The future of energy is snowy

To the editor:

(re: “Green energy has failed so far,” July 28)

I am “somewhat” corrected by the editor’s note that was included with my last letter. The big Galveston, Texas, refinery is the first one built in 40 years, but we have yet to complete a nuclear power plant in more than 50 years. China is now building 23!

Again, I stand by my point that the war against both nuclear and fossil fuels has led to the current turmoil in both our energy markets, and more importantly the economy. Despite the best efforts of the Fed, unless seriously addressed, energy costs will continue to be the main cause of inflation for this year and the following.

Our current energy polices are akin to riding a bicycle with one hand on the brake — in sum, ridiculous.

Perhaps because of government subsidies, many scientists have been reluctant to even discuss the debate between “constant baseload power generation” versus “intermediate power” generation dependent on the weather. Please note that in many areas of our country, neither sun nor wind is produced at night, in combination with cloudy, rainy, snowy and other bad weather, the odds of reliable power based on the weather speak for themselves.

Presently most available solar panels, along with wind turbines, run somewhere at 40 to 45 percent efficiency.

The huge geographic areas demanded by turbines, solar farms and batteries are yet another human blight on the environment, not to mention the damage caused to wildlife. The so-called strip-mined “rare earth minerals” needed to manufacture and, more importantly, the waste produced has not been sufficiently addressed. 

The usable working lifetimes of both solar panels and wind turbines are presently between 15 to 20 years. This in comparison to coal, gas and nuclear power plants, which last 50 to 60 years.

President Biden has requested that our oil and gas companies produce more fuel short-term while both his administration along with radical environmentalists have done almost everything possible to discourage both production and investment in these still-necessary industries. In sum, it is time for a national scientific debate, discussion on our country’s growing energy needs and future independency.

Lou Deholczer