Look to Germany to see why wind and solar power won’t replace oil for decades to come

Last week, the Sun-Times editorial board wrote that “as renewable energy comes online, it will reduce the need for oil imports.” A look at what’s happened in Germany over the past decade proves that conclusion is specious at best.

No country has done more to phase out oil than Germany. But petroleum remains the country’s leading energy source — 35% of the energy mix — a decade after the implementation of its “Energiewende” policy. To meet continued strong demand, Germany imports 98% of the oil it consumes, primarily from Russia. Seventy-eight percent Germany’s energy needs are met by fossil fuels and, as Clean Energy Wire reports, “In the midst of the Energiewende, Germany relies still heavily on imports of fossil fuels.”

Germany is proof positive that renewable energy mandates do little, if anything, to reduce petroleum demand.

One reason is the fact wind and solar provide no alternative for the thousands of uses for petroleum that are essential and largely taken for granted. Fifty-five percent of petroleum demand is non-gasoline and 31% occurs outside the transportation sector. More than 6,000 everyday products, including dozens of medical supplies, pharmaceuticals and tech gadgets such as smart phones, are largely petroleum-based. Petrochemicals are even needed to manufacture wind turbines, solar panels and more than 70% of the typical electric car.

We are going to need a lot of oil for decades to come, and it’s better to produce as much of it here as possible rather than rely on other countries for the oil we need. This is not a “deceitful” argument, as the Sun-Times’ editorial board put it — it’s a simple fact.

Seth Whitehead
Executive Director
Illinois Petroleum Resources Board

Tax the rich to pay for pandemic relief

In a recent editorial, the Sun-Times writes that “Democrats and the Biden administration are right to play it hard and tough now.”

But Democrats don’t know how to play that way. Ninety percent of the Senate already knows President Joe Biden’s pandemic relief bill is going to pass only through budget reconciliation process, which requires only a simple majority vote. So why does the bill not include a tax increase on the rich? The president could say: “The Republicans are concerned about the deficit, so we are passing this modest tax increase to pay for my COVID-19 relief bill.”

It’s a message that would be well received by the public, I assure you.

Also, even $1.9 trillion, in my opinion, is not enough.

Larry Hamsing, Elgin

Good job on the snow plows

Let’s give Chicago’s Streets and Sanitation Department credit for a great job in clearing our roadways and side streets of now. They deserve recognition for a job well done. Taxpayers got their money’s worth.

Norman DeDore, Garfield Ridge