This seems related.
Blowout 244
An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.
This week’s lead stories feature Australia’s new government, which has no plans to cut emissions but promises not to abandon its Paris Climate Agreement commitments. How are these two conflicting goals to be met? Coming later we have OPEC, Iraq, Iran’s oil and US sanctions; more Norwegian gas for UK; cap-and-trade in Ontario; coal in China; French environment minister Hulot resigns, France’s nuclear industry rejoices; Japanese utility to curtail solar in favor of nuclear; Tesla backs off privatization; California targets 100% renewable electricity by 2045; the UK wind and solar industries want subsidies restored; Kalashnikov’s new EV; how beavers make climate change worse and how meeting Paris Agreement targets would give us 217 million more tons of fish each year.
Y2Kyoto: State of Anorexia Envirosa
A new study has found that strong global climate action would cause far more hunger and food insecurity than climate change itself:https://t.co/3t61iShgYy pic.twitter.com/Vgj1KuRkhp
— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) August 28, 2018
It’s not a bug. It’s a feature.
Blowout 243
An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories compiled by Roger Andrews.
This week we feature the Trump EPA, which is proposing a major rollback in US coal plant emission restrictions (no details presently available). To follow we have OPEC and the Iran/Saudi standoff; Saudi Arabia denies plans to scrap the ARAMCO IPO; Nord Stream 2 to bypass Denmark; more production cuts at Groningen; rising EU carbon prices; Australia’s Turnbull ousted; nuclear in Taiwan, Sweden, South Korea, New England, the Middle East and North Africa; a slowdown in California renewables; New Zealand’s first battery storage project; Scotland’s floating wave turbine; the Brexit aftermath; Britons want more subsidized solar and how mass-produced Volkswagens cause drought in Mexico.
YNoKyoto: Turning On Turnbull
Abbott is an incredibly powerful man. From the backbench he’s creating disunity, stopping legislation, ruining careers, and bringing down Prime Ministers, all just for the fun of it.
This has nothing to do with the 54% of Australians who are skeptics.
h/t Adrian
YNoKyoto: ACE Card
The proposal from the EPA goes to the core of the criticisms that the coal industry and conservatives lodged against Obama’s 2015 regulation, which used a novel reading of the Clean Air Act to require states to cut greenhouse gas pollution from the power sector. The replacement from President Donald Trump’s EPA would give states far more leeway to meet more modest climate goals — or even to opt of the program entirely.
But the new rule’s biggest impact could come from the inevitable lawsuits that environmental groups and Democratic-leaning states will file against Trump’s proposal. If they lose, the result could be a court decision enshrining the Trump administration’s hobbled approach to climate regulation as the only reasonable approach under the law — slamming the door shut on any later attempts to recreate Obama’s handiwork.
The Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule.
h/t RALD
Blowout 242
An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.
We lead off this week’s Blowout with Elon Musk’s impulsive tweet about how he can take Tesla private for $420/share with “funding secured”. We follow up with OPEC forecasts slower growth in oil while US refineries struggle to keep up with demand; the Permian Basin is either a major resource or it isn’t; yet another review of the Keystone XL pipeline; gas peakers in India; coal in Germany, the US and the EU; Chinese AP1000 reactor reaches full power; Australia’s NEG moves along; SMRs in UK; wood-burning at Drax; and how global warming will degrade law enforcement and cause more sewage leaks in Canada.
Blowout 241
An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews:
We kick off with YouTube censoring climate debate using Wikipedia as the font of truth. We continue with Saudi Arabia’s oil production – is it up or down?; the Saudi/Canada standoff; US LNG and Nord Stream 2; coal in Poland and China; nuclear in France and India; the Laos hydro dam collapse; Australia’s national energy guarantee; the hydrogen-to-ammonia “breakthrough”; renewables to power Blockchain; renewables and the UK capacity market; subsidies for UK SMRs; climate change to cause more windless periods and how to save the planet – give up meat.
