Prediction: Coal has fallen. Nuclear is next then Oil.

[mspohr]

Citing climate risks, California is denying fracking permits in droves

Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged the state would stop issuing new permits for fracking by 2024,...

www.sfchronicle.com

Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged the state would stop issuing new permits for fracking by 2024, but California has already begun to ban the controversial oil extraction method in practice by denying permits in droves with little fanfare.


Since July, the state has denied 109 permits to expand fracking. Many were rejected, in part, under a legal rationale the state hasn’t used before: that fracking could exacerbate the effects of climate change. State oil regulators, in their denial letters, argue it’s within their discretion to deny permits to protect the environment and public health, including through the “mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.”

 

[eevee-fan]

Now this is leverage!

The Magic Math of Solar Plus Storage - CleanTechnica

It turns out that the magic math of solar plus storage is a bit like the magic of pulling a rabbit out of a hat. There’s no magic. It’s just, and … spoiler alert …The rabbit is in the hat the whole time.It’s not really magic.And the additive benefits of solar plus storage are also not magic...

cleantechnica.com

 

[eevee-fan]

OK, now we are just 30 years away from commercialization. As with fossil fuel, I am still concerned with the waste heat that will end up in the environment. Remember that global worming consists of add heat and reduced heat loss.

Finally, a Fusion Reaction Has Generated More Energy Than Absorbed by The Fuel

A major milestone has been breached in the quest for fusion energy.

www.sciencealert.com

 

[ohmman]

global worming

Arrakis, here we come.

 

[mspohr]

Engineers see more delays, extra $1 billion for Georgia’s Plant Vogtle nuclear project

Monitors say even the most recent pushback of completion dates for two new nuclear reactors in Georgia isn’t enough to account for all the delays and increased costs they see coming.

www.wsbtv.com

 

[nwdiver]

With peak use usually during summer daylight hours, looks like more reason for local production, as in rooftop solar.

EIA: Major US utilities spending more on electricity delivery, less on power production - Today in Energy - US Energy Information Administration.
Major U.S. utilities spending more on electricity delivery, less on power production - Today in Energy - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

Tony Seba calls this 'God Parity'. When the cost of producing solar onsite is cheaper than the cost of transmission of free electricity.

 

[mspohr]

The Achilles’ Heel of Biden’s Climate Plan? Coal Miners. The Achilles’ Heel of Biden’s Climate Plan? Coal Miners.

Unfortunately for Mr. Biden, this skepticism has threatened to undermine his efforts on climate change. While there are fewer than 50,000 unionized coal miners in the country, compared with the millions of industrial and construction workers who belong to unions, miners have long punched above their weight thanks to their concentration in election battleground states like Pennsylvania or states with powerful senators, like Joe Manchin III of West Virginia.

 

[Big Earl]

With peak use usually during summer daylight hours, looks like more reason for local production, as in rooftop solar.

EIA: Major US utilities spending more on electricity delivery, less on power production - Today in Energy - US Energy Information Administration.
Major U.S. utilities spending more on electricity delivery, less on power production - Today in Energy - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

Is that chart adjusted for inflation? According to Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar's Value from 1913-2021, the cumulative rate of inflation from 2010 to 2020 is 18.7%, turning 3 cents into 3.56 cents, or just under half of the observed increase in distribution costs. Go out to 2021 and the change is 26.8%. If not adjusted for inflation, the total cost of power appears to be coming down, with the cost to generate coming down significantly.

 

[mspohr]

Is that chart adjusted for inflation? According to Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar's Value from 1913-2021, the cumulative rate of inflation from 2010 to 2020 is 18.7%, turning 3 cents into 3.56 cents, or just under half of the observed increase in distribution costs. Go out to 2021 and the change is 26.8%. If not adjusted for inflation, the total cost of power appears to be coming down, with the cost to generate coming down significantly.

