moonbattery logo

Category: Energy

Jul 22 2024

Green Odyssey Ends in Death

Ecorighteous posturing is all fun and games — until someone gets killed:

Brett Clibbery and Sarah Packwood were found after their raft washed ashore on Sable Island, around 108 miles southeast of mainland Nova Scotia…

Despite having different names, they were married. They had abandoned their yacht for the life raft for unknown reasons.

They dubbed their latest adventure the green odyssey, a nod to the yacht being powered by a battery from an electric Nissan Leaf car and six solar panels.

Prior to the ill-fated adventure, Clibbery proclaimed:

“We’re doing everything we can to show that you can travel without burning fossil fuels.”

You can. But why would you want to?

Some experts said the addition of the solar panels and battery pack will have added weight to the yacht and made it potentially unstable. There were also fears that salt water may have led to the lithium battery pack being corroded and catching fire.

Best not to rely on EV batteries and solar energy.

On a tip from Steve T.

Jun 27 2024

First Solar Epitomizes Green Energy Graft

Barack Obama was a pioneer at monetizing the global warming hoax by using otherwise largely useless green energy boondoggles to launder taxpayer money and pay off campaign donors. In his third term, the graft has gone so far over the top that even Associated Press can’t help but notice it:

Executives, officials and major investors in First Solar, the largest domestic maker of solar panels, donated at least $2 million to Democrats in 2020, including $1.5 million to Biden’s successful bid for the White House. After he won, the company spent $2.8 million more lobbying his administration and Congress, records show — an effort that included high-level meetings with top administration officials.

First Solar is not likely to produce much energy, but it knows how to get a return on investment.

First Solar became perhaps the biggest beneficiary of an estimated $1 trillion in environmental spending enacted under the Inflation Reduction Act, a major piece of legislation Biden signed into law in 2022 after it cleared Congress solely with Democratic votes.

A party arrogant enough to call an inflationary wasteful spending spree the “Inflation Reduction Act” won’t shy from open corruption at taxpayer expense in the name of the phony green energy transition.

Since then, First Solar’s stock price has doubled and its profits have soared thanks to new federal subsidies that could be worth as much as $10 billion over a decade. The success has also delivered a massive windfall to a small group of Democratic donors who invested heavily in the company.

The money is extracted from the American people via taxation and inflation. The Global Warming Hoax is a looting spree. Democrat rule is intolerable.

On tips from Chuck A and R F.

Jun 26 2024

Green Energy Transition Will Not Happen

According to the media/Democrats, we have undertaken a noble yet inevitable transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar, for which no price is too high to pay. But the ballyhooed transition will not happen this year or next. It won’t happen ever:

Globally, we spent almost $2 trillion in 2023 to try to force an energy transition.

Thanks to extravagant (not to mention corrupt) subsidies, solar/wind use has risen.

But that hasn’t reduced fossil-fuel use, which increased even more over the same period.

For a transition to actually happen, the new source of energy would have to be better or cheaper than the old. Yet fossil fuels are not only less expensive but superior to wind and solar at everything except complying with liberal ideology.

An energy transition would require far greater subsidies for solar and wind, as well as batteries and hydrogen. We would have to accept less-efficient technologies for important needs like steel and fertilizers. Politicians would have to impose massive taxes on fossil fuels to make them less desirable. McKinsey & Co. estimates that achieving a real transition would cost more than $5 trillion annually. This splurge would slow economic growth, making the real cost five times as high. For rich-world voters, the annual cost could be more than $13,000 a person, according to energy researcher Vaclav Smil.

This is in exchange for exactly zero benefit, unless you believe John Kerry types that the weather would be nicer.

The average Democrat voter may be that gullible. But climate ideology aside, no informed person could expect wind/solar to generate more than a fraction of the energy provided by more efficient and reliable fossil fuels.

To impose a complete green energy transition would result in the collapse of the economy and death by starvation of most Americans. Considering how much the leftists controlling the media and the Democratic Party hate us, maybe that’s the plan.

On a tip from Varla.

