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Electricity

The Battle Over US Energy Policy and Its Consequences

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By Tilak Doshi – Re3-Blogged From WUWT

With the US presidential elections less than 90 days away, US energy policy – which includes government regulations dealing with climate change – has emerged as one of the core issues. This is not only because the Democratic Party, in seeking to unseat incumbent President Trump, has itself elevated energy and climate change policies to its highest priority. Energy is the lifeblood of the modern economy – the “master resource” that affects the production and use of all other resources – and hence US energy policy will affect the livelihood of all Americans. And as the US has emerged as the world’s leading oil and gas producer over the past decade, the energy and climate policies adopted by the next US administration will also profoundly influence global economic and geopolitical affairs.

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Do We Have to Destroy the Earth to Save It?

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By Michael Shellenberger

Do wind turbines and solar farms hold the keys to saving the environment? Michael Shellenberger, founder of Environmental Progress and noted climate activist, used to think so. Now he’s not so sure. He explains why in this important video.

Please watch the VIDEO

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About Those ‘Green Energy’ Unicorns…

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By Michael Walsh – Re-Blogged From WUWT

You think those baby unicorns grow on trees? Better think again. “Green” energy, in fact, comes with a very high price tag. as this report from the Manhattan Institute makes clear:

As policymakers have shifted focus from pandemic challenges to economic recovery, infrastructure plans are once more being actively discussed, including those relating to energy. Green energy advocates are doubling down on pressure to continue, or even increase, the use of wind, solar power, and electric cars. Left out of the discussion is any serious consideration of the broad environmental and supply-chain implications of renewable energy.

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Solar Plant That Was Obsolete Before Ever Going Online

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By CHRIS WHITE – Re-Blogged From WUWT

The Department of Energy reached a settlement Thursday to recover $200 million in taxpayer funds from a loan the Obama administration distributed in 2011 to finance a $1 billion solar power plant that was deemed obsolete before it could officially go online.

The settlement between DOE and Tonopah Solar Energy must now be approved by a bankruptcy court, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.

The DOE provided a $737 million loan to Tonopah in September 2011 for the purposes of financing the $1.1 billion Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project in Nevada. The agency disbursed funds for the plant in 2011 and 2013 before the project experienced problems requiring improvements, rendering the Crescent Dunes obsolete by 2015, Bloomberg reported in January.

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New Ontario Power Record: 895 days of Reliable, Uninterrupted 24×7 Zero Carbon Nuclear Power

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By Eric Worrall – Re-Blogged From WUWT

h/t Crispin in Waterloo; As renewable operators make endless excuses for their failures, nuclear plant operators continue to set new records for producing utterly reliable, zero carbon energy.

Candu unit sets North American operating record

Darlington unit 1 has set a new Canadian and North American nuclear record with 895 consecutive days of unbroken operation. Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) Candu reactor has now been online since 26 January 2018 without needing to be taken out of service for maintenance or repair.

Ontario Power Candu Reactor
Ontario Power Generation (OPG) Candu Reactor. Source CANDU Owners Group

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Democrats Climate Policy Follows Germany’s Failed Plan

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By Ronald Stein – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Ambassador for Energy & Infrastructure, Irvine, California

Higher energy costs for Americans are eminent along with worldwide ecological degradation and human right abuses from mining for wind, solar, and EV materials

The social changes with COVID-19 may have been prelude to life with less fossil fuels. With COVID-19 we have seen extensive self-imposed social adjustments to transportation that are very similar to what will be required to live with less fossil fuels in the future, i.e., with virtually no airlines, cruise ships, or automobiles.

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Excess Costs of Weather Dependent Renewable

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By edmdotme – Re-Blogged From WUWT

These straightforward calculations are intended to answer the simple question:

“roughly how much would it cost to generate the same amount of power as is produced by the present fleet of EU(28) Weather Dependent Renewables, using conventional generation technologies, (Nuclear or Gas-firing) ? and how do those figures compare ?”.

Accordingly the post quantifies the scale of the fiscal waste and the burdens on utility bills attributable to the use of EU(28) Weather Dependent Renewables as installed at the end of 2019.  It combines the comparative costs of generation technologies, published by the US Energy Information Administration in 2020 with information on the Nameplate rating of installed EU(28) Weather Dependent Renewable installations and their actual productive power output as of 2019.  This data on Renewables performance at end 2019 is accessed from EurObserv’ER.

