Transitions to Green Aren’t As Easy As Saying It!
May 25, 2022
As the ongoing nature of the Ukrainian war has become more painfully apparent, energy pundits of all stripes have evidenced varying degrees of awareness that there needs to be a transition in the U.S. policies on domestic production and exportation of fossil fuels. The key word in the previous sentence is “degrees” since unabashed fans of the O&G industry – primarily from the right end of the political spectrum – did not need the war to reach that conclusion. While shifts within the left have been far more interesting to watch play out. Sadly, the knee-jerk reaction of the Green New Deal types cannot be self-suppressed. And, the folly of their opinions is painfully obvious to anyone who has passed third grade arithmetic. But, when one can read a level-headed editorial from the highly-respected Thomas Friedman of the left-leaning New York Times who points out…
Let’s look at both. For too long, too many in the green movement have treated the necessary and urgent shift we need to make from fossil fuels to renewable energy as though it were like flipping a switch — just get off oil, get off gasoline, get off coal and get off nuclear — and do it NOW, without having put in place the kind of transition mechanisms, clean energy sources and market incentives required to make such a massive shift in our energy system.
It’s Germany in 2011, suddenly deciding after the Fukushima accident to phase out its 17 relatively clean and reliable nuclear reactors, which provided some 25 percent of the country’s electricity. This, even though Germany had nowhere near enough solar, wind, geothermal or hydro to replace that nuclear power. So now it’s burning more coal and gas.
A 2019 working paper for the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research found that in Germany “the lost nuclear electricity production due to the phaseout was replaced primarily by coal-fired production and net electricity imports…
…then one can see there has been a genuine progression! And a for country that seems to have a hard time generating bi-partisan coalitions on anything, the left plus the right just might “get it” on this one! The Friedman editorial is not a sea change, but for a pundit with a huge following, his editorial is not insignificant. (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/opinion/russian-oil-green-energy.html)
And, First Keystone’s leadership, which often agrees with Thomas Friedman, is also doing its part by offering warehouses for lease in Pecos (TX) to serve the growing needs of the oil & gas industry.
The opinions expressed above reflect only those of the author and do not represent those of the First Keystone Pecos Industrial Park organization. First Keystone welcomes responsible fact-based discourses on these topics.