For what the Reserve Bank calculates as an added cost of R76 billion over the past four years to our trade imbalance for having to import refined petroleum, we have to thank the environmentalist lobbies who wrongly believe that carbon emissions from coal and petroleum are responsible for global warming. Uncorrupted science knows that as a weak gas, higher Co2 concentrations have zero effect on temperatures.

We also have to thank them for displacing 5,400 jobs as a result of refinery closures all based on false, globalist science. Thanks to these environmentalists, having to import refined petroleum products that are 12% more expensive than if the refining was done here, everything – food, electricity, transport – has increased in affordability in pursuit of their no-brainer of “net-zero carbons.”

Minister Mantashe is 100 percent correct in saying that “petroleum security is not a theoretical debate but an economic necessity and a national imperative.” His words come at a time when global and regional peers are expanding refining capacity while South Africa is dependent on imported fuel. Worse still, our dependence comes at a time of greatly variable oil costs.

But hard on the heels of Mantashe’s promotion of oil refining, his colleague, Parks Tau, minister of Trade and Industry, is promoting green hydrogen (Business Report, September 17).  As usual, the mantra of how anything green is such a plus is being bandied about. However, a little research shows that the electrolysis production of green hydrogen demands the use of renewables in order to ensure minimal carbon emissions. If natural gas is used, the process is called grey hydrogen and results in huge carbon emissions.

The downsides of green hydrogen production are that its costs by far exceed standard energy costs because of the high consumption of renewable energy required. Then there is the intermittent supply factor of renewables and the high cost of batteries for storage.

By fast-tracking legislation to resuscitate and expand domestic petroleum refining capacity, the ANC could play something of a trump card in addressing unemployment. That strategy works for Trump. By accelerating petroleum and coal energy development and scrapping the regulations imposed by the Biden regime, Trump is increasing employment opportunities.

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