Pacific Northwest Heat Wave
June 29, 2021
Washington Post: "By midafternoon the mercury spiked to 115 in Portland, 107 in Seattle and 117 in Salem, Ore. In an indication of the heat wave’s exceptional nature, the temperature in Oregon’s capital was just one degree below the all-time record for Las Vegas."
Biden's Infrastructure Plan
June 25, 2021
Michael Shellenberger: "The underlying reason for the failure of Biden’s ambitious climate plans is that progressives remain dogmatically pro-renewables and anti-nuclear."
The Machina
June 24, 2021
Euronews: "French company Hopium has designed a sleek hydrogen-fueled sports car that it hopes could take on Tesla in the zero-emissions vehicle race."
"Led by French racing driver Olivier Lombard, Hopium unveiled a prototype for its luxury car, the Machina, in June. The 100 per cent hydrogen-powered sedan has 500 horsepower and a range of 1,000 kilometers, the company claims."
"But prospective customers face a wait, as the car won't be available before 2025 at the earliest."
California Shutting Down Nuclear Generation While Facing an Energy Shortage
June 16, 2021
California ISO: "The California Independent System Operator (ISO), with extreme heat forecast for much of California and the Southwest, has issued a statewide Flex Alert to encourage electricity conservation tomorrow from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. to reduce stress on the grid and avoid power outages."
Utility Dive: "A large amount of carbon-free energy will come offline once the Diablo Canyon power plant retires, raising questions around how the state will replace it."
A New Environmentalism
June 14, 2021
A new environmentalism
- Does not settle for campaigns to impoverish our lives but strives to make natural resources abundantly and sustainably available,
- Avoids top-down regulatory approaches recognizing that one-size does not fit all,
- Recognizes that economically feasible solutions are essential tools for environmental preservation,
- Refuses to leave people, businesses, economies and communities degraded or destroyed in the name of environmental progress,
- Rejects calls to condition and hold hostage environmental sustainability to partisan political agendas,
- Recognizes that concern for environmental preservation is not the sole province of a select few visionaries but widely shared by people of all occupations, races and creeds.
Bill Gates on Nuclear Power
June 13, 2021
CNBC: "According to Gates, 'if we’re serious about solving climate change, and quite frankly we have to be, the first thing we should do is keep safe reactors operating.'”
"But 'even then, just maintaining that status quo is not enough. We need more nuclear power to zero out emissions in America and to prevent a climate disaster,' Gates said Wednesday."
Russia, China, Iran Will Offset Fossil Fuel Reductions in U.S.
June 10, 2021
Wall Street Journal: "Unless there is some technology breakthrough, demand for fossil fuels will continue to grow for decades. And Russia and China will take advantage of U.S. energy disarmament. Russian oil giant Rosneft warned last fall that retrenchment by U.S. and European companies would result in higher prices and shortages. 'Someone will need to step in,' Rosneft senior executive Didier Casimiro said."
"In November Rosneft announced a $170 billion oil and gas project in Russia’s north, which it claims can supply the entire world’s oil demand for a year. It says the project will become the world’s largest liquefied natural gas producer by 2030. Russia is also laying down thousands of miles of oil and gas pipelines to supply Europe and Asia."
Scooters Running on Hydrogen Cartridges
June 09, 2021
France: "Mob-ion scooters are powered by hydrogen. Like all other vehicles of this type - bicycles, cars, buses, trains, boats, planes, etc. - the coupling of hydrogen and a fuel cell produces the electrical energy which will power the engine. No noise, no greenhouse gas emissions like heat or combustion engines, but only water."
DOE Targets 80% Reduction in Cost of Green Hydrogen
June 08, 2021
U.S. DOE: "Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm today launched the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Earthshots Initiative, to accelerate breakthroughs of more abundant, affordable, and reliable clean energy solutions within the decade. The first Energy Earthshot—Hydrogen Shot—seeks to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% to $1 per kilogram in one decade."