Month: June 2022

Because when you are dependent on a commodity that is global, and whose price is set globally, it doesn’t matter how much you produce, if there is a shortage, even an artificially created shortage, somewhere else on the globe.

Catherine Rampell in Washington Post:

Good news: We’re energy independent again. Huzzah!

Bad news: “Energy independence” has turned out to be a hollow victory.

Gasoline is inching toward $5 per gallon nationwide, and Americans are furious. Fortunately, Republican politicians have been arguing for months that they have a solution: Just “return” the United States to “energy independence,” as we experienced under former president Donald Trump. Easy peasy.

“We have the skills, and we have the resources right here in the United States to be energy independent,” says Sen. Joni Ernst. (R-Iowa). “We shouldn’t be subjected to these prices.”

Other GOP lawmakers have even given a specific timeline for this elusive goal. “We have watched this president go after energy, so we can no longer be energy independent,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said over the weekend. His pitch to midterm voters: “In 156 days, we’re going to become energy independent.”

Astonishingly, McCarthy and his fellow Republicans have delivered on their promise early. Because, as it turns out, the United States is alreadyenergy independent — and has been for six months, according to data available through March.

Somehow no one appears to have noticed.

“Energy independence” is a political slogan in search of a concrete definition, but based on context, conservatives appear to be referring to situations when the United States sells more oil and petroleum products to the rest of the world than it buys from other countries. The United States initially became a net exporter of oil and petroleum products in late 2019, while Trump was in office, for the first time since at least the 1950s..

There were a few months in late 2020 and early 2021 when that vaunted new trend reversed, and the United States again imported slightly more than we exported. But even then, total petroleum production and consumption still remained nearly even.

That was the loss of “energy independence” that Republicans often decry, and (incorrectly) blame on President Biden’s supposed “war on fossil fuels” rather than the pandemic and its volatile effects on petroleum markets.

But even that quickly reverted back again. Since last October, we’ve been exporting more than we import each month, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, an independent government statistical agency. That is, we got back to “energy independence” under Biden, but Republicans forgot to update their talking points.

Continue reading “Why “Energy Independence” Can’t Come from Oil”

Energy Wire:

Almost two years ago, Hurricane Laura pushed a 17-foot-high wall of water onto the Louisiana coastline.

Hundreds of houses and businesses in this coastal town were simply washed away. The storm tide surged nearly 30 miles up the Calcasieu River and flooded large swaths of Lake Charles. It took weeks to restore the city’s electricity. Two months later, Hurricane Delta hit the same stretch of coastline.

Two years later, the devastation is still apparent — a wrecked building still sits across the street from the Cameron Parish courthouse, and a shrimp boat lies canted on its side along the main highway. In Lake Charles, blue tarps still dot the roofs of neighborhoods that were hit by the storm.

Yet Cameron and Lake Charles are home to an industrial revival, as companies scramble to build new export terminals and expand existing facilities for the booming international trade in liquefied natural gas. Two export terminals are already running, and the Russia-Ukraine war has raised hopes that American LNG will help supply energy to Europe. In March, the Biden administration pledged to send more LNG exports to Europe, including 15 billion additional cubic meters of gas this year.

If all of the companies are successful over the next few years, five new export terminals could join the two existing operations between Lake Charles and Cameron.

Together, the facilities in the two communities would be able to export more than 15 billion cubic feet of gas a day. That’s greater than the current U.S. export capacity and about one-eighth of U.S. natural gas production.

But a federal study from NOAA in February points out that the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Louisiana is likely to see the highest sea-level rise in the contiguous United States. And flooding will likely become more intense and more frequent.

That is raising concerns that the growing LNG industry — which is becoming concentrated in the same vulnerable stretch of coastline — could exacerbate an ongoing land shrinkage problem. Louisiana’s coastline is already losing hundreds of acres a year to storms, rising seas and erosion, and experts blame much of the damage on the region’s oil and gas industry. The export plants will also create local air pollution and emit millions of tons of greenhouse gases that will help speed up climate change, further endangering the region, critics say (Energywire, Oct. 15, 2019).

Continue reading “Gas Exports Have Critical Flood Problem”

Shots fired! pic.twitter.com/mqxiUcGTrB

— Sam Steyer (@SSteyer41) June 8, 2022

Bloomberg:

Ford Motor Co.’s electric F-150 Lightning pickups are poised to come to the rescue of any Tesla drivers in need of a jolt.

Initial owners of the model that beat the Cybertruck to market have shared images online of an adapter that came with their pickup enabling them to charge Teslas, which use plugs distinct from the rest of the auto industry. When an electric-vehicle enthusiast blog wrote this week that Ford appeared to be trolling its rival, Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley assured his Twitter followers that the automaker means well.

Not trolling. Just helpful. https://t.co/6pI71MtsdR

— Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) June 6, 2022

Continue reading “It’s On! Ford Trolling Tesla with Adapter to Charge Gimpy EVs”

NBC News:

Democratic incumbent Gavin Newsom will face Republican state Sen. Brian Dahle in November, NBC News projects.

Under California’s system, the top two candidates, regardless of party, advance to a general election.

Media Matters gives some background:

Climate contrarians Michael Shellenberger and Bjorn Lomborg both got airtime on Fox shows this week to attack Joe Biden’s recent climate plan and promote their new books, which similarly downplay the seriousness of the climate crisis. This claim is wrong, of course, and plays right into the hands of the right-wing media which is all too eager to use their message to delay necessary climate action.

