Let’s create a better world with carbon-free electric energy
Drilling for oil and gas in shale plays is a money-pit, not the great American invention the GOP claimed when the price of crude oil was above $100 per barrel. Fracking created dirty jobs for drilling rigs, freshwater tank haulers, sand truckers, and wastewater tankers hauling toxic water to Oklahoma injection wells, an intake state. Watch out for earthquakes, and don’t drink the water.
Private investors used unique tax loopholes granted by the U.S. Congress to keep counting barrels sold at a loss and flooding the market. On June 28, 2020, shale pioneer Chesapeake Energy of Oklahoma, filed for bankruptcy, after posting a net loss of $8.3 billion for the first quarter of 2020. Top executives got millions, drilling rigs are abandoned, and storage tanks are full.
Carbon-free electric grid
The electric grid spews more than 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, accounting for 30 percent of the U.S. carbon emissions.
Integrating solar and wind energy plus long term battery storage into the electric grid is the low-cost solution for a resilient, carbon-free grid.
Energy 101
Energy security, independence, and dominance are meaningless oil concepts from the past. These political claims used to get people elected are false promises of jobs.
There are many sources of energy from uranium atoms to massive water dams. Primary energy, like sunlight, must be harnessed with solar panels to provide electricity. Secondary energy, like electricity, can be stored or used to run electric motors and appliances. Wasted energy is unusable energy created as heat when electricity is transformed from Direct Current (DC) to Alternate Current (AC), when high-voltage AC from transmission lines is transformed to low-voltage AC at substations for distribution.
Dispersed heat and other wasted energy create inefficiencies. An electric heater is 100 percent efficient – all the energy is transformed into heat. Efficiencies are calculated by dividing the output power in watts by the input power in watts.
If you walk around a gasoline vehicle parked in a garage, the tires, the roof, the engine are room-temperature. There may be oil leaks on the floor and smells and black carbon in the tailpipe. After an hour drive, the engine, exhaust, brakes, and tires will be hot and smelly.
EV’s don’t have oil leaks or hot exhaust, but the small electric motors, tires, and regenerative brakes will be warm. An electric vehicle is 80 percent efficient, gasoline vehicles are only 20 percent efficient. Electricity generated by solar, wind, hydroelectric, or nuclear makes EV’s carbon emission free.
The China Syndrome
Warp speed and other special effects are great forms of entertainment, but a nuclear meltdown where reactor components melt through their containment doesn’t go “all the way to China.” The China Syndrome film was released 12 days before the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Facts, no one died in Three Mile Island, and radiation was negligible. Nuclear power safety has improved greatly with a new resurgence. Please see GoodEnergyCollective.org.
The Exxon Valdez, Deepwater Horizon, and many other massive oil spills that last for months to years and cause countless deaths, are real. Pipelines spills and natural gas methane leaks are ignored to sell climate destroying fuels.
Frack the Koch climate criminals
Let’s create a resilient grid and safe transportation. Traffic jams and gridlocks with delayed and cancelled flights is all we have. China and Japan have safe, reliable, and clean bullet trains floating on rails with magnetic power.
Dirty sources of energy must be stopped by 2025, starting with wood-pellet fired power plants and wood-pellet mills. The UK Drax, U.S. Drax Biomass, and Enviva are the worst. Coal, natural gas, and oil are no longer on the menu.
Please contact U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) and share the plan. Ask him to oppose the new methane rule and the plans to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. Crawford has the power to make it happen and he is waiting to hear from you. Text (870) 292-6747, phone (870) 203-0540 or (202) 225-4076.
Dr. Luis Contreras
Air pollution from burning wood and fossil fuels causes more deaths than smoking.
The risk of dying in London and other large cities with high traffic and air pollution is higher than the risks of smoking. “Air pollution causes up to 8.8 million premature deaths each year around the globe, surpassing worldwide deaths from smoking.”
https://psmag.com/environment/air-pollution-is-killing-more-people-than-smoking-and-fossil-fuels-are-largely-to-blame/
Someone asked about nuclear waste, here is my response.
Nuclear power plants are safe, the fear of radiation is not supported by facts. Air pollution from burning fossil fuels and wood pellets kills millions of people. A related column “Keeping the lights on” on August 28, has details.
Nuclear weapons are different from nuclear reactors in power plants. A new generation of nuclear reactors is in the works: https://www.goodenergycollective.org
Dr. James Hansen, our top climate scientist, says we will need more nuclear power plants to shut down coal and natural gas-fired power plants. Hansen has been on the frontlines protecting future generations and continues with an awesome team looking for climate solutions. https://csas.earth.columbia.edu
Dumping nuclear waste and building nuclear weapons is criminal.
“From 1946 to 1970, the sea around the Farallones was used as a nuclear dumping site for radioactive waste under the authority of the Atomic Energy Commission at a site known as the Farallon Island Nuclear Waste Dump.” This is a nasty dump site, unrelated to the 2010 Fukushima disaster. https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1198/chapters/207-217_RadWaste.pdf
Arkansas has one nuclear power plant that runs around the clock without greenhouse gas emissions.
There are many old coal and gas-fired plants from the time the Koch brothers ran Arkansas. One is dead, and we are fighting their deadly legacy.
Here are some surprising facts about nuclear power plant safety.
We are exposed to radiation from the sun and from the soil all the time, but we know more about volcanoes than radiation.
In 1950 Nuclear submarines replaced diesel submarines for safety reasons
Nuclear reactors are different from nuclear weapons designed to kill and destroy cities.
Radiation is used daily in hospitals and dental clinics.
No one has ever died from radiation exposure from a nuclear power plant, not one!
The Japan Fukushima meltdown is the worst nuclear disaster, compounded by a 9.0 force earthquake, and a massive tsunami! No one died from radiation that spread as far as California
Are BP and Shell moving out of oil and gas?
This may turn out to be the year that oil giants, especially in Europe, started looking more like electric companies.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/business/energy-environment/oil-companies-europe-electric.html/
Are Oil and Gas trying to kill electric vehicles along with the Koch frackers?
Details next week
Next week, please read how fracking killed fracking
Rep. Rick Crawford’s office got a copy of this column. He knows you may be calling about:
1. Environmental regulations on methane.
2. Coal-fired power plants, fracking for oil and gas, crude oil, and NG pipelines, and LNG terminals – shut them down
3. Plug the abandoned Fayetteville shale wells, with methane emissions around the clock
California is on fire and people trying to escape lightning wildfires
EPA, ignoring science and nearly one million public comments, decided to ignore methane emissions. The climate system does not care what EPA says.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/23/us/california-wildfires-sunday/index.html