Renewables Have to Have Fossil Fuels

by David
(Houston)

There is an old saying that the only thing worse than not getting what you want - is getting what you want. The environmentalists are in the process of killing their own technologies with their full frontal assault on fossil fuels. In order for the huge technological and research and manufacturing costs to be available to develop renewables, we have to have a robust economy to allow the investment and a robust manufacturing base to manufacture the equipment. There is no other fuel capable of providing this than fossil fuels.

Poor, low energy consuming, agrarian economies can not either develop or manufacture equipment or technologies needed for renewable energy sources. Neither can our economy if fossil fuel costs are artificially inflated by government and environmental policies of restricting supplies in order to increase prices. This will greatly reduce our economic wealth and ability to invest in new technologies as our lives become more about economic survival than investment in renewables.

Renewables will only come from robust healthy economies. Also, our environmental thrust of discouraging building and maintaining of manufacturing capacity with environmental delays costs not absorbed in other countries is driving manufacturing capacity out of the United States. This alone will drive up our costs and make renewables more expensive.

As a classic example of renewables needing fossil fuels is in the current electricity market. ALL other generation sources have to have standby capacity or pay penalties if they can not meet delivery commitments made to the grid. With wind power, when they miss their forecasts they can not provide power. Who picks up that power delivery - those nasty fossil fuels, either coal or natural gas. Yet, the windfarms don't have to pay a penalty for this. Where would consumers be with only windmills and no other fossil fuel capacity on a hot day when the wind does not blow? Utilities would not be able to meet their obligations to serve. Consumers and voters would revolt. This requires utilities to develop standby capacity at huge costs for all the windmill capacity added. This is a huge cost not being absorbed by the wind power suppliers - in essence a large subsidy being paid to them.

The lesson clearly is if the environmentalists want to see renewables, they need to make sure that there is enough interim fossil fuel availability at reasonable costs to provide a bridge without breaking our economy and to allow a transition of sources without moving our economy back to the 1800's - which some want to do.