Screenshot 2020-07-07 at 13.36.26.png

Summary

Screenshot 2020-07-06 at 10.13.35.png

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GWPF Launches “Energy For Africa” Week

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Re-Blogged From GWPF

Today the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) is launching its Energy Justice project, seeking to highlight how reliable energy access is central to the problems of people and businesses in the developing world, and showing how it must be central to any attempts to change things for the better.

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Extinction Rebellion Communication Head Quits After Researching Nuclear Power

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By Eric Worrall – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Zion Lights, who featured in WUWT last October when BBC Andrew Neil shredded her defence of Extinction Rebellion on national TV, has quit Extinction Rebellion and defected to the pro-nuclear Environmental Progress group.

Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman Zion Lights quits green movement to become lobbyist for nuclear power saying: ‘I changed my mind’

  • Zion, 36, dramatically quit the group to join pro-nuclear Environmental Progress
  • Miss Lights said she felt she had been duped by anti-nuke activists around her
  • Now she believes the energy source is the future to save the planet
  • She became worried about the environment after seeing an advert as a child
Extinction Rebellion Zion Lights
Extinction Rebellion’s Zion Lights

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Australian Climate Policy Changes

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By Eric Worrall – Re-Blogged From WUWT

h/t JoNova – as Aussie greens panic about expiring climate policy targets, an effort by Australia’s opposition politicians to appease angry coal union supporters by offering to include a place for coal in a future bipartisan climate deal has upset radical greens.

Labor offers to deal with terrorists in climate wars

In offering bipartisanship on energy, Labor is offering to do a deal with the ‘terrorists’ who have thwarted all forms of climate action for years.

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NSW Government Offers Subsidised Infrastructure for Renewable Energy, Overwhelming Response

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By Eric Worrall – Re-Blogged From WUWT

The NSW government has offered support in the form of improved grid infrastructure and streamlined approvals for new wind farm projects in designated renewable energy zones.

Government renewable energy investment program swamped by support

Plans to open up the Central West of NSW to more renewable energy have generated overwhelming investor interest – topping $38 billion, or nine times the government’s available capacity.

The government program is designed to attract investors to build 3000 megawatts of new wind and solar farms worth an estimated $4.4 billion in the state’s first renewable energy zone around Dubbo, but has instead drawn proposals for 27,000MW in so-called 113 registrations of interest, the Berejiklian government said.

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Wind Energy in Scotland

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By David Redfern – Re-Blogged From WUWT

I was invited by Charles the Moderator to write an essay with the emphasis on Scottish wind derived electricity.

I’m not a scientist, nor an engineer, in fact barely educated beyond high school, so, whilst you won’t get ‘shorthand’ scientific terms here, you will get something laymen can grasp, hopefully.

And that’s important as, whilst there are a small number of scientists/engineers etc. in the world, the majority of voters are like me, just plain old laymen and the subject of climate change is now political so every voter is vital.

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Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #412

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By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project

Re-Blogged From WUWT

Quote of the Week: “I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain … In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.” – Richard Feynman

Number of the Week: 11,000 & 1,600

Dynamics in the Tropics: In 2017, Judith Curry retired from her tenured position as a professor at the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she had been Chair of the department, to focus on her private firm, Climate Forecasts Applications, citing the “craziness” of the field of climate science and the great politization of research funding. She has long recognized that there are major problems in the field, particularly in the dynamics of the atmosphere and the oceans in the tropics. As a climate modeler, she has first-hand knowledge of these problems, yet to be solved.

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Welcome to Renewable Energy Australia, Where Businesses are Paid to Shut Down

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By Eric Worrall – Re-Blogged From WUWT

h/t JoNova – Australia’s increasingly precarious green energy grid is forcing curbs on economic activity, with plans to pay energy intensive businesses to shut down during periods of high demand, to minimise the political risk of voters noticing what a mess their electricity supply is.

Electricity users will get paid to cut energy use under historic new market reform

By Stephen Long Posted Yesterday, updated Yesterday

Electricity consumers will be paid for reducing their power demands under a radical change to the market that will be introduced next year.

Key points:

  • ‘Wholesale demand response’ will come into effect in October 2021, allowing large electricity users to be paid for reducing demand
  • Big energy generators and retailers had wanted to delay the change, citing the COVID-19 crisis
  • Some advocacy groups want to extend the scheme to households and small businesses

The historic rule change announced on Thursday will allow what’s known as “wholesale demand response” — where the wholesale market can pay users for cutting electricity consumption, rather than paying electricity generators to increase supply, when the system is under strain.

