Trump’s “Energy Dominance” Taking America Over a Cliff

America’s “Energy Dominance” being pwned by China in the fastest growing and most important markets, the developing world.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia, in the video below, remarked, “..those that love their children, plant trees.”
The jaded cynical, fossil fueled wise guys currently running Washington are not capable of comprehending the aspirations of the great majority of humanity, who don’t care to live under the thumb of Exxon and the Epstein Class.

Bloomberg:

n 2024, the Ethiopian government banned the import of fossil fuel-powered vehicles and slashed tariffs on their electric equivalents. It was a policy driven less by the country’s climate ambitions and more by fiscal pressures. For years, subsidizing gasoline for consumers has been a major drag on Ethiopia’s budget, costing the state billions of dollars over the past decade. The country defaulted on its sovereign bonds in 2023 after rising interest rates drove up the costs of servicing its debts, and it received a $3.4 billion bailoutfrom the International Monetary Fund the following year. 

In the two years since the ban on internal combustion engine vehicles, EV adoption has grown from less than 1% to nearly 6% of all of the vehicles on the road in the country — according to the government’s own figures — some way above the global average of 4%.

“The Ethiopia story is fascinating,” said Colin McKerracher, head of clean transport at BloombergNEF. “What you’re seeing in places that don’t make a lot of vehicles of any type, they’re saying: ‘Well, look, if I’m going to import the cars anyway, then I’d rather import less oil. We may as well import the one that cleans up local air quality and is cheaper to buy.’”

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Music Break: U2, Ed Sheeran, Antytila – Yours Eternally

Trump Interior Sec: I Know What Plants Crave

This is the world we live in.

State and Local Lawmakers Race to Catch up with Data Center Surge

Small midwestern towns trying to catch up with proper regulation of Data Centers.
Opting out – the “stop the world I want to get off” argument is not realistic.
The video above profiles Illinois and Wisconsin communities impacts, rowdy town hall meetings where citizens react, and lawmakers trying to play catch up. Those meetings look a lot like ones I have been to in regard to siting renewable energy projects, and I’m a little concerned there may be blowback and crossover on these issues.
Misinformation is a problem, and as I try to clarify for myself what exactly is going on, I’ll be posting here those resources I find useful.

There has been quite a controversy near the University of Michigan campus in Washtenaw County Michigan, where a major league Data Center is planned for the small community of Saline Township.
In my mind, this project is an attempt to do things right, with a closed loop internal cooling system, no demand on local water supplies, and a massive battery storage build, paid for by the developer, that will become a valuable resource for the statewide grid, help build out renewables, and relieve pressure on ratepayers.

In addition, the Michigan Legislature, and the utility regulator (Public Service Commission) have issued rules that should address the most urgent problems and keep a lid on rates. Still up in the air, how will new generation for these installations meet Michigan’s ambitious clean air and carbon rules that have strict goals in coming decades?

A data center developer promises to use clean energy resources to power their operation in Wisconsin.
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In US and UK, Flood Damage a Nightmare for Home Owners, Insurers

What do you do if your home is suddenly “unsuitable collateral”?

One solution: Sue the bastards.

Guardian:

As climate disasters drive up the price of home insurance, three US states are considering empowering their state prosecutors to sue major polluters for their role in those rising costs.

Lawmakers in California, Hawaii and New York have introduced measures which would authorize their attorneys general to sue fossil fuel companies on behalf of residents whose insurance premiums have soared amid climate disasters.

“The cost of home insurance in California is an absolute crisis,” said state senator Scott Wiener, lead author of his state’s bill, speaking at a press conference announcing the measure on Thursday. “We know that the years ahead are going to be dramatically more dangerous, tragically, when it comes to climate disasters, and we can’t allow Californians, our residents, our small businesses, to be left holding the bag.”

The proposals aim to hold the fossil fuel industry, the top contributor to global warming, accountable for soaring insurance rates driven by climate-fueled extreme weather.

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Batteries Can, and Should, Power Data Centers

Yale Environment 360:

For more than two decades, electricity demand in the United States has stayed roughly flat, but that is about to change, due in no small part to the proliferation of data centers that power artificial intelligence. By one estimate, U.S. power demand is set to grow by 25 percent by the end of this decade. Utilities are racing to build new gas power plants, while tech companies, keen to ensure a continuous supply of power, are installing gas turbines alongside data centers. The rush to meet rising demand with natural gas is driving up electricity bills and emissions.

But a growing chorus of experts is now arguing that there is a better way, and regulators are taking notice. Rather than installing new gas turbines, these experts say, data centers should curtail their electricity use at peak hours, either by ramping down operations during those times or by drawing energy from batteries on site.

Among those arguing for this approach is Jigar Shah, a managing director at Multiplier, a clean tech consultancy, and former head of the Loan Programs Office in the U.S. Department of Energy. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he talks about how he sees an opportunity to strengthen the power grid, trim electric bills, and help curb emissions by outfitting data centers with batteries. 

Yale Environment 360: There’s been a rush to build new gas plants alongside data centers, but you’ve been critical of that approach. Why?

Jigar Shah: I would suggest that it’s not cost-effective. During most of the year, our grid has a lot of excess capacity. The peak demand in the United States is generally less than 800 gigawatts. The average demand on our grid most of the year is about 400 to 450 gigawatts. So most of the time you’ve got 200 to 300 gigawatts of spare capacity in the grid. That’s more than enough to meet all the data center growth and EV growth and new manufacturing and all the things we’re doing in our country.

But between 10 and 20 hours a year, it’s not enough. Generally speaking, those 10 or 20 hours are driven by weather. It’s either a heat dome that comes through unexpectedly, or a polar vortex that comes through. Part of that is because we have such a large amount of housing stock in the United States that are not weatherized, and so when things are particularly hot or particularly cold, it’s very hard for these air conditioning or heating systems to keep up.

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