This talk of $3+ gas is amusing to me as it affects my co-workers with their monster diesel pickups and SUVs. I drive an EV (since 2014) which always amuses them. I literally run on sunlight.

their rethink of EV production plans that lead to them scaling back new models.

I also have an EV and solar panels.

Natural gas is the "backup power" when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing.

Besides chemical batteries (and some of the nasty chemicals some use), mechanical batteries can be used too. Think of using a water pump while wind/sun is active to pump water up to a very tall water tower. When there’s no wind/sun, the water is allowed to naturally fall due to gravity and turn turbine impellers along the way which generates electricity.

This is an example that a physicist I used to work with gave me. As described, it won’t scale, but the idea is to divert a portion of electricity as it’s being actively generated and have it perform some mechanical work later that will generate electricity — acting as a mechanical battery.

Continuing to use fossil fuels is horrible for our environment and is constantly dwindling, making it more expensive the more you use it. But the OWNERS of fossil fuel sources will do anything to keep you handing over your money to them. They *might* even try to convince you that you need Liquified Natural Gas.

Another thing that can be done with wind/sun electricity while they are active is use that power to split H20 and recover the hydrogen to use later. Hydrogen production is another way to store energy.

We made a big deal about recycling our glass & plastic bottles instead of simply throwing them away. But that’s exactly what we do with fossil fuels.

I'm paying 42 cents a kilowatt hour for that electricity.

At night our state burns natural gas.

All those batteries and stuff have only made electricity more costly.

The dollar cost and the environmental costs of energy storage schemes capable of displacing fossil fuels entirely would be entirely ludicrous. Places with aggressive renewable energy programs tend to have the most expensive electricity. It's not any kind of conspiracy. Integrating variable energy sources into an electric grid is expensive. Skimp on any of the required infrastructure and you will get widespread blackouts as happened on the Iberian Peninsula last year.

At this moment 8% of my electricity is from nuclear power plants. Nuclear power is the only energy resource capable of displacing fossil fuels entirely. That's the reality we live in.

It's always interesting to compare the carbon intensity of France and Germany. You can do that here:

https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/FR/12mo/monthly

"Renewable" energy is great for the natural gas industry. Hybrid gas / solar / wind powered electric grids ensure we'll all be dependent on gas for a long, long, time.

Unfortunately there's enough natural gas in the ground to destroy what's left of the natural world as we known it and possibly take down our entire civilization as well.

anything that gets delivered using gas which is pretty much.....everything

The drone strike by Iran was not in the plans. However, there is no way the idiot Trump administration didn't know a war in the Middle East would raise gas prices.

I imagine they just don't care if high energy prices cripple the American economy and financially destroy the middle class.

n/t

Thanks, republicans!