Biden's Quote: "We're Not Getting rid of fossil fules for a long time, probably 2050"

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Former V.P. Joe Biden’s climate policies and the litigation and regulation grandiloquence are toward the energy industry that was virtually non-existent before 1900. Today, America has only about four percent of the world’s population (330 million vs. 8 billion). Biden seems to be unaware that oil and gas is not just an American business with its 135 refineries in the U.S. but an international industry with more than 700 refineries worldwide that service the demands of almost 8 billion living on earth.

Biden and the world need to comprehend that energy is more than intermittent electricity from wind and solar. Ever since the discovery of the versatility of products available from petroleum derivatives, and the beginning of manufacturing and assembly of cars, trucks, airplanes, and military equipment, the world has had almost 200 years to develop clones or generics to replace the crude oil derivatives that are the basis of more than 6,000 products.

Those thousands of products are now essential to our medical industry, electronics, communications, transportation infrastructure, electricity generation, cooling, heating, manufacturing, and agriculture—indeed, virtually every aspect of our daily lifestyles and economies.

During the current pandemic, without those thousands of products from oil derivatives, the world would have been delegated to “herd immunity” as the medical industry was virtually non-existent before 1900. Today, electricity can make hospitals run efficiently, but electricity alone cannot make products derived from the derivatives from oil that produce all the critical medical equipment like ultrasound systems, mechanical ventilators, exhalation valves, inhalation valves, CT systems, X-ray, medicines, masks, gloves, soap and hand sanitizers for hospitals, and protective gowns, gloves and face shields gear for doctors and nurses.

Electricity can charge your iPhone and EV battery, but electricity alone cannot make all the electronics and communications equipment.

Electricity can help the militaries around the world function, but electricity alone cannot make any of the military equipment: aircraft carriers, battleships, destroyers, submarines, planes, tanks and armor, trucks, troop carriers, weaponry, and the communications and telemetry equipment.

It is very unlikely the world will invent generics to oil derivatives before 2050 which is only another 40 short years away.

Renewables have a role in our energy usage, but we need to consider what they can do, and what they cannot do. Science shows that wind and solar can generate electricity, but science also shows us that wind and solar cannot manufacture the oil derivatives that are the basis of more than 6,000 products that we did not have before 1900. Indeed, virtually every aspect of our daily lifestyles and economies of all Democrats, Republicans, and all the religions around the world, are based on the oil derivatives for those thousands of products we now take for granted.

Energy is more than just electricity. Electricity by itself cannot support the military, airlines, cruise ships, supertankers, container shipping, trucking infrastructures, and space program. Nor can electricity alone, and especially that is generated solely from intermittent renewable sources such as wind and solar, provide the thousands of products from petroleum that are essential to our industries. Many industries to include the transportation infrastructure, our electricity generation, our cooling, heating, manufacturing, and agriculture—indeed, virtually every aspect of our daily lives and lifestyles.

The social needs of our materialistic societies, both stateside and worldwide, are most likely going to remain for continuous, uninterruptable, and reliable electricity from coal, natural gas, or nuclear electricity generation backup, and for all those chemicals derivatives that get manufactured out of crude oil, that makes everything else that’s part of our daily lifestyles and economies.

If Biden wants to save the world, he would be best to direct his personal energies toward the subject of reducing deaths in poor countries mostly from oil and gas starved countries, that are experiencing 11 million child deaths every year. Those underdeveloped locations in the world have minimal access to the products that support medical industries in the wealthier and healthier developed countries, as most of those young fatalities are mainly from preventable causes of diarrhea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth. And by the way, adults in those poor countries barely live past 40 years of age.

This piece first appeared at CFACT.org.


Ron Stein is an engineer who, drawing upon 25 years of project management and business development experience, launched PTS Advance in 1995. He is an author, engineer, and energy expert who writes frequently on issues of energy and economics.