RMS - 2022 Ep.9 / This Caught My Eye

This is text from a friends post on social media. It is open sourced, accurate and relevant to all of us. Listen, and where I stumbled in my live read, read it again here so nothing is lost in translation. Thank You - Gary

I don't care where you stand on climate change- you better understand this. We are in the middle of a global energy war. Those who have the energy have the power. While the current US administration is bungling along and has rejoined the Paris agreement and can't seem to do anything right, China watches and moves ahead.

We cannot run this country on solar, wind and hydro. It' can't be done. There is one and only one proven formula for low-cost, reliable electricity. You need to build reliable, resilient power plants and ensure a reliable fuel supply. Most of the time this means fossil fuels--natural gas, coal, or oil--sometimes it means hydro or nuclear.

What will definitely not provide low-cost, reliable electricity is what this administration supports pursuing--a so-called 100% renewable grid based on sunlight, wind, and batteries.

While we are told that solar and wind can provide low-cost, reliable energy just as well as fossil fuels, nothing could be further from the truth. Because solar and wind are unreliable, they don't replace reliable power plants — they add to the cost of reliable power plants.

The more wind and solar that grids use, the higher their electricity prices. German households have seen prices double in 20 years due to wasteful, unreliable solar and wind infrastructure. Their electricity prices are 3 times ours — which are already too high due to solar and wind.

The fossil fuel industry is the only industry that can produce low-cost, reliable energy for 8 billion people in the next several decades. That's why globally, fossil fuel use is 4 times all other energy use combined — and why oil, gas, and coal use is exploding in the developing world.

The only moral and practical way to lower global CO2 emissions long-term is to develop low-carbon sources that are cheaper than fossil fuels. China, for one, will not stop using fossil fuels until it is cost-effective to do so.

China has a clear strategy of running its economy on fossil fuels, while encouraging others to run on inferior, unreliable solar and wind — that is made using Chinese fossil fuels, which produce 85% of Chinese energy. In 2020 China added 38 GW of coal plants and has 247 GW (enough to power 3 Texases) in development. All designed to last 40+ years. China is planning to build 43 new coal-fired power plants and 18 new blast furnaces — equivalent to adding about 1.5% to its current annual emissions — according to a new report.

China is leading the world in new coal power plants, building more than three times as much new coal power capacity as all other countries in the world combined in 2020. It isn’t alone in its reliance on coal, however. China and four other countries, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam, account for more than 80% of the coal power stations planned across the world, according to a June report by the think-tank Carbon Tracker.

China sees the writing on the wall- they are patient and plan ahead. Our administration plans for nothing while China plans years ahead. They know we already suffer from rolling blackouts in certain areas and moving to the point of relying on electricity without being able to produce enough electricity to meet our daily needs is a recipe for disaster. China knows it. It's part of their military operational war plans. The Department of Defense has no definition of “war plan” according to its own doctrine. There are the Unified Command Plan, campaign plans, theaters of war, and regional theater strategies. There is even a Global Integrated Base Plan. But there is no war plan for the U.S. military. The U.S. has had war plans before, and it needs to again. Of course, today’s military does have plans—lots of them. They just are not complete, or they are too limited in scope, not going beyond the military’s actions. Rather, the Department of Defense has a set of planned reactions for various regional contingencies. These “contingency plans” emanate from the six geographic combatant commands. These plans combine into a Global Integrated Base Plan which informs decisions about which military forces should support which aspect of the plan(s). The contingency plans are geographically focused and vary in their detail. But they share a number of shortcomings. Critically, what the contingencies plans do not plan well is the continuance of conflict. We saw that in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

There's a reason why China claims they will replace the United Sates as the world's power by 2039 and in July of 2021 even decreased that time to 2031. The action or lack thereof by this administration has sped up China's timetable.

I don't care which side of the political spectrum you fall on (unless you are an outright communist hoping for a communist takeover then fk you) but if you value your freedom and this country you best come down from cotton candy and unicorn land and pull your head out of your fourth point of contact. The threat to the future of this country and that of our future generations is at risk. The risk is real.