Hyperbole of Achieving “Net Zero” Climate Has Placed Us In Our Current Energy Crisis
Written by Matthew McKean, CEO and co-founder of Frontieras North America (LinkedIn)
There are no two ways around it. The past two years have been tough on everyone. The pandemic has surfaced unheralded stress for many of us in our daily lives, which has been compounded by recent tragic and heartbreaking events. The war in Ukraine and many other regions facing political, economic, and social tensions have been alarming and impacting our lives directly with price increases and resource limitations. If that is not enough stress, we face the news of tragic shootings of innocent people going about ordinary activities – grocery shopping, going to church and attending school. It is heartbreaking, tragic and emotionally consuming.
It is during times like this that we need clarity. Without clarity there is little hope. This is where I believe the average person stands when we discuss the topic of energy, its applications and how it is produced. The confusion that has been caused by achieving “Net Zero” has set us down a path to embrace unreliable “renewable” energy sources. This action threatens to leave millions without power and food, while limiting industrial growth in underdeveloped countries, and adding to the rising prices of everyday necessities and most importantly an inability to innovate as a company.
In conforming to the needs (and shouts) of a few, we are inadvertently reverting to an era prior to the industrial revolution -- reliant on solar and wind. Shocking, right? Renewables have proven time and time again to be unreliable and without the ability to sustain the rising demands of today’s energy needs. The success of a few renewable-based companies has been made possible by the government’s subsidizing not only the creation, but the early adoption by consumers. While a few have succeeded, hundreds of renewable companies can be found within the proverbial land fill of failed companies. The rise of the electric car industry was made possible by advancement in battery technology and the tax credits that were provided to both the manufactures and early adopters. This convoluted approach to subsidizing a new industry is a financial burden on the average taxpayer and has taken resources away from identifying new technologies and continued investments in proven technologies and processes. It is continual introduction of innovation that will address the original concerns surrounding the use of hydrocarbons and help lead our current world out of its current state of turmoil.
Some of the pain that we are feeling today stems from the compilation of more than a decade of bad policies and practices. On the political front, we are faced with a continual barrage of misinformation from anti-oil politicians. In addition to the rhetoric, restrictions on infrastructure (especially pipelines) have reduced the supply of oil by making it difficult or impossible to transport U.S. oil to international markets. These prolonged attacks and the continual threats by the current administration have become a burden on today’s energy producers that capture and process hydrocarbons as fuel. On the innovation front, a recent Financial Times article by Michael Shellenberger entitled “How Climate Activists Caused the Global Energy Crisis” identified that between 2011 and 2021, oil and gas exploration investments declined by 50%. Less investment results in less supply which correlates directly to higher prices. Because of the inaction by the federal government, several state and local governments, realizing the shortcomings of renewables are restarting power plants. This change in course of energy production is to support their communities and make sure that they are not caught unprepared for when temperatures rise and fall.
I contend that it will be energy and revitalization of the industry sector that moves us out of our current situation and allows America to gain a tactical advantage and achieve energy freedom. Embracing energy, allows us the power to innovate for the future across all sectors. Companies like Frontieras North America are leading the charge.
Frontieras recently introduced FASForm™, a patented technology process that produces environmentally compliant liquid hydrocarbon, solid carbon fuel products and technical carbon from the most abundant and extensively used energy sources in the world - coal, lignite, oil sands and waste plastics. The introduction of FASForm to the energy sector has created a new energy and materials source category called Solid Carbon Fractionation (SCF). Frontieras FASForm is designed to produce reliably and profitably:
· As many as 2.3 barrels of liquid fuels from each ton of coal/lignite processed
· Over 20 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of hydrogen (used to power the processing facility)
· Intermediate fuels like diesel, jet fuel, and naphtha at costs significantly lower than conventional crude oil recovery and refining
· Commercial volumes of hydrogen, methane, propane, ethane, and LPG
· A solid carbon product free of toxins to be used in “clean steel” manufacturing
Frontieras North America’s yields and zero emissions process provides the Department of Energy, as well as the broader energy sector, the ability to address today’s economic and social challenges and encourages energy independence for our country.
The global movement to prematurely shut down many reliable power plants at great cost, while investing a tremendous amount in new unreliable solar/wind infrastructure, creates huge reliability risks that impact every aspect of our economy, growth and the well being and safety of our citizens.
To learn more about Frontieras North America and its patented Energy Solution FASForm please visit us at www.Frontieras.com.