Climate Change, Pollution, Clean Energy, and the Environment

[LFC]

Nov 3, 2021 2:18:45 GMT AnBr said:

Nov 1, 2021 22:30:53 GMT goldenvalley said:

This is one of those situations where I think folks are being overly censorious.  Analogies to the Holocaust can be offensive (see for example the use of it by anti Covid vaxers) but I think this guy was reaching for the most horrible thing in his knowledge base.  

A bit Like Godwin noting that some Nazi comparisons don’t break his rule.

I guess killing millions upon millions worldwide for money isn't exactly that far off killing millions upon millions in one region for political power.

[LFC]

Joe Manchin continues to do the energy industry's bidding.

Joe Manchin, the Maserati-driving centrist senator from West Virginia who’s already managed to single-handedly derail the most surefire avenue to reduce emissions in the reconciliation bill and gut key methane reduction provisions, is at it again. This time, Manchin has his NRA-approved sights set on proposed EV tax credits that would incentivize drivers to purchase union-made electric vehicles.

Manchin explained his opposition to the credit in an interview with Automotive News, where he called the proposals “not American.”

“When I heard about this, what they were putting in the bill, I went right to the sponsor and I said, ‘This is wrong. This can’t happen,’” Manchin said. “We shouldn’t use everyone’s tax dollars to pick winners and losers. If you’re a capitalist economy that we are in society then you let the product speak for itself, and hopefully, we’ll get that, that’ll be corrected.”

It should be noted that Joe is a coal baron who is pushing to protect long standing fossil fuel industry subsidies and tax expenditures. So much for being against picking winners and losers.

With the cornerstone of President Joe Biden’s climate policy all but dead, Democrats are pushing to get Manchin on board for a suite of tax credits that would incentivize renewables. Manchin has signaled that he’ll only sign on to wind and solar credits if Democrats chip away yet another key provision of Biden’s agenda: the elimination of fossil fuel industry subsidies.

Manchin’s proposed policies would effectively mean that reductions in greenhouse gas emissions won through incentivized renewable production could be canceled out by continued government-incentivized fossil fuel production. The fossil fuel industry subsidies on the table for elimination total $121 billion over the next decade.

“The climate provisions of this package keep on shrinking,” said Lukas Ross, a program manager focused on the federal budget at the environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth. “If subsidy repeal is no longer part of the discussion, a lot of progressives won’t feel compelled to help carry this over the finish line.”

Progressive Democrats have signaled that the subsidy eliminations remain key. “Repealing these subsidies would finally establish a level playing field for renewable energy and go a long way towards tackling the climate crisis,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told The Intercept. “It’s a top priority.”

Despite Manchin’s cost-conscious approach — he has demanded a reduced $1.5 trillion price tag for the bill — he has fought to preserve domestic fossil fuel industry subsidies. On the potential repeal of international oil and gas subsidies put into place during the Trump administration, Manchin has been silent.

Manchin, who did not respond to a request for comment, has significant personal investments in the coal industry and is also one of the biggest congressional recipients of fossil fuel industry donations, taking in $400,000 between July and October alone, mostly from the oil and gas sectors, according to E&E News.

[goldenvalley]

Manchin is simply not going to go along with any reduction of fossil fuel subsidies.  He's from West Virginia and even as the coal industry is dying due to market pressures his constituency will turn on him if he agrees. That wouldn't matter if there were more Democrats in the Senate and/or if some Republicans were willing to vote for a bill introduced by Democrats.  

[pnwguy]

Nov 15, 2021 18:57:50 GMT LFC said:

Joe Manchin continues to do the energy industry's bidding.

If someone was making a 100% coal fired vehicle, Manchin would be sponsoring a bill for tax subsidies for fueling stations to pump small coal balls into the tank.

[LFC]

This is an interesting take on the practical limits of solar energy based upon price, not technology.

A few lonely academics have been warning for years that solar power faces a fundamental challenge that could halt the industry’s breakneck growth. Simply put: the more solar you add to the grid, the less valuable it becomes.

The problem is that solar panels generate lots of electricity in the middle of sunny days, frequently more than what’s required, driving down prices—sometimes even into negative territory.

