Month: October 2022

Magic School Bus: More EV Buses on the Way

AP:

Nearly 400 school districts spanning all 50 states and Washington, D.C., along with several tribes and U.S. territories, are receiving roughly $1 billion in grants to purchase about 2,500 “clean” school buses under a new federal program.

The Biden administration is making the grants available as part of a wider effort to accelerate the transition to zero-emission vehicles and reduce air pollution near schools and communities. 

Vice President Kamala Harris and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan announced the grant awards Wednesday in Seattle. The new, mostly electric school buses will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save money and better protect children’s health, they said.

As many as 25 million children ride yellow buses each school day, and they will have a healthier future with a cleaner fleet, Harris said. 

“We are witnessing around our country and around the world the effects of extreme climate,” she said. “What we’re announcing today is a step forward in our nation’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gases, to invest in our economy … to invest in building the skills of America’s workforce. All with the goal of not only saving our children, but for them, saving our planet.″

California Town in Water Crisis

They live in a historically arid climate, in the middle of a 1200 year drought.
They don’t have enough water for lawns and swimming pools

I blame Joe Biden.

CNBC:

The city, which is typically allocated 10,000 acre-feet of water, has only been allocated about 2,000 acre-feet this year, according to Pro-Tem Mayor Ray Singleton. And that supply is almost gone.

“It was beautifully green just eight years ago. If you look at Google Maps, my yard was green, but like maybe five or six years ago now you look at it now, it’s like the Sahara Desert,” said Singleton. He’s been a resident since 2000 and is raising his family there.

The California valley city, located inland between Los Angeles and San Francisco, is home to an estimated 17,465 people. All the people living in Fresno County, where Coalinga is located, are experiencing a drought. It is the second driest year to date over the past 128 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Coalinga residents have been living under water restrictions, such as no watering their front lawns or washing their cars, and there’s a moratorium on pools. If a resident wants to maintain their pool, they need to sign a contract with the town stating they will provide their own 30,000 gallons of water, according to Singleton. One of Singleton’s current concerns is that the fire department needs to flush out the hydrants soon, and that could use up even more water.

The city is also the site of a state prison and state mental health hospital. The city has no control over how these facilities use water, and Singleton estimates they pull around 25% to 30% of the city’s supply. He said he sees these institutions waste water and called it “frustratingly insane.”

The Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga told CNBC that it reduced water usage by more than 21% since 2020 with steps such as using pressurized water for cleaning, reducing urinal diaphragm capacity, reducing the washdown schedule of the wastewater treatment facility and reducing irrigation of landscaping.

Iowa: Outlook for Rain Not Promising

Chris Gloninger is Chief Meteorologist at KCCI in Des Moines (great town – was there for the first time this summer!) where he tries to keep his audience aware of the climate context of the weather they see each day.

For his efforts, he receives a steady stream of abuse, invective and threats on social media. But because he understands the stakes, he persists.

Climate Activists Adjust Targeting

Not that I’m advocating this, but the targeting here seems better messaging than a Van Gogh.

Below, discussion between left and right about the protests.

Continue reading “Climate Activists Adjust Targeting”

Shocking Update on a Dry Mississippi

This is getting bad.
Perspective from Jeff Masters and Bob Henson, my colleagues at Yale Climate Connections:

The shrunken Mississippi River, flowing at its lowest rate on record along much of a 270-mile stretch, will receive a minor short-term bump in water levels this week from Hurricane Roslyn’s rains. However, with another La Niña winter in the cards, the long-term outlook for the river is unfortunately very dry.

Intense, widespread drought conditions across much of the U.S. this year have cost more than $9 billion and are causing havoc to shipping on the mighty Mississippi River, which in three states has hit its lowest levels on record. The low water levels come at an extremely inopportune time – during the peak of the U.S. harvest season, when barges carrying grain provide the predominant transportation method to carry America’s bounty. Barges going downriver carry about 60% of U.S. grain exports to the world. Going upriver, Mississippi River barges transport petrochemicals, fertilizers, and raw materials essential for the functioning of U.S. industry and agriculture, making the Mississippi River the lifeblood of the American economy. If barge traffic on the Mississippi River is slowed for an extended period of time, the entire U.S. economy suffers, with impacts to the global economy and world food supplies.

As reported by Bloomberg on October 21, barge shipments of corn during the first week of October were down 50% from the same time in 2021, and more than 2,000 barges were backed up. The low water levels have also allowed salt water to move upriver to threaten drinking water supplies in New Orleans, forcing the Army Corps to build an underwater dam to stop the upstream advance of the ocean water.

Continue reading “Shocking Update on a Dry Mississippi”

Gas Flowing into Europe + Climate Warmed Winter = Putin Losing Leverage

Germany’s gas storage this year is much higher than it was at any time last year.

Mark Sumner in Daily Kos:

Back in August, Bloomberg carried a piece titled “welcome to Europe’s dark, cold winter.” It warned that even if countries were able to find gas to fill their storage facilities, it might not prevent a winter filled with blackouts, business closures,  and an economy in freefall. That’s because prices were soaring and “replenishing storage and reducing demand still may not be enough.” 

