But only Gaia can fell a tree: Melbourne councils are chopping down trees and removing vegetation from footpaths to make way for Australia Post’s new environmentally friendly fleet of electric delivery vehicles…
The Return of Coal
Watts Up With That- Coal Consumption Hit a Record 8 billion tons in 2022
Global coal use is set to rise by 1.2% in 2022, surpassing 8 billion tonnes in a single year for the first time and eclipsing the previous record set in 2013, according to Coal 2022, the IEA’s latest annual market report on the sector. Based on current market trends, the report forecasts that coal consumption will then remain flat at that level through 2025 as declines in mature markets are offset by continued robust demand in emerging Asian economies. This means coal will continue to be the global energy system’s largest single source of carbon dioxide emissions by far.
The Sound Of Settled Science
A new study by a team of leading climate scientists suggests that the effect of carbon dioxide this century might be small if not undetectable when compared to natural climate variability.
Global surface temperature is and always has been the key climate parameter. Whatever is happening to the Earth’s climate balance, it must, sooner or later, be reflected in the global annual average temperature, and not just in regional variations. [emphasis, links added]
But therein lies what is to some an inconvenience as the changes in the global temperature this century are open to differing interpretations including the suggestion that increases in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are not needed to explain the changes we have seen in the last 20 years or so.
It’s a conclusion that many would dismiss as coming from climate “skeptics,” or downright deniers.
But what if it’s the view of scientists from two of the world’s leading institutes researching climate change; the University of Oxford and the US National Center for Atmospheric Research?
The paper is here.
Those giant stinking fans failed Saskatchewan, again, on Tuesday
SaskPower delays its reporting of power output by two days. But it turns out that on Tuesday, Dec. 13, wind power production in Saskatchewan all but collapsed. Again. You’d think in winter, having reliable power might be a thing? But we are intent on building more, a lot more, wind and solar.
Recently retired SaskEnergy CEO has a thing or two to say about energy transition
Recently retired CEO of SaskEnergy Ken From is a new columnist with Pipeline Online, and he’s got a thing or two to say about this supposed energy transition.
Y2Kyoto: Schadenfrozen
Green Germany Hemorrhaging €1.5 Billion per DAY to Keep the Lights On
Y2Kyoto: To The End
New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s new climate change documentary debuted in movie theaters over the weekend, generating an abysmal $80 per theater.
The new film, “To the End,” was filmed over four years and follows four young women, Cortez, activist Varshini Prakash, climate policy writer Rhiana Gunn-Wright and political strategist Alexandra Rojas, as they attempt to pass sweeping climate change legislation in Congress.
The film currently boasts an 88% “fresh” critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and does not yet have an audience score.
For Peat’s Sake!
By now it should be apparent that a “green” future is not going to be high tech at all, but rather a reversion to a pre-industrial existence. I’m sure the peasants will rejoice at spending hours each week digging in a swamp.
Earlier this year the government introduced curbs to peat cutting to protect Ireland’s bogs – which are important carbon sinks and sources of biodiversity – but Europe’s energy crisis has boosted what is supposed to be an anachronism. It costs approximately €500 to heat a household with peat for a year versus several thousand euros for more climate-friendly sources of energy.
Provided, of course, that the green lobby will even allow homeowners to stave off freezing to death:
The European Commission has threatened to impose sanctions on Ireland unless it curbs peat cutting in special areas of conservation.
Und Wie War Dien Tag?
In #Germany, an eco-activist glued himself to the asphalt, but he didn't think about the consequences. pic.twitter.com/hP1juHRmD8
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) December 11, 2022
Y2Kyoto: Extreme Weather
The US data in review, from Roger Pielke Jr.
Batteries for all!
I have to suggest a new headline: Ottawa seeks first place in race to national bankruptcy.
For the first time, Ottawa is set to subsidize the production costs of large electric vehicle battery producers.
A senior Canadian source — who was not authorized to comment publicly on the topic — confirmed that the goal in Ottawa is to “do like the United States” for “some big projects.”
