Category: This is Not Cool

In Korea: Hormuz Impact Preserves Coal, Accelerates Solar

AlJazeera reporting on the status of a small village’s solar project, and how it has changed lives in the area.

Korean Leadership has vowed to ramp up renewable energy in response to shortages following the Hormuz closure, and the report backs that up.
One unfortunate side effect is extending the life of existing coal fired power plants. While undesirable, I don’t think coal is that much worse that the Liquified Natural Gas that has been cut off. Recent history suggests that, economically, it will not be competitive with a strong solar commitment.

Politico:

Import-dependent countries such as Pakistan and Thailand have used the moment to emphasize their desire to transition faster to renewables. Pakistan’s rooftop solar boom — sparked in part by natural gas price spikes in 2022 — have helped cushion it from the current supply shock.

“We were on the right track,” the country’s finance minister, Muhammad Aurangzeb, said at an IMF panel this week. “But clearly we feel the journey needs to be accelerated.”

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The Onion has Taken over Info Wars, and It’s Comedy Gold

Rolling Stone:

An emergency motion by Alex Jones didn’t stop The Onion from turning over control of the new InfoWars to Tim Heidecker, who made his debut as host and creative director on Friday via a surprise livestream.

“Lot of turmoil the past couple days on our road to total victory. We have just won a major battle, folks. Alex and his gang of liars and scoundrels have been cast out into the street, they have lost InfoWars, InfoWars.com, and their various platforms,” Heidecker said in his pitch perfect Alex Jones impression.

“They have been cast out, ladies and gentlemen, and make no mistake, we will be the new InfoWars. Now we got to go through the machinations of the court, we’ve had some setbacks over past couple days, but that is not stopping us, that is not tempering our resolve. Over the next couple days or weeks, you will see much more coming out of this.”

Mocking Jones’ own celebration of the Texas court decision, Heidecker added, “This is merely a distraction by the courts. We knew this was gonna be coming, we prepared for it, we are continuing the fight. We have never been more resolved to seek restitution and justice for the Sandy Hook families.”

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Oil’s End Game and OPEC

@global.intel.ltr

The UAE’s move to dump OPEC is ultimately going to kick Americans in their wallet. #oil #oilprices #opec #explain #moneytok

♬ original sound – Global Intelligence Letter

FWIW:

Jeff D. Opdyke is an American financial writer and investment expert.

He spent 17 years covering personal finance and investing for The Wall Street Journal, worked as a trader and a hedge fund analyst, and has written 10 books on such topics as investing globally and personal finance.

UPDATE:
This piece above has gone viral, and was picked up for some further comment by Matt Randolph, aka “Mr Global”. Worthy extension to the discussion.

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Talarico Threading an Energy Needle in Oil Soaked Texas

Can relate.
I am constantly working, talking and interacting with Farmers and landowners from Deep Red rural Michigan.
They know exactly who I am, and they know we probably don’t agree on a number issues, but they have come to know that I keep showing up, I do what I say I’m going to do, and I’m there to help them get that wind turbine, or solar field on their land.
Talarico has a tall order, but he’s a talented guy, and has Texas Republicans running scared.

Houston Public Media:

Democratic state Rep. James Talarico is leading both of his prospective Republican opponents in two new polls of Texas’ U.S. Senate race — though he falls short of the 50% mark in both surveys, suggesting the contest remains tight.

A poll conducted by Texas Public Opinion Research from April 17-20 and published Tuesday found Talarico leading Sen. John Cornyn by three percentage points, 44% to 41%. The Austin Democrat leads Attorney General Ken Paxton by a margin of five percentage points, 46% to 41%. Both results fell within the margin of error of +/-2.5 percentage points. The survey included 1,865 likely general election voters. TPOR labels itself as a nonpartisan public opinion research group; it is directed by Democratic strategist Luke Warford. 

In a separate poll, the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin found Talarico ahead of Cornyn by seven points, 40% to 33%, and of Paxton by 8 points, 42% to 34%. The Texas Politics Project surveyed 1,200 registered voters from April 10 to 20 and produced a margin of error of +/-3.3 percentage points.

No Democrat has won a statewide race in Texas since 1994, and in recent cycles, polls have routinely offered rosy projections for the minority party that are not borne out in November.

Gas Price Blame Falls Heavily Right Where it Belongs

Above, CNN report on how much gasoline prices are expected to rise, and who is getting the blame. Good analysis of global oil supply status.
Catastrophe for the Republican Party and the fossil fuel industry. Heartland being hammered right now.

Below, Nobel Prize economist Paul Krugman on the price dominance of renewable energy.

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Models Still Tracking Strong El Niño

Jeff Berardelli is Chief Meteorologist at WFLA Tampa, and my former colleague at Yale Climate Connections.

Jeff Berardelli on X:

he strongest El Niño in 150 years? That’s not hype, it’s the actual median forecast right now for the developing event later this year. It could rival — or even surpass — the legendary 1877 El Niño, the strongest on record, which was linked to widespread drought, monsoon failure, and global food crises in parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. But what does that mean today? It means a tremendous amount of excess ocean heat being released into the atmosphere – energy that can rearrange weather patterns around the world. That typically leads to:

Increased flood risk in some regions

More intense/ prolonged heatwaves, drought and fires

A shift in severe storm tracks

And often a suppressed Atlantic hurricane season, but boosted in the East Pacific. Since it’s so huge, when the Pacific talks, the atmosphere listens! But this isn’t 1877… forecasting, infrastructure, and global awareness are far better today. We’ll be better prepared.

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Music Break: Harry Styles – Sign of the Times

Figures prominently in Project Hail Mary, which I just took a few hours to see.
Well worth the time.

Version from the film is below, I have the video set to start after about a 3 minute talky intro. It’s an emotional and spiritual high point of a film which is full of them.

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