I have been reading about the push to 100% electrification in America and much of the world. With all those pressing for a "greener" planet, in their fervor they have lost sight of the big picture. Let's look at some points the fossil fuel haters never seem to consider...
1. Battery production is a dirty process. Mining for minerals to make the batteries scars the earth and the damage to the environment is significant, not to mention the child labor in many countries used to mine the minerals.
2. Recycling is touted but there is little recycling taking place for batteries, solar panels or windmills. In fact, studies show that it costs thirty to forty dollars to recycle just one solar panel and that produces just two to four dollars of recoverable materials, so recycling is a losing proposition. Windmill blades are an alloy that currently cannot be recycled so there are thousands of those huge blades laying in scrap piles with no place to recycle them at this time. Batteries, in some cases, can have individual cells replaced, but manufacturers of vehicles are using the battery packs as structural members of the cars, meaning they will not be replaced and as of now, those vehicles will become scrap at the end of their electric service life. Recent articles show a seven year old electric vehicle selling for eleven thousand dollars used, will require a fourteen thousand dollar battery replacement, but none are available as the manufacturer discontinued replacement batteries and none are available on the aftermarket. So what we have is a giant useless paperweight.
3. We have gas appliances in our homes because gas is much cheaper than electric for most appliances. In the rush to curtail natural gas usage, and make everything electric, nobody seems to understand the huge increase on our already fragile electric grid when we move to all electric. Remove gas hot water, cooking, heating, clothes dryers and replace those with electric gobbling devices and it will severely impact electric availability. For example...Electric dryer 4000 watts, electric stove 2000 watts, electric tankless water heater 8800 watts, electric home furnace 15,000 to 50,000 watts. Considering the average home duty cycle, on the low end that will add several hundred dollars to a family's electric bill and further tax the grid. In many areas we struggle to maintain the lights on due to lack of grid capacity, along with aging infrastructure. It's sad but comical to know that when the grid needs additional power the electric companies rely on gas fired "peaker" generating plants or the lights would go out!
4. Solar and wind power is great except when it's snowy, rainy, dark or the wind doesn't blow. In Texas their windmills froze several winters ago when it was inordinately cold and they could not deliver power. Homes froze, pipes burst and it was a general mess. Also this year in Texas, there was a huge temperature inversion with no wind so they again went dark. Solar panels have a finite life span, usually 20 to 25 years so they need replacement as well. The cost and the recycling or lack thereof is again a problem. Nobody seems to care about this.
5. To add insult to injury the electric companies charge a minimum fee to solar users which in our area is currently ten dollars or the equivalent of about twenty six kilowatts at the .39 cents per kWh we currently pay in a tiered system first tier. (We have the highest electric rates in the nation). The utility wants to increase that to thirty five dollars or about ninety kilowatts minimum. So, why give the utility all that extra money for nothing when we can simply use more electric to offset that charge? And, since we send any excess from solar back to the grid, and are paid less than what we are charged for incoming electric, just quit conservation and use more electric which will result in the same bill? Once again, those on the headlong rush to go green have no clue about the backside of this quest. Solar was the carrot at the end of the electric bill stick but that carrot has withered away.
6. The cost for families and industry to turn from fossil fuels to electric will be huge. People who heat their homes with oil or gas will be forced at some point to change over to electric, and those costs for a new furnace will be enormous. Same with stoves, water heaters and clothes dryers. Looking at current pricing of those items it will cost about ten thousand dollars or more for the transition to electric and the bills to operate those appliances will be increasing as well. If there will be subsidies for those who have to make the change, the costs will simply be divided and borne by the taxpayers yet again. There is no "free lunch" for anyone but the utilities and the government in this deal. And large industrial users will have an even bigger challenge...grain dryers for example use natural gas and converting to electric would shut most down. No grain means no food, folks. But the politicians never think of these consequences.
7. California has decided no new fossil fueled vehicles can be sold as of 2035. Only electrics or non-fossil fueled vehicles will be allowed. Yet they have zero ability to charge all those vehicles and won't have anytime in the near future. Imagine an apartment complex with a thousand vehicles, which is about normal for a four to five hundred apartment complex. How will they get enough chargers, how will they put one in every parking space, how will they meter the electric, and what will that do the already sky-high rents? Then consider that many chargers on current networks are out of order, won't charge properly, won't charge every vehicle configuration, are vandalized, etc. And how will the already fragile grid handle that increased load? And of course all the new electric buses, trucks, trains, and other vehicles that will further impact the grid. Nobody wants to talk about that like there will be some magical unicorn who will grant us unlimited power for all the new "green" needs.
I am not against recycling, renewing, reusing and some green energy. But dictating the ways and means you will be forced to go green just is not a survivable future for America. The powers that be have turned their backs on the dirty energy that goes to make the green elements, the sad labor practices, the filthy air and landscapes in countries that make the "green" energy products we import, the closing down of nuclear power plants instead of solving the waste nuclear fuel issue. Every politician wants to be seen as a green savior but when they find they will be very cold sitting in the dark, it will be a sad moment of truth. Politicians and over zealous tree huggers seem to have no consequences for what they do to the country. They get fat and rich while in office, take no responsibility for their bad choices, have no consequences for their actions, and just leave the rest of us to deal with their blunders.