It says 2020 dollars so both adjusted

 

[mspohr]

N.Y.C.’s Gas Ban Takes Fight Against Climate Change to the Kitchen N.Y.C.’s Gas Ban Takes Fight Against Climate Change to the Kitchen

Variations of gas bans have spread from liberal enclaves like Berkeley, Calif., and Brookline, Mass., to bigger cities, including San Jose, Calif., Seattle and Sacramento, as efforts to curb climate change increasingly take aim at the burning of gas as well as oil. What made the bill a harder sell in New York — where 40 percent of carbon emissions come from buildings — was winter.

Con Ed, along with proponents like the Urban Green Council, a nonprofit group that promotes sustainable building, argued in Council hearings that the city’s grid could handle the increase, partly because its biggest strains come in summer, from air conditioning. The shift to electric heating actually has the potential to reduce demand in summers, the groups’ analysts argued, because many builders are expected to turn to heat pumps, which are already common in Europe, and which both heat and cool spaces and use less energy than air-conditioners.

 

[mspohr]

Wall Street could crumble under the weight of a 'carbon bubble,' these groups warn

If Wall Street were a country, it would be the fifth-largest emitter of atmosphere-warming carbon emissions, between Russia and Indonesia, a new report says.

www.marketwatch.com

A study with a title warning of “Wall Street’s Carbon Bubble” by the Sierra Club and the left-leaning Center for American Progress released Tuesday shows that eight of the largest U.S. banks and 10 of the largest U.S. asset managers combined to finance an estimated 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions based on year-end disclosures from 2020. And the groups offer some policy suggestions ranging from stress testing to boosting deposit insurance tied to climate risks to toughening supervisory ratings, which financial services trade groups worry mix up short-term risks with longer-term risks.

 

[eevee-fan]

Texas pipeline company charged in California oil spill

A Los Angeles federal grand jury has charged a Texas oil company and two subsidiaries for an oil spill off the California coast in October.

apnews.com

 

[UkNorthampton]

Texas pipeline company charged in California oil spill

A Los Angeles federal grand jury has charged a Texas oil company and two subsidiaries for an oil spill off the California coast in October.

apnews.com

"failing to properly act when alarms repeatedly alerted workers to a pipeline rupture" - oh grief, probably pretty typical. As oil winds down, we'll have more things go wrong more often as training, skill levels and maintenance deteriorate. Bad with fossils, worse for nuclear.

 

[Oil4AsphaultOnly]

"failing to properly act when alarms repeatedly alerted workers to a pipeline rupture" - oh grief, probably pretty typical. As oil winds down, we'll have more things go wrong more often as training, skill levels and maintenance deteriorate. Bad with fossils, worse for nuclear.

It was entirely understandable. I read the details, and the alarm was telling them there was a leak on the platform, and not 4 MILES away along the pipe. So they thought it was a repeated false alarm.

 

[ThomasD]

With solar wind and battery backup electricity prices had better go down. I have central heat and air. My bill doubled between November December over October to Novembers bill.

 

[nwdiver]

With solar wind and battery backup electricity prices had better go down. I have central heat and air. My bill doubled between November December over October to Novembers bill.

.... sunshine is free.... start using that

 

[eevee-fan]

Nevada's extinct supervolcano may hold largest lithium deposit in the world | CNN Business

CNN's Rene Marsh travels to Nevada, home to a lithium-rich extinct supervolcano, to see how the rush to procure critical minerals in the United States is pitting environmental advocates against each other.

www.cnn.com

 

[mspohr]

Are Oil Markets Already Oversupplied?

It appears that oil market oversupply may already be upon us, with demand being hit hard by Omicron and by China cracking down on its independent refiners.

 

[mspohr]

Good assessment of the situation with coal:

Current coal phaseout pledges ‘absolutely not enough’, warn experts

New figures show slow coal phaseout progress to date, with pledges not enough to limit warming to 1.5C

www.theguardian.com

 

[mspohr]

NG and the Nordstream conundrum... it's complicated

Nord Stream 2: how Putin’s pipeline paralysed the west

Gazprom’s $11bn project to deliver gas from Russia to Germany seems impossible to abandon and impossible to carry forward

www.theguardian.com