Without oil, there is no electric

Some days ago I was listening to a program where Ford was making an announcement about an electric truck and a subsequent, “Take that Elon Musk,” that was posted. The commentator finished the program by saying, “Just remember, without oil, there is no electric.”

The comment flew over my head at first, but then I realized what it meant. If all vehicles on the road today are somehow replaced by electric, we need sufficient capacity in our worldwide energy grids to supply their electricity, even with some solar battery capacity thrown in.

At this time, much of the world’s electricity comes from fossil fuels. Some decades ago, there was a move to go nuclear, but environmentalists and costs put much of that to a stop. There is, of course, the danger of radioactive fallout, but so far, that has not come to the levels that many predicted. We cannot underestimate the human suffering at Chernobyl and the Idaho Falls accident in 1961, but nuclear plants have proved viable up to now.

This article is not a plug for nuclear power but rather a wake-up call to our governing officials that we need to prepare the world’s power grids for more consumption and from the dangers of hacking that can shut down our power if we are to handle the additional load of the new all-electric vehicles.

The energy business is a fairly closed one, and the cost of alternative energy is still much higher than it would be in a totally free market. I used to play with solar batteries as a child, and now they are more efficient, weather resistant, and reliable, but still more expensive than they should be.

If much of our energy needs rely on one source at the retail level-electricity-then, we need to demand reliable and safe sources to handle the new technologies and the disruptions that occur during storms and hurricanes.

What do you think?