just enough light

While the governor, lieutenant governor, the ERCOT board, and others who stand to look bad because of the recent electrical failure are busy pointing fingers and providing rationale, each fails to mention one glaring fact. No one is talking about the need to transition to completely renewable or carbon-free forms of energy. Regardless of what is done to weatherize the generators, natural gas lines, wind turbines, and all the rest, the whole system will be obsolete in a matter of years. Fossil fuels are becoming a thing of the past.

That’s scary news for a state so dependent on oil and gas, but the science is clear. The longer we wait and pretend it just ain’t so, the more difficult, painful, and expensive it will be to make the transition. If the Texas economy continues to rely heavily on oil production and we continue to rely on natural gas and coal for generating two-thirds of our power, we will go the way of the coal producing states. Our oil towns will face the same decline as the coal towns in states like Kentucky, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

During the recent freeze, a friend suggested to me that I might need to rethink my ideas about global warming. How can the world be warming while we are so cold? I reminded him that the weather is not the same as the climate, and one brief hot or cold spell does not indicate what is happening globally over time.

I am not a climatologist. Nor am I an atmospheric scientist, an oceanographer, an environmental biologist, or any of the dozens of science specialties that gather and analyze environmental data. Therefore, my opinions are just that, opinions. Science, however, provides us with much more than opinions. The information from the sciences should guide the policy makers. Not the reelection interests of politicians, not the financial interests of business executives, not even the comfort interests of the average consumer like me.

All reputable climate science information points one direction. Our planet is gradually warming because of human activity, it’s happening at an increasing rate each year, and until we decrease and eventually eliminate our contribution of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, our world will become an increasingly unpredictable and inhospitable place for living creatures.

The automobile industry has apparently read the memo. Many of the major manufacturers are promising that all of their new cars will be electric in less than a decade. Some have already made the manufacturing process emission-free. State and federal governments must follow suit. Any new infrastructure legislation will hopefully include a nation-wide power grid that relies less and less on coal and natural gas, will focus on moving toward zero-emission transportation and manufacturing, and will provide a network of electrical and hydrogen charging stations to fit the rapidly growing number of alternative fuel vehicles already on the road.

Hopefully, the natural gas and oil industry will have the foresight to begin retooling their industry and their workforce toward clean energy production, because it is not an “if we have to stop using oil” argument. It’s “when we stop using oil.”

New technologies will be necessary. We don’t yet know what will become our best and most efficient sources of energy, but the effort will likely require an “all hands on deck” approach, blending wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal, hydrogen, as well as sources not yet developed. Currently the Texas grid relies on wind, solar, and nuclear for about 30% of our power. That’s a start.

The world’s climate will not wait for us. The planet does not bow to denial or wishful thinking. Our policy makers need to fully grasp the truth that our future does not lie in improving the current grid and power sources to accommodate the cold. Our current grid, as well as our society at large, needs updating for a future without fossil fuels. Our leaders must start with that assumption and go from there. Anything short of that imperils our children’s future and makes a mockery of our words about protecting life and honoring the creation.

Printed in the Abilene Reporter News, Sunday, March 28, 2021