corruption of Science, 2014: https://www.alachuacounty.us/Depts/epd/EPAC/BOOK%20REVIEW%20-%20‘THE%20DELIBERATE%20CORRUPTION%20OF%20CLIMATE%20SCIENCE%20by%20TIM%20BALL.pdf
  297. Tim Ball, CO2 is not a pollutant 2018: https://www.technocracy.news/tim-ball-the-evidence-proves-that-co2-is-not-a-greenhouse-gas/
  298. Dr. Judith Curry post on how Disinformation Industrial Complex is harming Trust in Science, June 2023: https://judithcurry.com/2023/04/23/how-the-disinformation-industrial-complex-is-destroying-trust-in-science/https://judithcurry.com/2023/04/23/how-the-disinformation-industrial-complex-is-destroying-trust-in-science/
  299. Vaclav Smil book: “The Way the World Really Works”
  300. Dr. Steve Koonin book: “Unsettled”
  301. Science based web site on Climate Science: https://climate4you.com
  302. Heartland Institute Climate Conference, Feb. 2023: https://heartland.org/events/15th-international-conference-on-climate-change/ 
  303. Professor Willliams Happer and Professor Richard Lindzen Testimony to SEC June 2022: https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-10-22/s71022-20132171-302668.pdf
  304. The Right Stuff Climate Team (Retired NASA Engineers): https://www.therightclimatestuff.com
  305. Australian Scientific Paper: World Atmospheric CO2, Its 14C Specific Activity, Non-fossil Component, Anthropogenic Fossil Component, and Emissions (1750–2018: https://journals.lww.com/health-physics/fulltext/2022/02000/world_atmospheric_co2,_its_14c_specific_activity,.2.aspx
  306. The Right Stuff Climate Stuff, Tom Moser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-gHWcrCK7w 
  307. Dr. Judith Curry Review of CLINTEL report analyzing IPCC-AR6: https://judithcurry.com/2023/05/13/clintels-critical-evaluation-of-the-ipcc-ar6/ 
  308. CLINTEL website: https://clintel.org
  309. Dr. Patrick Moore discusses Manufactured Climate Alarmism, May 2023, Newsmax: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/04/30/patrick-moore-discusses-climate-change-manufaDr. Pat&t=jx86j0I-tJuKCNreXz1BDA
  310. Donn Dears book, “Have No Fear”
  311. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery book, “UnstoppableGlobal Warming” published 2007
  312. Book, “Hot Talk, Cold Science” 3rd edition, 2021, By Singer, Legates and Lupo
  313. CO2 Coalition has an extensive web site with more science based Climate and Atmospheric Science information: https://co2coalition.org
  314. Physicist Wallace Manheimer on CO2, “There is no Climate Crisis” , January 2023: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/view/0/47745  Abstract here: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/view/0/47745
  315. Dr. Steve Koonin, Is There Really a Climate Emergency? https://www.prageru.com/video/is-there-really-a-climate-emergency?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_5331670
  316. WUWT Global Surface Temperature Record Updated 1880-2023: https://wattsupwiththat.com/uah-version-6/ 
  317. “Why Climate Change is Not an Emergency”, CO2 Coalition Presentations, May 27, 2023: https://co2coalition.org/media/why-climate-change-is-not-an-emergency/
  318. WUWT Home page for access to numerous articles: https://wattsupwiththat.com
  319. Manhattan Contrarian, Francis Menton article on the Michael Mann “Hockey Stick” graph, Civil lawsuit, Mark Steyn and IPCC: https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2024-1-27-some-notes-on-the-trial-of-mann-v-steyn
  320. . Donn Dears book, “Clean Energy Crisis” 2022: 
  321. Donn Dears book, “Net Zero Carbon, The Policy Destroying America” 2021:
  322. Australian Government website on CO2 Emissions: https://www.csiro.au/en/research/environmental-impacts/climate-change/Climate-change-QA/Sources-of-CO2
  323. Aspen Institute on Decarbonization and CCUS Challenges: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/publications/energy-transition-decarbonization-challenges-in-the-united-states-globally/
  324. DW Germany Challenges of Wind Power: https://www.dw.com/en/can-germany-meet-its-ambitious-wind-energy-targets/a-68165099
  325. EcoWatch on 22 million acres of public land proposed for solar panels: https://www.ecowatch.com/solar-energy-development-public-lands-blm.html
