Introduction
When we flip the switch, the lights come on without anyone thinking about it. This has only been true for the last hundred years in metropolitan areas, and for only approximately eighty years in rural areas with the enactment of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936.
In 1935, only 25 percent of rural homes in the United States had electricity, and there are people alive today who grew up without electricity. Today, few people are even aware of the monolithic system that generates, distributes, and controls the electricity that flows with seeming effortlessness across the United States. This system is referred to as the grid, which is actually three grids covering the entire lower forty-eight states.
Over the past one hundred years, there have been only two area-wide blackouts affecting over 30 million people caused by a failure of the transmission system. There have been other blackouts—mostly caused by storms—affecting smaller groups, perhaps as many as several million people. Overall, the grid has worked remarkably well. Reliability can still be improved upon, but this is primarily a question of placing transmission and distribution lines underground to minimize weather-induced outages.
Suddenly, we are faced with a threat to the grid we haven’t seen before. It is a threat that can dramatically increase blackouts and the suffering that accompanies them. Some in leadership positions have viewed climate change as an existential threat to mankind and have implemented actions to eliminate fossil fuels from the generation of electricity. Some have claimed that wind and solar and other renew- ables can replace all the coal-fired, natural gas, and nuclear power plants in the United States. It can be argued that the actions these people are taking are making electricity more costly and less reliable, and placing Americans at risk for little or no reason. They are willing to gamble the safety and lives of Americans, as well as the American economy, on an ideology.
Our nation has suffered through a medical war fighting COVID-19 in which thousands died. As my neighbor said,
“The inability of our country to anticipate the corona- virus pandemic and put in place adequate reserves of all of the things we needed—PPE, ventilators, masks, tests, hospital beds, etc.—speaks loudly and directly to the need for reliable on-demand electricity and the need to plan for it right now.”
Imagine if Americans had to suffer through rolling blackouts while quarantined at home during a future pandemic. How would newly erected emergency hospitals operate without electricity, let alone our existing hospitals without diesel fuel or natural gas to power emergency generators?
This was brought home by an oped in the Washington Post. Quoting from the op-ed:
Residential use is up as workers and school children stay home.
[Demand is down] in locked up restaurants, offices and factories.
Hospitals are a different story: They consume twice as much per square foot as hotels . . . lead schools and office buildings by an even greater margin. And their work couldn’t be more vital as they confront the novel coronavirus.
A grid operator, sequestered in his dispatch center in East Greenbush, New York, said it all, “Keeping the lights on. . . . It’s so critical.”3
There is little doubt there will be another pandemic. The only question is when. We must do what is needed to guarantee adequate and reliable supplies of electricity in preparation for the next pandemic.
President Trump recognized the vital importance of the grid when he issued an executive order on May 1, 2020, to protect the grid from foreign adversaries. He said the grid, “provides the electricity that sup- ports our national defense, vital emergency services, critical infrastruc- ture, economy, and way of life.”
There is also an ideology that threatens the grid. This book will examine how federal regulators, state governments, utility companies, and the operators of the grid themselves are imposing their beliefs about climate change on all Americans and placing the grid in great jeopardy. Unelected bureaucrats and self-imposed intelligentsia are making decisions that place all Americans in danger.
Looming Energy Crisis will show you why we must continue to use fossil fuels and why we must protect the grid from the actions of those who are imposing their personal beliefs on the rest of us. Our objective should be low-cost reliable electricity available for everyone.
Reliability is a national security issue.
So sorry to learn that you have Mesothelioma.
May your stay close to family, friends, and those who look to reading your articles.
John Shanahan
Denver, Colorado
website: allaboutenergy.net
Thanks. Yes. I stay close to my family.
Dear Donn: I’m glad you decided to share more of your knowledge and experience with us. I searched for the phrase “Asbestos Exposure in the Navy” and located an informative web page from the Lanier Law Firm. (I’m sure you know this material.)
Yes. Mesothelioma is cause by exposure to asbestos. The ships back in the 40s and 50s were mostly steam turbines with boilers. Asbestos covered all the pipes and it was necessary to patch them with new asbestos mixed with water where the asbestos covering the piping was damaged.
Thank you Don for expanding our knowledge on everything energy related. You been able to help us counter the media’s obsession of climate change with facts they find inconvenient.
Bless you and keep it going!!
Many thanks.
GOOD NEWS!
Hopefully.
Welcome back. My thoughts and prayers are with you as you battle your health issues.
I have always enjoyed your posts since I happened across them and was disappointed when you stopped
Know that your writing serves a purpose, as do you
Many thanks.
Dear Donn,
Glad seeing you again on net! I had been missing you and your factual comments so much! You see, I am an old chemist (80, polymer science) and follow current climate madness closely and your observations have helped great deal forming my attitude plus publish presentations and articles on returning to common sense – cannot share – writing to domestic readership only (in Czech).
Anyway, wishing all the best I remain in the meantime with love, toasting for your good health with excellent wine!
I’m very happy you’re still with us and commenting with your usual clarity. Years ago, I challenged a VP of the Sierra Club who came to meet nine of us in Manhattan. He knew of your name and the book from which I read excerpts. He agreed some of the claims you addressed were excessive. He didn’t admit that the SC had latched onto Global Warming as a means to increase membership and a large income stream. But, it was a quiet denial. Thanks for your help, information and your spirited continuance. I hope it goes on and on.
Many thanks. I hope to continue for a while anyway.
Nice to have you back writing articles, which I always enjoy!
Many thanks.
Donn, I’m glad to hear you are doing “as well as can be expected.”
Bless you for continuing writing your articles. I share your perspective, but you are much more eloquent than am I. I really enjoy what you write and will be buying a couple of your books as well.
Thank you for all you do.
Thanks for your support.
Glad you are back at it!! You were sorely missed! You were one of my “go to” sites to include articles for my newsletter.
Many thanks.
Donn,
It’s great to hear that your doctors were off on their estimates. Keep out of sandstorms as we have been researching the effects of long-term exposure to silica.
Looking forward to your insights on the energy and power front.
Thanks.
My last sandstorm was in Saudi Arabia. They remove the paint from cars, so not good for the health either.
I continue to appreciate your common-sense approach to humanity’s use of energy and its impact (or lack thereof) on our planet. I prefer your calm voice of reason instead of the hysteria and fearmongering that has become so prevalent. Charles Munger, Warren Buffett’s number two man summarized the situation with “Show me the incentive, and I’ll show you the outcome.” Unfortunately, the economic elites that have designed this system, which benefits those elites, also have the means to aggressively lobby for the policies that benefit them.
Other voices of reason include Michael Shellenberger, who wrote the book Apocalypse Never in 2020. There are also good Substacks by Doomberg, environMENTAL, and Green Leap Forward.
I invite other readers of Donn Dears to share the identities of additional voices of reason.
Thanks for your comments.
Hope we get some more feedback.