I very clearly remember that dark cold morning about 1980 driving through the small southwest Missouri town of Reeds Spring.
There was a pre-dawn temperature inversion that day, and the warmer air above captured in that Ozark valley great clouds of smoke from the wood stoves heating people’s homes.
Wow, I thought. I hope the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t see this. Why, one look at the smoke in Reed Spring this morning and the EPA would outlaw wood stoves.
They wouldn’t dare, my thoughts continued.
A lot of these hill people were poor. And many had once tried natural gas or propane, someone had told me. But then the 1970s, which saw energy prices triple, drove many of them back to wood.
It was a matter of survival.
They — the EPA, the government, nobody — would think to take away their heat, I thought. Especially since this smoke was from a rare temperature inversion.
They wouldn’t dare.
Fast forward to the 21st century.
Some people say the elites ultimately want us cold and eating bugs. Is that true?
The EPA has tightly regulated wood stoves and there are forces pushing to get rid of them.
But things are even more radical in the state of Washington.
Their governor, Jay Inslee, just signed into law a bill outlawing natural gas, according to Just the News.
That’s right. By 2050 there will be no natural gas available in Washington based on Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1589, which Inslee signed Thursday.
And there will be no other fossil fuels either, according to the bill.
Inslee’s bill-signing ceremony was at an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union office, according to Just The News.
Of course. We’re continually being told that is the future — electricity.
But despite all the environmentalist dreams, there remain the iron-clad laws of physics.
Except for solar, which is dependent upon weather, electrical power has to be generated by something that moves.
And that moving something, that generator, is powered by wind or by steam heated by natural gas, coal or nuclear fission.
Of course, there’s one other method — water. And Washington has an advantage –almost 65 percent of the state’s power is hydroelectric.
But what about the remaining 35 percent? Almost half of that generation comes from natural gas (14.4 percent) and (gasp!) coal (2.9 percent).
So how will wind (8.7 percent) and dreaded nuclear power (7.8) percent replace the fossil fuels of gas and coal as envisioned by House Bill 1589?
Ask Texas how wind performs in a pinch. And ask environmentalists about how they feel about nuclear power (and does that even have a future in Washington?).
Of course, it’s more than power generation affected by House Bill 1589.
If Washington utilities have no natural gas, what will residents do who are dependent upon the utilities providing it for cooking and heating?
Democrats — never wanting a crisis to go to waste and always looking to develop more wards of the state — have a solution.
“The planning required in this bill ensures we prioritize low-income and vulnerable customers by helping them convert to non-emitting energy,” according to Inslee. “This will improve their homes’ indoor air quality and make sure they are not the ones left covering the costs of stranded gas assets.”
So poor people are taken care of? Nice. I hope my poorer neighbors in the Ozarks are listening for when they try that here.
But what about Washington’s middle-class homeowners?
The average cost of converting to electricity will be $40,000 per home, according to Greg Lane, executive vice president of the Building Industry Association of Washington.
“And that will be on top of having to pay monthly rates that are also predicted to double under this bill,” he said. “Whether you own or rent, this bill is going to cost you dearly.
“The truth is Washington is not ready to rely on only one source of energy,” according to Lane. “Our electrical grid can’t handle it and [Puget Sound Energy] customers shouldn’t have to pay for it.”
Not surprisingly, Democrats generally supported HB 1589. Of course, they are the ones that usually squawk the loudest about housing shortages and prices.
Republicans opposed it, citing, like Lane, housing and energy costs.
And so it goes, another venture into energy fantasyland that is void of knowledge of physics, economics, sociology, and for that matter, psychology.
Much like those decisions that gave us masks, social distancing and vaccine mandates.
And even though other states may not have the hydroelectric benefits of Washington, what’s to stop them from enacting their own gas bans?
And bans on wood stoves?
They’ve already told us — we will own nothing and be happy. And eat bugs.
And Reeds Spring, Missouri? You people can just freeze for all they care.
Because contrary to what I thought years ago, thinking they wouldn’t dare —
They would.