  326. Natural CO2 emissions by Volcanoes, Science based: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-41901-y
  327. Visual Capitalist of World’s Largest CO2 emissions, Human Created: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/all-the-worlds-carbon-emissions-in-one-chart/
  328. USGS CO2 Emissions from Volcanoes: https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP/volcanoes-can-affect-climate
  329. NASA report on Natural and Anthropogenic CO2 Emissions: https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/340/graphic-volcanoes-and-climate-change/
  330. EU Integrated Carbon Observation System   : https://vimeo.com/showcase/10494358
  331. European Wind and Solar costs article, Jan. 2024: https://www.eurasiareview.com/17012024-the-energy-trilemma-and-the-cost-of-electricity-oped/ Eurasia Review, by Lars Schernikau.
  332. Costs of avoided carbon emission from thermal and renewable sources of power in India and policy implications, Costs of Carbon Emissions, based on India’s Path Forward, 2020: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360544220306290
  333. World Bank on Poverty in the World, Oct. 2023: https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/poverty-back-pre-covid-levels-globally-not-low-income-countries
  334. You Tube Video, “Juice” Part #1, Texas 2021 Blackout and concerns for the Grid: https://juicetheseries.com
  335. Five Great Videos about the Grid, Feb. 2024: https://open.substack.com/pub/blackmon/p/meredith-angwin-5-great-videos-about?r=kv1a9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
  336. Coal Power Magazine, Feb. 2024, Global Domination—China Accounts for Nearly All New Coal-Fired Power Plant Construction: https://ai.omeclk.com/portal/public/ViewCommInBrowser.jsp?Sv4%2BeOSSucxygVSOywKv8nAG5QCl%2FwKvrLOxD%2B3crP%2BwqQnCE5PLdR2oG5I67h%2BRWcxWT2vRbz7gURyR4mPzhQ%3D%3DA
  337. Lee Raymond video, “Facing the Hard Truths of Energy” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYRH97e-nlM
  338. Dick Storm Presentation to Columbus Energy Forum, Columbus, Ohio August 2022: : https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_presentation-and-speakers-notes-from-august-activity-7068650158862827520-B-_W?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7056884647858765824?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A%28V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7056884647858765824%29  
  339. Dick Storm Blog post, Feb. 5, 2024, Hard Truths on Energy and Electricity Generation, Part 2: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2024/02/06/facing-the-hard-truths-of-energy-part-2-some-facts-on-the-reality-of-replacing-conventional-forms-of-energy/
  340. Dick Storm Panel comments at Powergen International-2024: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-storm-00557810_i-had-the-honor-of-being-on-a-powergen-panel-activity-7156046708139782144-zPoZ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
  341. “The Creature from Jekyll Island” by G. Edward Griffin, 5th Edition, published by American Media, Westlake Village, CA Library of Congress No. : 95-80322
  342. “Liberty on Life Support” by Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh ISBN: 147748308X
  343. “AGENDA 21”, BY AMERICAN POLICY CENTER, 2016
  344. “The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science”, by Dr. Tim Ball, 2014 published by Stairway Press
  345. WSJ article on NGO’s influence of Biden LNG Export policy action, Feb. 2024: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/climate-environment/how-the-rockefellers-and-billionaire-donors-pressured-biden-on-lng-exports-c1bf0ff8?mod=us-news_feat1_climate-environment_pos2
  346. PA Pundits on Federal Regulations, Feb. 2024: https://papundits.wordpress.com/2024/02/13/congress-and-the-courts-enable-climate-and-energy-fantasies-and-government-expansion/
  347. CO2 Learning Center slides and information on true science of the climate and human induced warming, Feb. 2023: https://co2coalition.org/media_category/presentations/
