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Because apparently we can't have a website anymore without a blog


The blah-blah-blog

As time permits, I'm going to put the esoterica I encounter related to climate change here rather than trying to update the various pages. So this will be in reverse chronological rather than logically organized within the structure of the rest of this website. Please don't rely on this as a consistent and current source for climate change information updates. Sadly, we cannot rely on our corporate-controlled mass media for good information on this, and my time is limited.

Past blog pages:
2019: May    June    July    August    September    October    November    December   
2020:
January    February    March    April    May    June    July [COVID gap]
2021: [COVID gap] October-December
2022: January-February    March    April    May-August    September    October    November-December
2023: January    February    March-April    May-July    August-September    October-November    December
2024: January    February    March    April    May    June    July    August    September   

2024.03.31 What the Frack? The low cost of natural gas doesn't mean we aren't paying a high price.

Lawmakers rush to stop 'catastrophic-level event' at Texas oil fields:
'We are going to have complete and utter ecological devastation'
(TCD)
As a species we can't even manage to extract fossil methane without massive damage. Think about that when you read about bet-the-planet geoengineering schemes.


2024.03.31 With the April 1, 2024 carbon pricing included in the price, gasoiline in Canada is still cheaper today than it was in late September 2023,

when it was just the oil industry gouging drivers. Are gas stations giving you quarterly rebate payments?
Price of gas in GTA hitting highest level in 6 months on April 1 (CityNews)
You have known - literally - for years the carbon price was going to keep rising, and could have planned for it.


2024.03.28 C is for capitalism, one convincing explanation for why the climate conferences have accomplished little.

Elizabeth Kolbert wants us to rethink the stories we tell about climate change (Grist)


2024.03.28 Western governments folded, so fossil fuels cleaned the table.

The prize: likely human extinction and the end of the industry's customers.
Surge of new [taxpayer-subsidized] US-led oil and gas activity threatens to wreck Paris climate goals (The Guardian)


2024.03.28 It's a decision to be made, not a destiny.

Manitoba has a world class wind resource, and southern Manitoba has solar exposure on a par with Alberta and Saskatchewan. If the cost of natural gas reflects its climate change consequences, wind and solar with storage (including existing hydro reservoirs) should be an easy choice based on financials. Manitoba could become the energy superpower that Alberta once had within its sights.
However, if Manitoba wants to backstop with truly renewable methane, it could harvest the annual algae blooms on its big lakes and biodigest the biomass to produce non-fossil methane. (white paper 26 pages PDF)
The demand for power might make one of Canada’s cleanest grids dirtier (The Narwhal)


2024.03.28 Western governments folded, so fossil fuels cleaned the table.

The prize: likely human extinction and the end of the industry's customers.
Surge of new [taxpayer-subsidized] US-led oil and gas activity threatens to wreck Paris climate goals (The Guardian)


2024.03.27 We can entice plug-in hybrid owners to produce less emissions by making gasoline expensive

and providing charging points that cater to vehicles with small batteries and limited charge rates (like at-work parking).
The problem with plug-in hybrids? Their drivers. (MIT Technology Review)


2024.03.27 Really, what else would a Canadian spend $450 on? Groceries, rent, mortgage?

Unimportant compared to boosting oil industry profits, right? (yes, that's per Canadian - 41,000,000 of us now)
Here’s how much the feds handed fossil fuel companies last year (National Observer)


2024.03.27 Today, we turn off renewable generators to make a point, instead of fossil fuels. Progress, I guess.

Polish grid operator switches off gigawatts of PV (PV Magazine)
Emmm, hello, local storage (batteries, pumped, compressed air ...)? Cross-border grid connects? Incentivizing demand shifts from fossil fuels, like local electric vehicle fleets?


2024.03.27 What's more important - keeping the grid functioning like you're paid to do?

or setting up renewables as the fall guy to protect your position? Easy, if you're a big natural gas generator.
Gas plant owner hit with big fine for sitting idle in major blackout first blamed on renewables (Renew Economy)
Must have been a shocker to get a fine instead of more taxpayer subsidies, even if it's taken eight years.