The shift, which will begin in October 2021, has been adopted by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) despite opposition from big energy generators and retailers, who were using the COVID-19 crisis to pressure for delaying the rule changes.

The commission has described the change as “an important reform to the NEM (National Electricity Market)”.

It argues it will reduce electricity prices for consumers and improve reliability on the network, by allowing demand response to compete with “peaking” electricity generators that typically receive very high prices for supplying additional electricity during times of heavy demand.

…

The rule changes are a major victory for a coalition of community and environment groups that fought for the shift to demand response — the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, the Australia Institute and the Total Environment Centre.

…

“Big energy users like factories and farms will be able to earn money by saving energy during heatwaves and at other times when electricity prices are high,” the Australia Institute’s energy lead Dan Cass said.

…

Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-11/customers-paid-for-reducing-electricity-demand-radical-change/12343790

Earning money for shutting down factories and farms and not producing anything – what could possibly go wrong?

The goal of going full renewable is impractical, maybe impossible. A study in 2019 identified the cost of going renewable is an expansion of mining and industry, with increases in industrial activity around 35 – 105% (and in the case of lithium an eyewatering 2700%) just to satisfy existing energy needs.

When you add in the need to increase energy to supply all that additional mining and industry, the upper end of that estimate is likely a runaway equation, in which renewable infrastructure can never catch up with the energy demands of new industry and mining required to build and maintain renewable infrastructure – especially if everything has to shut down and stop producing whenever weather conditions are unfavourable.

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Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #411

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By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project

Re-Blogged From WUWT

Quote of the Week: “It is in the admission of ignorance and the admission of uncertainty that there is a hope for the continuous motion of human beings in some direction that doesn’t get confined, permanently blocked, as it has so many times before in various periods in the history of man.” – Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

Number of the Week: 10% loss

An Inverse? Traditionally in Washington, Fridays are a slow news day and during June reporters, and others, would be leaving early for the beach or for other activities. During the Obama Administration, regulatory agencies often would announce expanded regulations on Fridays giving time over the weekend to assess the response.

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The Green New Deal Dress Rehearsal

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By Paul Driessen – Re-Blogged From WUWT

The Covid-19 lockdown as a blueprint for a permanent economic shutdown to ‘save the Earth’

More than 1.4 million cases of Wuhan Coronavirus and 106,000 deaths in the United States alone have accompanied stay-home lockdowns, businesses bankruptcies, over 40 million unemployed workers, plummeting tax revenues and unprecedented debt. Ongoing rioting, vandalism, arson and looting are compounding problems for many cities and minority communities.

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Aussie Federal Senator Defends Call to Leave the Paris Agreement

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By Eric Worrall – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Senator Matt Canavan just ripped into false claims about the international gas market on the ABC Q+A current affairs programme. But Canavan’s call for sanity is largely lost in the wilderness of Australia’s growing energy policy confusion.

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Destroying the Environment to Save It

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By Paul Driessen – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Pseudo-green energy will wreak devastation, pretending to prevent exaggerated climate harm

“We had to destroy the village in order to save it.” The infamous Vietnam era quotation may or may not have been uttered by an anonymous US Army major. It may have been misquoted, revised, apocryphal or invented. But it quickly morphed into an anti-war mantra that reflected attitudes of the time.

For Virginians and others forced to travel the path of “clean, green, renewable, sustainable” energy, it will redound in modern politics as “We had to destroy the environment in order to save it.”

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Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #410

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By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project

Re-Blogged From WUWT

Quote of the Week: “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” – Voltaire

Number of the Week: 25 to 100 times greater

Disruptive Wind: The electrical grid operators provide reliable electricity with narrow tolerances. Generally, grid operators plan that power sources can be shut down for maintenance, usually in the spring and the fall. To keep costs down, grid operators desire to have maximum operating capacity in the summer (cooling) and in the winter (heating). According to the EIA’s description of electricity generating capacity:

To ensure a steady supply of electricity to consumers, operators of the electric power system, or grid, call on electric power plants to produce and place the right amount of electricity on the grid at every moment to instantaneously meet and balance electricity demand.

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The Looming Failure of Wind Energy

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By Mike O’Ceirin – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Summary

This is not about “Climate Change.” It addresses the issue of whether wind as implemented is an effective replacement for fossil driven power stations. This is about Australia where we are according to the mainstream media in a transition to renewable energy even though after many years, we are far from it. We are closing coal-fired power stations, but the expansion of renewable energy is slow. We are approaching a crisis point. The reality of the Australian situation can be applied worldwide, and this report draws on data and nothing else. This

There are many offhand comments that we should just replace fossil as a source of electricity with renewables. What is the detail and how successful has it been? That is exceedingly difficult information to come by. This so-called transition started in 2000 with the implementation of the Renewable Energy Target.

