climate and energy legislation

Duke Energy's contempt for Solar is irresponsible

Submitted by scharrison on

solarwind.jpeg

The deep freeze on Christmas weekend exposed major flaws in their approach:

The first domino fell in Duke Energy Carolinas territory, which serves 2.5 million residential, commercial and industrial customers. Starting at midnight on Christmas Eve, utility officials cut back power at the Dan River combined cycle plant, which runs largely on natural gas, to 360 MW, roughly half of its capacity, said Sam Holeman, vice president of transmission. (This is also known as derating.) Some of the plant’s instrumentation had frozen, and to prevent the facility from failing altogether, operators had to reduce the strain. The Buck plant in Salisbury encountered low pressure issues and had to be derated after peak energy usage had passed.

Solar energy “performed as expected,” Duke officials said, although it was not available overnight during the peak hours of 2 to 6 a.m.

It could have been available to ease that burden if Duke had dedicated more resources to battery storage in NC:

Climate boondoggles: Carbon Capture doesn't stand up to the hype

Submitted by scharrison on

climatechangestrike.jpg

It doesn't even come close:

While many people think this is a new technology, it’s not. In fact, the US Department of Energy spent at least $6 billion over two decades on it. Not to mention the tax credits oil and gas companies have received for pilot projects.

Even the biggest projects stretch to absorb a few thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, we emit over 50 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases each year. That’s a million-fold gap. So, even if artificial carbon removal scaled 1,000x — which is still years and billions of dollars away at best — it would need to grow by another 1,000-fold even to be a small percentage of the solutions we need.

Understand, we could never even come close to the level of carbon capture that naturally exists on our planet. Trees and ocean life, such as seaweed and plankton, absorb a substantial amount of atmospheric carbon, while also producing oxygen. But this isn't just a boondoggle, it's actually a boon for fossil fuel companies:

Duke Energy's climate hypocrisy and greenwashing efforts

Submitted by scharrison on

dukeenergybuilding.jpg

Saying all the right words, but doing all the wrong things:

Both Southern and Duke say that their pro-climate positions are aligned with the pro-climate positions of two of their two largest trade associations, the Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association, citing boilerplate language from each.

EEI says that “global climate change presents one of the biggest energy and environmental policy challenges this country has ever faced.” AGA says that it is “committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through smart innovation, new and modernized infrastructure, and advanced technologies.”

Just a quick reminder, the AGA is behind a new NC bill that forces cities to allow natural gas connections for buildings, even though the carbon footprint from said buildings is massive. The Edison Electric Institute has been a climate change denier since Jesus was in middle school, and they have particularly attacked renewable energy programs:

Climate Change Chronicles: More than just a relief bill

Submitted by scharrison on

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are on the way out:

The coolant phase-down would be one of the most significant federal policies ever taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to an analysis by the Rhodium Group, a research and consulting firm.

By 2035, the law would help avoid the equivalent of 949 million tons of carbon dioxide, the group estimated, which is similar in scope to the extra expected emissions from Mr. Trump’s climate policy rollbacks on vehicle pollution and methane from oil and gas operations.

Read that bottom part again. One of the biggest and most important steps we could take, but it merely offsets some of the damage Trump did to our efforts to deal with climate change. Here's a short history of the EPA's efforts to control this chemical:

Subscribe to RSS - climate and energy legislation