Fossil Fuels

Fossil fuels are hydrocarbon-containing materials such as coal, oil, and natural gas, formed from the anaerobic decomposition of buried dead plants and animals over millions of years. Burned to power engines or generate electricity, they replaced the extreme poverty of subsistence living, with ever-increasing wealth.

Machinery powered by fossil fuels multiplied the output of each worker, creating the leisure time required for mankind to go beyond merely surviving to flourishing, through advances in science and technology.

Synthetic fertilizers produced from natural gas, multiplied crop yields, bringing inexpensive food while preventing mass starvation.

Virtually every product of modern life is dependent on fossil fuels.

Learn about the miracles of fossil fuels in the following section.

Fast Facts

• Fossil fuels are hydrocarbon-containing materials such as coal, oil, and natural gas
  • Formed from the anaerobic decomposition of buried dead plants and animals over millions of years.
  • Burned to provide heat, power engines,  or generate electricity.
  • Used to produce fertilizers, plastics, and most items used in modern society.
• Abundant, reliable, low-cost fossil fuel energy was a critical factor in eliminating poverty and starvation wherever wealth and abundance exist today.
• Eliminating fossil fuel-based fertilizers and pesticides caused a 20% reduction in rice yields during the first 6 months in Sri Lanka.
• Reliable, efficient, low-cost energy infrastructure responsible for the incredible abundance and wealth billions enjoy is under increasing attack by “rich world” leaders,

Fossil fuels are a class of hydrocarbon-containing materials of biological origin occurring within Earth’s crust that can be used as a source of energy or a feedstock for thousands of products we take for granted in modern life in addition to the fertilizers we depend on to feed the 8 billion people on Earth.   

Fossil Fuels Defined

Fossil Fuel Benefits

As protestors with rich world problems, like slow internet or gender confusion, attack the fossil fuel industry, after living their abundant energy lifestyles, billions in the developing world await the most basic benefits of reliable (fossil fuels)  Jobs in industries that allow economic movement beyond subsistence farming. cooking with efficient gas stoves to eliminate the toxic brew in the smoke generated from inefficient wood use, refrigerators for safe food storage, and fans and lighting which are no longer dependent on seasonal and weather variations. 

Energy

Energy to move people and goods, and generate power, mostly electricity, are the most obvious uses of fossil fuel.  

In 2022 fossil fuels provided 79% of US energy consumption and 60% of electricity.      

Transportation

The energy density of liquid fossil fuels, gasoline, and kerosene, make them ideally suited for, and in many cases the only economically viable means for powering much of our transportation system.  Energy density is the energy stored per unit of mass.   

At 12,200 watt-hr/kg, the power density of gasoline is about 50 times the usable  238 Wh/kg reported for Tesla’s 4680 cells,  The weight of a battery also never decreases during a trip unlike vehicles powered by fossil fuels.  A benefit most pronounced on long airplane flights.  

Electricity Generation

Because electrical power produced must exactly match the power consumed or the power grid collapses, reliability is to electricity generation what energy density is for transportation fuels,  It determines the value of electricity.  Power produced when not needed, which regularly happens near noon on sunny summer days in California, due to an abundance of solar panels, can have zero or even a negative value as utilities pay others to take it off their hands.  Wind and solar power production never matches power needs, and the financial and environmental cost of storing electricity is astronomical outside of a few locations, such as hydroelectric dams with appropriate hydrological conditions.  

Power grids supplied by fossil fuel-generated electricity, such as gas turbines, easily match user power needs 24/7 with no need to produce unneeded power.

The myth of a society reliably run by 100% unreliable renewable energy, wind & solar, is perpetuated by reliable fossil-fueled power plants, increasingly natural gas, constantly changing their output to match the whims of the weather.  

Products

The remarkable number of products made from fossil fuels further illustrates the foolishness of thinking fossil fuels could be eliminated from society.

Agriculture

The Green Revolution which more than doubled agricultural production in the most desperately poor countries, was largely driven by fossil fuel-based fertilizers and pesticides.  While the dangers of pesticides to human health, were identified decades ago, recently nitrogen-based fertilizers have come under attack for their contribution to global warming (in addition to livestock).  The same politicians, who lack the scientific sophistication to notice that wind and sun power is unreliable because it is weather dependent, appear poised to do what they did for energy costs to food.  Drive prices higher while increasing shortages. 

The recent agricultural debacle in Sri Lanka offers a lesson, which I am sure the elites in government and environmental movements will ignore.  

Let Them Stay Poor

As electricity prices were peaking at record levels in Europe I was stunned to see Alex Epstein’s 2016 testimony to Congress, which described the situation at hand so prophetically.

Alex Epstein is an American philosopher, author, and commentator who advocates for the expansion of fossil fuels on moral grounds since energy poverty is correlated with human suffering.  He often points out the hypocrisy of pampered Westerners enjoying the benefits of unlimited reliable fossil fuel-derived energy, telling poor African nations to not burn coal.  

Alex has done his homework, becoming quite knowledgeable about energy, a focus of my college studies, unlike his opponents who endlessly parrot disproven narratives.  His books are filled with referenced data, making them a worthwhile read for any truthseeker.