Unlike a natural gas plant, solar plant operators can’t easily throttle electricity up and down as needed, or space generation out through the day, night and dark winter. It’s available when it’s available, which is when the sun is shining. And that’s when all the other solar plants are cranking out electricity at maximum levels as well.

A new report finds that California, which produces one of the largest shares of solar power in the world, is already acutely experiencing this phenomenon, known as solar value deflation.

The state’s average solar wholesale prices have fallen 37% relative to the average electricity prices for other sources since 2014, according to the Breakthrough Institute analysis, which will be published on July 14. In other words, utilities are increasingly paying solar plants less than other sources overall, due to their fluctuating generation patterns.

Wholesale prices are basically the amount that utilities pay power plants for the electricity they deliver to households and businesses. They shift throughout the day and year, edging back up for solar operators during the mornings, afternoons and other times when there isn’t excess supply. But as more solar plants come online, the periods of excess supply that drive down those costs will become more frequent and more pronounced.

Lower prices may sound great for consumers. But it presents troubling implications for the world’s hopes of rapidly expanding solar capacity and meeting climate goals.

It could become difficult to convince developers and investors to continue building ever more solar plants if they stand to make less money or even lose it. In fact, California construction has already been flat since 2018, the study notes. But the state will need the industry to significantly ramp up development if it hopes to pull off its ambitious clean energy targets.

The article mentions issues with storage but doesn't really go into depth.

[LFC]

A new nuclear power plant with some unique technology is to be built in Kemmerer, WY. On a side note I actually did work at the current power plant that's being shut down.

On Tuesday, TerraPower, the US-based nuclear power company backed by Bill Gates, announced it has chosen a site for what would be its first reactor. Kemmerer, Wyoming, population roughly 2,500, has been the site of the coal-fired Naughton Power Plant, which is being closed. The TerraPower project will see it replaced by a 345 megawatt reactor that would pioneer a number of technologies that haven't been commercially deployed before.

These include a reactor design that needs minimal refueling, cooling by liquid sodium, and a molten-salt heat-storage system that will provide the plant with the flexibility needed to better integrate with renewable energy.

[goldenvalley]

Nov 18, 2021 21:22:07 GMT LFC said:

This is an interesting take on the practical limits of solar energy based upon price, not technology.

A few lonely academics have been warning for years that solar power faces a fundamental challenge that could halt the industry’s breakneck growth. Simply put: the more solar you add to the grid, the less valuable it becomes.

The problem is that solar panels generate lots of electricity in the middle of sunny days, frequently more than what’s required, driving down prices—sometimes even into negative territory.

Unlike a natural gas plant, solar plant operators can’t easily throttle electricity up and down as needed, or space generation out through the day, night and dark winter. It’s available when it’s available, which is when the sun is shining. And that’s when all the other solar plants are cranking out electricity at maximum levels as well.

A new report finds that California, which produces one of the largest shares of solar power in the world, is already acutely experiencing this phenomenon, known as solar value deflation.

The state’s average solar wholesale prices have fallen 37% relative to the average electricity prices for other sources since 2014, according to the Breakthrough Institute analysis, which will be published on July 14. In other words, utilities are increasingly paying solar plants less than other sources overall, due to their fluctuating generation patterns.

Wholesale prices are basically the amount that utilities pay power plants for the electricity they deliver to households and businesses. They shift throughout the day and year, edging back up for solar operators during the mornings, afternoons and other times when there isn’t excess supply. But as more solar plants come online, the periods of excess supply that drive down those costs will become more frequent and more pronounced.

Lower prices may sound great for consumers. But it presents troubling implications for the world’s hopes of rapidly expanding solar capacity and meeting climate goals.

It could become difficult to convince developers and investors to continue building ever more solar plants if they stand to make less money or even lose it. In fact, California construction has already been flat since 2018, the study notes. But the state will need the industry to significantly ramp up development if it hopes to pull off its ambitious clean energy targets.

The article mentions issues with storage but doesn't really go into depth.

