Fossil Fuel Fan *

  

                                          

Yesterday, we had a major snowstorm here in Connecticut. Nevertheless, my wife and I spent a comfortable day at home, snug and warm. We just had to press a button and our energy efficient oil burner worked like a charm. Thankfully, we did not lose electric power despite the winds. Fossil fuels provide most of the electric company's energy. Solar and wind would never have been able to keep us warm during this storm.

Almost immediately on taking office, new President Joe Biden used an executive order to put a stop to the construction of the Keystone pipeline that would transport Canadian crude oil to American refineries.  With another executive order, he put a hold on fracking on Federal lands. The President did not bother to consult Congress in issuing these orders. It seems obvious that he and his handlers are out to put an end to the use of fossil fuels in America. Aside from the fact that his actions put many people out of work, they will also increase energy costs for everyone. We have an energy system that works, and he wants to fix it.

I have to admit that I like fossil fuels and feel extremely grateful that I have lived my entire life as a beneficiary of their use. I can hardly imagine what life would have been like without them. The modern world that we know would have been impossible without fossil fuels and the related industries that enabled us to use them. Let me offer a couple of examples that might shed light on my affection.

I recently watched John Huston’s 1956 film version of Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby Dick. I first saw the film when I was a teenager, and I now consider it an “iconic” film because I can still remember even minor characters and scenes with great vividness. The film had a great director, a fine cast, and awesome cinema effects for the time.

It is a magnificent film but somewhat hard to watch today because of the whale hunting scenes. Since 1956 the advent of television and innumerable nature shows have sensitized us to the killing of animals especially whales. We might feel differently, however, if we had lived 200 years ago in what was a veritable dark age.

Back then whales, especially sperm whales, were hunted not for sport or food but for their oil. The oil was used to light the lamps that did a much better job of illuminating homes than candles. Before that time, you were basically in the dark when the sun went down. Just consider what it is like when we have a power outage today and have to rely on candles for light. It’s doable but hard to endure for more than an hour or two.

Fortunately, the discovery and use of underground oil in the nineteenth century was a tremendous improvement in home lighting. The subsequent harnessing of electricity finally took us into the modern world. We no longer had to kill whales and that industry is virtually banned today.

When I was a child in the 1940s, I still remember watching with fascination as the coal delivery truck emptied a load of coal through a small basement window into a room size coal bin. We loved the coal and never considered that the dust stirred up in delivery might be harmful. I can remember my father or mother going down into the basement on winter mornings to shovel some coal from the bin into the burner. It was hard work, but it heated our home beautifully.  

We lived in a crowded borough of New York city and there was no way we could have heated our homes with wood. Actually, the advent of coal meant that just as we no longer had to kill whales, we no longer had to chop down forests.

Eventually, oil derived from petroleum replaced coal in our household. What a blessing!  No more shoveling, no more messy coal bin, and no more ashes to discard. You just had to turn up the thermostat every morning and the heat came up. Eventually the coal trucks disappeared from our streets. 

Nevertheless, fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas still play a major role in our energy system. Even green power advocates still use them for heat and light as well as to power up their cell phones every night, and charge up the batteries of their hybrid and electric vehicles. Where do they think the power comes from?

Maybe the day will come when alternative and renewable sources make it no longer necessary to use oil and natural gas. If it does come, I don’t think it will have anything to do with climate change.

Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick in 1850, and oil began to replace coal in homes around 1950. I won’t live to see it, but I suspect that by 2050 human ingenuity and technology will have found cost-effective ways to heat and light our homes even without government laws and subsidies. A friend of mine, who is an expert on the matter, tells me that biofuels (but not ethanol) are the wave of the future. 

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* This post originally appeared on the Weekly Bystander a couple of years ago. I repeat it here with an introduction in response to the President's executive orders.