  348. By now almost everyone has seen or heard about Tucker Carlson’s interview with Putin. Here is a link that is less well spread where Tucker discusses his impressions of Moscow while he was in Russia for the Putin interview. I found his descriptions of walking about in Moscow to be sobering. A friend sent me the YouTube link of Tucker Carlson in Dubai discussing his impressions of Moscow after his interview with Putin. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2xa7hHMUho   Let me suggest that you skip to minute #32. My concerns for America are: We have put anti-American Climate policies as top priority which will increase the decline of the U.S. relative to other countries of the world, especially China. The words of Tucker on discussing the comparisons of Moscow to cities in the U.S. is sobering. The term MAGA has been demonized. A reminder of what MAGA is an acronym for: Make America Great Again. What is so wrong with that? Three more points. Gatestone Institute on it is not only Boeing jets that have declined in quality, https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20394/boeing-leadership-crisis , the condition of and quality of service of my home town Post Office. Then there is our local Public Schools where about one third of the students are performing below Grade level in reading and math. And our government has Climate policies as #1 Priority. God help us, even if we do not deserve it
  349. Thomas Shepstone Blog on the influence of Big Banks on Climate Policy, Feb. 18, 2024: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGxRnZDWKMHXBZKXjsGPzFfFSGZ
  350. Solar panel manufacturing are much more power intensive than advertised:  https://public.substack.com/p/solar-panels-more-carbon-intensive
  351. Our World in Data, World Energy Sources by Fuel: https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption  
  352. Jo Nova blog post on ESG and large Banks, Feb. 16, 2024: https://joannenova.com.au/2024/02/esg-comes-undone-blackrock-jp-morgan-abandon-climate-action-100/
  353. Bloomberg on Blackrock 10 Trillion in investments: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-12/blackrock-total-assets-top-10-trillion-after-comeback-quarter
  354. Climate Science and the “Unstoppable Momentum of Outdated Science” by Roger Pielke and Stephen Heins: https://stephenheins.substack.com/p/the-unstoppable-momentum-of-outdated
  355. The UN-Agenda 2030, “A Totalitarian Trojan Horse” by Daniel Lacalle, Feb. 18, 2024: https://www.dlacalle.com/en/the-2030-agenda-the-totalitarian-trojan-horse/
  356. Tax Exempt NGO’s and wealthy elites are destroying democracy, especially through activism on energy and climate policies, Thomas Shepstone article, Feb. 20, 2024: https://open.substack.com/pub/energysecurityfreedom/p/how-our-democracy-is-being-destroyed?r=kv1a9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
  357. Capital Research Center on Charities Funding Lawfare to Influence Climate Policies, Fe. 8, 2024: https://capitalresearch.org/article/why-are-charities-funneling-millions-into-climate-change-lawfare/?blm_aid=59207
  358. Billionaire Climate Policy extremist influences Biden to Kill U.S. LNG Exports while investing in China. How Patriotic this is, Washington Examiner, Feb. 22, 2024, How a billionaire Democrat fueled the Biden anti-LNG pressure campaign while placing lucrative bets in China: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/2865494/how-billionaire-democrat-fueled-biden-anti-lng-pressure-campaign-china/
  359. Crude Oil is the Feedstock for over 6,000 products by Ron Stein and posted by Stephen Heins on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/stephenheins/p/the-elephant-in-the-room-that-no?r=kv1a9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
  360. New book connecting foreign influence with U.S. elected officials by Peter Schweizer, “Blood Money” available Feb. 27, 2024: http://peterschweizer.com/blood-money-debuts-feb-27-2024/
  361. Electrons Have Consequences, by Pandreco, April 2024: https://pandreco.substack.com/p/undermining-electrons-have-consequences
Coal Power, economic prosperity and energy, Energy and Electricity Fundamentals, Fossil Fuels are Important, Geopolitics, Keeping America Great, Nuclear Power Generation, Regulations

Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 3: The Transition that Isn’t, from the Perspective of Minerals

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The Finland GTK organization has provided comprehensive and well researched information on the challenges of providing adequate minerals for the future. I recommend referring to their excellent work. (1) Also, the National Mining Association has excellent information on their web page. (2) The current slogan for the NMA is, “Minerals Make Life”. I would add, minerals, lots of minerals are also needed for the transition to more renewable power generation. Even then, as a friend pointed out to me, the exotic minerals do not produce electricity until they are incorporated into final products such as solar panels or wind turbines. Electricity produced from renewables cannot make the products needed by society. See Ron Stein’s explanation for more on the importance of crude oil. (8, 9)

Mining and Power

My background and expertise is in electric power generation, not mining. So, why am I writing this if I am not a mining expert? The reason is, although my experiences are in combustion and power, over the last 60 years or so I traveled the world with involvement in power plants and ore processing facilities that provided electricity and combustion systems required for the mining of aluminum, copper, coal and steel. The fact is that both internal combustion engine powered vehicles and EV’s, all require lots of copper, steel and aluminum. As technologies advance for more reduced carbon power generation and use, so will the requirements for Rare Earth minerals, Uranium as well as the more common metals. Aluminum requires the most electricity for smelting of all common metals, about 5 kWh per pound. Copper mining requires a fair amount of electricity as well. For example, I once worked at the Freeport-McMoran copper mine in Irian Jaya (now called West Papua) and it had 180 MW of conventional generation just to run the ore processing equipment. A good read is the Forbes Wilson book, “Conquest of Copper Mountain” which is better than fiction on the story of how one of the largest copper mines in the world came to be. (7)  Let’s get back to minerals and metals.

Time to Wake Up!

This is the title of the GTK report and I have taken the liberty of using some of the illustrations from GTK. The first slide in the GTK presentation shows the relationship of metal/minerals required by 2050 compared to the current world use of coal, oil and gas. My previous articles have elaborated on the need to supply the U.S. alone with 100 Quadrillion BTUs of energy. Mr. Michaux provides the graphic below as another approach to communicating the need of minerals.

From GTK Time to Wake Up: https://www.gtk.fi/en/research/time-to-wake-up/

The metals and minerals needed for batteries alone is enormous. GTK shows the relationship of minerals used now and minerals needed as more power generation is produced from renewables and more electricity is used for transportation.

Energy is required to produce these metals. Lots of energy, both primary energy such as Diesel fuel as well as electricity which is secondary energy. For example, take a look at the 400 ton mine haul truck below. This modern and efficient truck uses a 4,000 hp Diesel engine for propulsion. Keep in mind that ore deposits are mostly dirt with a little bit of metal. Typical rich copper deposits are about 1 -2% copper. So, it takes about 50-100 tons of ore to produce one ton of copper. Plus, lots of energy for processing. I also worked at a gold mine in Nevada and there the gold content of the ore was 0.2 ounce per ton of dirt and rock. So, it takes huge haul trucks to move a lot of dirt and rock for these small percentages of metal.

Conclusions

The path to Net-Zero Carbon is not possible by 2050 for many reasons. The one limitation highlighted in this article is the need for enormous quantities of new metals and critical minerals. Also, huge amounts of energy to power the mining, processing and manufacturing. The U.S. government regulations are biased against mining as well as against conventional energy use. Our government seems to hate to use our natural resources. Another slogan used by the NMA that I saw bumper stickers at a Trona mine was “If it isn’t Grown, it is Mined”. See the Competitive Enterprise Institute list of 10,000 Commandments. (6) I invite the reader to visit the web sites of GTK and the National Mining Association. They are experts in minerals and metals and offer outstanding information on their web sites.

What about Nuclear Power?

