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

[Terminator857]

Gasoline usage in California isn't rising.

Federal study suggests Calif. EVs are bending gasoline curve

Gasoline sales in the state dropped by as much as 10 percent last year, according to a federal analysis.

www.eenews.net

This Week In Petroleum Summary Printer-Friendly Version - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) -

Gasoline Production, Imports, Stocks, Supply, Prices by Grade and Sales Type, Retail City Average Prices, Data and Analysis from the Energy Information Administration.

www.eia.gov

 

[AquaY]

Gasoline usage in California isn't rising.

Federal study suggests Calif. EVs are bending gasoline curve

Gasoline sales in the state dropped by as much as 10 percent last year, according to a federal analysis.

www.eenews.net

This Week In Petroleum Summary Printer-Friendly Version - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) -

Gasoline Production, Imports, Stocks, Supply, Prices by Grade and Sales Type, Retail City Average Prices, Data and Analysis from the Energy Information Administration.

www.eia.gov

Close to $7 per gallon will do that

 

[nwdiver]

Close to $7 per gallon will do that

Can't wait to see what $10 does then

They're not driving less... they're just driving smarter.

'They are using less gasoline to travel the same number of miles.'

 

[AquaY]

Can't wait to see what $10 does then

They're not driving less... they're just driving smarter.

'They are using less gasoline to travel the same number of miles.'

"Let them eat cake "huh?

 

[nwdiver]

"Let them eat cake "huh?

No. Let them save money by not wasting it on fools fuel

It sucks that the stick is more effective at fixing stupid than the carrot. But... it is what it is ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

 

[mspohr]

From Bill McKibben

Putin’s war shows autocracies and fossil fuels go hand in hand. Here’s how to tackle both

Democracies are making more progress than autocracies when it comes to climate action. But divestment campaigns can put pressure on the most recalcitrant of political leaders

www.theguardian.com

And beyond that, autocrats are often directly the result of fossil fuel. The crucial thing about oil and gas is that it is concentrated in a few spots around the world, and hence the people who live on top of or otherwise control those spots end up with huge amounts of unwarranted and unaccountable power.

Boris Johnson was just off in Saudi Arabia trying to round up some hydrocarbons – the day after the king beheaded 81 folks he didn’t like. Would anyone pay the slightest attention to the Saudi royal family if they did not possess oil? No. Nor would the Koch brothers have been able to dominate American politics on the basis of their ideas –when David Koch ran for the White House on the Libertarian ticket in 1980 he got almost no votes. So he and his brother Charles decided to use their winnings as America’s largest oil and gas barons to buy the GOP, and the rest is (dysfunctional) political history.

Another way of saying this is that hydrocarbons by their nature tend towards the support of despotism – they’re highly dense in energy and hence very valuable; geography and geology means they can be controlled with relative ease. There’s one pipeline, one oil terminal. Whereas sun and wind are, in these terms, much closer to democratic: they’re available everywhere, diffuse instead of concentrated. I can’t have an oilwell in my backyard because, as with almost all backyards, there is no oil there. Even if there was an oilwell, I would have to sell what I pumped to some refiner, and since I’m American, that would likely be a Koch enterprise. But I can (and do) have a solar panel on my roof; my wife and I rule our own tiny oligarchy, insulated from the market forces the Putins and the Kochs can unleash and exploit. The cost of energy delivered by the sun has not risen this year, and it will not rise next year.

Putin’s grotesque war might be where some of these strands come together. It highlights the ways that fossil fuel builds autocracy, and the power that control of scarce supplies gives to autocrats. It’s also shown us the power of financial systems to put pressure on the most recalcitrant political leaders: Russia is being systematically and effectively punished by bankers and corporations, though as my Ukrainian colleague Svitlana Romanko and I pointed out recently, they could be doing far more. The shock of the war may also be strengthening the resolve and unity of the world’s remaining democracies and perhaps – one can hope – diminishing the attraction of would-be despots like Donald Trump.

 

[mspohr]

Solar, wind,nuclear, coal and More gas
Opinion | What It Will Mean as Europe Frees Itself From Russian Energy
Therefore, although there is likely to be short-term price pain as Europe moves to divorce itself from its dependence on Russian natural gas, the E.U. strategy can lead to long-term gain.

 

[mspohr]

Trade and Peace: The Great Illusion Opinion | Trade and Peace: The Great Illusion

 

[eevee-fan]

US Air Force Deploys Solar Power With Push-Button, Self-Assembling Tent

The US Air Force is already integrating solar power into training exercises that focus on the new Agile Combat Employment directive.

cleantechnica.com

 

[mspohr]

Biden launches $6bn effort to save America’s distressed nuclear plants

Officials say nuclear energy remains vital as carbon-free source of power to help tackle the climate crisis

www.theguardian.com

The Biden administration is launching a $6bn effort to rescue nuclear power plants at risk of closing, citing the need to continue nuclear energy as a carbon-free source of power that helps to combat climate change. On Tuesday, a certification and bidding process opened for a civil nuclear credit program that is intended to bail out financially distressed owners or operators of nuclear power reactors, the US energy department told the Associated Press exclusively, shortly before the official announcement. It’s the largest federal investment in saving financially distressed nuclear reactors.