2024.03.27 Solar plus storage for the win: new 186 MW generation + 169 MWh storage in Texas

Texas installs another big solar + battery storage project (electrek)


2024.03.22 In 2023, 30% of electricity generation in Texas came from wind and solar, ahd the proportion is rising.

Meeting demand growth and greening the grid can go hand in hand (IEEFA)


2024.03.22 Eventually, international GHG tariffs will show national pussy-footing for the ridiculous posturing it is

World’s first-ever global emissions tax takes a step closer to reality (CNBC)


2024.03.22 Innovation in offshore wind turbine building and maintenance

Company develops revolutionary technology that allows wind turbines to practically build themselves: 'It will be a gamechanger' (TCD)


2024.03.21 Is it because we cab see a battery, but not carbon dioxide and nitrous oxides that people don't grasp how massive ICE exhaust is?

No Doubt About It: EVs Really Are Cleaner Than Gas Cars (BloombergNEF)


2024.03.21 Another data point: the prime function of Carbon Capture projects is to fatten oil and gas industry profits,

because they aren't effective at reducing GHG emissions, and in the case of EOR, actually increase emissions (like I have said for years now).
Carbon capture plants are underperforming — why are we so optimistic about them? (DownToEarth)


2024.03.21 In case it isn't yet clear, it's stick with the course on GHG-emissions pricing, or extinction. Pick one.

Industrial carbon pricing has three times the impact on emissions as consumer carbon tax: report (CBC)


2024.03.21 Includes link to 23-minute podcast

Climate quitting: the people leaving their fossil fuel jobs because of climate change (The Conversation)
I wonder if any of the climate-quitters would have the skills and experience to work with the framework of the Climate Homicide: Prosecuting Big Oil for Climate Death framework proposed by Public Citizen.


2024.03.21 We're going to need more lawyers (think RICO), but it might actually get the attention of fossil-fuel majors C-suites

Fossil fuel firms could be tried in US for homicide over climate-related deaths, experts say (The Guardian)


2024.03.21 Because fossil fuel and nuclear have big budgets, their disinfo is seldom fact-checked. It should be more often.

Dick Smith says no country has ever been able to run entirely on renewables. Is that correct? (ABC News)


2024.03.21 The Shell game on climate change (deny, delay, deceive) continues

Shell Backs Out of Massachusetts Offshore Wind Project (Oilprice.com)


2024.03.21 Dependence on Russian enriched uranium isn't even the biggest problem for fission reactors

Western countries ‘too optimistic’ on nuclear projects, warns engineering chief (World Energy Data)
Let's not forget there is no solution yet for high level nuclear waste disposal, we have had incidents with radiation releases, and renewables with storage can be built faster and cheaper than nuclear with no ongoing fuel costs, and creating good local jobs.


2024.03.20 Fossil gas utility FortisBC gets rejected on "Renewable Natural Gas" and LNG facility

'A big deal': B.C. utility regulator rejects plan for mandatory gas hookups (Richmond News)


2024.03.20 No one is as addicted to oil as the oil industry itself

Big Oil Grows Bolder in Transition Pushback (Oilprice.com)
As for the statement "We should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas, and instead invest in them adequately" - Aramco President & CEO Amin Nasser - I have a few thoughts.
1. The real fantasy is thinking we can go on with our profligate use of oil and gas and not make ourselves extinct.
2. If someone is going to invest in oil and gas, it should be the eye-poppingly profitable oil and gas industry, which still receives massive subsidies and incentives from taxpayers around the world.
3. If the oil and gas industry is going to invest in something, perhaps it could start with ensuring the survival of its end-customers.