Nuclear power generation provides the greatest amount of carbon free electricity. Nuclear is the most likely solution for reduced carbon electricity expansion.  Since the 1990s, despite ample domestic reserves, the U.S. has increasingly relied on imported uranium for use in nuclear power plants. Our near complete import reliance for uranium is concerning, including 60 percent of our uranium imports coming from Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The U.S. is currently heavily reliant on China for advanced rare earth materials needed for EVs, wind energy, and other advanced technologies, including those needed for national defense. This need not be the case, whether for uranium, rare earths or other energy materials. The NMA has further information on uranium, rare earth minerals and mining. (2, 4)

Yours truly,

Dick Storm, Feb. 7, 2024

References

  1. GTK Finland- “Time to Wake Up”: https://www.gtk.fi/en/research/time-to-wake-up/
  2. National Mining Association: https://nma.org
  3. Caterpillar 797F Haul Truck specifications: https://www.lectura-specs.com/en/model/construction-machinery/rigid-dump-trucks-caterpillar/797f-11691916
  4. Uranium sources for U.S. nuclear power generation, NMA: https://nma.org/2023/08/22/domestically-produced-uranium-2/
  5. EIA Where our Uranium comes from: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/where-our-uranium-comes-from.php
  6. Competitive Enterprise Institute, Government Regulations Review, 10,000 Commandments: https://cei.org/studies/ten-thousand-commandments-2023/#:~:text=Ten%20Thousand%20Commandments%20is%20the,the%20U.S.%20economy%20at%20large.
  7. A great read not only fascinating but also better than fiction! The story of the development of a copper mine in Irian Jaya, Indonesia: “The Conquest of Copper Mountain” by Forbes Wilson, 1981
  8. Ron Stein’s Energy Library, “Breezes and Sunshine Cannot Manufacture Anything, Electricity Cannot Exist Without Oil”: https://www.americaoutloud.news/todays-materialistic-world-cannot-survive-without-crude-oil/
  9. Ron Stein, “Breezes & Sunshine Cannot Manufacture Anything, Electricity Cannot Exist Without Crude Oil” : https://www.americaoutloud.news/breezes-and-sunshine-cannot-manufacture-anything-electricity-cannot-exist-without-crude-oil/
  10. Gatestone Institute on Leadership, “Boeing’s Missing Bolts”, Leadership at the top affects more than aircraft manufacturing Quality Assurance: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20394/boeing-leadership-crisis
  11. US Manufacturing “Boom” Misinformation, Daily Signal, Aug. 17, 2023: https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/08/17/bidens-manufacturing-boom-is-manufactured-malarkey/
  12.   How Washington Strangled American Manufacturing, EPOCH Times, Feb. 12, 2024, Federal Regulations undermine efforts to restore and expand American manufacturing : https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/how-washington-regulation-strangled-american-manufacturing-5585825?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport
  13. Daily Signal page with numerous Commentary articles on Gov’t &  Federal Regulations,  : https://www.dailysignal.com/tag/government
  14. Daily Signal with more Commentary on Federal Regulations: https://www.dailysignal.com/tag/regulations
  15. 22 Million Acres of Western land to be used for solar power, according to BLM, Such a waste of beautiful lands: https://www.hcn.org/articles/solar-energy-biden-plan-will-earmark-millions-of-acres-of-public-land-for-solar-development/
Basic Energy Knowledge, Coal Power, economic prosperity and energy, Education, Nuclear

Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 1: 79 Quadrillion Btus:The Enormity of the Fossil Energy Systems Providing Sustainable Lives

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Conventional energy is vitally important for all that we do. Missing from news reports to the general public is an honest communication to try to explain the huge and enormous energy systems that we depend on each day and the impossibility of replacing conventional energy with wind and solar. To start 2024, I thought I would post a series on the Hard Truths of Energy. I borrowed the title from the 2007 National Petroleum Council report, led by Chairman, Lee Raymond, retired CEO of ExxonMobil. Petroleum, natural gas and coal were important in 2007 and they remain important today. The “Energy Density” of fossil fuels makes them indispensable to sustain our economy and our high quality of life.(4)

Fossil Fuels Provide 79% of U.S. Primary Energy

79 Quadrillion BTUs is the amount of energy we depend on from fossil fuels. This is my attempt to try to explain and illustrate what 79 Quadrillion BTUs of energy looks like. The number 79 Quadrillion is from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore Laboratory for energy use in 2022.(2) Below is a short summary of the amount of natural gas, petroleum and coal that we used in the U.S.A. in 2022.

