Month: November 2024

RenewEconomy:

US president-elect Donald Trump has selected a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive to serve as energy secretary in his second administration.

Chris Wright, the chief executive of oilfield services company Liberty Energy, is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve US “energy dominance” in the global market.

Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change and could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.

Wright also has criticised what he calls a “top-down” approach to climate by liberal and left-wing groups and said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight”.

Consideration of Wright to head the administration’s energy department won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm.

Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term.

Hamm helped organise an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April where industry leaders and lobbyists were reportedly asked to donate $US1 billion ($A1.5 billion) dollars to Trump’s campaign, with the expectation Trump would curtail environmental regulations if re-elected.

The Energy Department is responsible for advancing the energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States.

Earth.org:

Climate experts, environmental organizations and advocacy groups are reacting to Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, which include climate deniers, fossil fuel advocates and people with no political experience.

Continue reading “Trump DOE Pick is a Doozy”

If you read my last post, on whether Trump can stop the energy transition, do so now, then come back to this.

Don’t bet against an energy transition that will continue, and even accelerate.

The speaker mentions projections from the European think tank Rystad, which I think are still valid.

Rystad:

Taking a global view, a new narrative has emerged on the premise that 1.5°C is no longer a credible target for global warming. In Rystad Energy, however, we remain optimistic, as we believe several recent developments may have been overlooked by more pessimistic forecasts. 

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First, two new policy commitments that will curb heating have come into play: the global methane pledge made last year has the potential to curb heating by 0.2°C, while the follow-up pledge to end deforestation could reduce warming by a further 0.1°C. Second, disruptive technologies – referring to innovations that are cheaper and better than existing technologies – tend to penetrate markets much faster than anticipated. This is now the case for electric vehicles, which have seen sales numbers soar and which are likely to push gasoline and diesel cars out of the market within a decade or two.

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The same goes for solar cells and wind turbines in the power market, which are now delivering power at a cost significantly below fossil fuel levels. Our studies of supply chain capacities show that solar PV capacity is poised to grow by 1000 GW per year in new installations by 2030, which is the capacity needed to deliver 1.6°C according to our calculations. A similar story is developing for wind and batteries, as the current pace of expansion will deliver the capacity needed to push coal and gas out of the power market in the 2030s.

Just came back from a meeting with farmers and landowners in Central Michigan, many if not most of them Trump voters. All of them working to expand clean energy development in their area.
Every month they learn more about the importance of the energy transition, most specifically for family farmers, who see clean energy as a means to diversify income and keep operations viable.
We discussed the prospects for the coming 4 years, and agreed that the momentum was favoring faster clean deployment, but also that our roles as local renewable advocates have never been more important.

If you want something to do, other than wring your hands about the path forward, let me know. I’m putting together a team.

Reuters:

A Biden-era law providing a decade of lucrative subsidies for new solar, wind and other clean-energy projects would be near-impossible to repeal, however, thanks to support from Republican states, while other levers available to the next president would only have marginal impact, analysts say.

“I don’t think a Trump president can slow the transition,” said Ed Hirs, energy fellow at the University of Houston. “This is well under way.”
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The production boom started under former President Barack Obama and has continued through the Trump and Biden presidencies. Even so, Trump’s campaign has sought to claim credit, saying his efforts to slash regulatory red tape during his 2017-2021 term paved the way, and arguing he could further expand U.S. fossil-fuel production in a second term by rolling back Biden’s climate initiatives.

Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind are the fastest-growing segments on the power grid, according to the Department of Energy, driven by federal tax credits, state renewable-energy mandates, and technology advancements that have lowered their costs.

President Joe Biden in 2022 signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, opens new tab guaranteeing billions of dollars of solar and wind subsidies for another decade as part of his broader effort to decarbonize the power sector by 2035 to fight climate change.

Continue reading “Can Trump Stop the Clean Transition?”

New York choking on smoke again.
No matter where you live, don’t tell yourself that climate change can’t reach you.

This is pretty damn good.

Drought continues in the Northeast, fires burning in several areas.

Peter Sinclair in the Midland Daily News (Michigan):

Bill Chilman is a big fan of big fans.

The recently retired superintendent of Beal City Schools, in Michigan’s Isabella County, saw his district through an important transition, as 86 wind turbines were installed in his district in 2020.

Each turbine is like its own small business, and is taxed like it.

Chilman explained that those tax revenues, levied in mills,  have helped the school system with its bond indebtedness — the funds used to “build structures, classrooms, gyms, fields, cafeterias, those things”. 

“Previous to the wind turbines, one mill generated $75,000 a year. Post-wind turbines, the same mill generates about $150,000 to $160,000 a year,” he said.

Chilman told an audience of farmers and landowners that, around Beal City, houses don’t stay on the market for long. And the housing market inside the Beal City School district is “very competitive.”

“The desire to live in there, amongst the windmills, and amongst some of the solar projects that we have coming in – and they want to be part of the school district, those property values are driven up,” he said. “I know in Beal, the housing market is exploding, even with 6% or 7% interest rates.”

Continue reading “Renewable Revenues Replenish Rural Resources”

Andy Lee Robinson is back with a new visualization of Arctic Ice Volume losses.

Farmers see clean energy, solar and wind, and now battery storage, as a way to diversify their income, and keep farmland in the family, and away from greedy developers.

For years, farmers have made it clear that they are best equipped to make decisions about the best use of their land, as they are often multi-generational stewards of the land. Property rights is one of the most important arguments for clean energy development.

Washington Post:

Seasonal forecasting has come a long way since the days when people tried to foretell the severity of the coming winter by examining the color of caterpillars or the abundance of acorns. The forecast shown above is a blend of seasonal climate models from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada — a “wisdom of the crowds” technique that yields more accurate seasonal forecasts.

Although the accuracy of this forecast has not been statistically assessed, it has performed well in recent years, particularly in the East — excluding the winter of 2020-2021, when a wobbly polar vortexunleashed more snow than was predicted. Even the most powerful supercomputer cannot anticipate a surprise nor’easter or an unseasonable warm spell months in advance, but seasonal forecasts tend to perform better when they can be traced to climatic conditions that are known to influence seasonal weather patterns.

This winter, two strong climate drivers churning in the Pacific Ocean give more confidence to the low-snowfall forecast.

Continue reading “White Christmas? You’re Dreaming.”