Jun 16 2024

Biofuels Are Bad for the Environment

Biofuels like ethanol produce less energy than proper gasoline. But they produce just as much in terms of pollutants:

The 275 Biofuel and ethanol manufacturers in the US released 12 million tons of toxic materials into the air in 2022 compared to 15 million emitted by oil refineries, [a new] report detailed.

Further, these plants released more of four kinds of toxic chemicals that can cause vomiting, diarrhea and shortness of breath in the short term, and have been linked to cancer in the long term.

These green fuel companies use products like corn or vegetable oil to make fuel instead of petroleum.

In addition to being inefficient, using food as fuel drives up the price of food.

As for the lunatic notion that the weather wants us to use biofuels,

The biofuel plants in the US emitted 33 million tons of greenhouse gasses in 2022.

Fortunately, greenhouse gases tend to be harmless. Corn produces 24% more carbon emissions than regular fuel, but that actually helps the plants to grow.

The same is not true of hexane, acetaldehyde, acrolein, and formaldehyde, all of which are produced in greater abundance by biofuel plants than traditional oil and gas refineries.

Can you guess who is paying for biofuel foolishness? That’s right; you:

Even as reports of this sort are increasing, the ‘green fuel’ industry is booming.

This is thanks in part to increased funding from the Biden administration, which has allocated billions in funds for developing a green aviation fuel, Inside Climate News reported.

Presumably the purpose is to launder taxpayer money to pay off campaign donors, as under Obama.

It isn’t as if biofuels do nothing to please the climate. Approximately 40% of the corn grown in the USA goes to ethanol. Growing all that corn has required deforestation. Bill Gates says trees cause global warming.

On a tip from ABC of the ANC.

Jun 02 2024

Vermont Moves to Outlaw Energy Production

With the approval of the malevolent lunatics comprising the liberal media, Vermont is moving to effectively outlaw energy production by looting to death companies that engage in it:

Vermont has become the first state to enact a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of the damage caused by climate change after the state suffered [because there was weather].

According to leftist dogma, weather is caused by the fossil fuels that make everything go and keep us alive.

“Republican” Governor Phil Scott bleated about the imaginary climate crisis and the evils of Big Oil while refusing to veto the insane bill, confirming that RINO collaborators are worse than useless.

Under the legislation, the Vermont state treasurer, in consultation with the Agency of Natural Resources, would provide a report by Jan. 15, 2026, on the total cost to Vermonters and the state from the emission of greenhouse gases from Jan. 1, 1995, to Dec. 31, 2024. The assessment would look at the effects on public health, natural resources, agriculture, economic development, housing and other areas.

How much does weather caused by energy production cost Vermonters in terms of housing? How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

The idea is to loot energy companies out of existence and then freeze in the dark so as to curry favor with liberals’ atavistic weather gods.

The end result would be a nationalized energy industry. To see what that would be like, refer to oil-rich Venezuela, where they can’t keep the lights on.

Eric Utter proposes a response:

Not one drop of oil should be directed towards Vermont. Let Vermonters freeze to death in the winter — or die of heatstroke in the allegedly rapidly warming climate. No affordable gasoline to power your vehicles so you can go to work, the hospital, out to eat, or on vacation? Too bad, dumbasses. Think about that — and the myriad of other products that are made from petroleum — the next time you are going to vote.

Too bad the approach isn’t feasible — if only because other Democrat-dominated states (Maryland, Massachusetts, New York) are already planning to follow suit.

If their ham-fisted banana republic tactics succeed, and Democrats prevail in November, Biden’s handlers will be emboldened to inflict this looting spree nationwide.

Enjoy electricity and transportation while you can. In a country menaced by leftists, nothing can be taken for granted.

On tips from Varla and StephaneDumas.

May 20 2024

Enviromoonbat Conundrum: Lithium From Fracking

Great news for enviromoonbats: a new source has been found for the lithium that is required in massive quantities for the glorified golf carts they want to force us into. Now the bad news: it comes from fracking wastewater.

