Americans today are once again the victims of price inflation brought on by runaway government spending and printing of unbacked paper money..

According to the most recent polling data, the American public’s approval of Congress stands at a dismal 21 percent. Almost four times as many people disapprove of the job it’s doing.

That’s par for the course in recent decades. It’s the major reason the Washington sausage grinder earns so little praise. To be fair, though, let’s review an occasion when lawmakers got something right. I’m prompted to share this story now because its lessons are especially relevant considering today’s concerns about rising price inflation. The year was 1875.

“And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (Rev 12:9 NASB)

As the world plunges toward the last few years of time as we know it, the ruler of the cosmos (the world) sets the greatest trap of all time. It is a Bible prophecy that cannot be altered or dismissed – it is pre-written history.

Politicians are inviting electricity chaos in Australia by promoting closure of coal-fired power stations, but also promoting more electric cars – more demand, less supply.

And Green energy is a wild bull in the electricity china shop.

If you believe in the tooth fairy, or vote Green, you probably believe that hydrogen is the magic rainbow gas that will banish global warming, replace wicked hydro-carbons in electricity generation, fuel tomorrow’s trucks, planes and heavy equipment, and earn unlimited export income.

There is one big problem – unlike coal, oil and gas, there are no hidden pools of hydrogen we can tap. Every bit of hydrogen has to be manufactured from water or hydrocarbons using huge amounts of energy.

The energy content of liquid hydrogen is about 70% of the energy required to produce it.  Burn it in a combined cycle gas turbine (energy efficiency 50%) and see that energy return drop to around 35%. Use it as vehicle fuel and see energy efficiency fall even further.

The density of liquefied hydrogen is much lower than that of natural gas - thus the transportation costs will be higher. And because the tiny hydrogen atom finds any small leak, the safety risks are very high - imagine a road accident involving flammable lithium batteries plus explosive hydrogen gas.

Most hydrogen is made directly from coal, oil or natural gas and the main process produces hydrogen and . . . more of the dreaded CO2.

But hydrogen is loved by Big Greens and little children because it has been named in a rainbow of pretty colours: grey, brown, black, green and blue.

Grey hydrogen comes from natural gas, brown from lignite (brown coal), and black hydrogen is made from black coal (no surprises there).

Green hydrogen is produced by electrolysis of water using intermittent green energy like solar or wind power. It requires heaps of fresh water and electricity neither of which can ever be fully recovered. Every tonne of hydrogen uses nine tonnes of water.

Blue hydrogen is any of the above but the CO2 by-product is stored in carbon cemeteries, making blue hydrogen stupidly expensive.

Viv Forbes
Washpool, Qld, Australia

Further Reading:

Hydrogen Hype:
https://saltbushclub.com/2021/07/08/hydrogen-hype-2/

The Spectrum of Hydrogen Colours:
https://ddears.com/2021/06/22/hydrogens-spectrum-of-colors/

Tomorrow’s Fuel?
https://ddears.com/2019/04/09/hydrogen-tomorrows-fuel-of-choice/

Hydrogen or Battery?
https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/news/stories/2019/08/hydrogen-or-battery--that-is-the-question.html#

Responsibility for any electoral comment here is taken by Viv Forbes, Ipswich-Boonah Road, Washpool, Qld, Australia. 

La Nina Floods have mangled the roads of eastern Australia with pot-holes, gully wash, mud and silt.