Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
About
Christology
Israel/Palestine
Publications
KermitZarley.com
Archives
Categories
- Angels
- Blog Description
- Book Reviews
- Christian Living
  - Unconditional Love?
- Christianity
- Christology
  - Deity of Christ?
  - Holy Spirit
  - Incarnation?
  - My Change
  - Trinity?
- Church History
- Current Events
- War on Terrorism
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- Eschatology
- Ezekiel 38-39
- Last Empire
- Primitive Weapons
- Film Reviews
- God
- Golf
  - Billy Graham
  - Karsten Solheim
  - Lee Trevino
  - Major Championship Winners
  - Masters
  - Purpose
  - Ryder Cup
- Gospel Harmonization
- Interview
- Islam
- Jesus
- Literary Announcements
- Monotheism
- My Books
  - The Restitution of Jesus Christ
- Old Testament
- Politics
- Society of Biblical Literature
- The Bible
- Trinitarianism
- Uncategorized
FREE NEWSLETTER

Home
Progressive Christian
Religion News
The Present State of Electrical Energy Production in the U.S.

The Present State of Electrical Energy Production in the U.S.

Last updated on: November 16, 2021 at 8:18 pm by Kermit Zarley

The Present State of Electrical Energy Production in the U.S. 2021-11-16T20:18:45-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

For a long time, I’ve believed in man-made global warming and thus been interested in the need for the world to convert from burning fossil fuels to using renewable energy, such as especially solar panels and wind turbines. It is a slow process to make this transition, but it was speeded up the past few days when nations met from the world over in Scotland at COP26. This acronym refers to the United Nations’ 26th Climate Change conference, which just adjourned last Saturday.

U.S. President Joe Biden had campaigned for the presidency on a platform that strongly advocated the U.S. need to transition from fossil fuels to renewables in opposition to the previous Trump administration, which had largely denied man-made global warming. And Biden attended COP26 in the midst of Congress signing his Build Back Better legislation package amounting to over $1 trillion that includes much assistance for developing renewables.

Thousands of scientists all over the world have proved for decades and from their measurements and experiments that since the inauguration of the Industrial Revolution, thus starting in the late 19th century, the planet’s atmosphere has risen in temperature almost two degrees Fahrenheit, and all of this, or a huge majority of it, has been caused by humans burning fossil fuels mostly to heat and air condition their buildings and drive their vehicles for transportation.

The problem is that this heating of the planet hardly dissipates at all by going into outer space; rather, it stays right here, decade after decade, so that temperatures continue to escalate. Scientists know that this heating of the planet raises the temperature of the oceans and melts ice in the polar regions, all of which raises sea levels the world over because warm water has more volume than cold water does.

Furthermore, it is the wealthiest nations, such as the U.S. and Europe, that have been doing most of this global warming since the Industrial Revolution. And it is small island countries with low-income populations throughout the oceans that are suffering the most from this rising of sea levels. Some of these places in the future will be flooded by the oceans and therefore be no longer livable. Therefore, an important issue that was broached at COP26 was that these countries that are and will suffer the most from global warming were demanding reparations from the wealthiest nations. That is, they called for the biggest polluters, such as the China, the U.S., and Europe to contribute money to assist them in fighting this predicament and demanding that these wealthy nations accelerate their programs of transitioning from from fossil fuels to renewables. This demand, I think, is something that will greatly intensify in the near future.

Christians should be at the forefront in supporting this effort to reduce man-made global warming. How so? Christians believe in the Bible, or at least they are supposed to. The Bible begins by saying, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1.1 NIV). And he made human beings and made them custodians of the earth. Therefore, humans have a God-given responsibility to care for this planet rather than to pollute it. Plus, the Bible says, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19.18), which Jesus also taught ” (Matthew 5.44; Mark 12.31).

Finally, Isaiah the prophet declares concerning the end times, “The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant” (Isaiah 24.5 NRSV). The everlasting covenant is that which God made with Noah, when he placed the rainbow in the sky (Genesis 9.8-17). What will happen to these violators, these polluters? The angels will sing at The Judgment at the end of the age, “We give you thanks, Lord Almighty, . . . for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth” (Revelation 11.18 NRSV).

The cost of producing electricity from renewables is declining considerably due mostly to increased technology and scaling production. Here’s where the U.S. stands now in its transitioning from fossil fuels to renewables. The following are the present costs per megawatt-hour of electricity and the percentage of fuels of the U.S.’s total electrical energy (some figures from U.S. Energy Information Administration):

Fossil Fuels: 61%

Natural Gas $41-74, 40%

Coal $60-143, 20%

Petroleum ?, .4%

Nuclear: $74, 20%

Renewables: 20%

Geothermal $69, .4%

Hydropower , 7%

Wind Turbines $48, 8%

Solar Panels $45, 3%

(Above 2-16 chart indicates improvement of renewables.)

Previous Post

November 15, 2021

Must Evangelicals Believe Jesus Is God?

Next Post

December 2, 2021 Review of Jeff Deuble’s Book, "Christ Before Creeds"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was healed from leprosy after obeying Elisha's command to wash in the Jordan?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Naaman Jehu Jeroboam Hazael

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »