bahmer

Is the World Abandoning Fossil Fuels?
By Vijay Jayaraj - June 20, 2019

The call to abandon fossil fuels is louder than ever. This week, the French government announced that France is on track to ban fossil fuel-powered cars by 2040.

The war on fossil fuels has taken center stage even in the race for the 2020 United States presidential elections. Joe Biden, one of the leading candidates, released his manifesto to reduce fossil fuel use and more recently pledged to phase out fossil fuel production entirely.

Amidst this anti-fossil fuel madness, it is easy to forget that most of the world’s energy comes from fossil fuels. For anyone working in the energy sector, the phase-out calls appear nothing short of fantasy.

Despite the demonization of fossil fuels, their use continues to increase, and there are no signs of slowdown. Here are some facts about the magnitude to which fossil fuels are being used—facts the mainstream media keep away from the public.

The Big Three

The “big three” energy sources—coal, oil, and natural gas—have provided the majority of the primary energy needed to run our world for over two centuries.

The natural gas boom in the U.S. has led to a fossil fuel revolution in the world, with more countries competing to match the U.S. superiority in energy development. Natural gas was the biggest gainer in the past 8 years. Its share in total global energy nearly tripled from 2010 to 2018, from 8 percent to 23 percent.

Coal is currently the second highest primary energy source and the highest electricity generation source globally. Global coal use increased by 0.7 percent in 2018 on account of increased demand from Asia.

The global primary energy demand for oil and gas was the highest in the U.S., while the demand for coal was highest in China.

Sixty-four percent of the electricity generated last year came from the big three. In comparison, solar plants provided just 2 percent of the world’s electricity. Clearly, the big three are miles ahead of other energy sources—like renewables and hydro—with regard to energy demand, production, and the magnitude of growth in the past decade.

The Future

With developing countries still struggling to meet their energy demands and with increased demand projected for the next three decades, it is likely that they will consolidate their fossil fuel-based energy technologies to achieve the kind of energy stability that we see in the U.S. today.

China’s GDP growth will be the highest in the coming decades, closely followed by India’s. Both of these countries are fossil-fuel dependent and are currently ranked within the top five countries for fossil fuel use and fossil fuel demand. The increase in their energy demand will have to be met by the expansion of fossil fuel resources.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2019 (and projections to 2050), concludes that America will continue to produce high volumes of oil and gas at least until 2050 regardless of future changes in energy demand and energy prices.

Japan and Germany’s aversion to nuclear energy has forced them to depend more on coal. An increasing number of developing countries in Asia and South America are now expanding their fossil fuel use, thanks to coal technology exports from Japan, China, and Russia.

Advances in nuclear technology will be important, but nuclear will not substitute for the growing fossil fuel-dominated energy sector.

One would imagine that a big international agreement like Paris climate treaty—passed in 2015 with the singular goal of reducing the use of fossil fuels—would have an immediate impact. But if anything, there has been an increase in the demand for fossil fuels during the past three years.

Efforts to ban fossil fuels cannot stand against the overwhelming demand for power generation that can be met only from cheap and abundant sources like coal and natural gas.

Unless you are working and living in a very select few organizations, it is likely that the majority of your everyday energy comes from fossil fuels. For those like me who live in the metropolitan cities of the developing world, almost 100 percent of electricity comes from fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels will not disappear from the world’s energy mix in the foreseeable future.

son of witless

The attack on fossil fuels is very similar to the attack on tobacco. This is all about raising massive amounts of taxes for those in government to spend at their leisure, all the while making those who pay the taxes feel guilty enough that they do not complain. Cigarette smokers are the biggest suckers in the world.

That is what this whole exercise in stupidity is all about. Really it is just as simple as that. The Solar and Wind industries are there to get some of that tax money extracted from the peons.

Crayons Loc: St Jo, Texas

Has anyone seen one of them junked up lookin chicom electric cars, you'd be better off drivin an American made
golf cart...and it takes a lot of fossil fuels to build anything on wheels that runs on batteries...and where is the lead
gonna come from? O'bozo shut down the very last lead smelt in the U.S. ~~ all the lead in America today has to be recycled

son of witless

I am not against electric cars. I am against the subsidies they get from government. If they can compete in the market place, more power to them. I have a friend who has an old electric car and the acceleration is impressive. I wouldn't want one, but if you only drive locally and get free electricity, they ain't bad.

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

Gee, bahmer, this guy seems unable to figure out what "replacement" means...

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

Where in the heck did you ever get the idea that "those in government" spend our taxes at their leisure??

They can not even pay the bills for what has been spent in past years.. never mind any personal wishes..

Other then trump, very little personal, non approved spending is done..

son of witless

The only viable alternative to fossil fuels is nuclear. Liberals hate nuclear more than oil. Funny how the French who buy into the phony Global Warming theory are also one of the largest nuclear power producers.

Lonewolf

Over 50 % of our electricity comes from alternative energy already.

son of witless

Where did I get the idea ? In truth I should have been more specific. I meant the Democrats in guvment. If you are a big guvment Mahoff, your power comes from ever increasing government spending. You never want to decrease guvment incomes or out flows. NEVER !!!!!

I am a big student of the old Soviet Union. Their goal was always to have their citizens getting their money from the government. The Democrats in America want to create that condition here. That is why they always attack the private sector.

In the Soviet Union if you angered your betters you lost your job, your pension, and all professional contact. That is why they finally collapsed.

Capitalism has it's problems, but if left alone it always resets itself. Socialism-Big Government is death by suffocation and lies. My wife and I last night finished watching the HBO series Chernobyl.

If you want to see how what you believe in, handles a crisis, you need to watch it. The lies and incompetence of the kind of government that you want are off the charts.

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Tell that to all the pilots in the air and all the ship's captains at sea.

The three major fossil fuels—petroleum, natural gas, and coal—combined accounted for about 77.6% of the U.S. primary energy production in 2017:

Natural gas—31.8%
Petroleum (crude oil and natural gas plant liquids)—28.0%
Coal—17.8%
Renewable energy—12.7%
Nuclear electric power—9.6%

JFlorio Loc: Seminole Florida

Those of us that said the Paris Climate Accords were worthless were right. thank God took us out of those money grabbing accords.

son of witless

Define alternative. I question what you posted. Here is what I found.

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3

Lonewolf

Looks like I got the wrong numbers and it looks like we need more solar and wind coal should be banned

son of witless

Thank you for answering back. " it looks like we need more solar and wind coal should be banned "

You might like paying more for electricity, but I do not. I deserve to get my power at the absolute cheapest price. I am not a rich liberal.

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

Horses and mules are now pets, as we no longer require them for work, where "work" is the energy required to do something. Steam replaced horses, fossil fuels replaced steam ( for the most part ). Eventually, fossil fuels will be historically relevant but no longer used for work.

There is more at stake than just climate change......................fossil fuels WILL run out. Waiting until the last barrel is siphoned up would be catastrophic.