There, I made up a word. Climateer: noun that rhymes sadly with cheer and abjectly with sneer. The latter so eloquently expressed by a New York congresswoman who declared that the "Green New Deal" would have saved Texas from its predicaments. Also, climateer, obliquely means a proponent of anything against fossil fuel, promoter of solar and wind power to assuage climate change.
The congresswoman's lament was aided and egged on by thousands of twitter followers and by a current Texas gubernatorial aspirant who failed a presidential primary run and denied a post at the current administration. These are folks who profess science as the foundation of their arguments and their fake entreaties. When they mock Texas they too were impugning the same on the states similarly affected - from Oregon to Oklahoma and all in between. Texas just happens to be the biggest fossil fuel producer (or, at least best known by reputation)
Let's see how "clean energy" could have saved Texas. Power outages were largely from downed power lines. Energy transmission from solar arrays and wind farms were not immune to the same, but then they were likely not producing anyhow - frozen turbines and the sun hidden behind dark wintry clouds rendered both inutile. Money outlaid on "green projects" could have been well spent at upgrading and improving power transmission lines and other infrastructures.
On a personal basis, power was out in our neighborhood for 25 hours in below freezing temperature. By nightfall, indoor temperature in most homes were likely at between 40 and 50 degrees F ( 4 to 10 Celsius). How did most homes stay warm albeit in at least one section of their homes?
A roaring fireplace that gets its roar from energy converted from flowing molecules of natural gas through underground network of pipelines. Folks were able to heat water and cook their meals with the same seemingly inexhaustible source (looks that way - more reliably so compared to what batteries can store - unaffected by the frost and cloudy days).
There are not enough batteries in the entire country to store that amount of natural energy. Utility workers worked on 16 hour shifts, moving from place to place in diesel or gasoline powered trucks and equipment. Electric ones, if at all, would have had unacceptable downtimes for charging - if there were places to charge them.
Power plants were running from coal and natural gas. Sworn enemies of the climateer, fossil fuel saved more people from discomfort and extreme physical harm and even death.
So, what are we to make from those politicians who are quick to take advantage to promote their "green new deal" projects at times like these. First, they are strong believers at using any crisis to further their agenda. Smart? If we are to fathom the depths of their true intellect or scientific knowledge we will only need a matchstick to gauge it, if that. Perhaps 5 pennies on top of each other are deep enough?
Look at the photo below. I used that little piece of household tool to solder copper to temporarily plug a busted pipe. In it and what was stored in the canister next to it was enough latent energy from the humble butane to solder many number of copper connections in the entire household. And, interestingly enough, I purchased that thing a while back as a kitchen tool - to brown the sugar on Creme Brulee. An electric solder would have been as useless as a piece of rock.
The narrow blue flame has so much energy in it that in a few seconds it will fuse copper pipes or cut wires. Butane: its molecular formula is C4H10. In layman's terms, imagine four C carbon atoms surrounded by and connected to ten H hydrogen atoms.
In other words, it is a compound of hydrocarbon - one of myriad fossil fuel combinations that had been a source of energy for Millenia. Fossil fuel is nature's gift to us, which took millions upon millions of years to fashion. Decayed vegetation and dead animals since a billion or so years ago are being put to good use today. It is a gift that climateers want us to reject.
Climateers are a folly lot, unaccompanied by good sense or normal prudence. Take these, for example. Batteries that can store the amount of energy just for normal conduct of our lives will require oodles and oodles of rare earth elements, lithium being the more well known but there are others. So much earth and mountains are being excavated to mine them with equipment that use fossil fuel. No electric vehicles can move earth or equipment of that magnitude to process tons and tons of rock to extract those rare earth elements. Sometimes these mines are located in pristine regions of the globe under hostile environments and i countries unfriendly to the U.S. and the free world. Solar panels use a lot of those elements. And there is that much iron and steel and concrete to manufacture and erect the turbines and manufacture the panels. All the steps involved use fossil fuel. Operationally, turbines need grease and lubrication to keep spinning. We can't go back to boiling whale blubber for its oil.
The Green New Deal is quixotic and a monumental misuse of resources.
Texas suffered so much from dealing with such an epic turn in the weather. Our homes are designed with building codes for our climate. It is variations in climate that guide the construction methods in communities like ours. The Green New Deal will have little effect to change the climate. Most countries that claim membership to the Paris accord do not even follow or adhere to the guidelines. France itself is not strictly following the rules of the Paris accord. Meanwhile, we only need to look at the massive clean energy program of Spain and see where it took that country - economically and in its effectiveness. Can we expect China and India to abide?
There is much to be said but you get the gist. The perceived idea that the use of fossil fuel is an existential threat begs to redirect that to those who were saved or whose lives were made a bit comfortable in the wake of the unexpected cold blast because they had access to natural gas, diesel or gasoline. Tell that to those whose livelihood went away at the stroke of a presidential executive order against the pipeline and oil exploration. Tell that to all whose businesses were lost so suddenly by the change imposed upon communities directly and indirectly affected by one stroke of a pen.
Remember, all emergency and standby generators in hospitals and places of business are run by either natural gas or diesel fuel.
There is so much exercise of power by a few over the suffering of so many.
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