It’s Time to Stop Using Gas and Switch to Sustainable Energy
Photo by Harrison Haines from Pexels
On Friday, May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline took itself offline after suffering a cyber-attack. The pipeline, which provides nearly half of the petroleum to the East Coast, remained shut for six days. The shutdown led to a surge in gas prices and panic buying that left hundreds of gas stations around the Southeast of the United States without gas. By Wednesday, May 12, 70% of the gas stations in North Carolina were out of gas. Like swarms of locusts ascending on a field of crops, drivers in the Southeast flocked to gas stations as soon as they received a fresh delivery of gasoline.
In reality, there was enough gasoline to fill all the vehicles that needed it, but gasoline companies could not transfer gasoline fast enough to meet the surge in demand by drivers who were not only filling their tanks but were also filling gasoline cans and even plastic bags to prepare for an apocalyptic scenario that they were helping to create. The scene was akin to a bank run, which occurs when too many people rush to get their money out of the bank for fear that the bank will run out of money and, as a result, cause banks to become illiquid. As President Franklin Roosevelt once noted, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself in most situations.
The bizarre scenario that followed the Colonial Pipeline shutdown demonstrates how our reliance on gasoline makes us vulnerable to supply shocks. The supply of gasoline is vulnerable to natural disasters, wars, political gamesmanship, financial speculations, and, apparently, also cyberattacks. For instance, in the 1970s the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which includes several Arab countries, cut down the supply of gasoline to the United States in retaliation for its support of Israel. The embargo led to a period of high inflation and crippled the US economy.
There were multiple disruptions to the global supply of petroleum in modern history. In 1990, for instance, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, a major petroleum producer, causing the price of gasoline to surge. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina shut down most of the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2008, the price of gasoline surged to a whopping $3.61 per gallon due to financial speculations on petroleum. Two years later, an explosion on the Deep Horizon rig killed 11 people and released over 4.9 million barrels of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico. It took British Petroleum 87 days to seal the leak, which inflicted unimaginable havoc on marine life and the local tourism industry.
Most people realize that burning fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and petroleum releases Carbon Dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the air. Greenhouse gasses trap heat in the atmosphere, which raises the temperature of the earth’s troposphere and oceans. This phenomenon, known as global warming, causes an array of natural calamities including an increase in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes, more droughts, the spread of tropical pests, and a rise in sea level as the ice sheets in the poles melt.
However, many people do not realize that the use of petroleum harms the environment before it is extracted. Oil companies typically use seismic exploration to search for oil by blasting deafening sound waves and tracking how they bounce off of different layers below the surface. In the ocean, these 250 decibels waves disrupt marine life such as whales and dolphins that depend on sound for communication. A blast of 250 decibels is ten billion times more powerful than what the CDC considers harmful for humans. Research reveals that these blasts can kill up to 90% of young fish.
The extraction of oil is both dangerous and harmful to the environment. Companies use heavy, fast-moving equipment to drill for oil. Petroleum in underground deposits is often stored under high pressure and can rise with such a force that it pushes the drill up, which is called a blowout. Blowouts release toxic chemicals and can cause an explosion. It is no surprise that the fatality rate of oil workers is 7 times higher than the average.
The transportation of fuel also poses risks to the environment. In 2020, a Japanese-owned carrier struck a reef off the southeast coast of the island of Mauritius in East Africa, spilling over 1,000 tons of oil and devasting its pristine reefs. Oil spills are common and most of them go unnoticed. Oil can also spill from pipelines, such as the 2019 keystone pipeline spill, which released 380,000 gallons of oil into the North Dakotan wilderness. Petroleum can spill at any point during its extraction, transportation, or use.