California is slated to close its last remaining nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, in 2025. Officials there think they can replace it with new solar, wind and battery storage resources, though skeptics have questioned whether California’s all-in renewable plan can work in a state of nearly 40 million people.

 

[ggies07]

Biden launches $6bn effort to save America’s distressed nuclear plants

Officials say nuclear energy remains vital as carbon-free source of power to help tackle the climate crisis

www.theguardian.com

The Biden administration is launching a $6bn effort to rescue nuclear power plants at risk of closing, citing the need to continue nuclear energy as a carbon-free source of power that helps to combat climate change. On Tuesday, a certification and bidding process opened for a civil nuclear credit program that is intended to bail out financially distressed owners or operators of nuclear power reactors, the US energy department told the Associated Press exclusively, shortly before the official announcement. It’s the largest federal investment in saving financially distressed nuclear reactors.

California is slated to close its last remaining nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, in 2025. Officials there think they can replace it with new solar, wind and battery storage resources, though skeptics have questioned whether California’s all-in renewable plan can work in a state of nearly 40 million people.

Why are we bailing out whilst on a transition to something else? It's like digging a hole while trying to climb out....that $6bn should be spent on where we are going (solar/batteries) and would make the transition happen a lot faster.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Why are we bailing out whilst on a transition to something else? It's like digging a hole while trying to climb out....that $6bn should be spent on where we are going (solar/batteries) and would make the transition happen a lot faster.

Solar and batteries are already subsidized and will be deployed as fast as the world can go.

This has to be a move to hold up nuclear to try to start reducing natural gas demand.

 

[Oil4AsphaultOnly]

Solar and batteries are already subsidized and will be deployed as fast as the world can go.

This has to be a move to hold up nuclear to try to start reducing natural gas demand.

I think it's more about killing coal (the other baseload generator). Natural gas are usually used in peaker plants or power plants that can be more readily throttled to match demand.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I think it's more about killing coal (the other baseload generator). Natural gas are usually used in peaker plants or power plants that can be more readily throttled to match demand.

The majority of natural gas generation is not peaker. CCGT are more flexible than coal though.

I don't think this is about coal. That's generally declining anyway, but where subsidized to keep it alive, the states are doing it themselves. Some nuclear needs federal money to stay alive.

If we want more EVs there's more night-time demand coming. That's wind, natural gas, coal or nuclear, and for both economic and security reasons natural gas is the problem source at the moment.

 

[mspohr]

Russia-Ukraine War Is Another Reason to Break Free of Dirty Steel, but U.S. Companies Still Chase Profits Over Green Future

The solution to the dirty pig iron problem is not to build more coal-based, pig-iron production facilities in America, but to use green hydrogen — which can be produced emissions-free using renewable energy — to turn iron ore into direct reduced iron (also known as sponge iron). Green hydrogen (in contrast to “gray hydrogen” made with natural gas) is derived from water, split into oxygen and hydrogen by units called electrolyzers

The global steel industry is poised to begin a titanic pivot from coal to hydrogen, this transition will cause both great disruption, and great opportunity,” he said. “Companies and investors don’t yet appreciate the scale of the changes ahead.”

 

[wws]

The majority of natural gas generation is not peaker. CCGT are more flexible than coal though.

I don't think this is about coal. That's generally declining anyway, but where subsidized to keep it alive, the states are doing it themselves. Some nuclear needs federal money to stay alive.

If we want more EVs there's more night-time demand coming. That's wind, natural gas, coal or nuclear, and for both economic and security reasons natural gas is the problem source at the moment.

And hydro.

My guess is that it will help free up LNG for export to Europe and elsewhere that need to wean themselves off Russian gas supplies.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

And hydro.

My guess is that it will help free up LNG for export to Europe and elsewhere that need to wean themselves off Russian gas supplies.

Yes, hydro, although it's largely already fully utilized. Helps make it easier to increase other renewables, though.

 

[iPlug]

Are there other States besides California that guarantee in-State Natural Gas (NG) generators a paid minimum power generation floor throughout the day? Getting rid of those guarantees would go a long way to increasing NG domestic and international supplies.

There are many spring days in California where solar PV is heavily curtailed and that will increase as the years go by and extend into the summer and fall.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

There are many spring days in California where solar PV is heavily curtailed and that will increase as the years go by and extend into the summer and fall.

Easter Sunday was a very significant curtailing day.

 

[iPlug]

Easter Sunday was a very significant curtailing day.

Indeed. Looking at the CAISO chart from that day, if NG was required to compete openly in the free energy market, it could have gone down to 0 GW during that heavy duration of solar PV curtailment. A rough eyeball figuring of the chart - it appears 30 GWh of NG could have been avoided that day.