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Solar Panel-Like Device Generates Power From Darkness

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By Dan Robitzski – Re-Blogged From Futurism

Dark Energy

A strange new device — think of it as a Bizarro World version of solar panels — is capable of generating electricity from darkness.

The gadget, dubbed a “shadow-effect energy generator,” is a solar cell-like material that generates an electrical current when part of it is in the light and the other part isn’t, Science News reports. While the electric current from the proof-of-concept generators is weak for now, it hints at a future in which clean energy generation becomes far more ubiquitous and commonplace.

Closed Spaces

When only part of the generator is illuminated, electrons flow across a gold coating from light to dark areas. Capturing that flow, according to research published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science, generates power twice as effectively as conventional solar cells blanketed by shade.

“We can harvest energy anywhere on Earth, not just open spaces,” National University of Singapore materials scientist Swee Ching Tan told Science News.

First Steps

While these generators can’t solve the energy crisis yet, Science News suggested that it could be used to power wearables like smart watches, which can’t depend on steady or full sunlight.

“A lot of people think that shadows are useless,” Tan told Science News. “Anything can be useful, even shadows.”

READ MORE: A new device can produce electricity using shadows [Science News]

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Scott W. Tinker vs Energy Poverty

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By David Middleton – Re-Blogged From WUWT

New Documentary “Switch On” Combats Energy Poverty

For much of the past two years, Bureau of Economic Geology Director Scott W. Tinker has been traveling the world to film a crucial documentary that illustrates the crisis of energy poverty. Some 2.5 billion people live in some form of energy poverty today. Access to secure energy impacts all other major humanitarian issues, including hunger, shelter, clean water, education, healthcare, human migration, empowerment of women, and more. Those who do not have energy access suffer from energy poverty.

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On The New Gemini Solar Power Plant Near Las Vegas

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By Arvid Pasto – Re-Blogged From WUWT

In the May 12th edition of the Reno Gazette-Journal (RGJ), there appeared a description of a newly-approved (by the U.S. Government) solar power facility, near Las Vegas, called Gemini. This would place it not very far from the recently-defunct solar power facility known as Crescent Dunes. The new facility is quite different in operation from Crescent Dunes, relying on huge photovoltaic cells to capture sunlight and turn it into electricity, with backup power batteries to store the electricity for use when the sun isn’t shining. In Crescent Dunes, huge mirrors were focused into a tank of molten salt atop a high tower. The heated salt was pumped down and through a turbine to extract electric power.

The RGJ article (https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/05/12/biggest-us-solar-project-approved-nevada-despite-critics/3120319001/ ) describes the proposed and newly-approved facility: “The $1 billion Gemini solar and battery storage project about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Las Vegas is expected to produce 690 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 260,000 households — and annually offset greenhouse emissions of about 83,000 cars.

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Mexico’s President Is Betting Big Against Renewables

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By Irina Slav Re-Blogged From Oilprice.com

It sounds like a news report out of yet another dystopian novel: Mexico is halting grid connection for new solar and wind power projects. In a world rushing to produce clean energy, Mexico has suddenly stood out like a sore thumb. But, as usual, there’s more to the story.

The country’s National Energy Control Center, or Cenace, announced it would suspend grid connections of new solar and wind farms until further notice earlier this week. The motivation behind the decision was the intermittency of solar and wind power generation, which, according to the state-owned power market operator, could compromise Mexico’s energy security in difficult times.

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A Miraculous Turn of Events

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By Paul Driessen – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Michael Moore and Driessen agree! Wind, solar and biofuel energy are devastating Planet Earth

Never in my wildest dreams did I envision a day when I’d agree with anything filmmaker Michael Moore said – much less that he would agree with me. But mirabile dictu, his new film, Planet of the Humans, is as devastating an indictment of wind, solar and biofuel energy as anything I have ever written.

The documentary reflects Moore’s willingness to reexamine environmentalist doctrine. It’s soon obvious why more rabid greens tried to have the “dangerous film” banned. Indeed, Films for Action initially caved to the pressure and took Planet off its website, but then put it back up. The film is also on YouTube.

