The Independent often runs news coverage about renewed oil activity and affordable housing developments on the Central Coast. The headline of an April 16 letter opposing a residential development says the quiet part out loud: “ Build Somewhere Else .”
The coverage concerning the renewal of oil activity in the area has a similar tone but on a larger scale. I want to address the larger issue of renewed oil production, but, as a retired engineer with expertise on energy and environmental issues, I want to focus on practical rather than political or regulatory issues.
We use a wide variety of petroleum-derived products every day. That consumption includes fuels used for transportation of goods and people, powers large-scale agricultural and construction machinery, provides emergency services, and enables military activity in remote situations. But also, there are many essential products, like nitrogen fertilizer; single-use, sterile medical equipment; weight-reducing plastic components of electric vehicles, wind turbine blades, and insulation for electrical wiring that cannot be made without chemical feedstocks. Those feedstocks are produced from petroleum and natural gas. In many cases substitution is simply not possible, so the idea of not producing any petroleum anywhere is simply a path to nowhere. The demand for the products will not disappear so the chemical feedstocks must be produced.