That story as just part of a running theme that’s been going on since even before Russia rolled across the border into Ukraine. In 2021, 53% of Germany’s gas supply came from Russia. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline was a powerful economic connection directly tying Berlin to Moscow, and Nord Stream 2 was sitting there ready to open. It wasn’t just Germany. In the 2019 figures, 41% of all the natural gas in Europe came from Russia.

When Vladimir Putin said he was prepared to let Europe freeze at the beginning of September, he was only repeating a threat that had been made many times in the past. That threat has been sufficient to make politicians all over the world treat the Russian dictator with kid gloves, and to have fiscal analysts engaging in dark fantasies of closed factories and Europeans shivering in their frosty homes.

But eight months and one day after Russia began its illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the idea that Europe is going to “freeze in the dark” without Russian gas seems laughable. Gas storage facilities in Germany are over 97% full, well ahead of last year’s status. That gives the nation a significant buffer against any market disruptions.

Across the entire E.U. storage facilities are over 90% full. And even as Europe has been topping off its tanks, the actual price for natural gas has continued to fall. On Monday, prices reached a four month low, with the per megawatt hour cost dropping below $100—less than a third of cost on the day Putin made that “let them freeze” threat.

Continue reading “Gas Flowing into Europe + Climate Warmed Winter = Putin Losing Leverage”

I Did Not Know That: Many Early Autos Were EVS

Iberdrola:

Many advances and improvements led to the creation of the electric vehicle. One of the most notable figures in its history was the Hungarian inventor and engineer Ányos Jedlik, who created around 1828 the heart of all electric machines, the world’s first electric motor, which he later applied to a small model car. At the same time, the American blacksmith Thomas Davenport built a similar contraption in 1834 that ran on an electrified circular track. However, it is the Scottish entrepreneur and chemist Robert Anderson who is generally referred to as the father of the electric car. Between 1832 and 1839 he worked on and presented a prototype that offered an evolution of a traditional carriage powered by electric cells.

Many models were developed in later years, but the limitation of the battery (which was not rechargeable) made electric cars impractical. The real breakthrough came in 1859, when French scientist Gaston Planté invented rechargeable lead-acid batteries, which meant that the vehicle did not have to be connected to the grid. From that moment on, it was possible to store the energy for the vehicle to run. Furthermore, in 1881, the inventor Camille Faure perfected the model to the point of increasing the charging capacity of the batteries. These advances enabled the French engineer Gustave Trouvé to present a tricycle powered by an electric motor at the International Electricity Exhibition in Paris that year.

In 1888, what is considered to be the first electric car appeared in Germany, the Flocken Elektrowagen, invented by the inventor and entrepreneur Andreas Flocken. It had the design of a buggy, four wheels, a 0.7 kW motor, a 100 kg battery and could reach 15 km/h. The automotive world closed the 19th century with a historic milestone: in 1899, the Belgian Camille Jenatzy broke the 100 km/h speed barrier for the first time in the world, reaching a speed of 105.88 km/h.

Early EV

WHEN DID ELECTRIC CARS COME INTO USE?

Following the advent of the rechargeable battery, the electric car became a hit in the early 20th century in cities. The first commercial users were New York taxi drivers. Some historians estimate that around one third of the cars on the streets of the United States were electric in 1900, while some sources claim that these vehicles outsold combustion engines in 1899 and 1900.

Taxi drivers in other cities such as London and Berlin followed suit, as did large hotels, which had fleets of electric vehicles to transport their guests. Among the vehicles sold were the Porsche Egger-Lohner P1 and the Baker Electric, and among the manufacturers, Ohio Baker Electric, which had batteries designed by Thomas Edison.

Continue reading “I Did Not Know That: Many Early Autos Were EVS”

Ted Cruz Draws Climate Ire in NYC

I’m satisfied that the most excruciatingly appropriate punishment for Ted Cruz is just simply being Ted Cruz.
I fact checked some of his claims a few years ago, below.

Continue reading “Ted Cruz Draws Climate Ire in NYC”

Metal Mining Megatrends Move to Magnets, Minerals

But the oft heard cries that “clean energy will take more mining” are BS.

Visual Capitalist:

“If you can’t grow it, you have to mine it” is a famous saying that encapsulates the importance of minerals and metals in the modern world.

From every building we enter to every device we use, virtually everything around us contains some amount of metal.

The above infographic visualizes all 2.8 billion tonnes of metals mined in 2021 and highlights each metal’s largest end-use using data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Iron ore accounted for 93% of the metals mined in 2021, with 2.6 billion tonnes extracted from the ground. It’s important to note that this is ore production, which is typically higher than metal production since metals are extracted and refined from ores. For example, the iron metal content of this ore is estimated at 1.6 billion tonnes.

With 98% of it converted into pig iron to make steel, iron ore is ubiquitous in our lives. Steelmade from iron ore is used in construction, transportation, and household appliances, and it’s likely that you encounter something made out of it every day, especially if you live in a city.

Due to its key role in building infrastructure, iron ore is one of the most important materials supporting urbanization and economic growth.

Continue reading “Metal Mining Megatrends Move to Magnets, Minerals”

London Smacked by Intense Storm

Washington Post:

A late-season severe weather outbreak rocked Western Europe on Sunday, bringing damaging winds, large hail and at least one destructive tornado. The storms came at the conclusion of an unusually warm spell, with temperatures that ranged 10 to 15 degrees above average for mid to late October.