A few years ago, I made a video about gas prices. Since oil is a global commodity, no one nation can corner the market on its production, or just use its own or whatever. I explain it in the video. If I were making that video today, I'd mention that while you can't control supply and demand as a president, you sure can screw it up by bombing a country in the Middle East. Especially the one where we had a nuclear regulation deal that the moron in the White House cancelled, making the threat that they can move toward nuclear weapons again.
Naturally, gas prices suck right now, which affects the price of everything. You keep hearing about "energy independence," and how if we just had more oil and controlled the oil, we'd be set. But imagine, if you will, a world where we didn't need the oil. If only there were technologies and energy sources that could replace it. Obviously that's sarcasm, of course we have that today.
Renewables are just about the cheapest form of energy now. That's a bummer if you've invested in infrastructure to burn fossil fuels, but it's true. If you're looking to get ahead of demand, and you're a utility, you're looking at renewables. Solar and storage (batteries) are especially appealing, since we won't ever run out of sun, and it shines to various degrees everywhere. Neat, right?
There's also a security benefit when you distribute that generation into smaller chunks. A single site that produces power for millions becomes a single point of failure. If you have smaller units, like rooftop solar on homes, and maybe a neighborhood or town sub-grid, losing one spot doesn't put out an enormous area.
Why isn't this already a thing? Money in politics, and pure willful stupidity. If anyone in Washington really cared about energy independence, they would embrace the solution that exists. It's illogical.
My house produced 50 kWh of electricity yesterday, and my cars don't need gas. I don't have the roof to be totally off-grid, energy independent, if you will, but a lot of people do.
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