California Clean Energy Committee

March 07, 2024

Washington Post:  "Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid."

August 13, 2023

May 22, 2023

Råvarumarknaden.se: "Danish nuclear power is to produce 1 million tons of carbon dioxide-free fertilizer per year in Indonesia."

May 21, 2023

Smithsonian:  "There is a very well-funded, well-orchestrated climate change-denial movement, one funded by powerful people with very deep pockets. In a new and incredibly thorough study, Drexel University sociologist Robert Brulle took a deep dive into the financial structure of the climate deniers, to see who is holding the purse strings.

"According to Brulle's research, the 91 think tanks and advocacy organizations and trade associations that make up the American climate denial industry pull down just shy of a billion dollars each year, money used to lobby or sway public opinion on climate change and other issues. (The grand total also includes funds used to support initiatives unrelated to climate change denial, as explained in a quote Brulle gave to The Guardian: 'Since the majority of the organizations are multiple focus organizations, not all of this income was devoted to climate change activities.'”

March 23, 2023

Wall Street Journal: "The world is facing an imminent risk of a global water crisis, a United Nations agency warned in a report that casts a dim view of government cooperation on the issue.

"Around two billion people, roughly 26% of the world population, don’t have access to safe drinking water, according to a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization report published Wednesday. An additional 3.6 billion people, or 46%, lack access to safely managed sanitation, it said.

“'There is an urgent need to establish strong international mechanisms to prevent the global water crisis from spiraling out of control,' Unesco Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in the report, which is part of the U.N.’s Water Conference 2023 in New York City this week."

March 06, 2023

Grid Brief:  "French lawmakers have voted to scrap the 50% legal limit on nuclear power in the country's total energy mix, as part of the nation's efforts to build newer, more modern nuclear plants."

February 27, 2023

Wall Street Journal:  "The warnings keep coming that the force-fed energy transition to renewable fuels is destabilizing the U.S. electric grid, but is anyone in government paying attention? Another S.O.S. came Friday in an ominous report from PJM Interconnection, one of the nation’s largest grid operators.

"The PJM report forecasts power supply and demand through 2030 across the 13 eastern states in its territory covering 65 million people. Its top-line conclusion: Fossil-fuel power plants are retiring much faster than renewable sources are getting developed, which could lead to energy “imbalances.” That’s a delicate way of saying that you can expect shortages and blackouts."

February 19, 2023

Washington Post:  "Water levels in the nation’s second-largest reservoir dropped to a record low last week, raising the alarm that major changes are on the way for the seven states — and millions of Americans — relying on that system, experts say.

"Lake Powell, a man-made reservoir that sits along the Colorado River on the Arizona-Utah border, generates electricity for about 4.5 million people. It is also a key part of the Colorado River Basin system, which supplies water to more than 40 million people. As of last week, its water levels fell to 3,522 feet above sea level, which is the lowest seen since the structure was filled in the 1960s. It’s now just 22 percent full, and unprecedented cuts in states’ water usage are necessary to avoid dire consequences. . . .

"At 3,370 feet, the reservoir becomes a “dead pool,” meaning water may be unable to flow downstream at all, cutting states off. 'Lake Powell water is about a quarter of the water in the Los Angeles Basin. It supplies water to 90 percent of people in Las Vegas. It supplies water to about half of Phoenix. It supplies water that produces most of your winter vegetables,' Udall said."

February 15, 2023

B.F. Randall: "It is the Japanese that really put the lie to the claim that nuclear has to be slow. They built 60 plants between 1970 and 2009, Figure 5. The median build time was 3.8 years, which is about the time it takes to build a big coal plant."

February 14, 2023

Jack Devanney: "In the boom of the early 70's, nuclear lost control of its costs, as did coal. This was accompanied by regulatory attempts to ensure we would never have a release of radioactive material. These attempts led to ALARA, the regulatory principle that any exposure to radiation is unacceptable if the plant can afford to reduce it further. In other words, there are no limits. And the criterion is not whether the benefits of the reduction, if any, outweigh the costs. The criterion is: can the plant afford it? ALARA mandated the regulator to force the cost of nuclear power at least up to the cost of its competitors. ALARA quickly priced nuclear out of business. In the USA, new nuclear plant ordering dried up in 1975. This was four years before Three Mile Island, and a time during which nuclear power enjoyed strong public support."