The Hoover Dam Pumped Hydro Proposal
Roger Andrews reviews the ins and outs of using the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead as a giant pumped hydro storage scheme aimed at fixing California’s man-made grid reliability problems.
Blowout 240
An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.
We begin with the $2.4 trillion battery required to keep California’s lights on and follow with OPEC; the oil tanker crisis; Kuwait fracks in Canada; Azerbaijan gas; Rio Tinto exits coal; Russia fuels its offshore nuclear plant; Moorside nuclear in doubt; blackouts in South Africa; Australia’s National Energy Guarantee; peaking plants in Europe; an “alarming collapse” in UK renewable investment; 5,000 UK churches go renewable and how heatwaves increase deaths in UK but decrease them in Spain.
The Sound Of Settled Science
California’s progress in cutting emissions
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently published its 2018 inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to which the state achieved its goal of cutting GHG emissions below 1990 levels in 2016, four years in advance of the 2020 target date*. Gov. Jerry Brown claims that this proves that the state’s anti-carbon laws and regulations are “succeeding”, but are they really? Here we take a brief look at CARB’s data, concluding a) that success has not yet been achieved and b) that California’s long-term emissions targets remain as elusive as ever.
Blowout 239
An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.
…Exxon’s Guyana oil discovery; oil majors shifting into natural gas; the EU to import more US LNG; coal in Spain, India and Australia; South Africa can’t afford Russian nuclear; China, nuclear and the UK; US heatwave causes grid reliability problems; Europe and intermittent renewables; the world’s largest pumped hydro plant at the Boulder dam; the UK ditches FiTs and approves fracking; Ofgem proposes EV reforms; the UK to double offshore wind capacity how global warming causes more suicides.
A Carbon Tax Poll Goes Horribly Wrong
In the emerging federal-provincial battle over carbon pricing – Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford appear to be galvanizing public opinion over which level of government should be the ultimate arbiter of the kind of plan should be in place from province to province.
While a federal carbon pricing plan is poised to come into effect next January and be applied to provinces that are not deemed by the Trudeau government to have a sufficient plan in place, two-in-three Canadians (64%) say it should be individual provinces, not Ottawa, that determine the appropriate path to reduce carbon emissions. The rest, (36%) say the federal government should have the power to implement its own plan if necessary.
Related update – I’d Like to Cover Climate Change, But It’s a ‘Ratings Killer.’
Entropy, Energy and Order in the Universe
It is easy to get caught up in discussions over what types of energy we should use, and how we should use it. The problem with such discussions is that they gloss over some of the fundamental concepts of physics that should be the real drivers of our decision making process.
A great read, for the technically minded.
Blowout 238
An eclectic mix of energy and climate news studies from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.
Moving on we have more OPEC; record US oil & gas production; Gazprom’s next giant gas field; coal in Australia, the US, South Africa and India; nuclear in India, China, the US, Ghana, Niger and Bangladesh; falling global investment in renewables: California’s emissions down; looming EU energy efficiency fines; the ongoing UK wind drought; volcanic activity melts the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and Svalbard was 6°C warmer 10,000 years ago.
Desperately seeking truth part 3
Man has learned how to harness energy slaves. 23.5 g of oil contains the energy output of a man or woman working at 35 W output for 8 hours. That works out as 1.7 C a day when oil was priced at $100 / bbl. Is that all we are worth?
Desperately seeking truth part 2
Blowout 237
A review of global energy and climate news stories compiled by Roger Andrews:
….the US’s growing coal exports; Snowy hydro reservoirs at low levels; Ontario cans renewables projects, North Carolina rejects wind farms; post-Brexit power cuts in Northern Ireland; ….
Desperately seeking truth part 1
Much of the energy debate at present is based around the risks associated with energy procurement systems; emissions from burning fossil fuels (FF) and radiation hazards linked to nuclear power. New renewables (wind, solar and wave power) are presented as a risk free alternative to FF and nuclear. However, what is systematically overlooked by renewables advocates are the risks associated for individuals or for society not having access to affordable energy when it is needed.