There is an adage in politics that perception is reality. Belief that something is true, no matter how preposterous, often results in pretentious public policy. The notion that volatile, intermittent "renewable energy sources" can reduce our dependence on foreign oil, make the air cleaner, shore up any shortage of electricity supply, and meaningfully abate CO2 emissions from fossil-fueled plants is now deeply entrenched in our political rhetoric. Such belief has the same basis in reality as the Wizard's glitzy illusions had for the Emerald City of Oz. Environmental history is the chronicle of how adverse consequences flowed from the uninformed decisions of the well-intentioned. When perception is wrong, reality will ultimately impose itself as itself, often with rude effect. Even in Kansas.
In this work, Robert Bryce rather successfully portrays the reality about how we use energy to function in the modern world and how dependence on fossil fuels enables much that is desirable about modernity. Much of the next fifty years will devolve around the way the rest of the world insists upon the same level of energy reliability and comfort that characterizes Europe and much of the Americas--in ways that are not regressive and seek to mitigate the adverse thermal implications of fossil fuel use. In the production of electricity, for example, with its penchant for utter reliability at low cost, this will mean a significant increase in nuclear power plants to supply basic demand, hitched to many more natural gas facilities, which can flexibly respond to demand fluctuations while emitting low levels of carbon dioxide. In this manner, the world can somewhat lessen its heavy reliance upon coal, which is now by far the greatest contributor to human-caused carbon emissions in the production of electricity. Any other scenario is contrived nonsense.
It is the kind of gibberish that attends propaganda made by a flotilla of supernumerary "renewable energy" technologies, each with their Enronesque retinue of lobbyists. It is more than strange (so strange that its omission weakens Bryce's otherwise formidable case) that the author fails to mention hydroelectricity, which has for more than a century been the very symbol of renewable energy. Hydro may be the single most effective power source for electricity, emitting no carbon and producing highly reliable energy that is both heavy duty and dispatchable. But it also is so environmentally destructive that few places outside China and some third-world countries are building new hydro dams.
Bryce also makes the best case possible for wind power, in the process showing how little the technology can achieve. However, he keeps referring to wind technology's intermittency, as if this was the fundamental problem with it. He misses the real worms at its core: the random nature of its power source AND the highly fluctuating intensity of any power it delivers. This unpredictable variability means that wind energy can only be considered a minor ingredient in a much larger fuel mix. The fact that any power grid must balance demand with supply on a less than second-by-second basis means that reliable conventional generators, in most cases fossil-fired, must follow and balance the wind volatility--with substantial thermal implications. It's not just that wind technology produces no capacity value; it is also that the balancing required system-wide for integrating wind flux suggests that the technology cannot offset significant carbon dioxide emissions, which is its raison d'A tre.
Bryce's breezy style should help the book's popularity. The more people read it, the more informed our energy debate will be. As it now stands, there is a powerful odor of mendacity encircling this issue in the United States, with candidates for national and state political office emitting scientific gibberish instead of illumined policy prescriptions. Gusher of Lies should clear the air by providing a countervailing whiff of reality, which could provide the basis for much more effective policy, saving billions of dollars, not to mention sparing people from an endless stream of political bromide and self-serving, unsubstantiated industry claims on behalf of feckless, environmentally treacherous technologies.
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Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence Books In Print, Audio Books.