How Huge is a Quadrillion?

I have discussed the steady U.S. energy demand of 100 Quadrillion BTUs per annum for decades and yes, 100 Quadrillion BTUs is the amount of energy we use each year and it has been steady for over 20 years.(6) Until now, I did not take the time to explain the enormity of a Quadrillion BTUs. Here is what one Quadrillion BTUs of energy is equivalent to:

Coal= About 50 million tons of coal. This would be a coal pile that would be one mile wide, ten feet high and 3.3 miles long.

Oil= 7.14 Billion gallons. See Lee Raymond quote below on the quantity of motor fuels used in the U.S. in a year

Natural Gas= 1 Trillion cubic feet. This is equivalent to 200 aircraft carrier sized LNG Tankers. More on the enormity of an LNG ship below.

It is a fact, in America, we use and need about 100 Quadrillion BTUs of energy each year.

36 Quadrillion BTUs of Petroleum

The single largest form of energy that we depend on is petroleum. About 20 million barrels per day. To visualize what 20 million barrels per day would look like, take a look at the photo of me and the 48″ Alyeska pipeline in Alaska. At its peak flow, about 2 million barrels per day flowed through the Alaska pipeline. So, to visualize 20 million barrels per day, picture in your mind, ten of these 48″ pipelines installed side by side.

The Alaska pipeline. Capacity about 2 million barrels per day. This is to help visualize what 20 million barrels per day would look like. Picture ten of these side by side. This is the enormity of the petroleum needed to supply America
Photo credit, Dick Storm circa 2007

Another illustration was offered by Lee Raymond, retired CEO of ExxonMobil when introducing the National Petroleum Council report “Facing the Hard Truths of Energy” in 2007. This explanation is offered by Mr. Raymond on You Tube, here. Mr. Raymond explained that the amount of motor fuels used in 2006 was about 150 Billion gallons. He then went on to state that if each gallon was placed in a one gallon tin can as he used in his youth to fill his lawnmower, the length of 10″ high cans, if placed end to end would circle the earth 1,000 times. That is the enormity of 150 Billion gallons of motor fuel. Mr. Raymond stated, (among other important points), “To replace current energy systems it will take a an enormous effort and a long period of Time.”(5)

The gasoline and Diesel motor fuels used in the U.S. has increased from the 150 Billion gallons consumed in 2007, to about 209 Billion gallons in 2022.

33 Quadrillion BTUs of Natural Gas

America used 33.4 Quadrillion BTUs of natural gas during 2022. Most of the natural gas used by the U.S. is distributed by a vast network of unseen, underground pipelines. Therefore, hard to visualize. So, let’s imagine that if we were to use all of our natural gas from shipments of LNG, (Liquified Natural Gas) how many huge LNG Super Tankers would it take? Such as the vessel Pan American shown below:

Pan American Specs: https://www.balticshipping.com/vessel/imo/9750232

This LNG tanker holds 174,000 cubic feet of liquified natural gas. LNG is 1/600th the volume of the gaseous state. The ship is over 977 feet long and the gross tonnage is 114,966. This is a ship about the size of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier. The energy equivalent of the cargo is about 6 trillion BTUs.

Now, imagine 6,600 ships like the Pan American above all lined up along the east coast. If the ships were placed touching, end to end, this would be about 1,220 miles of ships from New York City to south of Miami, Florida. That is the number of aircraft carrier sized LNG tankers that it would take to provide 33 Quadrillion BTUs of natural gas fuel. The 33 Quadrillion number is from 2022, the actual demand. The future will likely require more than 33.4 Quadrillion BTUs.

