March 28, 2024

COLUMN: Humbug

About a year ago I penned a column titled “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” This was said by the Wizard, in the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz.”

I was reminded of this movie the other day while driving west on Howard Street in Creston. There, on the north side of the street, were two legs that appeared to be sticking out from underneath the corner of a house. The legs were wearing black and yellow leotards and black shoes. This was reminiscent of a scene from the movie. Dorothy’s house had been lifted by a tornado in Kansas, transported to the land of OZ and dropped down on the wicked witch of the East. All that was left of her were her legs, poking out from underneath Dorothy’s house.

Begun in black and white, from this point to the end, the film was in color. It was here that Dorothy began her journey to the Emerald City. Her quest was to find the Wizard and persuade him to return her to her home in Kansas. After a long and perilous journey Dorothy finally arrived in the Emerald City and found the Wizard. What she found, however, was not a powerful wizard, but just on old and ineffective man hiding behind a curtain. The wizard was a humbug. Webster’s dictionary defines “humbug” as: a) something designed to deceive and mislead, and b) a willfully false, deceptive, or insincere person. But this was just a children’s story told in a great movie. It was harmless.

Today, we are being told a different, not harmless, story. It could be described as a “humbug.” This story is being told by our federal government and many so-called “environmentalists.” The story goes like this. Our planet Earth and our climate are being destroyed by climate change caused by the excessive use of carbon-based energy. It is proclaimed loudly and often that this is settled science. We dare not question settled science, because thousands of climate scientists are in agreement. The world climate is changing, and it is our fault. The humbug here is the fact that many of these scientists are being paid through government grants. The grants are given to scientists who want to prove that climate is changing because of our excessive use of fossil fuels.

Many solutions are proposed by scientists and by politicians. One proposal is to construct thousands of giant Cuisinarts in the sky. We call these “wind turbines.” They are humbugs. Yes, they produce electricity without fossil fuels. But there are hidden costs involved. Some hidden costs: they are heavily subsidized, made of materials that will not decompose and cannot be recycled. Another hidden cost is the vast number of birds destroyed by the rotating blades of these cuisinarts. Our grandchildren face huge unknown costs when these wind turbines must be decommissioned in 30 years.

Another humbug is the idea of replacing our automobiles with electric cars. We have been inundated of late with stories of how economically electric autos and trucks can be operated as opposed to traditional gas and diesel autos and trucks. We are told how economical it is to recharge the batteries. Electric vehicles are also humbug, beginning with the operating cost. Yes, electricity to recharge the batteries is cost efficient when compared to gas and diesel fuel. The humbug comes when we consider the enormous amount of electricity that will be consumed to recharge the batteries when we replace our fossil fuel fleet with battery powered vehicles. We can barely produce and distribute enough electricity to meet our current needs.

Another humbug. Where are we going to obtain enough lithium to produce enough batteries? Communist China already has a lock on most of the raw materials and production capacity for the batteries. What could go wrong? By the way, none of the operating cost comparisons take into consideration heating the cars in the winter, or cooling the cars in the summer. These two features, which most of us consider necessary, will greatly increase operating costs and reduce the mile range of electric vehicles.

One more humbug with electric vehicles is that owners will not pay any fuel tax. Fuel tax is how our roads and highways are constructed and maintained.

The price of gas in Creston was $1.86 a gallon on Jan. 20, 2021. It now sells for $3.86 a gallon. Our president says his policies will continue to reduce the cost of gas. Humbug!

Mike Lang, Chairman,

Union County Republican Central Committee.