My electricity is provided by a local municipal utility district. We vote for the board of directors.  Our electricity rates are lower than that of the much maligned P G & E (of wildfire starting fame).  I'm not sure it's making money; it is breaking even.  Isn't that good enough or do we need the massive private electricity generating companies that only desire to make money.

[pnwguy]

Nov 18, 2021 22:26:27 GMT goldenvalley said:

Nov 18, 2021 21:22:07 GMT LFC said:

I'm not sure it's making money; it is breaking even.  Isn't that good enough or do we need the massive private electricity generating companies that only desire to make money.

You are OBVIOUSLY a Marxist traitor and hate America.  Death threats coming in 3,2,1....

[AnBr]

These include a reactor design that needs minimal refueling, cooling by liquid sodium, and a molten-salt heat-storage system that will provide the plant with the flexibility needed to better integrate with renewable energy.

Sounds like they are talking about a LFTR reactor. About time to take another look at it.

[LFC]

Gizmodo explains to people that current gas prices have little to nothing to do with U.S. politicians. I've watched this blame dance so many times over the decades, especially from Republicans, I have little hope that the average American could even spell OPEC.

Domestically, investors in American gas companies—which have seen a growing share of the world’s production over the past decade with the shale boom—have a lot of input on the moves producers in Texas and elsewhere in the country make.

Both OPEC and American companies just went through a major upheaval. The coronavirus pandemic drove oil demand so low that the price of a barrel of oil briefly hit negative dollars, down from highs around $100 a barrel before the pandemic. That volatility had some big ramifications as parts of the world try to get back to normal. OPEC ordered producers to significantly cut production when prices were bottoming out; even as prices are rising now, they’re sticking to their disciplined regimen, like a fitness fanatic faithfully following a no-carb diet.

In the U.S., investors are pretty spooked by both the covid-19 pandemic as well as the fact that the fracking boom produced too much oil, oversupplying the market and making prices fall. Lower prices mean less money to line their pockets. Williams-Derry said that during the shale boom, American oil companies were spending more on drilling than they were earning on the price of oil. As a result, U.S. investors, Williams-Derry said, “are now punishing anybody who produces.”

That lower supply and the now-rising demand have conspired to drive crude oil prices higher than they were last year. In this context, it’s easy to see that API and their supporters’ claims about the administration’s actions ring false. “Anybody who blames a politician for high prices is ignoring basic market dynamics,” Williams-Derry said. “Blaming someone who is in office today for a problem that started last year, that doesn’t make much sense.”

[LFC]

Brazil continues its assault on the Amazon.

The area deforested in Brazil's Amazon reached a 15-year high after a 22% jump from the prior year, according to official data published Thursday.

The National Institute for Space Research's Prodes monitoring system showed the Brazilian Amazon lost 13,235 square kilometers of rainforest in the 12-month reference period from Aug. 2020 to July 2021. That's the most since 2006.

The 15-year high flies in the face of Bolsonaro government's recent attempts to shore up its environmental credibility, having made overtures to the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden and moved forward its commitment to end illegal deforestation at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow this month. The space agency's report, released Thursday, is dated Oct. 27 — before talks in Glasgow began.

The Brazilian Amazon hadn't recorded a single year with more than 10,000 square kilometers of deforestation in over a decade before Jair Bolsonaro's term started. in Jan. 2019. Between 2009 and 2018, the average was 6,500 square kilometers. Since then, the annual average leapt to 11,405 square kilometers, and the three-year total is an area bigger than the state of Maryland.

"It is a shame. It is a crime," Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a network of environmental nonprofit groups, told The Associated Press. "We are seeing the Amazon rainforest being destroyed by a government which made environmental destruction its public policy."

[LFC]

Ugh. The Arctic as we knew it is hosed.

Abstract

As the Arctic continues to warm faster than the rest of the planet, evidence mounts that the region is experiencing unprecedented environmental change. The hydrological cycle is projected to intensify throughout the twenty-first century, with increased evaporation from expanding open water areas and more precipitation. The latest projections from the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) point to more rapid Arctic warming and sea-ice loss by the year 2100 than in previous projections, and consequently, larger and faster changes in the hydrological cycle. Arctic precipitation (rainfall) increases more rapidly in CMIP6 than in CMIP5 due to greater global warming and poleward moisture transport, greater Arctic amplification and sea-ice loss and increased sensitivity of precipitation to Arctic warming. The transition from a snow- to rain-dominated Arctic in the summer and autumn is projected to occur decades earlier and at a lower level of global warming, potentially under 1.5 °C, with profound climatic, ecosystem and socio-economic impacts.

