Why Are Massive Amounts of the World’s Most Potent Greenhouse Gas Being Ferried Out into the Ocean off the Eastern Seaboard?
If there’s anything Big Wind doesn’t like to talk about it’s sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).
It is universally agreed that SF6 is the most potent and devastating greenhouse gas yet known. This manmade fluorinated compound does not exist in nature. Used as an insulator in high- and medium-voltage switchgear in the electrical industry, once released, this long-lasting compound lives on in the atmosphere for a very long time -- having a half-life of 3,200 years, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
As pointed out by ecos, an environmental organization based in Brussels, in its report, “Worst in class,” SF6 will remain 25,200 times more effective at trapping infrared radiation than an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide for over a century. However, “its growth and use continue virtually unabated.”
Enter offshore wind.
Used in the switchgear (a collection of voltage-regulating tools) of both wind turbines and offshore and onshore substations, SF6 will be utilized in all the wind-energy projects in various stages of development that will effectively fence in the East Coast from Maine to North Carolina.
Even the EPA doesn’t have a handle on what’s going on with Big Wind and SF6. In 2023 the agency contracted with a company to provide an “assessment” to help the agency in “seeking a better understanding…” of SF6 use in offshore wind.
As for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the lead federal agency for all the proposed turbine lease areas, it, too, would rather not have to answer to the public over the use of SF6. So much so that in the draft Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS (which was open to public comment) for the Atlantic Shores South project, the agency stated that “BOEM would require Atlantic Shores to use switchgear that does not contain SF6 but uses alternative insulating materials and technologies to eliminate leakage of SF6 as a source of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions.”
But that wasn’t exactly true.
The final EIS, issued by BOEM in May of 2024 included a comment* from Atlantic Shores, stating that the BOEM-proposed measure of SF6-free switchgear “…is not technically or economically feasible,” and “Atlantic Shores requests that BOEM revise these proposed mitigation measures to remove the requirement for SF6-free switchgear…”
And BOEM complied, even offering an apology of sorts in its response that the measure was “erroneously included,” and has been “removed.” To cover its tracks, BOEM revised its language now saying Atlantic Shores won’t use SF6 “to the extent practicable based on technical, economic, and supply chain considerations.” (It should be noted that the final EIS is not open to public comment.)
Don’t Look Up
So just how much of this radiation-trapping gas will be used in these different projects?
Consulting the assessment prepared for the EPA that reviewed the permit applications for just six offshore lease areas reveals worrying numbers.
For example, Vineyard Wind 1, with 62 planned turbines 13 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, expects to use 11,949 pounds of SF6 in its offshore equipment.
Revolution Wind, 15 nautical miles southeast of Point Judith, Rhode Island will use a total of 40,925 pounds of SF6 among its onshore and offshore substations, and in each of the 65 planned turbines.
And within prime viewing distance of Long Beach Island -- 8.7 miles offshore at the closest point -- are the Atlantic Shores lease areas. According to BOEM, both Atlantic Shores projects (north and south), which will consist of up to 200 mammoth wind turbines rising to over 1,000 feet, will utilize more than 47,000 pounds of SF6 in offshore substations.
Despite measures to keep this GHG from escaping, “leak rates” are fully expected during normal operations and maintenance of 0.5 to 1% per year. That, of course, is assuming that there are no accidental releases such as what happened at the Seagreen offshore wind area in the North Sea. Twenty-four pounds of SF6 leaked during routine work in 2022, resulting in the evacuation of 80 workers. While 24 pounds doesn’t sound like much, the EPA warns that a “relatively small amount can “have a significant impact on global climate change.” And even if SF6 use goes uneventfully, BOEM expects emission rates over the lifetime of the two Atlantic Shores projects to be 5.9 U.S. tons. (PDF page 45 at link.)
But the EPA has rules about using this gas, right?
In 2023 an air permit “fact sheet” was issued by EPA Region 1 for Sunrise Wind (30 miles east of Montauk, N.Y.). The agency stated that despite SF6-free switchgear now being manufactured by Siemens and General Electric, most are only suitable for the European Union and Asian markets, and one made by Siemens that does operate on U.S. electrical standards is too big and heavy for offshore wind use.
