Co-authored by Ronald Stein and Tom Deweese

Since all hospitals, airports, communication systems, militaries, planes, trains, and vehicles are based on the products that did not exist before the 1800’s, that are now made from fossil fuels, today’s policymakers are incapable of sharing a plan to support a supply chain for the products and fuels demanded by today’s materialistic society and economy, as America tries to reduce its dependency on crude oil.

The elephant in the room that no one wants to discuss is that crude oil is the foundation of our materialistic society as it is the basis of all products and fuels demanded by the 8 billion on this planet, of which only one billion existed less than 200 years ago.

• As a refresher for those pursuing net-zero emissions, wind and solar do different things than crude oil. Wind turbines and solar panels only generate occasional electricity but manufacture NOTHING for society.

• Crude oil is virtually never used to generate electricity but when manufactured into petrochemicals, is the basis for virtually all the products in our materialistic society that did not exist before the 1800’s being used at these infrastructures like: Transportation, Airports, Hospitals, Medical equipment, Appliances, Electronics, Telecommunications, Communications systems, Space programs, Heating and Ventilating, and Militaries.

• We’ve become a very materialistic society over the last 200 years, and the world has populated from 1 to 8 billion because of all the products for society, and the different fuels for jets, ships, trucks, cars, military, and the space program that did not exist before the 1800’s.

• If the world governments want to rid the earth of crude oil usage, what's the back-up source that can manufacture the supply chain of products for refrigerators, tires, asphalt, X-Ray machines, iPhones, air conditioners, and the other 6,000 products that wind and solar CANNOT manufacture?

• The products from crude oil are essential to human flourishing for the foreseeable future. The pursuit of “net zero by 2050”, without first identifying the crude oil replacement, would be one of the most destructive developments in human history.

• Without crude oil, there would be nothing that needs electricity!! Everything, like iPhones, computers, data centers, and X-Ray machines, that need electricity to function is made with petrochemicals manufactured from crude oil!!!!!

• Until a crude oil replacement is identified, the world cannot do without crude oil that is the basis of our materialistic “products” society.

One fact stands for sure, that the replacement for crude oil will not be wind and solar, as those “renewables” only generate occasional electricity but manufacture NOTHING for society, nor will these “renewable electricity’s” even come close to providing for our demands for continuous electricity. To put it bluntly, wind and solar are a joke, as they do generate electricity only when the sun shines and the breezes blow.

In addition, wind power needs enormous amounts of oil to make and turn the non-degradable turbine blades that are filling landfills when they wear out. To provide the infrastructure for the planned forests of turbines requires massive amounts of raw materials including limestone, steel, aluminum, lithium, cobalt, and nickel. To make way for the wind and solar farm fields, millions of trees are being cut down. Remember when we used to call environmentalists tree huggers? Where are they now?

Real science is now revealing that the massive span of solar panels over millions of acres of land are changing the natural atmosphere. The materials the panels are made of cause warming. In the winter they will cause cooling, thus exacerbating weather extremes. When air is warmed, as happens over the solar panels, it rises. Even small differences in ordinary land surfaces can create powerful forces of weather. In short, solar farms will become thunderstorm and tornado incubators and magnets. There is nothing green about green electricity. Farmers must beware of allowing their property to be used for these installations.

MOST importantly today, there is a lost reality that the primary usage of crude oil is NOT for the generation of electricity, but to manufacture derivatives and fuels which are the ingredients of everything needed by economies and lifestyles to exist and prosper. Energy realism requires that the legislators, policymakers, and media that are demonstrating pervasive ignorance about crude oil usage, begin to understand the staggering scale of the decarbonization movement.

In fact, all electricity is only possible with the parts made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil for occasionally generated electricity from weather dependent wind turbines and solar panels, and for continuous and uninterruptible electricity being generated from coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydroelectric power plants.

Many developing nations do not share the Western elite’s obsession with reducing emissions. Since life for most people on earth is still a battle against poverty, hunger and disease, many countries, particularly India and much of Africa, will continue to focus on becoming richer through fossil fuels and the many products that have made richer countries have a more comfortable living lifestyle.

World leaders continue experiencing a “dangerous delusion” of a global transition to “just electricity” that they believe will eliminate the use of the crude oil that made society achieve so much in less than 200 years. Without those products made from petrochemicals manufactured from crude oil, the policymakers must be imagining no jets, ships, defense, or space programs!

Looking back at the history of the petroleum industry, it illustrates that the black cruddy looking crude oil was virtually useless, unless it could be manufactured (refineries) into oil derivatives that are now the basis of chemical products, such as plastics, solvents, and medications, that are essential for supporting modern lifestyles. The more than 6,000 products that are based on oil are being used for the health and well-being of humanity and the generation of electricity did not exist a few short centuries ago.

Today, we have more than 50,000 merchant ships, more than 20,000 commercial aircraft and more than 50,000 military aircraft that use the fuels manufactured from crude oil. The fuels to move the heavy-weight and long-range needs of jets moving people and products, and the merchant ships for global trade flows, and the military and space programs, are also dependent on what can be manufactured from crude oil.

For aircraft and ships, just like that for the diverse options for the generation of electricity, they all utilize parts and components made from the oil derivatives manufactured from raw crude oil.

As a refresher of the limitations of wind and solar to achieve net-zero emissions, they do different things than crude oil.

• Wind and solar renewables only generate occasional electricity but cannot manufacture anything. The problem with renewable electricity from wind turbines and solar panels is that they don’t work most of the time, and thus are unreliable for “just electricity”!

• Then there is “the nameplate farce” of those renewables. There should be financial penalties for the subsidies and tax credits provided to wind and solar power plants for their inability to deliver at least 90 percent of their permitted nameplate ratings on an ANNUAL basis, like their backup competitors of coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants that provide continuous uninterruptable electricity.

• Of the three fossil fuels, coal and natural gas are used to generate electricity, but the third, crude oil, is virtually never used to generate electricity. However, when crude oil is manufactured into petrochemicals, it is the basis for virtually all the products in our materialistic society that did not exist before the 1800’s.

From this quick refresher, conversations are needed to discuss the difference between just ELECTRICITY” from renewables, and the “PRODUCTS” that are the basis of society’s materialistic world.

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Ronald Stein is an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for the Heartland Institute and CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations.”

Tom DeWeese is one of the nation’s leading advocates of private property and individual liberty. He is the National Grassroots Coordinator for CFACT, and author of the book, Sustainable, the WAR on Free Enterprise, Private Property and Individuals, and President of the American Policy Center.