I grew up with the Uncle Remus story of a rabbit who becomes trapped and faces certain death by a fox to whom he pleads “You can do whatever you want with me. Just, whatever you do, don’t throw me in the briar patch!” Of course, this reverse psychology works in many cases and certainly did in this story.
Rabbits are completely comfortable, safe, and secure if they are in a briar patch. So, Joel, why do you parallel electrification to this story?
Very simply, there is no other way to explain the complacency of so many industry professionals with the push for electrification we see today. After all, this push for electrification now will increase carbon dioxide emissions in the short run because the next kWh of electricity will be produced in most cases by burning fossil fuels. Sure, if we had a totally renewable grid electrification would reduce carbon… but only if there were an excess of renewables or storage. Remember, most renewables outside of hydro are not dispatchable.
It really makes me crazy to see electric water heating being advocated on the morning news programs. I know this industry and people in it are very smart. There is no other explanation for their compliance.
I do wonder what is going to happen as we now see carbon dioxide levels rising even faster now that we are going to build more EVs now that embed the equivalent of 8 years of driving in their batteries.
Oh well, the same thing happened years ago when the environmental idiots recommended burning biomass because it somehow reduced the eventual formation of methane.
Beam me up Scotty …