[LFC]

And that's why it's called "climate change", folks.

Think your area has had more rain than usual? You're probably right.

Think your area has had less rain than usual? Again, you're probably right.

For our climate change investigation out this week, called Downpour, USA TODAY reporters used 126 years of monthly data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to analyze average annual precipitation at 344 climate divisions. They used daily precipitation data from weather stations to measure the change in frequency of extreme rain events across the U.S. from 1951-2020.

"We were hearing a lot about extreme rainfall, stories of flooding, people with sewer backups, people flooded out of their homes, and we wanted to know, is this happening everywhere?," said Dinah Pulver, one of the project's lead reporters. "How many people, how many places, are contending with this kind of rainfall?

We found more than half of the nation's 344 climate divisions had their wettest periods on record since 2018. We calculated the same rolling averages for states.

"East of the Rockies, more rain is falling, and it’s coming in more intense bursts," our report finds. "In the West, people are waiting longer to see any rain at all.

"Taken together, the reporting reveals a stunning shift in the way precipitation falls in America."

[goldenvalley]

Dec 7, 2021 20:13:20 GMT LFC said:

And that's why it's called "climate change", folks.

Think your area has had more rain than usual? You're probably right.

Think your area has had less rain than usual? Again, you're probably right.

For our climate change investigation out this week, called Downpour, USA TODAY reporters used 126 years of monthly data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to analyze average annual precipitation at 344 climate divisions. They used daily precipitation data from weather stations to measure the change in frequency of extreme rain events across the U.S. from 1951-2020.

"We were hearing a lot about extreme rainfall, stories of flooding, people with sewer backups, people flooded out of their homes, and we wanted to know, is this happening everywhere?," said Dinah Pulver, one of the project's lead reporters. "How many people, how many places, are contending with this kind of rainfall?

We found more than half of the nation's 344 climate divisions had their wettest periods on record since 2018. We calculated the same rolling averages for states.

"East of the Rockies, more rain is falling, and it’s coming in more intense bursts," our report finds. "In the West, people are waiting longer to see any rain at all.

"Taken together, the reporting reveals a stunning shift in the way precipitation falls in America."

Nahhhh!  It's just unusually bad weather....so say some of my high school classmates.

[LFC]

The Arctic is f***ed and future generations will pay the price, mostly in nations that didn't do much to cause the problem in the first place.

The Arctic has long been portrayed as a distant end-of-the-Earth place, disconnected from everyday common experience. But as the planet rapidly warms, what happens in this icy region, where temperatures are rising twice as fast as the rest of the globe, increasingly affects lives around the world.

On Dec. 14, 2021, a team of 111 scientists from 12 countries released the 16th annual Arctic Report Card, a yearly update on the state of the Arctic system. We are Arctic scientists and the editors of this peer-reviewed assessment. In the report, we take a diverse look across the region’s interconnected physical, ecological and human components.

Like an annual checkup with a physician, the report assesses the Arctic’s vital signs – including surface air temperatures, sea surface temperatures, sea ice, snow cover, the Greenland ice sheet, greening of the tundra, and photosynthesis rates by ocean algae – while inquiring into other indicators of health and emerging factors that shed light on the trajectory of Arctic changes.

As the report describes, rapid and pronounced human-caused warming continues to drive most of the changes, and ultimately is paving the way for disruptions that affect ecosystems and communities far and wide.

[LFC]

Well ain't this just f***in' great.

Coal power is on track to hit a new global record this year after an economic rebound that could drive worldwide coal demand to an all-time high in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency.

The amount of electricity generated from coal power plants has soared by 9% this year after a surge in fossil fuel demand to fuel the recovery from Covid lockdowns, a report by the watchdog says.

