Fuels and switch to magic beans or flying unicorns or something along those lines but how things change now that fossil fuel supplies are getting dangerously scarce and heating our homes and getting around and buying food are becoming painfully expensive we’re faced with a stark reminder that energy systems are not playthings Foreign off to their rooms to do their homework and for the rest of us to have an adult conversation but what a modern Energy System really looks like for the climate discussion Nexus I’m John Robson and this is a CDN primer on energy in the U.S economy Foreign let’s get a picture of what world oil consumption has been like for the past six decades the picture is pretty simple from 1965 to the present World oil consumption more than tripled you can see that recessions sometimes cause demand to slow down like those in the
Early 1980s or after the 2008 financial crisis but otherwise the trend is steadily upward in the massive global economic shutdowns for covet in 2020 only sent oil consumption back to where it was in 2011 and it’s been recovering rapidly since in the United States oil consumption
Grew steadily from the 1980s up to 2005 but hasn’t risen since meanwhile domestic production did the opposite it fell from 1980 to 2005 then started growing rapidly as the fracking industry took off in 2019 U.S oil production was more than two and a half times larger
Than in 2006. so with all that oil being produced why are U.S gasoline prices so high well you’ll notice that while consumption began growing after the end of the covid lockdowns oil production hasn’t followed suit with demand Rising around the world the lack of extra production in the U.S means Supply can’t
Keep up with what U.S drivers currently need this painful situation was a predictable result of the Biden administration’s different priorities namely phasing out fossil fuels as a way of fighting climate change well that domestic policy with Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline to bring an oil from Canada and
The inability or unwillingness of producers and other other Saudi Arabia or Russia to make up the difference and you have a predictable gap between demand and Supply the result and again it’s very predictable has been a steep ramp in gasoline crisis beginning in well November 2020. yes Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in late
February 2022 added upward pressure to gasoline prices but that pressure came after they’d already risen nearly threefold since November of 2020. so Russia’s invasion of Ukraine wasn’t the cause of most of what we were going through most of it instead is a self-inflicted wound and now a word from our sponsor and
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Best flannel shirt to say to the rest of you politely and gently Fork over the cash Toronto we thank you for your kind consideration and now back to the program to understand why gasoline prices have gone up so much since 2020 here’s another important statistic in the year
2000 there were 158 refineries operating in the U.S turning oil into gasoline for use in Motor Vehicles today there are only 129 almost a 20 percent drop the ones that remain in operation have been able to increase capacity somewhat but only enough to match the total capacity of the industry back in 1980
When American domestic consumption was only three quarters of what it is now the surprising truth is that no one has built a new Refinery with significant gasoline production capacity in the United States since 1977. and Industry insiders say that while they plan to increase capacity at existing refineries if they can they
Don’t expect any new refineries to be built in the U.S ever again because of onerous environmental regulations environmental and climate regulations make it impossible for Industries to get investor backing for multi-billion dollar energy projects that take years to plan and Implement and May in the end never get the required government approvals
That’s why as gasoline demand ramped up following the coveted lockdowns with oil production Frozen at pre-2020 levels and refining capacity no higher than it was in 2011. prices went through the roof So you get the picture you can’t blame storing gas prices on Vladimir Putin unless you think all our environmental regulators and climate alarmists are working for him frankly if they were it’s not obvious what they would have done differently from what they actually did because the United States is short of
Gasoline on purpose this crisis is neither an accident nor a plot it’s a plan executed with great determination over many years and it’s working if scarce and costly petroleum-based energy appeals to you as it does to Green transition enthusiasts but of course there are other important forms of energy in the American economy
So let’s look at those natural gas and electricity the United States consumes over 80 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day double what it did back in the mid-1980s but American Natural Gas output has risen dramatically too from 50 billion cubic feet per day in 2000 to over 90
Billion cubic feet per day in 2021 making the U.S Far and Away the largest natural gas producer in the world Russia is a distant second at 68 billion cubic feet per day followed by Iran at 25 billion and China at 20 billion natural gas or methane is classified as
A greenhouse gas of course but all that extra production allowed the US to reduce its coal consumption from over a billion short tons in 2000 to about 550 million short tons in 2021. 41 of it comes from Wyoming by the way followed by West Virginia at 13 and Pennsylvania
And Illinois together producing another 13 and most alarmists would far rather people burned methane than coal now let’s look at where U.S electricity comes from especially as it’s the topic that inspires the most magical thinking of all as people fantasize the American industrial economy could be entirely powered by solar panels and windmills
Cranking out current as needed back in the year 2001 the U.S electrical grid got 51 of its power from coal and 17 from natural gas for a combined total of 68 while 21 came from nuclear and the rest about 11 from so-called Renewables but remember those are primarily
Hydroelectric dams along with some wind biofuels and a few other very minor ones more than 20 years later in 2021 after two decades of pushing Renewables as part of a so-called energy transition the U.S got 22 percent of its electricity from coal and 38 from natural gas for a combined total of 60
Percent while 19 came from nuclear and the remaining 20 or so came from Renewables in which category wind had overtaken Hydro to reach nine percent with Hydro at 6 solar at 4 and the others minimal So after 20 years it’s not a huge change in the role of windmills and solar panels especially considering how much money got thrown at them meanwhile places in the US that rely heavily on wind and solar are starting to have to worry about the reliability of their electricity grades because a
Major issue with both is that the wind bloweth where it listeth as the sun shineth and they don’t rev up or ease back on demand California for example has invested heavily in windmills and solar panels and even shut down both nuclear and gas power generating stations as part of its transition
But demand for electricity often strikes in hot weather when people turn up their air conditioners just as the wind is dying down and demand Also Rises up in evening just as the sun sets so you can guess what this timing leads to there’s a lot more that could be said
But this summary should give you an idea of the main ways the U.S produces and uses energy oil natural gas and coal play big roles in keeping the lights and the furnace and oven on the factory is running and the car is moving U.S and world energy demand continues to
Grow and there’s no magic wand you can wave to shut it all down so you can’t expect to get rid of fossil fuels without causing a massive global economic and social crisis foreign Themes here at the climate discussion Nexus is that the supposed downside of fossil fuel use namely its effect on climate change has been grossly exaggerated there’s plenty of evidence that climate Trends are small and any contribution to them from the use of fossil fuels is vastly outweighed by the benefits they
Bring us in the form of inexpensive and reliable energy that means people able to eat and Heat their homes real consequences for real people it’s a formula so simple even a child could understand it so someone get me a child quick but not you know who the climate discussion Nexus I’m John
Robson and I am gratted out
