California Bows to Energy Reality. Reposted from The Pipline.org Clarice Feldman • 03 Sep, 2020 Last week I described the dilemma facing the California State Water Resources Control Board. It could demand adherence to the schedule for closing coastal gas plants which use sea water by the end of this year. If they did so, they would compound California’s energy crisis; if not, the board would have to face the fact that renewable energy was insufficient for the State’s needs and acknowledge that it needed these fossil fuel plants to continue operating or the state would face further blackouts.
Today it acknowledged reality, as the Los Angles Times reports. The board allowed the plants to remain in operation for a few more years until — they hope — chimerical renewable energy can pick up the load: Maybe it won’t ever get hot again in California. Thirty years later we can see the effects of the pipeline on the caribous. Like this: Like Loading... Related California's future energy pipe dream.
The 100-year Oil Spill and Other Imaginary Tales of Conflation. Guest geology by David Middleton One of the coolest things about writing posts for WUWT is the fact that, quite often, a ridiculous comment will form the nucleus of a subsequent post… Why the Oil Industry Cannot Afford to Retire… Yet! Published on September 11, 2017Greg RogersAccounting for Climate ChangeThis is the first in a two-part series on the emerging climate-related financial risk of unfunded oil and gas asset retirement obligations.The oil industry may be nearing retirement sooner than expected.
As reported by Bloomberg, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that by 2040 efficiency improvements could eliminate the need for about 11.6 million barrels of oil demand a day. Since Greg, the climate accountant, doesn’t know Jack Schist about reality, he assumes that demand will drop, prices will crater and companies will be forced to shut in producing assets, without the ability cover abandonment and retirement obligations (ARO), because climate change.
The 100-yr Oil Spill. On the Energy Innumeracy of the supporters of Canada’s Green New Deal | A Chemist in Langley. In the last week a group of Canadian activists have decided to mimic their American cousins by trying to advance a Canadian pact for a Green New Deal (GND Can hereafter). This is not the American Green New Deal you might have heard about, it is entirely Canadian project, and like the Leap Manifesto (its political cousin) the GND Can represents a sort of aspirational thinking best relegated to fairy tales and not worthy of consideration in serious climate change discussions. I’m sure a lot of people reading this post will think that I am being a bit unkind by describing the GND Can as a grand delusion, but as I intend to show in this blog post, it is clear that the people who created this project are innumerate when it comes to energy policy.
The demands being forwarded are so ridiculous that it is unclear how any informed individual/organization could sign on to this deal. The Pact for a Green New Deal rests on two fundamental principles:a. Now for the electricity sector. Like this: More New England Natural Gas Pipelines Needed, But Unlikely. New England continues to struggle with barely-adequate electric reliability, especially during the region’s winter cold spells.
This is due in large part to the retirements of coal-fired generation across the region over the last decade. Natural gas-fired generation has taken up much of the slack, but the limiting factor is pipeline capacity into the region. The solution is simple enough—build more pipeline capacity from Pennsylvania’s abundant natural gas fields to New England—but at least one expert has given up hope that additional pipeline capacity will ever be built. Gordon Van Welie, President and CEO of ISO New England (which operates the region’s wholesale electricity markets), has for several years made Paul Revere-like warnings of this impending threat to New England, but unlike Revere his warnings have been ignored by the citizenry.
Despite renewables mandate more than 80% of California energy needs met using fossil fuels. Guest essay by Larry Hamlin California Governor Brown signed Executive Order B-55-18 last year further modifying the states reduced carbon energy targets by mandating a year 2045 goal where the state’s energy use must achieve zero emission capability and be carbon neutral. This order represents a significant escalation from California’s initial climate program in 2006 where AB 32 was passed with that law requiring the state to achieve year 1990 emission levels by year 2020. AB 32 was implemented through mandating use of increased renewable energy, implementing a state carbon tax and providing numerous subsidies promoting renewable projects. Since its inception the state’s carbon tax has been budgeted to provide nearly $17 billion in proceeds from California energy users. California’s renewable portfolio standard requires that retail electricity sales be provided 33% through renewable energy resources by year 2020 and 50% through renewable energy resources by year 2050.
Like this: In "Russia" Common Fantasy: “Red States Are Dumping Coal for Solar” Guest bubble bursting by David Middleton Juan Cole of Common Dreams (a socialist rage) is always good for a laugh. Monday, July 22, 2019It’s Just Good Business: Even Red States Are Dumping Coal for Solarby Juan Cole Arizona, despite being GOP-dominated, is number 3 in the US for residential solar power production. In the first quarter of 2019 alone, Arizona homeowners put in 52.83 megawatts of new solar installations. As for industrial-scale solar, Arizona utility APS generates 1.4 gigawatts worth of solar power, equivalent to a small nuclear plant. APS’s rival TEP is planning residential solar installations in 90,000 Arizona homes. [Orange man bad, blah, blah, blah]Common Fantasies Solar power works better in Arizona than just about anywhere else in America.
All five members of Georgia’s Public Service Commission are Republicans, and they just decided to double their order for new solar… power and to close a coal plant Common Fantasies Solar production in Texas is effectively… Like this: No More Cooking With Gas: Environmental Activists Going After the Appliances Consumers Love. From Western Wire by Erin Mundahl October 18, 2019 Consumers are getting caught in the crossfire of environmental activists’ war against natural gas and the new battlefield is in the kitchen. Environmentalists began collaborating with state government officials from across the United States at a closed-door gathering in New York this summer to lay out the plans for policies that would prevent consumers from using natural gas to cook their food or heat their homes.
The conference included representatives from the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Energy Foundation, and the World Research Institute among others, according to open records recently obtained by free market group Energy Policy Advocates and reviewed by the Washington Times. It was hosted by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) at their Pocantico Center in Tarrytown, N.Y. where they paid for all logistical costs and emails show they also offered to cover the airfare of state government officials who needed financial assistance.