Coal power fell by 4% in 2020 as the pandemic caused a global economic slowdown, but the IEA found that demand for electricity this year had outpaced the growth in low-carbon sources, leading many wealthy economies to rely more heavily on fossil fuel power plants.

The global gas supply crunch, which has caused record-high prices worldwide, has also helped reignite demand for coal, the IEA report says.

The agency found that global demand for coal, including cement and steel making, rose by 6% overall this year. Although the total falls short of record levels of demand for the fuel in 2013 and 2014, the IEA warned that without a policy intervention that high could be surpassed next year.

Fatih Birol, the IEA executive director, said: “Coal is the single largest source of global carbon emissions, and this year’s historically high level of coal power generation is a worrying sign of how far off track the world is in its efforts to put emissions into decline towards net zero.

“Without strong and immediate actions by governments to tackle coal emissions – in a way that is fair, affordable and secure for those affected – we will have little chance, if any at all, of limiting global warming to 1.5C.”

The report comes weeks after the conclusion of the Cop26 climate talks, which ended in a fierce disagreement over a pledge to abandon coal. A last-minute intervention by India successfully watered down the language of the pact from “phasing out” to “phasing down”.

[Traveler]

It's all China.

[pnwguy]

Dec 18, 2021 19:13:45 GMT Traveler said:

It's all China.

And until the Chinese embargoed Australian coal, the Aussies were happy to supply much of the Chinese imports.

Bill Gates has stated that his on-going worry has been on de-carbonizing steel and cement production.  Other sectors of the modern economy can move to carbon-free electrical sources, even transportation (though not aviation any time soon).  With China's growth needs requiring tons of steel and cement, Xi and the party aren't willing to shrink their coal burning any time soon.

[LFC]

Dec 18, 2021 19:13:45 GMT Traveler said:

It's all China.

Also India, which objected to the language trying to get rid of coal burning, though China is by far the worst. Increasing energy needs for a total of 2.8 billion people is going to be a motherf***er.

There’s a reason India and China defended coal’s future at the Glasgow climate summit: no nations have added more coal-fired power-plant capacity in the past decade than these two major emitters.

China and India are currently mining a combined 14 million tons a day of the dirtiest fossil fuel. Coal not only remains crucial to their current energy needs but it looks set to have a role for decades to come. That’s even as the two Asian giants install huge volumes of renewables and chase targets to zero out greenhouse gas emissions.

The global pipeline of coal power under development rose last year, the first advance since 2015, driven by a wave of proposed new facilities in China, according to Global Energy Monitor. India’s government forecasts coal plant capacity to grow to 267 gigawatts by 2030 from 208 gigawatts now.

Typically, new coal-fired plants would be expected to operate for at least 30 years, cementing the fuel’s role in the global energy mix beyond the middle of the century.

[LFC]

Florida's utilities have been busy writing legislation to cut themselves free from having to purchase excess rooftop solar energy. With corrupt Republicans in charge of the state gov't I suspect they'll get their way.

Utilities in Florida, it seems, have been extra busy this year writing laws that advance their interests and slow climate action. According to emails obtained by the Miami Herald and Floodlight, the state’s biggest utility, Florida Power and Light, directly drafted a bill that would restrict rights for rooftop solar owners, and seems to have paid off politicians to make sure it was introduced.

Reading through the emails is a pretty infuriating exercise in seeing a clear path of how money influences politics. Jennifer Bradley, a first-term senator, had a meeting this fall with utility industry representatives, including those from FPL.

On October 8, a member of Bradley’s staff emailed FPL’s lobbyist asking for “follow up information or language in regards to the net metering bill you discussed with Senator Bradley.” The lobbyist arranged to “drop [text] off” with Bradley in person at the statehouse the following week. On October 18, the staff member emailed the lobbyist again asking for “an electronic copy of the net metering bill so I can put it into drafting.” Records show that NextEra Energy, FPL’s parent company and the largest utility in the country, gave $10,000 to Bradley’s political committee on October 20, two days after that email; Bradley filed the bill in November. (NextEra told the Herald that the money was given without “an expectation of favor.” Okay, sure.)