10 Quadrillion BTUs of Coal Power

Coal power has been important to the U.S. since the days of Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse. The American electric system, referred to as the “Grid” was built on the foundation of reliable, affordable, domestically supplied and environmentally clean steam power generation fueled by coal. This took over 125 years to build and has been described by the Smithsonian as, “The Largest Machine Ever Built”. Video here. As recent as 2011 about 50% of America’s electricity was produced by steam turbines with steam generation from coal fuel. In 2022 the coal powered electricity generation dropped to about 20%. Much of the total electricity generation which was once powered by coal fuel, has been switched to natural gas fuel. 

As recent as 2011 America used about a billion tons of coal. In 2022 coal use declined by about 50% to about 512,000 million tons. Coal is important because of it’s enormous energy density. Another important fact, is that weeks and months of primary energy can be safely stored on site. Coal provides Dispatchable power and it is proven to be affordable. America has the largest coal reserves of any country. The U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of coal.

How much coal is 512,000 million tons? This is enough coal to fill about 5,000,000 coal cars such as the one shown below.

https://www.bnsf.com/ship-with-bnsf/ways-of-shipping/equipment/coal-cars.html

How long would a single train of 512,000,000 tons of coal be? About 50,000 miles, long enough to circle the earth two times at the equator.

Conclusions

The so-called energy transition from conventional to wind and solar is simply not possible with today’s technology. As Mr. Raymond stated in 2007, changing from our conventional energy systems to something else is an enormous effort that will take. a long time.

Net-Zero Carbon by 2050 is impossible. A previous blog post is here.

The largest energy density and provider of the greatest quantity of carbon-free energy is nuclear power. However, replacing the existing electric generation with nuclear will take decades to accomplish and massive roll back of Federal Regulations. It took about 40 years to develop, manufacture, construct and perfect the 93 operating commercial nuclear units in 54 plants. These currently provide about 20% of America’s electricity. Most of these are now over 30 years old and the last two units built by Southern Company (2,200MW capacity) took over ten years to build. A previous blog post discusses “Without New Thinking on Nuclear Power, Net Zero Carbon is Impossible”, here.

Electrifying Everything is not possible, even electrifying transportation is not practical for every vehicle and if they were, much more electricity would be required.

The so-called energy transition from conventional forms of energy to wind and solar is impossible and attempting to do so by forced laws (such as the IRA), increased Regulations and the continuing war on carbon will destroy our country.

It is my hope and prayer that after the next election some sanity to energy policy will return.

Yours very truly,

Dick Storm, January 11, 2024

References

  1. LNG Shipping Newsletter, 2015 by Riviera: https://www.rivieramm.com/opinion/opinion/lng-shipping-by-numbers-36027
  2. LLNL Energy Flow Diagram: https://flowcharts.llnl.gov
  3. EIA Coal fuel used in 2022, Nov. 2023: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61022
  4. 2007 National Petroleum Council report: “Facing the Hard Truths of Energy”: https://npchardtruthsreport.org
  5. Lee Raymond video at Council of Foreign Relations meeting in 2007: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYRH97e-nlM
  6. Dick Storm Blog, “America Needs 100 Quadrillion BTUs of Primary Energy each Year” March 2023: https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/05/16/back-to-basics-the-u-s-needs-100-quadrillion-btus-year-of-primary-energy/
  7. The Smithsonian Magazine, “The U.S. Electric Grid, The Largest Machine Ever Built”, you tube : https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/history/the-largest-machine-ever-built/
  8. Dick Storm Blog, “What Would it Take to Achieve Net-Zero Carbon by 2050” https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2023/01/12/what-would-it-take-for-net-zero-electricity-generation-by-2050/
  9. EIA Nuclear Plants in the U.S. : https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=207&t=21
  10. Dick Storm Blog, Oct. 2021 “The War on Carbon and How it Came to Be” : https://dickstormprobizblog.org/2021/10/16/the-war-on-carbon-how-it-came-to-be/