Sources said the federal government already has delivered a clear message to a handful of multinational firms — that Canada will enhance its existing financing programs with “production support” measures.
The Green Agenda
Neil Oliver explains that the green agenda is absolutely not green.
Y2Kyoto: Powered By Bafflegab
They go wherever the money will take them: Are greens replacing fantasies of energy sources which don’t work, with fantasies of energy sources which don’t exist?
Y2Kyoto: Net Zeroed
Bloomberg: Vanguard Quits Net-Zero Group, Marking Biggest Defection Yet
Vanguard Group Inc. is walking out of the world’s largest climate-finance alliance, marking the coalition’s biggest defection to date as US Republicans step up their threats against firms deemed hostile toward the fossil-fuel industry.
Vanguard’s decision followed a “considerable period of review,” according to a company statement Wednesday. Withdrawing from the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, which is a sub-unit of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, “will help provide the clarity our investors desire” about everything from the role of index funds, to financial risks in the context of climate change, the firm said.
Creepy Mark Carney, chief architect of GFANZ “said earlier this year the alliance has enjoyed considerable growth…”
Related, via Steve Milloy – Britain approves first new coal mine — to operate for 50 years. “The mine seeks to be net zero in its operations.”🙄 So 50 years of lying coming up.
“The death of a renewable energy construction company by renewable energy has a certain narrative symmetry.”
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen is seeking urgent briefings from his department as the government seeks to limit the fallout from the collapse of engineering contractor Clough, amid a threat to almost $10 billion of projects critical to Australia’s energy transition.
…
Industry observers warned that Clough’s administration, which occurred after a $350 million sale deal with Italy’s Webuild fell through, would delay and could drive up costs of the Perth-based contractor’s projects.
These include some of Australia’s biggest projects, such as the $5.9 billion Snowy 2.0 storage venture and the $3.3 billion Project EnergyConnect electricity interconnector between South Australia and NSW, as well as one of the few gas power plants being built in the National Electricity Market.
Y2Kyoto: 10% For The Big Guy
President Joe Biden’s Department of Energy is touting a grant to a lithium battery company as a move that would help herald the shift to green energy and ensure the United States is cultivating domestic sources of energy. It did not say, however, that the Texas company receiving the grant operates primarily from China and is under scrutiny from American financial regulators.
The DOE announced in October that it would give the $200 million award to Microvast Holdings to build a battery separator facility in Tennessee, using funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. At the time, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the grant would “supercharge the private sector to ensure our clean energy future is American-made.”
Imagining the Future
If the green movement is going to continue to push the idea that we can survive without fossil fuels, they have some significant math problems to overcome first. Unless, of course, they eventually dispense with the need for backup power sources entirely.
My Report presents two different calculations of the energy storage requirement for Germany in a world of a wind/solar grid and no fossil fuels allowed (both of which calculations have been previously covered on this blog). One of the calculations, by a guy named Roger Andrews, came to a requirement of approximately 25,000 GWh; and the other, by two authors named Ruhnau and Qvist, came to a higher figure of 56,000 GWh.
…the amount of energy storage that Germany is planning for 2031 is between 0.016% and 0.036% of what it actually would need.
Alarm bells, not sleigh bells, should be ringing in Alberta. Saskatchewan, too.
Pipeline Online column on Alberta’s two electrical grid alerts this past week. And it’s not even really cold there yet.
As evidenced twice this past week, the electrical grid can barely handle the demand we have, now, before we switch most of our transportation system to electric vehicles. What happens when half our cars and trucks are EVs? Then three-quarters? What happens when the wind doesn’t blow then? No one goes to work?
When will the other media take notice? When will they start to question this mad rush to wind and solar, and total adoption of electric vehicles? When will someone else in the Saskatchewan media declare “The emperor has no clothes?”
Are we blind?
Alberta issues second grid alert in three days, as wind power generation collapses utterly, yet again, at suppertime.
Coulda Had A Pipeline
Luckily, there were only a few oil cars this time. Between Midale and Macoun, SK.