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Rev. Jesse Jackson Bucks Environmentalists, Pushes Natural Gas Pipeline As Black Neighborhoods Struggle With Sky High Energy Prices

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By Chris White, The Daily Caller – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Rev. Jesse Jackson is bucking many of the environmentalists who believe natural gas production perpetuates a world in which climate change is disproportionately hurting black communities.

Jackson is prodding local, state and federal officials in Illinois to okay the construction of a $8.2 million, 30-mile natural-gas pipeline built for a community, Axios noted in a report Monday addressing the reverend’s contrarian position.

The Pembroke, Illinois pipeline would shuttle natural gas into an area of the state that suffers from high energy prices, according to Jackson.

The Great Geomagnetic Storm of May 1921

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By Dr.Tony Phillips – Re-Blogged From Space Weather

May 12, 2020: 99 years ago this week, people around the world woke up to some unusual headlines.

“Telegraph Service Prostrated, Comet Not to Blame” — declared the Los Angeles Times on May 15, 1921. “Electrical Disturbance is ‘Worst Ever Known’” — reported the Chicago Daily Tribune. “Sunspot credited with Rail Tie-up” — deadpanned the New York Times.

newspapers2

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Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #408

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The Week That Was, May 2, 2020, Brought to You by www.SEPP.org,

By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project

Quote of the Week: “In God we trust, all others bring data” – Motto of Apollo Team

Number of the Week: 1899, 2000, 1876, 1965, and 1918

Harold ‘Hal” Doiron, RIP: Apollo scientist Hal Doiron died in his sleep on the morning of April 28 from cancer. During his professional career, Doiron exhibited the best of a modern scientist – using the scientific method to create simulations of that could not be directly experienced or demonstrated by experiments. With a fresh Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, from The University of Louisiana-Lafayette, in 1963 Doiron joined the NASA team developing the Apollo Lunar lander. He helped develop the software for simulating the landing to aid in landing gear design, to avoid toppling and to absorb the energy that would occur on landing. Later, Doiron received his Masters and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Houston.

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Scientists Create Jet Engine Powered by Only Electricity

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By Dan Robitzsk – Re-Blogged From Futurism

Clean Air

A prototype jet engine can propel itself without using any fossil fuels, potentially paving the way for carbon-neutral air travel.

The device compresses air and ionizes it with microwaves, generating plasma that thrusts it forward, according to research published Tuesday in the journal AIP Advances. That means planes may someday fly using just electricity and the air around them as fuel.

Scaling Up

There’s a long way to go between a proof-of-concept prototype and installing an engine in a real plane. But the prototype was able to launch a one-kilogram steel ball 24 millimeters into the air. That’s the same thrust, proportional to scale, as a conventional jet engine.

“Our results demonstrated that such a jet engine based on microwave air plasma can be a potentially viable alternative to the conventional fossil fuel jet engine,” lead researcher and Wuhan University engineer Jau Tang said in a press release.

Air Jet

Air travel represents a small but not insignificant portion factor of climate change. The New York Times reported in September that commercial air is responsible for 2.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions — though that excludes military jets.

“The motivation of our work is to help solve the global warming problems owing to humans’ use of fossil fuel combustion engines to power machinery, such as cars and airplanes,” Tang said in the release. “There is no need for fossil fuel with our design, and therefore, there is no carbon emission to cause greenhouse effects and global warming.”

READ MORE: Fossil fuel-free jet propulsion with air plasmas [American Institute of Physics]

More on jet propulsion: Get Ready For Low-Cost Jet Engines That Reach Space Without Burning Fossil Fuels

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Australian Energy Security on the Brink

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By Rafe Champion – Re-Blogged From WUWT

The Australian electric power supply is on the edge of a cliff because one more substantial coal-fired power station is scheduled to close in 2023. Then for the first time we will need  input from the wind at the evening peak, certainly in very hot and cold weather. If this input is not available there will be blackouts of greater or lesser extent.

The bottom line of this argument is that RE cannot replace conventional power in Australia because at the lowest level of supply of sun and wind they deliver no power. That is the choke point for the grid, like the point where the air supply to our lungs is cut off by choking or drowning. To keep the lights on there must be enough conventional power available to meet 100% of the demand, 24 hours a day/365 days a year.

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Low Electricity Demand and System Balancing Problems during The UK’s Coronavirus Lockdown

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By Dr John Constable – Re-Blogged From GWPF

The restrictions on economic and personal activity imposed to address the spread of the coronavirus are reducing electricity demand in the UK to unusually low levels, increasing the difficulties of operating the system, particularly in the presence of embedded solar and wind generation.