It turns out that the Marcellus Shale — a long swath of sedimentary rock in the northeastern United States that holds huge amounts of frackable gas — holds huge quantities of lithium too. Justin Mackey and other researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pennsylvania were pleasantly surprise[d] when they studied the contents of wastewater dredged up in the fracking process at 515 sites in the Keystone State, reports Science Alert.

Fracking provides clean and cheap natural gas, but possibly due to its effectiveness, it is haram in the liberal religion.

Nuclear energy provides affordable electricity without allegedly harmful carbon emissions. Liberals oppose it, because it too is haram.

Whether our moonbat overlords will exploit the Marcellus Shale is doubtful. After all, why would they want to make increasingly mandatory EVs affordable, when they can just coercively subsidize them?

On a tip from R F.

May 14 2024

Gas May Go Up Another 47¢ in California

How much pain will Californians take before they stop voting for Democrats? They already have the highest taxes in the nation and pay more for energy than any state but Hawaii. How about if the kooks in charge jack up the price of gasoline by another 47¢ because the climate?

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is the state’s regulating body charged with implementing the most ambitious climate action of any jurisdiction in the world: achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.

An amended version of CARB’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCSF) was released in a preliminary report in September and included potential price pass-throughs for consumers as the state moves toward its clean air goals.

The report projected that by next year, gasoline prices could go up an average of 47 cents per gallon, with similar annual increases thereafter.

The idea is to incrementally make driving too expensive for any but the rich.

The odds of this having a perceptible impact on the weather are nil.

At some point, the worm may turn, even in California.

On a tip from Steve T.

May 11 2024

Weather Has Upper Hand

We are told that the weather can be controlled by green energy boondoggles. Actually, Mother Nature is in control.

From India:

No wonder Indians rely on coal.

Are there lessons to be learned from events like this? No there are not. The main purposes of green energy projects are to launder taxpayer money and to demonstrate how devoutly moonbats worship the Global Warming Hoax. No doubt developing countries also exploit them to acquire handouts from the West. Whether any energy is generated is irrelevant.

On a tip from WDS 2.0.

May 01 2024

G7 Agrees to Shut Down Coal by 2035

Unless the woke globalist ruling class is overthrown soon, there could be dark times ahead — literally:

Energy ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) wealthy countries reached a deal to shut down their coal-fired power plants by 2035 at the latest, in a significant step toward the transition away from fossil fuels.

These countries, which include the USA, will not remain wealthy for long, because they will not be able to afford the energy required to sustain their economies.

The accord will be included in the G7 energy ministers’ final communique to be released on Tuesday at the end of a two-day meeting in Turin.

Coal is the cheap and abundant energy source that combined with capitalism allowed the West to pull humanity out of the poverty it had been mired in from the beginning. Banning this staple of energy production is like banning wheat — although our rulers are more likely to ban meat, in accordance with their liberal flakiness.

According to ruling class ideology, coal is offensive to the atavistic weather gods we are told to worship. Yet the carbon emissions produced by coal overwhelmingly come from China and India, which are not run by suicidal fools and therefore will continue to burn it.

The only impact of a G7 ban on coal will be to put people out of work and to raise the price of energy. There is zero chance that it will perceptibly impact the weather — as if the weather were a problem anyway.

On a tip from Wiggins.

Apr 18 2024

Human Waste as Sustainable Aviation Fuel

We can’t use readily available fossil fuels, because they are said to be offensive to the atavistic weather gods worshiped by liberals. We can’t use clean and affordable nuclear power, because libs don’t like that either. Wind and solar are great for laundering taxpayer money, but are not capable of generating more than a small fraction of our energy needs. What then can we use to keep the lights on, wheels rolling, and jets in the air? Moonbats have the answer. It is something they can supply in great abundance — because they are full of it:

Wizz Air is making waves with its recent announcement that up to 10% of its flights could be powered by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) derived from human waste by 2030. In an innovative approach to tackling the dual challenges of waste management and sustainable air travel, the Hungarian budget airline is joining forces with UK-based Firefly to transform sewage sludge into a biofuel that could see passengers flying on planes powered by an unusual source—human feces.

They ought to use urine, considering the name of the airline.

