Thursday, September 12, 2024
Methane cuts on track for 2030 emissions goal
This concern about methane is nonsense. Water vapour blocks all the frequencies that methane does so the presence of methane adds nothing
Australia’s methane emissions have decreased over the past two decades, according to a new report by a leading global carbon research group.
While the world’s methane emissions grew by 20 per cent, meaning two thirds of methane in the atmosphere is from human activity, Australasia and Europe emitted lower levels of the gas.
It puts Australia in relatively good stead, compared to 150 other signatories, to meet its non-binding commitments to the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to cut methane emissions by 30 per cent by the end of the decade.
The findings were revealed in the fourth global methane budget, published by the Global Carbon Project, with contributions from 66 research institutions around the world, including the CSIRO.
According to the report, agriculture contributed 40 per cent of global methane emissions from human activities, followed by the fossil fuel sector (34 per cent), solid waste and wastewater (19 per cent), and biomass and biofuel burning (7 per cent).
Pep Canadell, CSIRO executive director for the Global Carbon Project, said government policies and a smaller national sheep flock were the primary reasons for the lower methane emissions in Australasia.
“We have seen higher growth rates for methane over the past three years, from 2020 to 2022, with a record high in 2021. This increase means methane concentrations in the atmosphere are 2.6 times higher than pre-industrial (1750) levels,” Dr Canadell said.
The primary source of methane emissions in the agriculture sector is from the breakdown of plant matter in the stomachs of sheep and cattle.
It has led to controversial calls from some circles for less red meat consumption, outraging the livestock industry, which has lowered its net greenhouse gas emissions by 78 per cent since 2005 and is funding research into methane reduction.
Last week, the government agency advising Anthony Albanese on climate change suggested Australians could eat less red meat to help reduce emissions. And the government’s official dietary guidelines will be amended to incorporate the impact of certain foods on climate change.
There is ongoing disagreement among scientists and policymakers about whether there should be a distinction between biogenic methane emitted by livestock, which already exists in a balanced cycle in plants and soil and the atmosphere, and methane emitted from sources stored deep underground for millennia.
“The frustration is that methane, despite its source, gets lumped into one bag,” Cattle Australia vice-president Adam Coffey said. “Enteric methane from livestock is categorically different to methane from coal-seam gas or mining-related fossil fuels that has been dug up from where it’s been stored for millennia and is new to the atmosphere.
“Why are we ignoring what modern climate science is telling us, which is these emissions are inherently different?”
Mr Coffey said the methane budget report showed the intense focus on the domestic industry’s environmental credentials was overhyped.
“I think it’s based mainly on ideology and activism,” Mr Coffey said.
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Can a Closed Nuclear Power Plant From the ’70s Be Brought Back to Life?
When Michigan mothballed the Palisades nuclear power plant in 2022, the facility looked like a perfect relic of nuclear power’s 1970s heyday. Walls were painted salmon pink and pale green. Control panels had analog dials, manual switches and hundreds of lights that flash green or red to indicate on or off. The valves, levers and ductwork in the turbine room gave off a steampunk vibe.
Just two years later, the 53-year-old plant’s owners are implementing a historic decision to give it another go.
The federal government and the state of Michigan are spending nearly $2 billion to restart the reactor on the shores of Lake Michigan. When it reopens, Palisades will become the first decommissioned nuclear plant anywhere to be put back to work.
Driving the rethink: soaring demand for electricity from AI server farms, and billions on offer in state and federal loans and tax subsidies for nuclear energy in infrastructure and green power investment programs. Data centers alone are projected to account for 8% of U.S. electricity demand by 2030, up from around 3% in 2022, according to an April report by Goldman Sachs.
For years, it’s been cheaper to generate electricity with natural gas, and big sections of the public have been uncomfortable with nuclear power, after devastating accidents at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, Chernobyl in Ukraine and Fukushima in Japan.
That feeling has shifted, with a revived understanding of nuclear energy as green power that could add to renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and hydropower. Nuclear-produced electricity is also seen as more consistent than wind or solar.
Stricter state and federal emissions laws have added costs to fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal, and the financial support from Washington and states has helped shift the balance toward nuclear.
Last year, the state of Georgia fired up two brand new reactors at its Vogtle complex, aided in part by up to $12 billion in federal loan guarantees. Earlier this year, Bill Gates, the former head of Microsoft, broke ground on a next-generation nuclear plant in Wyoming.
Utilities have asked regulators to extend the licenses of 14 aging reactors in the past year. Nearly all of the nation’s 94 operating reactors have already had their licenses extended once, to 60 years, and two have been extended to 80 years—twice as long as the original licenses.
While nuclear plants in some countries have temporarily closed for repairs or for economic reasons and then been turned back on, no other reactor has begun the decommissioning process and then been restarted, according to the World Nuclear Association, a nuclear industry trade group based in London.
Some say reviving decommissioned plants is a faster and less expensive way to add to energy capacity. Building a new plant could take more than a decade, while the Palisades reopening is targeted for October 2025, around a year and a half after the restart process began. And the process of creating electricity from nuclear energy hasn’t fundamentally changed. Palisades’ owners believe the plant can reopen and operate for at least another 25 years.
