Economic Justice Requires Energy Justice

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SBCTA

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SBCTA is a non-partisan citizen's advocacy group committed to promoting lower taxes and efficiency in government

Economic Justice Requires Energy Justice

The energy industry is the industry that powers every other industry. When the cost of energy goes up, the cost of everything goes up. Whether it's our food, clothing, shelter, health care, or anything else we need, if the cost of energy increases, the price of those things increases also.

Second only to water, energy sourced from natural fuels (oil and gas) is the most democratic commodity on the planet. We all depend on it, we all use it, and we all want it to be plentiful, available, reliable, and affordable.

And yet, today, even as the world enjoys unparalleled prosperity, as of this very moment, over 2 billion people on the planet have no access to electricity.

Every industry with the exception of energy is challenged everyday with the goal of producing the things people want. To do that you have to be really smart. Every industry, with the exception of the energy industry, inevitably produces things people don’t want.

Indeed, for an industry to always produce what people want, according to Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, “it requires that you understand everything in the world.” It is what 97% of computer scientists call artificial intelligence.

Electricity, sourced from natural fuels, which represents about 85% of the energy our planet consumes on a daily basis, is the result of a perfect intelligence. Or what 97% of theologians call God. On that point, lets just say the theology is settled.

Fossil fuels may not be renewable, but they are plentiful, reliable and affordable. And that view is supported by 97% of economists. Without abundant, reliable energy, our modern lives come to a complete stop.

I recently asked my older brother what causes him the most anxiety in his life. His answer was long-winded and kind of odd. It had something to do with age and death. How depressing.

He then asked me, and my answer was getting a low battery alert on my cell phone. And before you scoff at me, I’ll make the following claim, every person reading this knows within 10% how much battery life they have on their phone.

And the reason is, well, very reasonable. Without our phones we are cut off from the world. No calls, or texts, no e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, no internet!

In 2015, 52.7 percent of the global mobile phone population accessed the internet from their mobile phone. This figure grew to 63.4 percent by the middle of 2019. In other words, 97%.

So according to 97% of experts, 97% of us rely 97% of the time on our smart phones for 97% of everything we do. The time for debate is over.

Without a tiny, reliable, affordable, and energy abundant phone battery, our energy hungry smart phone will lack the power to function as the instrumental component we all depend on to sustain our high standard of living and high quality of life.

Now try and consider what would happen to your anxiety level if the notification on the living-room wall in your home beeped alerting you that you have 15% battery left.

Not 15% battery left to power your phone, but to power your car, your lights, your appliances, your flat-screen, your Sonos, your AC! And now imagine there not being a readily available, and reliable energy source you could access for the rest of the day.

I'm sweating bullets just writing this.

That could soon become the world we live in if we get this energy question wrong.

And what is this energy question? It is the debate between renewable energy versus reliable energy. But does it need to be a debate? Does it need to be between one or the other? Must we choose reliable energy or renewable energy? I don’t believe so.

In Santa Barbara County, for example, we actually have the opportunity to have both. We have an opportunity to leverage the economic benefits of reliable energy, while pursuing the assumed social benefits of renewable energy.

In Santa Barbara County we have the unique opportunity to produce fossil fuels locally while deriving the enormous revenues associated from its production to underwrite a local renewable energy strategy.

Is this being done in other places? Actually, yes. And in no less of a pro-environment place than Norway.

Norwegians are on the verge of transitioning to a 100% electrified transportation system by the year 2025.

They are able to do this because they can afford it both as a population (Norway has the third highest per-capita income in the world), but also because the government of Norway has the money to provide substantial public investment in the technologies that are helping the country’s transportation sector achieve the goal of 100% electrification.

One of the reasons Norway can afford these substantial investments is from the production of oil and gas that they export to Europe and beyond.

Today, Norway produces nearly 3 million barrels of oil per-day. They aren’t one of the biggest oil producing countries in the world by any means, but Norway is an important global exporter and the nation’s exported oil represents a significant source of the country’s revenue.

In 2018, for example, 33.3 billion worth of Norwegian oil (U.S. dollars) was exported to Europe. And the people are benefiting significantly from that.

Santa Barbara County could take a page out of Norway’s energy strategy play book and achieve similar results. And what are those? A future zero carbon transportation system, and a multi-billion dollar annual revenue stream to fund essential programs and services that benefit county residents today.

That is what 97% of people call a win-win.

Joe Armendariz is the Executive Director of the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association.

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