I’ve been in a book club for nearly 15 years. Since most of us have similar backgrounds and friends in common, we’d end up reading the same books if we didn’t make an effort to go beyond our favorite genres. In a similar spirit of trying to think about something other than gas supply forecasts, I found myself re-thinking the term “energy transition”. Folks, energy is all around us and it’s what keeps us alive.
Energy isn’t transitioning. The way we think about how to make it in a way that’s useful to us, how to store it, distribute it, price it, pay for it - those ideas are in transition. “We’ve” (not all of us obviously) have decided that the status quo needs to change. That’s a big ask, to educate people about why the way they live is going to hurt them and their kids at some point by hurting the planet. And to convince them to pay more for services they have to have to live. When quite a few of the people doing the talking haven’t changed anything about their lives.
Labelling this argument the Energy Transition is just another branding exercise. It gives writers a very broad umbrella to stand under, since virtually any topic could be framed as part of it. What it tries to do is frame the “discussion” as data driven, rational, and grounded in science. In other words, try to get some sort of agreement on the facts and you’ll gain support for your solution.
We’ve seen how that hasn’t worked out so far, and shouldn’t be surprised, since this is really argument about behavior, culture, and emotions as much as it is about whether making hydrogen with solar panels and then trying to burn it to run a car, all to avoid putting more CO2 into the atmosphere. The passion that’s behind what are seemingly engineering and technical discussions isn’t from a love of discussing thermodynamics. It’s from frustration over the attempts to have it all - cheap energy, the same lifestyles, but somehow, some way, cleaner air, cleaner water, and cool cars - by believing in magic.
The following quote is from comedian George Carlin, part of his routine from over 20 years ago. The only thing that’s really changed, is that we’ve created the “Energy Transition” as this decade’s cause célèbre. We’re struggling to even get along in our public spaces - so the Tech Titans are working on ways to leave the planet - looks like he was right.
““We’re so self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. I’m tired of this shit. I’m tired of f-ing Earth Day. I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is that there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a shit about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me.
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles … hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are!”1
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/251836-we-re-so-self-important-everybody-s-going-to-save-something-now-save
I haven't noticed anyone calling for an "energy transition" refuse to get on an airplane or ride an automobile or even try to grow a vegetable garden at their home to attempt to get off the corporate agriculture machine that supplies and feeds North America. And let's talk someday about the justification for flying FIJI water in plastic bottles halfway around the world.
What I do notice is that everyone not in the ruling class calling an energy transition seems to be afraid. Of everything.
How did that happen in my lifetime?