Which Way Energy?

The Ongoing Battle Between Fossil Fuels and Renewables

before discussing the state of the energy battles, a couple other things, including the state of ‘justice’…

windmill fire

superconductor powerful electromagnet

link - https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-superconductor-38122 - click on picture to enlarge…

Last week I wrote about the foolishness of thinking that nuclear fusion or hydrogen fuel could be the answer to our energy needs. Today I’ll add one more pipe dream: achieving a room temperature superconductor. A superconductor is any material that can conduct electricity with zero resistance.

superconductors

MRIs and quantum computers use superconductors. The reason they’re expensive is because they only work if held to temperatures more than a hundred degrees below zero which, of course, takes a lot of energy. My home refrigerator certainly wouldn’t cut it.

On July 22^nd, 3 scientists announced they had discovered the 1^st room temperature superconductor! That would be nice if it were possible.

Their paper has not been peer-reviewed, and no one has been able to duplicate their results. I’ll go on record as calling it bunk. All materials at normal temperatures have electrical resistance.

The only One who can overrule the laws of physics is the One who made them – Jesus Christ. He can walk on water, raise the dead, heal any sickness, cure the deaf and blind, pass through a locked door and calm the wind and the sea just by speaking. Here’s what the man born blind said after Jesus gave him sight: “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.”

some thoughts about justice and fairness…

justice?

Indicting Donald Trump 4 times while he’s trying to run for re-election seems just a tad excessive, don’t you think?

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament speak about justice and fairness and impartiality:

“You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.” Leviticus 19:15

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.” 1 Timothy 5:21

No honest person could help but notice the double standard in the US justice system. It’s so obvious, in the difference between the way Hunter Biden has been handled and the way Donald Trump has been treated. I’m not even talking about guilt or innocence; not going there; I’m just talking about whether the justice department or DA decides to go for an indictment or not. Another example is the difference between the handling of various charges against Hillary Clinton compared to that of Roger Stone and many others, like Michael Flynn and George Papadopolous, who suffered greatly during the ‘Trump-Russia’ probe initiated by a phony Steel dossier manufactured by Hillary’s law firm. Roger Stone never hurt anyone, but, as he put it, “… the FBI used "greater force" [to arrest him] than was used in operations conducted on drug kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and Osama bin Laden.”

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, who was accused of much more serious crimes, was never even indicted, speak nothing of arrested. In 2022, almost 7 years after her meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, the FEC fined the Democratic Party $105,000 and the Clinton campaign $8000 for “not properly disclosing the money they spent on controversial opposition research that led to the infamous Trump-Russia dossier.” An $8000 fine is like a parking ticket in this context, or should I say more like ‘20 lashes with a wet noodle’? That’s hardly comparable to the $9500 fine and 25 days in jail that poor Papadopolous suffered.

Everyone can see the bias and partiality coming from the highest legal powers in the justice department.

another double standard - construction permits

It turns out that the justice system isn’t the only place with a double standard. For decades, government agencies have been making more and more rules and regulations by unelected employees of bureaus that make it harder to get permits to build anything from houses to pipelines. These regulations slow down progress and increase costs.

But now the shoe is on the other foot. Those who are anxious to build solar and wind farms are complaining about the difficulty of getting permits. For their projects, they want exceptions to the regulations. Just like the justice system, it’s ‘rules for thee, but not for me’.

Energy Newsbeat points out that New York and California are fretting because they are beginning to realize that they are way behind their goals for getting us all on renewable energy by 2030. They warn that they’re falling short.

“The warnings also highlight the larger debate surrounding permitting reform, and whether governments should be doing more to speed up the approval of renewable energy projects to meet ambitious climate targets. Uh Oh - isn’t ‘speeding up approval’ how we got the mRNA ‘vaccines’ that are not real vaccines, don’t work well at all, and in some cases had deadly side effects.

“… Both New York and California officials have expressed concerns about achieving their states’ climate goals by the quickly-approaching deadline, pointing to funding gaps, unexpected costs, canceled projects and permitting and interconnection delays that they say are slowing down their efforts. Both have also attempted to speed up the expansion of clean energy by passing new policies and legislation that would streamline the approval of renewable projects, which Democrats say often take far too long due to current environmental review standards.”

Hooray! Maybe something good will come from this – or will the ‘steamlining of the approval process’ only apply to the projects they like? What do you think?

more trouble in the ev business

excerpted from Stu Turley’s “Energy Newsbeat” substack yesterday - “The first grand delusion is that electric vehicles will save the planet. In early August, electric bus maker Proterra filed for bankruptcy , flushing down the toilet $650 million of stockholder money, $6.5 billion of government grants, and $45,000 of subsidies for every bus it did sell. This follows the demise of several other electric vehicle companies.” It amazes me that even with $6.5 billion in grants and huge subsidies they could still go bankrupt.

windmill fire

offshore wind turbine fire in UK. fortunately, this is rare - kudos to Azra Dale and his ‘Tango With Renewables” substack for this story. The enclosure on top of these humungous wind towers contain the gear box, the generator, the controller, the low- and high-speed shafts, and the brake. By the way, the ‘brake’ is a mechanism for feathering the 165’ blades when hit by winds over 55 mph. So windmills not only produce nothing when the wind is less than 8 mph, but nothing [they automatically shut off] when it’s over 55 mph.

growing demand for fossil fuels

Another anomaly in the renewable energy push is the increased demand for fossil fuels, even though the idea was to stop using them! How strange. The solar and wind farm industries are subsidized by the billions, and fully promoted by the media, while the fossil fuel industry has no subsidies and fights an uphill battle because of blockages and restrictions, yet the solar and wind industry is struggling to meet its goals and demand for fossil fuel is growing, much to everyone’s surprise.

gleaned from David Blackmon’s ‘Energy Absurdities’ :

…China has commissioned another 50 GW  of new coal-fired electricity generation capacity: 

   “China approved more than 50 gigawatts of new coal power in the first half of 2023, research by environment group Greenpeace showed, with the world's top carbon polluter focused on energy security rather than cutting fossil fuel consumption.

“As scientists and environmentalists urge governments to make deeper emission cuts after record-breaking heatwaves across the globe, the impact of extreme weather has spurred China to build even more coal-fired plants as it tries to counter the effects of drought on hydropower production and avoid power outages.” Who’d have thought?

Since Germany’s supply of natural gas from Russia has been cut off, Germany is having to use more coal. They are reactivating coal plants and stepping up coal mining operations. …see “Coal Keeps Germany’s Lights On” – WSJ, March 9th

Reuters - Japan is the world’s 3^rd largest importer of coal. With sanctions on Russia, and continuing demand for coal, they’ve had to buy lower quality coal from other sources.

From energy newsbeat  Aug.8th ‘Coal burn in Indonesia’ “Indonesia burned 33% more coal in 2022 than the year before, contributing to a 20% increase in the country’s carbon emissions from fossil fuels, an analysis of official data shows.”

Next week – this year’s amazing fruit crops – branches breaking from the load, almost more blessings than we can handle!