Watson Fixer
Q.) How do you figure this? Only 44% of oil is used as fuel. The other 56% is used for thousands of different products. Just because a car doesn’t use fossil fuel, doesn’t mean a major portion of it isn’t produced with oil! Most products in our society require oil to be produced.
A.) If the process that uses the petroleum releases CO2 into the atmosphere then it will have to be replaced with a process that does not release CO2 into the atmosphere. This may use green hydrogen or electricity.
Q.) Most automotive manufacturers haven’t set a time line to be all electric, the only one I have heard of, has set a date of over a decade out. But fossil fuel won’t be needed in less than a decade you say. Plus, the average car is on the road for 12 years. It’s estimated if we quit building fossil fuel cars, it will take 20-26 years to get them all off of the road, not including collectors vehicles.
A.) Light commuter vehicles will use batteries. Heavy transportation will use hydrogen unless battery technology improves.
Existing ICE vehicles will have to use fuels that are not petroleum, such as biofuels or synfuels.
Q.) What about construction equipment, delivery equipment, air travel et cetera?
A.) See the previous answer.
Q.) Where exactly is all the electricity going to come from? Wind and solar are proving to be no where near capable of supplying current demands, let alone future demands.
A.) This is false. Wind in the US midwest is supplying a large part if the power in states like Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas. If Texas was a country, it would be the sixth largest wind power producer in the world with a capacity of 30 gigawatts.
Solar is producing a large part of the power in California, Nevada and many other states. California gets more than half of its power at times of the day, mostly from solar. More and more solar and storage are being brought online all over the world.
Both solar and wind costs are going down making them cheaper than conventional thermal power plants.
Q.) Both [solar and wind] are also creating hazardous wastes, no yet able to be disposed of.
A.) Solar and wind are being recycled. 95% of solar panels is recycled. Lithium batteries are recycled.
Q.) The Netherlands claimed many years ago they would be fossil fuel free by 2020, how’d that work out? Less than a decade, not
A.) That is the Netherlands. The rest of the world is rapidly heading towards a fossil fuel free future.
