By U.S. Senator James Lankford
Last month President Biden flew on Air Force One to Scotland to gather with world leaders, give speeches, make promises, and declare that the US should lead the world on climate change. Here’s what they left out, the US is already leading the world in clean energy. China and India are the largest carbon producers in the world. It’s not even close. China skipped the climate shindig in Scotland (as did Russia), and India told the conference they’ll start dealing with their carbon output in a few decades. President Biden’s new energy promises in Scotland will make our energy future even more expensive than our energy present, and they’ll push our electrical grid beyond its ability to produce reliable power.
We all remember winter storm “Uri” last February when Oklahoma experienced a deep freeze that we’ll never forget. I recently held a Senate hearing on the lessons learned from that storm and how we can protect our electric grid in the future. One of the top lessons was the essential need for diverse and reliable energy sources. Without multiple sources of power, you cannot meet the demand on the highest energy-use days of the year. If your power is over dependent on “intermittent” sources of energy like wind, solar, and hydroelectric, when it gets cold, icy, and cloudy you’ll be in trouble.
More than 45 percent of Oklahoma’s power comes from renewable sources like wind, solar, and hydroelectric, which are great sources of energy that we use them as much as possible, in fact Oklahoma uses renewable energy sources more than most other state. But, when the wind stops blowing (which does happen, even in Oklahoma) and the sun stops shining, you need “base” power that can always run. Power generation from natural gas, coal, or even nuclear is stable and reliable. While we don’t have nuclear power in Oklahoma, we do have some of the cleanest and newest natural gas and coal power plants in the country.
One of the other lessons from February’s storm was the need for protecting our natural gas delivery system and the importance of a consistent supply. When the ice froze our wind towers, we needed more natural gas, but the well heads weren’t prepared for the deep freeze so we had to switch to more coal for several days. If we didn’t have access to coal and natural gas power last winter, we would’ve had massive blackouts across Oklahoma for days at the worst possible moment. Energy diversity is lifesaving.
All the talk about huge batteries to run our cities is nice, but there’s currently no battery at a scale or cost that’ll even get close to powering our communities. The current electric vehicle and high-capacity batteries also require minerals from China, which means we’d be completely dependent on communist China for our energy. That’s clearly not a good idea.
You should ask how much higher the price of electricity will be 14 years from now after all these new mandates. We’ve already seen skyrocketing prices for natural gas and oil this fall. President Biden has cut off pipeline permits, blocked lease sales on federal lands, and pushed banks to stop loaning money to coal, oil, and gas companies. As our economy tries to bounce back from the crazy COVID year, limited energy production has led to higher prices.
I am not anti-environment. In fact, I believe we’re stewards of the planet God gave us. We should be responsible with that blessing. But, climate conferences that focus on unrealistic goals with real-world consequences for the people of Oklahoma don’t get me excited about Scotland. They get me worried.
