For every action there is a reaction, especially when it pertains to the production of energy.
As an employee of FAFCO, Inc. of Los Angeles during the 1970s, I attended a solar energy convention at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Freeman A. Ford’s company was manufacturing solar panels made of polymer opposed to some solar energy companies that were producing solar panels made of metal, mainly copper.
I was a proponent of solar energy, and my home in Los Alamitos had FAFCO solar panels on the roof that heated the water in my kidney-shaped swimming pool and the water in my home.
The selling point for FAFCO’s panels is that polymer does not rust the way cooper can and often does.
I learned to measure a home or any other building and calculate the size of the area to determine how many solar panels would be needed to create the desired temperature the customer wished to achieve.
As a test to see how high I could get the solar panels to heat my swimming pool, I let the pool’s pump run throughout one day, and by nightfall steam was coming off the surface. The water’s temperature had risen to 102 degrees Fahrenheit.
Solar energy is free energy, but the solar panels that are used to collect the sun’s energy are expensive to manufacture and install.
I remember a homeowner in Fountain Valley wanted to heat his swimming pool, but a city ordinance prevented solar panels from being placed on the front of a house that faced a street.
I represented FAFCO at a city council meeting, and I presented the case that called for solar panels to be placed on the front of the home because it faced south, the only orientation that would work for solar panels to heat his pool that was located on the north side of his home.
Council ruled against FAFCO and the homeowner based on the conclusion that solar panels are eyesores.
As Bob Dylan sang, “Times they are a changing.”
Now California Governor Gavin Newsom is an advocate of the use of solar energy, and a battle over subsidies for homeowners who add solar panels to their homes continues to be waged with utility companies pitted against the subsidies homeowners receive.
Also, “The War Against Fossil Fuels” continues to be waged nationwide since those in the U.S. Congress who support “going green” have influenced President Joe Biden to embrace the “New Green Deal.”
Currently, the price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. has soared to a historic high, and those in the White House point to the oil and gas companies as the culprits because 9,000 permits have been issued for oil and gas exploration that have not been acted upon by the energy-producing companies.
Critics of the Biden Administration who are in the fossil fuel industry claim that the new regulations that the Biden
Administration has placed on those companies prevent the companies from turning a profit by raising their costs to meet the new requirements.
Also, President Biden has issued executive orders that have prevented the completion of oil pipelines and restricted drilling on federal lands.
Prices at the pump have increased by leaps and bounds, and someone who opposes the Biden Administration’s policies on energy has managed to place stickers of President Biden onto gasoline pumps.
One at Covington Farm & Fuel depicts the President pointing to the price of gasoline per gallon, and the caption reads, “I did this.”
Another one with the same message has been stuck to a gasoline pump at the BP Station on Ridgeway Street in Clifton Forge.
For certain, inflation will be a hot political issue during political campaigns leading up to the mid-term election.
At the heart of the matter is Biden’s push toward “going green” while opposing becoming energy independent once again by reversing his decisions to shutdown the Keystone Pipeline and removing the many restrictions he has put in place to discourage drilling for fossil fuels.
One thing is for sure, renewable energy has its proponents, and the so-called “War Against Fossil Fuel” will be a campaign issue.
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