One of the ideas being floated by the Right Wing media is that Trump can cut the cost of energy in half immediately upon winning the election and before inauguration. How that would work in how he would leverage power before inauguration must be an interesting discussion regardless of the proposed method. That is not why I am writing this.
There are costs to producing energy. There are production costs, but, one aspect of producing petroleum based energy are the HUMAN COSTS.
The USA and the rest of the world are involved in a severe and sudden climate crisis. This ABRUPT climate crisis has been developing since the Industrial Revolution and hasn't stopped. The progress being made to have human impacts minimized on the climate that supports human life has been moving forward at a more vigorous pace since the presidency of Barak Obama. Since the years of George W. Bush there have been changes in the way Earth is manifesting hurricanes with some of the worst having impact on lives beginning in 2005.
Currently, the North Carolina Outer Banks are experiencing extremely high sea level rise that is costing homeowners their property and homes. The property is disappearing as storms and high tides are taking away sand by the feet and not simply an inch or so. The latest in storms and high tides to hit the Outer Banks removed several feet of sand making it impossible for crews attempting to work on that emergency access. Now, the only recourse if to allow the homes to fall into the ocean.
USA Drought Monitor (click here)This past year has seen record high temperatures across the USA. We are currently experiencing climate "at the nature of the planet" which only worsens as time goes by if nothing is done to reverse this deadly trend.
What do I mean by "at the nature of the planet?" Life on Earth is no longer based in levels of humidity to buffer the effects of the sun that results in infrared coming off the surface of Earth. The map above shows a drying land. There are some severely dry places in the red color, but, the overall condition of the land is drying. There simply isn't enough surface HUMIDITY to maintain benevolent temperatures.
Example:
This is the weather right now in Detroit, Michigan. It is hot. Sustained heat will have an effect on people when there is no relief. On this report there is an actual temperature of 83 F which is reported to feel like 86 F with a feeling of 81 F in the shade.
There is also a nice breeze of 8 mph that helps with sweat evaporation that allows some relief from the heat so long as the person is well hydrated. The humidity is 40 percent with indoor humidity about the same. The dew point is 57 F if anyone can find an area of the land where it is 57 F. Have the folks of this country been experiencing DEW IN THE MORNING? I know I haven't and I should have as I am located near a body of water. There should have been mist drifting in and settling overnight with dew in the morning. That did not happen this year. The visibility is 25 miles which means there is no fog (water vapor).
Bear with me for awhile longer.
This is another reporting service and it is about the same ball park with different and more helpful graphics.
The temperatures are still elevated for autumn.
Below is the same reporting service with the same times of day but instead of an overview there is a humidity view.
The current humidity is 53 percent and the temperature is 78 F. Now, look at the overview of 2PM. The temperature is 80 with a humidity of 47 percent. The same trend holds true with 3PM, the temperature is 81 with a falling humidity of 45 percent and so on until 5 PM when there is a scant (see below) amount of rain and the humidity starts to recover. Why? Why isn't the humidity steady across the spectrum. I always thought heat made humidity worse and with higher suffering index. That isn't the case here.
Below when I say scant, I mean a total expected precipitation of 0.21 inches. The humidity starts to reverse at 5PM with some precipitation at 6PM in the amount of 0.01 inches. How much anyone wants to guess that if in Detroit when the precipitation starts a drizzle won't even be felt because it will simply evaporate in the heat?
On any given day, that was especially the case before September 21, 2024 during the summer months, the humidity would be higher in the morning UNTIL the sun came up. That is the nature of the planet, the difference is that there is low levels of humidity rather than experiencing dew on the surface of Earth. Then as the sun comes up to full sunlight the temperatures JUMP from 60s and 70s in Detroit, Michigan to the eights within less than an hour. During that same hour the humidity will drop considerably because the infrared is burning it out of the atmosphere.
The truth of what I am stating here is reflected in the Drought Monitor. All summer this phenomena has occurred where there is no dew on the ground and whatever humidity is in the air is burnt off resulting in less rainfall and an increasing dry Earth.
Anyone that wants to monitor their own reality will find that same phenomena going forward with an exceptionally hot summer in 2024.
The point to all this is that the USA and the Free World CANNOT go back to nurturing a fossil fuel energy economy. We are well on our way to an electric economy supplied more and more by alternative energies. We must continue that forward movement into the future if Earth is to return to it's old benevolence. I do not consider Earth benevolent right now. It is causing hardship that people cannot protect from and it is becoming more and more difficult to do so.
"We cannot go back." Promising consumers a 50% reduction in their energy costs including gas for the vehicles if still using gasoline requires the acceptance of the human costs that accompany that idea. There should be no tolerance to the idea human life is disposable to benefit the cost of energy. Wind is finding lower prices now than any fossil fuels.
There are a lot of costs involved with energy choices in 2024, don't be fooled by simply dollars and cents (click here). The moral outcomes of the future for this generation and the generations to come must be part of these decisions. Burning fossil fuels changes the trajectory of the ability of generations to have a sustainable lifestyle. Make the moral choice and it is not the return to MAYBE CHEAPER FOSSIL FUELS.
Land owners with their own windmills and solar panels on their roof have no additional costs and are selling excess electricity produced back to the grid.
Bob Kraft, (click here) aerospace engineer and 35 year veteran of the power generation industry, founded Powerphase in 2012 with the goal of increasing the deployment of clean energy worldwide. Powerphase achieves this by transforming existing gas turbines into systems capable of supporting renewable energy.
