For this reason, climate policy can seriously damage our defense, economic and security needs
Don Knight
President Joe Biden says climate change is the greatest threat facing our country and the world. It’s a bigger threat than nuclear war, he stresses.
Ironically, the proposed “solution” to eliminating essential fossil fuels to mitigate climate change actually increases greenhouse gas emissions and toxic air and water pollution – by requiring that we mine and process up to fourteen times more feedstock per megawatt for wind turbines and electric vehicles or backup batteries than would be required for natural gas-based power generation.
Worse, most of the mining, processing, and manufacturing would be done overseas – almost all using fossil fuels – in countries with little or no legislation to control pollution, protect wildlife habitats and endangered species, protect… land reclamation, for child and slave labor. fair wages or other values that are important to us.
Eliminating fossil fuels also reduces our ability to protect our homeland, prevent nuclear war, and project peace through strength worldwide. Moreover, it profoundly weakens America, provoking an imminent crisis for our economy and military, the two main pillars of a nation’s power.
Fossil fuels are the lifeblood of American military power and serve numerous purposes.
Every iota of military equipment requires fossil fuels to manufacture and power it: from fossil-fuel-derived petrochemicals to the manufacture of thousands of plastic components for infinite uses; for mining and processing minerals into thousands of steel and aluminum alloys for trucks, tanks, guns, airplanes and artillery; to copper and non-ferrous metals for cables and shell casings; to process minerals and chemicals into gunpowder and other explosives – to manufacture and power semiconductor chips for increasingly power-hungry electronic devices that are an integral part of all modern weapons; to produce and ship food for members of our armed forces around the world; to produce medicines and medical devices to save lives and heal wounded warriors.
Fossil fuels are essential for pretty much everything the military needs, from nukes to toilet paper!
This war on fossil fuels is happening at the same time that the Biden administration and Democratic supporters in Congress are spending hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on deficit-increasing, investment-diverting, market-distorting solar, wind, battery storage, biofuels, and other green energy programs.
Given our military’s overwhelming reliance on fossil fuels, this diversion of investment away from fossil fuels will have devastating effects on America’s operational preparedness and industrial defense base.
Where does the lion’s share of the raw materials for wind turbines, solar panels, batteries – and the high-tech equipment to make them and military equipment – come from? China and Chinese-invested or Chinese-operated African, Asian and Latin American mines notorious for child labour, appalling working conditions and virtually no regard for the environment or human life.
America has plenty of oil, gas and coal at home. It’s missing the critical materials that go into wind turbines, solar panels, batteries and weapons just because we’ve closed most of America’s mineralizing and mining districts – and the government has turned down nearly every proposed mining project it’s seen.
While the push for renewable energy may be popular in politics, it is problematic in practice. Relying on our opponents is extremely detrimental to our national security, economy and livelihood.
America will be forced to import essential materials from insecure, hostile nations like China, making us dangerously and unnecessarily dependent on foreign sources. China has the technologies (often stolen from the West) and the materials to dominate both the “renewables” – solar, wind and battery industries – and defense needs. The harsh reality is that China is currently completely dominant in the renewable energy industry. By going green, our dependence on China will only increase
Additionally, their power grid runs mostly on fossil fuels and is therefore set up to support wind and sun when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. Meanwhile, our grid is becoming less reliable as we shut down fossil fuel power plants. Think of the freezing of windmills in Texas in the middle of winter and the ultra-green California government telling EV owners not to charge their vehicles as it could lead to widespread power outages!
Add Russia as China’s oil and gas station and raw materials supplier, and China makes a dramatic leap in both military and economic capabilities. Sino-Russian cooperation could well become the dominant global force over a fossil-fuel disarmed America and West.
In fact, single-handedly, Russia is capable of invading a large, sovereign European nation – even though Russia’s economy is smaller than Italy’s, just 3% of the US plus Europe. How is that possible?
Because Russia has, produces, uses and sells oil, gas and coal, giving it energy dominance now and in the future. Russia’s war against Ukraine is being paid for by its fossil fuel revenues. And as energy-weakened Europe reopens a headline-grabbing 27 mothballed coal-fired power plants to make up for lost natural gas from Russia, it still bans oil and gas fracking and prays for warm winters.
China now builds at least 27 new coal-fired power plants every year.
Common sense dictates that America must reverse its climate-obsessed, anti-fossil fuel policy and pursue a future that is “all above” to ensure the economic, technological and national security reality – where all above means energy that none requires massive federal and state government subsidies; all-weather energy; Energy that is plentiful, reliable and affordable, every hour, every day, year after year.
Anything else gives away not just our male and female defenders in our armed forces, but all of us.
Don Ritter has a Ph.D. in natural sciences from MIT and served fourteen years on the House Energy and Trade and Science and Technology Committees. After leaving Congress, he founded and directed the National Environmental Policy Institute.
He was a fellow of the USSR National Academy of Sciences, is fluent in Russian, and was the senior member of the Helsinki Commission of Congress and the founding chairman of the Baltic States-Ukraine faction. He is a Trustee of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and Museum and Co-Chair of the Capital Campaign.
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