Making America Dumber, One Reader At A Time

This Letter to the Editor popped up in my news feed.  Not even sure why I bothered to read it.  It was probably the same emotion that makes people look at train wrecks.  The letter is a train wreck.

"We have the technical foundation to power the US by electricity right now" screamed the headline.

Huh?  *scratches head*  We've been powering the US with electricity for more than a century.  This is news?

It begins like this:

There has been a spate of gas and oil company ads heralding their fight against global warming. They produce ever-greater greenhouse gas emissions and want credit for doing it more cleanly.

They claim natural gas is a bridge fuel while building new pipelines soon to lie uselessly in the ground. They could use their assets, tax subsidies and ratepayers’ money to electrify every home, business and vehicle very quickly.

What?  Oil and gas companies have ratepayers?  Maybe gas companies, but those ratepayers wouldn't be paying the cost to electrify vehicles (homes and businesses have already been electrified over the past century).  What is this guy going on about?  It makes no sense...

Oh, here we go...

Many believe the wind does not blow all the time. In fact, there are many, many places throughout the world where it does blow and blow strongly all the time. The Oklahoma panhandle produces thousands of megawatts. Vast quantities of constant strong wind off the New England coast are being developed now. Giant turbines driven by 120 feet blades produce constant electric power from wind which costs nothing. Direct current transmission lines deliver power efficiently over long distances. We have the technical know how and the construction capacity to power the United States by electricity now.

News flash... the wind, in fact, does not blow all the time, especially on land.  Who wonders if this writer has ever even been to the Oklahoma panhandle?  Where did he get such a ridiculous idea?  Wind does not produce "constant electric power."  In fact, it's quite intermittent and requires back up generation to smooth out the peaks and valleys of its variability.  Probably gas plants, which need gas lines.  Wind costs nothing?  Of course it costs something to generate wind power, even if the fuel is free.  The infrastructure has an enormous cost compared to the small amount of energy produced.  As well, turning uncluttered paradise and prime farm land into industrial power plants creates a huge cost to the environment and farming operations.

Oh, wait... there it is... direct current transmission lines!  They're so wonderful, right?  Private highways cutting a scar across states that get no benefit in order to ship "clean" energy thousands of miles away where it can power the computer used to write this drivel.

So, what are we supposed to do?

Skeptical, add solar and new pocket nuclear stations to the mix. Why squander billions of tax and customer dollars on new gas infrastructures while electrification is happening? Will these fossil fuel giants delay so long as to cause great climate damage while building useless stranded assets?

Build industrial solar and new nukes (just so long as you don't build them in the backyard of this writer).  Don't build any more gas infrastructure, just power everything with electricity.  Where does electricity come from?  Predominately from gas these days.

This guy's suggestions are about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.  Logic leap, anyone?

How did this poor guy get so confused?

Please read Wall Street Journal reporter’s, Russell Gold’s, book, Superpower, One Man’s Quest to Transform American Energy.

Ah, so there's the source of the problem.  Making America dumber, one reader at a time.