On July 14, Environmental Progress founder Shellenberger appeared on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight to discuss Biden’s new climate plan. With his recent book Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All in the background behind him, Shellenberger falsely accused renewable energy of being costly and inefficient, lamented why natural gas and nuclear power weren’t taken seriously by the Biden campaign, and accused “United Nations officials and some scientists” of wanting to “control energy and food production around the world.”

Shellenberger nearly edged out by "Lizard People" write-in vote 😆 https://t.co/dG8Uj3geUE

— Prof Michael E. Mann (@MichaelEMann) June 8, 2022

It’s been a few years since I caught up with Dr. Katey Walter Anthony, probably best known to most folks for her YouTube demonstrations of students in Alaska lighting methane pockets on frozen arctic lakes. (below)

Dr Anthony is one of the most highly respected experts on permafrost and tundra, in particular the many lakes that form as permafrost warms and thaws, and the increase in greenhouse gas production being observed over the arctic.

I’m working on a new update from methane experts, which I hope will be out soon, but I wanted also to talk to Dr Anthony about her new book, Chasing Lakes, which is important not just as a story of science discovery, but also personal and spiritual discoveries, that places Dr Anthony along side Katharine Hayhoe as a key scientist willing to speak openly about her Christian faith. That part of our conversation is at the top.

OK, I’m skeptical, given that we can’t maintain the plain old roads we’ve got, but always willing to hear about new research.
Swiss system being tested at Purdue. And of. course, always interested when it’s reported by the indispensable Diana Olick of CNBC.

I’ve been focused on the ongoing threats to Lake Powell, Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam and the Colorado River in general, which is bad enough, but this story from the New York Times on the condition of Great Salt Lake and a whole new level of threat to Utah is next level.
I’ll give you the gist but do go take a look if you can.

New York Times:

SALT LAKE CITY — If the Great Salt Lake, which has already shrunk by two-thirds, continues to dry up, here’s what’s in store:

The lake’s flies and brine shrimp would die off — scientists warn it could start as soon as this summer — threatening the 10 million migratory birds that stop at the lake annually to feed on the tiny creatures. Ski conditions at the resorts above Salt Lake City, a vital source of revenue, would deteriorate. The lucrative extraction of magnesium and other minerals from the lake could stop.

Most alarming, the air surrounding Salt Lake City would occasionally turn poisonous. The lake bed contains high levels of arsenic and as more of it becomes exposed, wind storms carry that arsenic into the lungs of nearby residents, who make up three-quarters of Utah’s population.

“We have this potential environmental nuclear bomb that’s going to go off if we don’t take some pretty dramatic action,” said Joel Ferry, a Republican state lawmaker and rancher who lives on the north side of the lake.

As climate change continues to cause record-breaking drought, there are no easy solutions. Saving the Great Salt Lake would require letting more snowmelt from the mountains flow to the lake, which means less water for residents and farmers. That would threaten the region’s breakneck population growth and high-value agriculture — something state leaders seem reluctant to do.

–

Continue reading “Utah’s Salt Lake at Climate Tipping Point”

Reposting my recent chat with Jeff Masters, in light of continued bad news for food prices.
I was not aware that France is the fourth largest wheat exporter.

Reuters:

PARIS/ROME, June 6 (Reuters) – Farms across France were hit by heavy hail and fierce storms over the weekend, the National Farmers’ Union Federation (FNSEA) said on Monday, while their counterparts in Italy warned of the impact of drought on crop yields.

Hail, strong winds and torrential rain caused damage in nearly 65 departments of France, affecting wheat as well as fruit crops and vineyards, the FNSEA said in a statement.

“The damage is very significant, with some farms seeing 100% of their crop affected,” the statement said.

The wheat harvest is approaching in France, the world’s fourth-largest wheat exporter.

Northern Italian regions such as Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta and Trentino Alto Adige have also been hit by storms but the main concern in Italy is drought, with another week of high temperatures forecast across much of the country.

Italy has received only half the usual rainfall levels so far in 2022, according to agricultural lobby Coldiretti, which estimates the cost of lost production at close to 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) and said the Po Valley was hardest hit.

CNBC:

Record-high coal and gas prices have been pushing prices higher for consumers and businesses alike, but there could be a silver lining.

According to the findings of climate analytics firm TransitionZero, it is now cheaper to switch from coal to clean energy, compared to switching from coal to gas — thanks to the falling cost of renewables and battery storage, coupled with the rising volatility of gas prices.

“The carbon price needed to incentivize the switch from coal generation to renewable energy for storage has dipped to a negative price,” said Jacqueline Tao, an analyst at TransitionZero.

“So essentially that means that you can actually switch to renewables at a cost saving,” she told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Wednesday.

The report claims that the global average cost of switching from coal to renewable energy has plunged by 99% since 2010, compared to switching from coal to gas.

Juan Cole Informed Comment:

A lot of municipalities in wind-corridor states such as Texas are choosing wind or solar over methane gas because they need to make 20-year budgets. Fossil fuel prices are erratic and volatile, as can be seen this year when they have spiked in part because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. So you can’t predict the price twenty years out. But since wind and sunshine are free, you know exactly what the fuel for solar and wind farms will cost in twenty years. It will still be zero. You can’t as easily predict replacement costs for wind turbines or solar panels, but they actually will likely fall even further in price, so wind, water and battery are good bets.

Continue reading “Gas Crunch Boosting Clean Energy”