Good Lord Save Us from Those Who Do Things for The “Greater Good”

“FAULTY PREMISES”

April 29, 2020

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

Going all in, based on a faulty premise, never turns out well and most often, innocents end up paying a steep price for the ensuing foolishness.

As we are in our 80s, it is too late for wifey and me to re-retire elsewhere, so we are stuck here in Virginia – a place we’ve called home for more than 40 years.  Here’s what makes us want to leave:  our current Democrat governor and his same party legislature have decided that prosperity, affordability, and reliability are much less important than saving the planet from the “deadly” CO2 that we exhale with each breath we take, and that plants (the food we eat) cannot survive without.  While we were in lockdown, Democrat Ralph Northam and his co-religionists in the Virginia legislature enacted laws that require (as in “must”) “…Dominion Energy Virginia to be 100 percent carbon-free by 2045”… and the other, smaller provider to attain that goal by 2050.  The act (“law”) also requires all coal-fired plants to close by December 31, 2024 – a scant four years and a few months from today.

The new act (“law”) mandates that 5,200 megawatts of electric power be generated offshore — that is 25 miles from nearest landfall —  by wind-driven turbines.  The act is silent on what happens when the annual hurricanes roar up the Atlantic Coast, or when there is very little breeze.  It also is silent about how you maintain the turbines and the electrical cables that are located in the most corrosive environment on earth – ocean salt water.  The act proclaims that 16,100 megawatts of solar and onshore wind is “in the public interest.”

But what’s definitely NOT in the public interest is the much higher cost of such electricity, or its unreliability – because the “act” also proscribes natural gas backup power generation for when the turbines don’t (or can’t) produce.  Also NOT in the public interest is the enormous cost of building and installing these gigantic monstrosities.  And all this wasteful effort comes with a rate increase to us customers (AKA “saps”) of 6 times the current cost per kilowatt hour.  Brilliant.  Simply brilliant.  And all of this added cost and reduced reliability is undertaken on the basis of a faulty premise – and shoddy “science.” 

Power plants aren’t the cause of the slight increases in atmospheric carbon (CO2), nor are cars and trucks and planes, and ships.  Nope, – the MAJOR contributors of this harmless and life-sustaining gas – are the oceans that cover more than two-thirds of the globe.  The outgassing of cold ocean water – gas that was naturally sequestered in deep cold waters over the centuries – is being released when the waters warm.  But, we are not supposed to know this.  Our governor and his misguided legislature want us to believe as they do, that natural, recurring, changes in climate never happen and would have little impact if they did.  Solar cycles, shifting ocean currents, variations in the tilt of our world’s axis – none of those count, nor does the earth’s history of cyclical changes.  Nope, it’s only CO2 released from those “evil” (life-sustaining) fossil fuels.  And they claim that they are acting on the “science.”

Carbon dioxide is NOT a pollutant.  Those strawberries on your cereal and the cereal itself would not be available without CO2.  Nor would the steak or chicken you might have for dinner, because livestock and chickens depend on grasses and grains to survive.  The earth’s climate has always changed – often in really big ways – as the sun’s output has waxed and waned.  Our wonderful atmosphere keeps our temperatures livable and prevents our oceans, rivers, and lakes from boiling away or freezing solid.  Water vapor is the major greenhouse gas  — but you are not supposed to know that.  And CO2 makes up less than four-tenths of ONE PERCENT of our atmosphere.  So, let’s raise the cost of electricity sixfold and make it much less reliable in the bargain – oh, what about the massive construction costs?

How did, why did my foolish neighbors vote these bozos into office?  Why isn’t this a scandal?  Maybe some enterprising newspapers should look into how many in the Virginia State Government in Richmond have purchased stock in the off-shore turbine enterprises and those that produce solar panels or in the construction companies that will get the sweetheart deals that will impoverish the citizens of Virginia and put our comfort and safety at risk.

Faulty premises.  And basing life-changing, major policy decisions on them.  Good work, Governor!

(Pssst, maybe you should check to be sure that Governor Northam’s virtue-signaling insanity isn’t coming to your state, too?)

Old, tired of the fight, Frank