So long as moonbats remain in charge, the biofuel will pile up ever deeper:

The bold move by Wizz Air comes amid increasing pressure from the EU for airlines to adapt to more sustainable practices, with a mandate requiring a minimum of 20% of jet fuel to qualify as SAF by 2035, escalating to 70% by 2050.

In the USA, this form of biofuel is already heavily subsidized, although for now it is mostly used in academia rather than energy production.

On a tip from Steve T.

Apr 04 2024

Strategic Petroleum Reserve Replenishment Canceled

After crippling domestic oil production, the Big Guy sold 6 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to our communist Chinese adversaries. Lest we recover:

The Biden administration has canceled two planned oil purchases aimed at replenishing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), the Department of Energy confirmed Wednesday.

As with his border policy, Biden’s energy policy makes it hard to believe he means the country well.

On a tip from KirklesWorth.

Mar 27 2024

Single Storm Wipes Out Thousands of Solar Panels

Another day, another green energy fail:

A hailstorm hammered thousands of solar panels at a Fort Bend County farm with emergency crews investigating, and neighbors worried whether any chemicals were leaking.

If you thought green energy is good for the environment, I have a bridge across the East River to sell you.

Experts said that most of the time, large solar farm panels are made of compound cadmium telluride.

You don’t want that in your well water.

It is a toxic substance that can cause kidney, heart, skin, and lung issues.

Solar panels in this area near Houston cover more than 10,000 acres.

At least no one will go broke over incidents like this until we all do, green energy projects being so heavily subsidized. But then, if they made any sense, they wouldn’t have to be.

On tips from Mr. Freemarket and Wiggins.

Feb 04 2024

California to Impose Equity on Electricity

Under absolute moonbattery, equity can be imposed on anything imaginable — even electricity:

California governor Gavin Newsom is standing by the state’s soon-to-be-implemented “equitable” policy to base electricity bills on income, rather than usage, even as public and political opposition to the idea builds in the Democratic coalition.

Mass immigration has successfully converted California to a single-party system. No Republican has been elected to statewide office since 2006. But even some other Democrats balk at Newsom’s radicalism:

Newsom’s commitment to California’s income-based electricity billing plan followed a press conference by a group of Democratic lawmakers who want to reverse the policy, after they voted in its favor as part of a 2022 budget bill. Citing public outcry, they condemned the plan as another price hike for Californians’ astronomical energy bills that would punish conservation-minded households while also subjecting everyone to invasive income checks. …

This emerging rift over a policy that’s been praised by supporters as an “equitable” boost for the state’s transition to zero-emission electricity is a rare hiccup in the Democratic supermajority’s typically lockstep approach to energy mandates.

There will be no transition to zero-emission electricity. Wasteful government-subsidized boondoggles like wind turbines will never meet more than a small fraction of demand, especially after California outlaws real cars in favor of glorified golf carts. The transition will be to no electricity — except for the privileged few.

Electricity rates have risen nearly 70 percent since 2010, when the state started to break from fossil fuels, and California households pay nearly 83 percent more than the average for homes elsewhere in the United States.

Despite a few getting cold feet, Democrats needn’t worry. They will remain in control until they have ridden the erstwhile Golden State into total collapse, thanks to the demographic leverage they have achieved through open borders. Currently they are at work doing the same thing to Texas.

On tips from R F and WDS 2.0.

Jan 17 2024

Electric Car Idiocy Will Make the Cold More Deadly

Winter is a powerful argument against electric vehicles. Even if you are able to get a pricey moonbatmobile to charge in the cold, there are other people to think of. Charging EVs unnecessarily strains an already vulnerable power grid. A countermoonbat in Yukon can attest to the likely consequences:

Meanwhile, liberal authorities exert increasing pressure to force more people into EVs, increasing both the stress and the reliance on the power grid, even while they restrict energy production in the name of their atavistic weather gods. Green blackouts already loom.

Good thing the guy in the video has a generator. Democrats oppose them.

At the risk of stating the obvious, our moonbat rulers do not mean us well. They are engineering an energy crisis.

On a tip from Jack S.

HostingMatters.gif

Alibi3col theme by Themocracy