Balancing Acts

There's been some uptick in reports about 'alternative' energy, mostly wind and solar. Sleepy Joe wants Bongo Bucks for upgraded transmission; places with nearly 100% wind and/or sunshine are places with few to no humans. We build petro pipelines without questioning said wisdom, but not for the other two.

A wind farm proposed for coastal Viginia is running into opposition. Boy Howdy!!

If you keep your ear to the ground, you'll find the opponents to any and all things wind/solar are those with some financial interest in fossil fuels. Who wooda thunk it? Not I said the cat.

Regular reader will note missives about both the tyranny of fixed cost and average cost (the titling changed along the way for reasons lost in the mysts of time). And this is all the reason fossil fuel adherents need. Energy production is very capital heavy, and thus has little margin against drop in demand. The CPAs figured out the spend on plant and equipment based on known and predicted demand for those wee little electrons and petro molecules. Remove even a wee bit of said demand, and the CxO class in fossil fuel energy companies start to feel their sphincters tightening. Never mind that fuel-less generation of those wee little electrons is really a win-win for the rest of us.

Without all that demand assumed from the past, profit drops. And so the salaries and bonuses for the CxO class. That they're managing to turn Mother Earth into a burnt out cinder by the time their grandkiddies reach adulthood (likely, sooner) makes not a whit of difference.

The 'alternative' I find most interesting, but barely a blip on the radar, is tidal generation. The tides move inexorably; well mostly so in human time scales. Turns out the moon has moved away over that billions of years of our twin existence, and as such the tidal force has diminished. The scientists figure the early tidal forces made Mother Earth not such a great place to live.