Climate change is really all about money
And all negotiations are just about who is going to pay and how much.
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Secondary effects, AC makers, and utilities living large
It’s a great time for air conditioner manufacturers. It’s generally getting hotter, so people are using more air conditioning, stressing electrical grids like never before. The world added an estimated 1 billion air conditioner units since 2005, and w
Neat-o Stuff! Mines, French Nuclear, and Boiling Oceans
Elon Musk is lobbying utility companies, the French want to call nuclear "green", and the oceans are getting unexpectedly hot, real fast.
Should we call it The Big Orange?
Last year’s smoky skies in San Francisco were scary, but we’ve pretty much inured ourselves to Western wildfires, so a smoke choked New York seems especially frightening
Phoenix hits water limits; Climate negotiators pre-game in Bonn
This week and next is the important pre-meeting in Bonn, Germany, where staff meet to determine topics for COP28. And more than anything, money and financial responsibilities seem to be the key topics for this year.
The utilities' caps on solar’s growth and the accountants' last word on climate change
Solar power, along with all forms of electricity, is highly regulated and largely captured by utility companies, who often have more state capital lobbyists than anyone else.
Non-transparent carbon neutrality and the hydrogen rainbow
In theory, carbon offsets create a market economy for firms that help the environment, while allowing companies that are bad at the environment but good at making money to keep doing what they do best.
When you get big EV sales, you get mo’ EV problems
A recent California state study found that to keep up with electricity demand from an expected 13.5 million EVs, the state will need to add $50 billion of grid upgrades by 2035 to keep up.
Is geothermal basically fracking for green electricity?
Fracking is pretty straightforward. You drill two holes about a mile or two down, pump in some slurry through one hole, and then capture the oil and methane gas that comes out of the other hole. It turns out, geothermal energy, a carbon neutral method of
Is nuclear power green? If it isn’t, is it better than fossil?
Only two nuclear plants have opened since 2000, and since then 13 others have been shuttered. Of course nuclear power creates radioactive waste that lasts 10,000 years, that’s kind of a problem.
The U.S. rolls out tough carbon emissions rules that could shut thousands of power plants
Earlier this morning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled draft rules that would push all existing coal-fired plants in the U.S. by 2040 to either close, shift to cleaner fuel or capture their carbon dioxide emissions at the smokestack.
India prepares to wean off coal, while American transmission clogs up
After China, India has the second largest coal-fired base of electricity, with an additional 28 gigawatts of capacity under construction or in planning stages. But Reuters reports the country’s cabinet has voted to cap future coal power generation once
The problem with confidence and solving climate change
For any new skill or project, the beginner launches in, brimming with confidence. But inevitably, they discover that really, they don’t know anything.
Hurricanes are crashing Gulf-area homeowners insurance, and carbon capture is expensive
Although hurricane season is over, the Louisiana and Florida homeowner’s insurance markets are an ongoing disaster, with over a dozen insurance companies going insolvent in the two states.
California wants zero-emission trucks and trains, and solar panels are getting political
California, as it tends to do, is surging ahead of the country by banning sales of new diesel big rigs by 2036, by requiring all trucks to be zero emissions by 2042, and all new locomotives operating in the state to be zero emissions by 2035.
Hacks whacks tax, and costs for EVs down while PVs up.
EV prices are dropping in the U.S., while solar installation breakeven times are taking longer.