There are 22 nuclear reactors undergoing decommissioning in the U.S., a process that itself can take decades to complete, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A handful of those reactors, such as Three Mile Island’s Unit No. 1—the undamaged reactor next to the unit that partially melted down in 1979 in America’s worst nuclear accident—might be suitable to reopen, according to industry officials.
https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/biden-nuclear-power-plant-loan-michigan-eee64904
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India Accentuates Coal Reliance in its New Economic Policy Brief
Most discussions of India’s annual budget are being dominated by the increased taxation of the middle class. But many media entities—both in India and the West—overlooked the country’s decision to increase its coal consumption.
An economic survey released as a prelude to the financial budget often indicates the country’s future direction in various areas of governance, including energy and environment. This year’s survey—like those in the previous years—clearly indicates that the country will neither reduce its consumption of coal nor back away from its commitment to the economic development that requires affordable and plentiful energy for hundreds of millions of people.
Future is Coal
Coal dominates India’s energy landscape, comprising over 55% of the nation’s primary commercial supply. In the power sector, coal’s role is even more pronounced, with coal-fired plants generating approximately 70% of India’s electricity. It is also a critical source for various manufacturers, including those of steel, sponge iron, cement and paper.
With the country’s energy demand projected to at least double by 2047, the survey makes clear that coal will remain the backbone of India’s energy mix for an extended period.
“Despite being one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, India’s annual per capita carbon emission is only about one-third of the global average,” said the survey in an apparent rejection of Western criticisms of Indian emissions of carbon dioxide, the bogeyman of climate extremists.
In addition, the survey says, “India’s dependence on petroleum imports should not be replaced by dependence on solar photovoltaic panel imports.” It recommended a balanced response to climate change and criticized policies making reduction of emissions a top priority at the expense of development.
The Indian government also took the opportunity to criticize carbon import taxes levied on its products by the European Union. The survey points out the hypocrisy of developed nations criticizing India’s CO2 emissions while simultaneously increasing their own emissions and fossil fuel consumption. This paradoxical behavior is labeled a “comedy.”
No Way but Coal
At 35 quadrillion Btu (British Thermal Units), India’s primary energy consumption is the third highest in the world. The country is also the third biggest consumer of electricity. As the world’s fifth-largest economy and home to over 1.4 billion people, India’s energy consumption is projected to more than double by 2040. The International Energy Agency forecasts that India will account for nearly one-quarter of global energy demand growth from 2019 to 2040.
Recent data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) shows that coal-fired power generation has been steadily increasing. In the fiscal year 2022-23, coal-based power plants generated 1,043 billion units of electricity, about 10% more than the previous year.
This upward trend has continued into 2023-24, with coal power generation reaching 919 billion units in just the first eight months of the fiscal year. In fact, CEA has said that coal will continue to be the dominant source of power generation at 54% by 2030.
The rate of growth in the production of coal in the country during the past three years has been the New coal mine approvals earlier this year not only boosted production but also generated 40,560 jobs.
India’s enthusiasm for coal is driven by several factors: abundant domestic coal reserves, the need for reliable and affordable energy to fuel industrial growth and concerns about energy security. The significant budget allocations for coal production, infrastructure, and technology reflect a pragmatic approach to meeting the nation’s growing energy demands and supporting its ambitious economic goals.
The only sensible thing left for India to do is stop wasting time and resources on so-called renewables so as not to jeopardize its energy security. Besides, not even an unprecedented increase in wind and solar capacity would dethrone coal as the primary energy source.
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California County activists oppose offshore wind projects. So they’re taking fight to national level
There’s a new national group fighting offshore wind development — and you may recognize some of their members.
Two San Luis Obispo County anti-offshore wind activists have founded an organization called NOOA, the National Offshore-wind Opposition Alliance. So far, the group includes at least seven environmental and fishing organizations from the East and West coasts, according to President Mandy Davis.
“As a united alliance, we will have a more powerful voice with greater opportunity for public engagement, media visibility and potential for having a voice in our government’s direction on the efficacy of offshore wind,” Davis wrote in an email to The Tribune.
The group opposes any offshore wind development in the Great Lakes or the ocean, she said.
Davis also founded the local non-profit REACT Alliance, which formed to fight offshore turbines planned for the 376-square-mile Morro Bay Wind Energy Area about 20 miles away from Cambria and San Simeon.
Though Davis serves as the president of both organizations, the groups have separate purposes: one to fight offshore wind development locally and the other nationally.
NOOA will educate the public about the impact of offshore wind while fighting for restrictions on development.
“We need to share resources, we need to share information, we need to come together so we have a much larger and much more powerful voice with the media, with government, with the public,” Davis said Wednesday. “It’s simple — there is power in numbers.”
Davis intentionally gave the organization a similar name to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, she said.
“It was done as a bit of a poke at NOAA,” Davis said. “The majority of us that are working to fight offshore wind feel that NOAA isn’t protecting our oceans — especially as it relates to offshore wind.”
The National Offshore-wind Opposition Alliance has had two meetings so far, according to Davis.
Group membership includes REACT Alliance, Protect the Coast Pacific Northwest, the Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization, Green Oceans, Protect Our Coast New Jersey, Protect Our Coast Long Island New York and the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, Davis said.
“We are growing on a daily basis,” she said.
The group is governed by nine board members, including Davis and local attorney and Cafe Roma owner Saro Rizzo.
The alliance will not accept donations from the fossil fuel industry or advocate for other energy sources, Davis said. The group will apply to form a non-profit, she said.
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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