2024.03.19 Efficiency and substituting renewable energy to reduce costs and emissions (it's not either-or)

Winged cargo ship saves three tonnes of fuel per day on first voyage (New Atlas)


2024.03.19 Hohum, another climate change emergency alert. Call me up when big money is actually working the problem.

UN weather agency issues ‘red alert’ on climate change after record heat, ice-melt increases in 2023 (AP)


2024.03.19 Sounds more likely to work than oil industry's CCS and CCUS fiascos

Oregon State University scientists discover metal capable of removing carbon dioxide from air (Oregon Capital Chronicle)


2024.03.18 Nice that mainstream climate science has finally twigged to methane, but they buried the lede.

The headline should have been, . That's the timescale that matters, because it's about how long methane lasts in the atmosphere (if we don't mess it up with fugitive hydrogen.
We don't have 100 years (like the Canadian government keeps implying by using a 25x multiplier. Per the eternally optimistic IPCC reports, we don't have 20 years (the 86x multiplier), who said we have just 12 years left to get to net-zero - 3 years ago. So we don't even have 10 years left.
Worse news, our methane emissions are way higher than we had imagined, let alone reported.
Methane: a powerful gas heating the planet (Phys.org)

If anyone is interested in an actual solution on some serious methane emissions (not to let the fossil methane industry off the hook), that will also restore the deteriorating state of lakes in temperate zones, at a relatively low cost, you could read this white paper.

2024.03.15 OK, I did a 'say what?' when I read the headline. But, having read the piece, I get it.

Baseload Power Doesn’t Make Sense Anymore (CleanTechnica)
In an era of cheap renewable electricity and battery storage dropping in price, new nuclear and fossil methane don't offer a cost per kWh advantage anymore, even if given the huge advantage of running full-time to best spread their enormous capital costs over as many kWh as possible. Naturally, staring at the two barrels of cheap zero-emissions renewable electricity production and cheap battery storage of this financial reality imperative shotgun, the Doug Ford government has chosen very expensive nuclear that won't be online in time to make a difference and fossil methane with all its attendant fugitive emissions and CO2 GHG production.


2024.03.14 Now they're starting to get it ...

Cheaper, more reliable and dispatchable electricity is better than nuclear or natural gas.
Oh, and it's zero-GHG, too.
Across the US, batteries and green energies like wind and solar combine for major climate solution (AP)


2024.03.14 You know what's dangerous for birds? Cats, and oil and gas drilling. No so much modern wind turbines.

Wind turbines are friendlier to birds than oil-and-gas drilling (The Economist)
Other hazards which cause more bird injuries and deaths are domestic and feral cats, buildings, vehicles, habitat loss, oil spills, pesticides, climate change, pollution, invasive species, power lines, and illegal hunting. In a couple of lists I found, wind turbines didn't make the top ten.


2024.03.14 With this context, and natural gas proving not be a reliable baseload generator ..

when it's cold in Alberta, Danielle Smith decides to take aim at renewables and EVs - out of touch much?
Danielle Smith's stance on renewables summary and review (Feb. 2024):
Danielle Smith misleading Albertans with wind and solar lies, soft moratorium (Energi Media)
Reality:
‘Reason-Based Wrecking Ball’ Demolishes the Case for Alberta Restrictions on Renewables (The Energy Mix)
Coal power disappearing from Alberta's grid as final generators prepare to transition (Calgary Herald)


2024.03.14 Leave it the Koch clan to sue a country for something it didn't do

Koch Industries’ US$30M carbon pricing lawsuit against Canada dismissed by international court (The Narwhal)


2024.03.14 No geoengineering without an effective off-switch.

Effects of geoengineering must be urgently investigated, experts say (The Guardian)


2024.03.13 It matters because methane is more than 100 times as potent as CO2 on a 10-year horizon

Aren't you tired of captured governments providing disinformation on behalf of the fossil fuels sector?
US energy industry gas leaks are triple the official figures, study finds (The Guardian)