FPL is a familiar name to solar advocates, and this isn’t the first time they’ve tried to kneecap rooftop solar. The concept that FPL wanted to hamstring in this piece of legislation is what’s known as “net metering,” a practice that allows rooftop solar owners to sell excess energy they generate with their equipment back onto the grid. In recent years, many utilities around the country have been fighting against state net metering regulations, trying to drive down prices they pay for customer-generated solar or attempting to eliminate the practice altogether in the interest of maintaining control of energy generation. While only about 1% of the state’s solar customers actually engage in net metering, FPL claims that the practice—which encourages people to actually install rooftop solar—could cost Florida utilities up to $700 million by 2025.

“This is a tired tactic that utilities have used to maintain their monopoly grip on electricity markets,” Will Giese, southeast regional director for the Solar Energy Industries Association, told the Miami Herald. “Net metering is a popular program that gives people the right to choose the energy that works for them, provides benefits to all ratepayers and creates thousands of energy jobs across Florida.”

[pnwguy]

I support "balanced metering". The utilities pay a substantial cost for the grid, service, billing, and delivery. I'm fine with only getting a wholesale price as a supplier, for excess power I send to a utility, like any other commercial producer. What a utility charges me for consumption would be the regular retail price.

[LFC]

During drought years California has drawn an enormous amount of their groundwater. Now that it's raining those aquifers may not be replenishing.

Over a third of American vegetables are grown in California, largely in the state’s Central Valley. The region also produces two-thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts. These crops—and the many Americans who produce and consume them—are heavily reliant on California’s water supply. But, given recurrent and severe droughts, the state’s groundwater supply has been strained.

When surface water supplies run low, most arid regions worldwide turn instead to their groundwater. But past mismanagement of the groundwater in California has caused parts of the state to sink as much as 30 feet and has also increased the frequency of earthquakes along the San Andreas fault.

Just as importantly, the state's groundwater storage may have been depleted to a point where recovery may take many decades. But, given that this supply is—as its name suggests—in the ground, changes to groundwater aren’t the easiest to measure; the available approaches each have advantages and disadvantages. A new study uses a combination of four of the leading methods to show that California’s aquifers haven’t been recovering from overdrafts during the droughts over the last two decades—and they’re unlikely to do so unless policymakers put more limits in place soon.

[goldenvalley]

Dec 23, 2021 16:35:28 GMT LFC said:

During drought years California has drawn an enormous amount of their groundwater. Now that it's raining those aquifers may not be replenishing.

Over a third of American vegetables are grown in California, largely in the state’s Central Valley. The region also produces two-thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts. These crops—and the many Americans who produce and consume them—are heavily reliant on California’s water supply. But, given recurrent and severe droughts, the state’s groundwater supply has been strained.

When surface water supplies run low, most arid regions worldwide turn instead to their groundwater. But past mismanagement of the groundwater in California has caused parts of the state to sink as much as 30 feet and has also increased the frequency of earthquakes along the San Andreas fault.

Just as importantly, the state's groundwater storage may have been depleted to a point where recovery may take many decades. But, given that this supply is—as its name suggests—in the ground, changes to groundwater aren’t the easiest to measure; the available approaches each have advantages and disadvantages. A new study uses a combination of four of the leading methods to show that California’s aquifers haven’t been recovering from overdrafts during the droughts over the last two decades—and they’re unlikely to do so unless policymakers put more limits in place soon.

Yeah as I sit here listening to it rain, I know it will do no good.  I've heard some people argue that the state just needs to be depopulated...all those pools and golf courses, ya know.  But in reality the urban areas have become more water efficient and the state is exporting water via almonds and other nut crops.  You can't fallow an orchard like you can a field.  

[pnwguy]

This would help the Central Valley both from a water aspect and power/income generation. Most vegetables can grow like this, although orchards and cotton wouldn't work.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgZBlD-TCFE

[Bact PhD]

Dec 23, 2021 17:51:36 GMT pnwguy said:

This would help the Central Valley both from a water aspect and power/income generation. Most vegetables can grow like this, although orchards and cotton wouldn't work.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgZBlD-TCFE

There’s been some talk about that in these parts—stuff like strawberries, which have their prime growing season above now and hit the supermarkets February-mid-April.