Scott Tinker, Past President of the AAPG and Director of the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, provided invited testimony during a Hearing of U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on February 3, 2021. Here is his testimony:
"Senators, Distinguished Members and Fellow Panelists, it is an honor to be here today.
Senator Murkowski thank you for your leadership.
Senators Manchin and Barrasso, congratulations. I look forward to working with you.
We all share a common desire to provide affordable and reliable energy in order to grow healthy economies and lift the world from poverty, while also minimizing environmental impacts, including climate, land, water, and air. There may be a perception of division, but I think it is a false divide. Let’s not let division triumph.
I had planned to mention a bit about my background, and highlight key facts about global poverty, population, energy and the economy today. But others have covered that pretty well, and it is in my written testimony, which can be made available to anyone listening in. Instead, I’d like to tell you a story.
The films we have made over the past decade on global energy, the environment and poverty are nonpartisan and introduce critical thinking about these important issues. They are being used by educators all over the world for students of all ages. As such, I am asked by teachers and faculty globally if I could please visit in person or “ZOOM in” with their students for a short discussion. It would mean so much to the kids, they say. I try to do as many of
these each month as I can.
Just before COVID, I was visiting an environmental class of about 50 lower division students at a major university. An “ask me anything” format. Near the end, one student said, and I quote:
“Why does any of this matter, were all gone in 15 years anyway?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Humans. We’re gone because of climate change in 15 years.”
Trust me, I am rarely speechless. I asked the class how many felt that way. 50% raised their hands. I was stunned. I asked why the felt this and if they could describe what would actually wipe out all of humanity in 15 years.
They couldn’t describe how anyone would actually die, they just said they were being taught that climate change is an existential threat, and also hearing that from their leaders. To them, that meant that humans will no longer exist. I was deeply disturbed by this on many levels, for many weeks. Where was the critical thinking?
The non-partisan, non-profit Switch Energy Alliance that I formed many years ago makes critically thinking films on energy and the environment. We have worked with AP Environmental Science (APES) High School teachers across the country the past few years to develop truly objective curriculum on
energy. Switch Classroom is are now in thousands of classrooms across the U.S. and the world.
When looking at the existing APES curriculum, it didn’t take long to discover how bias is introduced.
Here is an example of two essay questions from an AP test.
1) What are the environmental benefits of offshore wind?
2) What are the environmental impacts of tar sands?
These questions can only result in the student discussing benefits of one option, and impacts of the other. When in fact, as we all know, there are pros and cons to both. This happens at the highest levels, too. Just this morning E&E Reported that a new National Academies report offers a comprehensive road map for achieving a carbon-free economy by midcentury and concludes that it is “on the edge of feasibility.”
Of course, if the question posed to the National Academies committee was, “How do we reach a carbon-free economy?” by definition the report will attempt to spell that out. Critical thinking would instead ask, “How do we reach a carbon-free economy, without damaging the land, water, and local air in the process?” In other words, how do we avoid robbing from nature Peter to pay climate Paul.
I trust we all believe that humans will be here in 15 years, and hopefully well beyond that. As such, each of us carries a remarkable burden to be factually complete. To be sure, coal and oil, and to a lesser degree natural gas, impact the environment. Let’s continue to clean them up, especially the emissions. But critical thinking teaches us all forms of energy impact the environment.
As a geoscientist, I am not against mining! If you don’t grow it, you mine it. But I know that low-density sources of energy such as solar, wind, biofuels and batteries will require an unprecedented scale of mined, sometimes toxic, resources from the earth. These materials must be disposed, or recycled and
then disposed, in landfills or the ocean, when they wear out. Repeated mining, manufacturing, and disposal is not clean or renewable.
We do not want students around the world to feel duped some day when they realize that “clean” did not really mean “clean.” We must not only be completely factual, but factually complete in our work and in our communications. For example, although it is completely factual that the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for solar and wind have fallen below the cost of coal, factual completeness tells us that LCOE is the cost are at the plant, not the cost to the consumer. LCOE does not include the high cost of redundant backup for intermittent solar and wind. The actual cost, including full-scale redundant backup, makes it more expensive to the consumer. Ask California and Germany (more on this subject). Solar, wind and batteries have a role to play, but they are not clean, renewable, or cheaper.
Let’s converge on a plan that provides equitable energy access globally, and addresses not only emissions, but all environmental impacts. That plan should focus on CO2 solutions and do several things:
• Provide energy access to lift the world from energy and economic poverty
• Reduce actual CO2 emissions into our single global atmosphere
• Protect the rest of the environment
• Be affordable, dispatchable, and scalable
• Be deployed, or deployable, in the next two decades
• Protect U.S. security and the U.S. economy
Fortunately, solutions exist. Options you have heard from other witnesses today are remarkably consistent and include:
• Switching from Coal to Natural Gas, especially in Asia. If Asia doesn’t act, it won’t matter.
• Preserve the Nuclear fleet in the US and support nuclear globally, especially SMRs, and streamline deep borehole disposal.
• Accelerate Efficiency across all U.S. and global sectors.
Natural gas, nuclear power, and efficiency, in partnership and supplemented by solar and wind, CCUS, hydro, geothermal, hydrogen and others can provide dispatchable, reliable, affordable energy today, and preserve industry and grows higher-wage jobs.
The U.S. can lead through investment in technology, federal and state incentives, and efforts to find scalable, affordable, timely solutions. And although tempting, we must resist well-intended efforts to restrict market optionality--with vehicles, energy production and delivery systems, and more--which
often result in unintended consequences.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today."
Scott W. Tinker, Ph.D.
Geoscientist
Written Testimony Follows in the linked file.
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