The harm that petroleum inflicts is not limited to the environment. The high demand for petroleum requires advanced economies like the United States and the European Union to rely on politically unstable or adverse countries like Venezuela, Russia, and Iran for oil. The desire to control oil fields led to wars and civil conflicts throughout modern history. When Iraq invaded neighbor Kuwait in 1990, it was repelled by a 35-nation coalition led by the USA. Before retreating, Iraq president, Saddam Hussein, ordered the Iraqi military to burn Kuwait’s oil fields creating one of the most devastating environmental calamities in human history. The fight to control oil also led to civil clashes in various countries including Nigeria, Sudan, Iraq, and Venezuela. Moreover, since much of the reserves of oil come from the Middle East, some of the money from the production of oil invariably ends up in the hands of terrorist groups like al-Qaeda or the Islamic State, which wrestled control of oil fields in Iraq and Syria and used the money to finance its brutal military campaign.
Gasoline is an amazing liquid. A full tank of gasoline can propel the average vehicle from Boston to DC. Unfortunately, the exploration, extraction, transportation, and use of petroleum are harmful to the environment and society. Until recently, we had no choice except to gas up. While there are alternatives such as ethanol, biodiesel, hydrogen fuel cell, and electricity, in the past these alternatives were too expensive to use. Thankfully, due to the falling price of renewable energy, improvements in battery life, and a strong commitment by automakers to produce Electric Vehicles (EVs), within a couple of decades, we can rely predominately on electricity for transportation. But getting there will require a large public investment and political will.
The biggest challenge with switching from gasoline cars to EVs is the availability and the effectiveness of charging stations. While it is simple to charge an EV at home every night while driving around town, most people will not switch to EVs unless they know that they can take their car on long road trips. Charging an EV on the road presents a challenge. For instance, it takes anywhere from 40 minutes to 10 hours, depending on the quality of the charger, to fully charge Tesla’s Model 3 car. However, it can take as little as 20 minutes to charge the battery to 80% with the right kind of charger. Moreover, a Model 3 can ride over 350 miles on one charge and the pricier Model S can ride over 500 miles on a single charge — which is more than most people drive in one day. Manufacturers are constantly increasing the batteries’ capacity and improving our ability to charge EVs.
Investors believe in EVs. In 2020, Tesla’s stock gained a head-spinning 700%, making it the most valuable automaker on the planet. Other automakers took notice. Recently, Toyota, Renault, Volkswagen, GM, and Ford committed to boosting their production of EVs. Over this decade, we will see new models of Electric Vehicles in all shapes and sizes including SUVs, pickup trucks, and sports cars. GM is even planning to build an electric version of its powerful Hummer that can drive for 350 miles on a single charge. The future is electric, or at least it can be if we take the right steps.
Recently, President Biden hopped into an F150 Lighting and gunned it in front of a cheering media while visiting Ford’s headquarter in Dearborn, Michigan. True to its name, the F150 Lighting accelerated up the lot at lighting speed. In 2020, the F150 pickup truck was the top-selling vehicle in the USA. A speedy and slick electric version of the F150 will surely turn some heads. President Biden is currently pushing for a $2 trillion investment in infrastructure, including a large investment in electrified transportation and renewable energy. While automakers and demonstrated great faith in EVs, the US will not succeed in shifting to EVs without a large public investment and political will.
Some argue that using EVs will not reduce the emission of greenhouses. After all, around 80% of electricity in the USA comes from fossil fuels. So, instead of our vehicles emitting noxious gasses, the emission will occur at the power plants. This criticism is fair, but technological advances have now made us possible for us to shift away from fossil fuels to using sustainable energy to produce electricity. Throughout the 2010s, technological advances made the cost of producing a Megawatt of electricity from solar and wind energy cheaper than coal and, in the case of solar energy, natural gas. However, to shift to renewable energy, we will need a significant public investment in solar and wind farms as well as ways to store energy so it is available at night or when the wind is not blowing.
The time to switch to renewable energy and electrified energy has come. Using renewable electricity is safer and cheaper than using fossil fuels. Additionally, since renewable energy is produced domestically, it creates local jobs and eliminates our dependence on other countries for energy. With the right public investment, the United States can lead the renewable electricity revolution and help curb global warming and other environmental calamities that are caused by our addiction to fossil fuels.