As a result of the restrictions on economic activity and personal movement, designed to reduce the rate of transmission of Covid-19, there are striking anomalies in the British electricity markets. The following chart, drawn by the author from BM Reports data, shows daily electrical energy (GWh) transmitted over the network, and gives evidence of a substantial fall in electricity consumption. Domestic consumption may be rising as a result of the Stay at Home policy, but it is nowhere near offsetting the fall in industrial and commercial consumption.

Figure 1: Daily electrical energy (GWh) transmitted over the British electricity network, from 1st of January to 23rd April 2020 (red line), compared to the historical norm (grey line). Source: Chart by the author, data from BM Reports.

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Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #407

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The Week That Was: April 25, 2020

Brought to You by www.SEPP.org

Quote of the Week: “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt – First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1933)

Number of the Week: 3, 4, & 5

Politics Not Science: The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) published a report by Patrick Michaels and Kevin Dayaratna discussing the critical thinking, or lack thereof, that went into the 2009 EPA finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare – the Endangerment Finding. The finding is largely based on the first and second US national climate assessments produced by what is now called the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). According to its web site, the legal mandate of the USGCRP is:

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Carbon Pricing is a Practical Dead End

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By Roger Caiazza – Re-Bloogged From WUWT

According to Resources for the Future, carbon pricing is a climate policy approach that works by charging industrial sources  for the tons of emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) they emit. I have been following this for quite a while and think that despite the attractiveness of the theory there are practical reasons why it will not work as advertised.

I am prompted to prepare this summary of my concerns because a coalition has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to hold a technical conference or workshop on carbon pricing.  In my opinion this coalition consists of vested interests that do not consider the effect on ratepayers.

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Climate Change – Ebb and Flow of the Tide – Part 3 of 3

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By Kelvin Kemm – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Dr Kemm’s complete essay containing all three parts may be found here.

The Pause Century

40. There has been essentially no global warming during the 21st Century. This reality has been called ‘The Pause’ by some, who claim that the real rise in temperature is actually going on, but that for some unexplained reason, has paused for a while.

There is debate about the ‘Pause,’ with some saying that there were gaps in data; the variations are too small to be statistically significant; etc. If this is so, how come climate change enthusiasts have been so utterly certain of their position and their figures for the past 20 years plus.

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Claim: “Bath Sponge” Metal Organic Material Makes Climate Friendly Hydrogen Automobiles Viable

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By Eric Worrall – Re-Blogged From WUWT

The BBC reports a new highly porous metal organic sponge can hold large volumes of hydrogen at low pressure. But there are still a few issues to solve, like where to get all the hydrogen.

Climate change: ‘Bath sponge’ breakthrough could boost cleaner cars

By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent

A new material developed, by scientists could give a significant boost to a new generation of hydrogen-powered cars.

Hindenburg Hydrogen Explosion Disaster
Last time someone tried to create a Hydrogen economy – the Hindenburg Hydrogen Explosion Disaster – By Gus Pasquerella – http://www.lakehurst.navy.mil/nlweb/images/1213d.gif, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=632191

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How the Green New Deal’s Renewable Energy Mining Would Harm Humans and the Environment

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By Paul Driessen – Re-Blogged From Heartland Institute

As this paper shows, expanding mining on the scale needed to meet the renewable energy requirements contained in the Green New Deal and other proposed renewable energy mandates would cause unimaginable harm to the environment, wildlife, and humans.

Executive Summary

The Green New Deal (GND)—promoted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and several other prominent elected officials—aims to replace all fossil fuels and nuclear energy with so-called “renewable” energy sources, primarily wind and solar.

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Green New Deal Goes Viral, and Fails

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By Gregory Wrightstone – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Proponents of the Green New Deal (GND) tell us that increasing human carbon dioxide emissions are fueling a dangerous rise in worldwide temperature. This temperature rise is then linked to a laundry list of climate-related catastrophes like droughts, floods and fires that are ongoing and only going to get worse unless drastic measures are taken.

Their solution? Force consumers and industries away from the consumption of the fossil fuels and toward carbon-free energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal. Glaringly missing from most of these green proposals is an embrace of the only non-fossil fuels that could provide abundant and reliable energy – nuclear and hydro-electric projects (but that is a story for a different day).

A broken down wind turbine has a massive birds nest built into the top.

Reposted with permission from Bizpacreview

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Civil Rights Leaders Rail Against Enviro Activists, Say Natural Gas Benefits Black Communities

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Chris White – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Civil rights leaders are criticizing a common talking point among environmentalist activists who say hydraulic fracking disproportionately hurts black people and other minority communities.

Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and National Urban League president Marc Morial said they oppose an abrupt move away from fracking, according to an Axios report Monday. They said the technique for producing natural gas helps black people who struggle with high energy prices.

Morial was particularly rough on activists who said their anti-fracking position is tie in with social justice matters.

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Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #405

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The Week That Was: April 4, 2020, Brought to You by www.SEPP.org

By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project

Quote of the Week: “If I set forth a concrete proposal in all its particulars, I expose myself to a hundred criticisms on points not essential to the principle of the plan. If I go further in the use of figures for illustration, I am involved more and more in guesswork; and I run the risk of getting the reader bogged in details which may be inaccurate and could certainly be amended without injury to the main fabric.

“Yet if I restrict myself to generalities, I don’t give the reader enough to bite on; and am in fact shirking the issue, since the size, the order of magnitude, of the factors involved isn’t an irrelevant detail.”. – John Maynard Keynes [H/t Kenneth Button in WSJ]

Number of the Week: 20% Loss

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Conservatives Are the Real Environmentalists

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By Michael Knowles
[Fracking frequently is used following horizontal drilling, but they are two separate concepts.  –Bob]

Environmentalists are certain conservatives don’t care about clean air and clean water; that they’re happy to trade the planet for profit. Is it true? Do conservatives really care more about green pockets than green forests? Michael Knowles offers a much-needed new perspective.

Please watch the VIDEO

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CNN Touts the Climate Benefits of Chinese Coronavirus

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By Eric Worrall – Re-Blogged From WUWT

The climate alarmist community is repeatedly praising the alleged “benefits” of the deadly Covid-19 outbreak.

There’s an unlikely beneficiary of coronavirus: The planet

By Rebecca Wright, CNN
Updated 1005 GMT (1805 HKT) March 17, 2020

Hong Kong (CNN)Factories were shuttered and streets were cleared across China’s Hubei province as authorities ordered residents to stay home to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

It seems the lockdown had an unintended benefit — blue skies.

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Social Changes With COVID-19 are a Prelude to Life With Less Fossil Fuels

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By Ronald Stein – Re-Blogged From WUWT

While the world is feverously trying to reduce emissions from fossil fuel usage, we get hit with the horrific contagious Coronavirus COVID-19. We’ve seen extensive self-imposed social adjustments to transportation that are very similar to what will be required to live with less fossil fuels in the future.

We’ve seen a serious reduction in the usage of the transportation infrastructures of airlines and cruise ships, as well as automobiles and trucks, and their impact on the leisure and entertainment industries, all to avoid crowds.

Before fossil fuels and the thousands of products made from petroleum derivatives, and electricity that followed, the world was a zero-sum snake pit that was a war against one another scrounging for food, water, and shelter. In the 1800’s most people never traveled 100-200 miles from where they were born. Life expectancy throughout Europe hovered between 20 and 30 years of age.

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Virginia Passes Bill to Achieve 100% Carbon-Free Power by 2045

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Re-Blogged From Reuters

The Virginia Legislature passed a bill on Friday that puts the state on a path to 100% clean energy by 2045 as part of the commonwealth’s effort to reduce its impact on climate change.

Virginia Senate Bill 851 requires the state to get all its electricity from carbon free sources like renewables and nuclear. It still requires a signature from the governor, who has advanced a similar plan through executive order.

The legislation would also allow fossil plants to operate if they install carbon capture and storage technologies.

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The Unholy Crusade Against Gas Appliances

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By Duggan Flanakin – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Eco darling natural gas gives way to wind, solar and battery electricity – and slave labor

When Berkeley, California last year became the first U.S. city to ban the installation of natural gas lines to new homes, Mayor Jesse Arreguín proudly stated, “We are committed to the Paris Agreement and must take immediate action in order to reach our climate action goals. It’s not radical. It’s necessary.”

Phasing out natural gas-fired electric power generation by 2030 is bedrock dogma in the Green New Deal. In fact, it’s become an unholy crusade. So it should be no surprise that climate alarmists would jump at the chance to ban new natural gas lines. Many other cities in California have already followed Berkeley’s lead, as has Bellingham, Washington. More gas bans are in the offing nationwide. Connecticut lawmakers actually want a law that would pressure insurers to stop insuring homes that have gas appliances or heating systems!!

