Below is an opinion column by Jimmy Heidelberg:
Oil is needed today and will be needed for the foreseeable future, whatever happens with energy production from other sources.
Rarely a day goes by when the public is not addressed with an article or political statement about “Green Energy” and the political desire of some to stop the production and use of oil. Most often, the conversation revolves around gasoline and diesel used primarily in transportation and the push to replace electric vehicles for this purpose.
Aside from the fact that electric vehicles create their own environmental problems in their production and operations, there is rarely any political discussion about the other uses of oil.
A barrel of oil is usually measured in a 42-gallon container. Of these 42 gallons, approximately 19-20 gallons of gasoline and approximately 11-12 gallons of diesel are derived. This makes up 71-76% of a barrel of oil depending on the grade of the oil. The remaining 24-29% of oil is used in virtually every product and service we encounter in our daily lives, and policy discussions seem to take this for granted.
There is almost no discussion of the need for oil to produce the products that make our modern life what it is. Our dependence on oil for transportation neglects any discussion of the use of plastics and other petroleum products. From the plastics we find in mobile phones and computers to packaging, furniture upholstery, the fabrics we wear and use, and the indispensable plastics used in healthcare products, lubricants and clothing, we often fail to make the connection that these products are connected to “oil”.
These substances are found in almost every product we find in the civilized world and currently do not have a readily available substitute. Our lives would change dramatically if they no longer existed or could no longer be produced from petroleum byproducts.
Although plastic recycling efforts have been ongoing for many years and continue to expand, recycling plastic products is difficult, very energy intensive, and there is no readily available substitute for most uses.
In fact, little thought is even given to the fact that electric cars also need lubricants, and these lubricants are derived from petroleum.
Any discussion of this leads to the realization that oil is needed today and will be needed for the foreseeable future, regardless of what happens to energy production from other sources such as wind and solar power.
There is an urgent need for a more mature and reasonable discussion when advocates claim that they want our world to “run out of oil”. We should think about what our world and our daily lives would be like without the products that are made possible by the by-products of oil production.
The next time you see an “environmentalist” protesting the production and use of oil, check if they have a cell phone or other electronic device wrapped in plastic, if their clothing has any elements of polyester or microfiber, if the computer you bring. the use has plastics, if your house or car is painted, and if the food you eat is possible in its production, transport and consumption without the use of any type of hydrocarbons. The simple answer is that all of these are needed and used by all members of our society and will be needed to sustain our way of life in the future.
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want a clean and sustainable environment, but an unrealistic political goal without discussion of all the implications if oil were no longer produced and used.
— Article credit to Jimmy Heidelberg, for the Magnolia Tribune —
