The Coming Global Energy Crisis and How to Address It

Wanted: Leaders with the courage to find realistic solutions to both the global energy crisis and the climate change challenges who won’t be beholden to lobbyists, big money corporations, unions and those who simply bark the loudest. 

Hey, I can dream, can’t I?

There is a global energy crisis looming and not enough people are paying attention to it.  According to an Oct. 21 Washington Post article by Fareed Zakaria entitled “We’re headed for a global energy crisis. What we need is a transition strategy,” we had better wake up.

Gasoline prices in the United States are up more than 50 percent in the past year. Natural gas prices in Europe have risen a staggering amount, nearly 500 percent, over the same period. In Asia, Bloomberg News reports that power companies are buying liquefied natural gas at record prices to try to lock in supply. In Europe, a mass producer of fertilizer was already forced to temporarily shut down two U.K. plants due to high energy costs, and there are fears that other industries will follow. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has put out a report warning Americans that they are likely to pay significantly more to stay warm this winter, especially if temperatures drop substantially.

Today’s world population ticker shows the global population at just over 7.9 billion and growing. That’s almost 8 BILLION people in the world. Those of us living in relative comfort in these United States (333 million people) sometimes forget that many of us live good lives and lack little. But even in countries as advanced as ours, we are on the cusp of an energy crisis that few want to speak about because our focus, rightfully so in many respects, has been on climate change solutions. These factors scream for an energy strategy that can address both issues, and fast.

While it makes sense and certainly sounds good, sustainable energy sources have not yet arrived in sufficient amounts and practicality to satiate the world’s energy needs. And while we’ve been too busy playing politics, a real crisis has emerged.

I am not the only one who thinks this way. There are many recent articles from numerous media outlets, including CNN and FOX, that have interviews with energy and economics experts around the world that have sounded the energy crisis alarm. Yes, we have climate change issues. Yes, we have global warming issues. What we don’t have are easy solutions to simultaneously combat carbon emissions and supply the ever-growing world population with the energy it needs.

What we need is an energy plan.

Here is what happens when we rush to judgment just to earn a few ratings points with our constituents. We shut down our Keystone pipeline, which would have continued to make the United States energy independent and a net exporter of energy, and then we allowed Russia to proceed with its pipeline. Huh? It defies logic. It smells of politics and greed. It also immediately impacted all Americans at the gas pump. Common sense alone says that this was a horrible decision meant only to placate those focused on a single issue instead of the bigger picture.

For everyone who thinks using electric vehicles will solve all our problems, I just have one question: where do you think the power is coming from to charge your EV?  Hmm, want to bet most of it will come from fossil fuel fired power plants?

Choices

So, under the notion that we can’t have our cake and eat it too, we need to develop better options and to make more informed choices about solving the energy crisis while also dealing with global warming. We need people who are ready to sit down and have hard discussions about how we must work together to smartly plan to transition to cleaner fuels over the next few decades. Because that’s what it will realistically take to achieve these goals. It is naïve to believe we simply shut down all fossil fuel plants with the flick of a switch and voila all our problems are solved.

We need common sense, practical solutions that can be implemented as soon as possible to start turning the tide in the right direction. But that will only happen with the best and brightest around the world coming together and being serious about the solutions. Not having China (1.45 billion people), India (1.39 billion) and Russia (146 million) at the climate change table makes any attempt to really turn the tide futile since they represent one-third of the world’s population.

When I was a freshman at Penn State in 1978, I initially intended to major in nuclear energy. It seemed to be the most efficient and cleanest form of energy production and new plant orders were coming in from all over the world. I know because I worked two summers in the Westinghouse Nuclear Science Division in Churchill outside of Pittsburgh.

But then an accident occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant outside of Harrisburg. At the same time, Hollywood produced several anti-nuclear movies including “The China Syndrome.” People fear what they can’t see and what they don’t know. The media whipped people into a frenzy all for the sake of ratings and we abandoned a viable alternative to fossil fuels for the wrong reasons. Were there issues with nuclear power? Yes, there were, but they were blown out of proportion.

I can only imagine how much progress we would’ve made in the nuclear field if the best and brightest scientists and researchers around the world would’ve had the past 40 years to really focus on it. The French have successfully used nuclear power for the past 40 years and there is no reason why we can’t add nuclear power back into the mix.

The bottom line:  We need to consider all sources of power including solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, natural gas, coal, oil and, yes, nuclear.

One pet peeve of mine is that we must stop telling our children what to think and start teaching them how to think. Instead of telling students that all fossil fuels are evil, encourage them to find solutions such as carbon scrubbing to decrease the amount of carbon released. Many of today’s students are not even aware that many of the everyday products that they use are made from petroleum. Keep researching new and more efficient sources of energy but understand we need a viable transition plan right now.

As for the adults in the room, stop being so naive about the way things work and start being more practical. Instead of watching only CNN and FOX for your news, challenge yourself to watch both, and while you are at it watch BBC World News to get an outside perspective on events that really matter. 

If we have a viable solution that can help with the energy crisis and global warming, then by all means let’s pressure our politicians and corporate leaders to get it done. We are all blinded by what we want right now instead of what really works in the long run. We are distracted by things that don’t matter that take our focus off real issues that require real solutions.

China’s growing energy problem has created a political conflict with Australian coal producers and in the process added to the global supply chain crisis. This stuff is real and it’s all interrelated.  As my wife likes to say, ”Wait until parents can’t get their kids Christmas presents and that will mobilize us to fix the supply chain issues!”

Of course, there are nefarious and selfish factors involved in all of this. That’s the human condition. There were greedy, power-seeking people centuries ago and there will be in the foreseeable future. It’s up to reasonable people to intervene and start fixing these challenges with realistic solutions.

It’s time to act to address the coming crisis. Otherwise prepare to wait in long lines and only fill your gas tanks on your assigned days of the week like we did in the 1970s.