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Studies Show Fracking Ban Would Wreak Havoc on U.S. Economy

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By Tim Benson – Re-Blogged From WUWT

A new study from the American Petroleum Institute (API), with modeling data provided by the consulting firm OnLocation, details how a nationwide ban on hydraulic fracturing (colloquially known as “fracking”) could trigger a recession, would seriously damage U.S. economic and industrial output, considerably increase household energy costs, and make life much harder and costlier for American farmers.

In America’s Progress at Risk: An Economic Analysis of a Ban on Fracking and Federal Leasing for Natural Gas and Oil Development, API argues that a fracking ban would lead to a cumulative loss in gross domestic product (GDP) of $7.1 trillion by 2030, including $1.2 trillion in 2022 alone. Per capita GDP would also decline by $3,500 in 2022, with an annual average decline of $1,950 through 2030. Annual household income would also decline by $5,040.

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Report: Green New Deal Will Impose A $75,000 Per Year Cost On Swing-State Households

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Chris White The Daily Caller – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Americans in nearly a dozen swing states could expect to spend roughly $75,000 per year if the Green New Deal is ever implemented, according to a report Wednesday from a conservative nonprofit group.

The Green New Deal would cost households an average of between $74,287 and $76,683 in Colorado, Michigan and Pennsylvania, among others, a report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute noted. CEI worked with Power the Future and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on the report.

“Right now, our booming national economy and record low unemployment rate is driven by abundant, domestic, reliable, and inexpensive energy produced by millions of men and women across the country,” Daniel Turner, executive director of Power the Future, said in a statement.

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Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #411

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The Week That Was: February 29, 2020, Brought to You by www.SEPP.org

By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project

Quote of the Week: “If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.” – Benjamin Franklin

Number of the Week: $61,937

Green Dreams: Many political leaders and political factions have little or no understanding of the importance of reliable, predictable electricity to modern civilization and economic wellbeing. Without thoroughly demonstrated examples of success, a number of local and national governments have passed laws phasing out electricity generated by fossil fuels based on the belief that wind and solar can replace fossil fuels. This “green dream” may become a nightmare.

In the UK, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) has produced a set of studies estimating that removing fossil fuels from:

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Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #400

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The Week That Was: February 22, 2020, Brought to You by www.SEPP.org

By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project

Quote of the Week: “I never guess. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. [H/t Eric Wagner]

Number of the Week: £108.5 million (about $140 million) in 2018

The Scientific Method: There appears to be no clear, widely accepted definition of science or the scientific method. Professor of Applied Mathematics and philosopher Christopher Essex considers science to be an adventure. A long game of generations and part of the ascent of Man. Not just a fad invented in the 17th century. In an unpublished paper, “The Scientific Adventure,” he wrote for the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s 1905 discoveries, he stated:

“Others try to embrace it as a recipe. They say, to be scientific, do this, then do that, but not the other way around. They talk of the scientific method as if there is just one; as if scientific discovery were clean, orderly and uncontroversial, supervised by grizzled elders of authority. But the search for scientific discovery is anything but. It is messy, contentious, factional, but also wondrous, inspired, and above all serendipitous. It is human.”

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The Mad Rush To Electric Vehicles

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By Duggan Flanakin – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Tesla’s stock market value is already bigger than Ford and General Motors combined, says a report in Forbes magazine. Elon Musk’s company had already received nearly $5 billion in federal subsidies by 2015, helping him amass a net worth of $31 billion. Who says government cannot make anyone rich?

But hold on. An ascendant Bernie Sanders has called for a massive expansion of government-run electricity production. He claims to be no friend of billionaires and is running against multiple billionaires, including two Democrat candidates and 23 contributors to Mayor Pete’s campaign.

But he sure is helping the rich. Sanders and many other politicos have championed a multi-state effort to end the sale of vehicles with internal combustion (IC) engines. So have several European nations. Related goals include phasing out coal, oil and natural gas for heating, electric power generation and other uses.

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China and India Rejecting Renewables for Coal-Fired Futures

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clip_image001[4]   By Ronald Stein – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Founder and Ambassador for Energy & Infrastructure of PTS Advance, headquartered in Irvine, California

China and India are NOT buying into the global alarm movement. Never in human history have we seen two countries (China and India), each with over a billion people, in need of such gargantuan amounts of energy to keep their economies accelerating and their citizens alive.

China and India are the two most populous countries in the world. As of 2018, China had almost 1.4 billion people, a figure that is projected to grow to 1.5 billion by 2045. India accounted for approximately 1.3 billion people in 2018 and is expected to grow to almost 1.7 billion by 2045.

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