2024.03.12 More than 90% of new cars sold in Norway are electric.

And it all started with some pop stars driving around in a jerry-built Fiat Panda.
How did Norway become the electric car superpower? Oil money, civil disobedience – and Morten from a-ha (The Guardian)


2024.03.11 Spoiler: the Good is at least partly wishful thinking, the Bad and Ugly are serious issues

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly reality about CCS (IEEFA)


2024.03.11 Unveiling the West Coast’s Electric Big Truck Future

The heaviest diesel semis are the dirtiest. Titan Freight Systems chose the electric lane and says it’s paying off. (The Tyee)


2024.03.11 Battery prices are dropping and production economies of scale are kicking in ...

BYD to slash EV prices even more with new platform as it looks to crush ICE car sales (electrek)


2024.03.08 Oil industry has sought to block state backing for green tech since 1960s

A strategy that has worked; governments around the world keep shoveling money at the oil and gas sector, even though it's killing their citizens via pollution and climate change. (The Guardian)


2024.03.08 It's the fugitive methane gas leaks, because the pipelines are lame

US natural gas pipeline accidents pose big, unreported climate threat (Reuters)


2024.03.08 India shifts back to coal

Modi’s fading renewables vision fires up India’s coal sector (The Economic Times)


2024.03.07 With batteries included

EVs will be cheaper to produce than gas-powered vehicles by 2027, Gartner says (yahoo!finance)


2024.03.07 This is what we call a positive feeback loop; climate change > droughts > climate change

Emissions hit a record high in 2023. Blame hydropower. (MIT Technology Review)
To be clear, it was power-generation emissions that rose in 2023. And that's because we still are not putting enough effort into conservation and efficiency, we are still subsidizing fossil fuels, we aren't installing solar and wind power fast enough, we are not restricting the profligate use of electricity for the crypto-currency and AI fads, and we're burning tax money pursuing the energy-wasting 'green'-hydrogen-for-energy charade.


2024.03.07 The desperation is becoming more apparent; fossil fuels return to blaming the victims

Fossil Fuel Fanatics Ramp Up Attacks On Electric Cars While Ignoring The Dangers Of Their Own Products (CleanTechnica)


2024.03.07 How to win at the EV charging network game:

If you provide sufficient points of service, where wanted, reliably, not a nightmare maze to use at an acceptable cost - but who did that other than Tesla in North America and Europe?
EV charging stations are proving to be a profitable business, after all (Fortune)


2024.03.06 If you thought the sudden interest in 'gold' hydrogen was strangely convenient ...

for oil and gas drillers to suppress news of renewable energy successes, you might find this interesting.
Golden hydrogen—or fool’s gold? (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)


2024.03.06 Time to give up on hydrogen for trucks

battery-powered big trucks are on the road, already cheaper than diesel on life-cycle cost, and sticker prices are going to drop.
Electric Trucks Will Be Cheaper Than Diesel – Years Faster Than Expected (Forbes)


2024.03.04 How can there be a CO2 shortage for soft drinks when there are giant carbon dioxide capture projects?

Supermarkets running out of soft drinks due to carbon dioxide shortage, possible crisis on the horizon (Boing Boing)
Like the world's biggest CCS carbon capture plant which is in Australia, operated by Chevron. OK, per the article, they're not operating it very well, but still, even at 30% of target levels, that's still a lot of carbon dioxide available.


Past blog pages:
2019: May    June    July    August    September    October    November    December   
2020:
January    February    March    April    May    June    July [COVID gap]
2021: [COVID gap] October-December
2022: January-February    March    April    May-August    September    October    November-December
2023: January    February    March-April    May-July    August-September    October-November    December
2024: January    February    March    April    May    June    July    August    September   

You can find many earlier postings (going back to year 2000) related to climate change at:
Keith's List Archive and
the Sustainable Biofuel List Mail Archive.

I present a lot of information in this blog and on this website. If you need some help sorting through the noise level and getting a forward-looking, proactive approach to climate change for your business, I can do that work for you via my consulting business. Contact

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