The EPA did, however, request that repairs of leaky SF6 switchgear be fixed within five “days of discovery.” But even that was shot down by Sunrise Wind, saying that “a precise timeline for repair of SF6 leaks” is not possible. We’ve got potential “adverse weather” and “mobilization logistics” to contend with, it noted. This is an “offshore location” after all.
Regardless of how many federal agencies write memos and fact sheets about this compound, which is rated as having the highest global warming potential of all greenhouse gasses, it’s unlikely that the public will ever learn about leaks or accidents releasing SF6 from these wind energy projects.
And no matter how “green” they try to paint offshore wind, there’s no getting around the fact that it’s an environmental disaster that will only succeed in making certain companies (mostly foreign) a whole lot of green paper.
https://lindabonvie.substack.com/p/why-will-thousands-of-pounds-of-the
**********************************************Waging War on Modern Agriculture and Global Nutrition
The World Economic Forum says the world faces a new crisis, “One-third of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions come from food production.” With the world’s population expected to reach 10 billion people by 2050, it is therefore “urgent” that we launch a “radical” and “comprehensive” transformation of the global food system – from “reinventing” farming to “reimagining” how food is produced, processed, distributed, consumed and disposed of.
Reinforcing this message, Stop Ecocide Now founder Jojo Mehta expanded on Greta Thunberg’s incendiary 2020 rant that “our house is on fire and you’re fueling the flames.” Farming is a “serious crime,” equal to “genocide,” Ms. Mehta told elites at the 2024 WEF meeting in Davos.
Their grasp of agriculture is epitomized by Michael Bloomberg’s suggestion that anybody can be a farmer: “You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, you add water, up comes the corn.”
Modern farming and its supposedly dangerous greenhouse gas emissions are a tad more complicated.
Modern mechanized farming employs oil derivatives as fuel for equipment and feed stocks for herbicides and pesticides, natural gas to dry grain and make fertilizers, and livestock to provide protein.
Tractors, trucks, farmers and livestock emit carbon dioxide, adding to the 0.04% of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere (equivalent to $40 of $100,000). Cattle emissions add methane to the existing 0.0002% CH4 in the atmosphere (20¢ of $100,000). Nitrogen fertilizers add to the “dramatic” 200-year rise in atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O), bringing it to a still minuscule 0.00003% (that’s 3¢ of $100,000).
These emissions allegedly drive “cataclysmic” climate change and extreme weather, endangering all life on Earth. But then what caused five Ice Ages (including the Pleistocene Era and its mile-high glaciers, which ended 12,000 years ago), the Roman and Medieval Warm Periods, and the Little Ice Age (1350-1850) to come and go?
Of course, natural forces can’t drive climate hysteria and WEF-Gore-Biden anti-fossil-fuel agendas. Fear-mongering political, activist, media and academic elites therefore ignore them.
In the Real World, the wondrous reality is that, after centuries of excruciatingly slow progress, agricultural advances over the past 75 years have been nothing short of astonishing. Dr. Norman Borlaug’s Green Revolution employed plant breeding techniques that multiplied yields of vital grain crops, saving hundreds of millions of lives.
Since 1950, American farmers increased per-acre corn yields by an incredible 500% and other crop yields by smaller but still amazing amounts – while using used less land, water and fuel … and fewer fertilizers and pesticides per ton of produce. Their exports helped slash global hunger and malnutrition even further.
Meanwhile, despite supposed impacts from manmade climate change, farmers in Brazil, India and many other countries have also enjoyed record harvests.
Multiple miracle technologies contributed. Hybrid seeds combine valuable traits from different related plants. Biotech seeds protect crops against voracious insects and destructive viruses, while reducing water and pesticide demand. Virus-resistant biotech cultivars have even replaced endangered papayas in Hawaii, cassava and bananas in Africa, and other crops.
Nitrogen (ammonia) fertilizers, synthesized from natural gas and atmospheric nitrogen, have joined phosphorus and potassium in supercharging soils. Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide spurs plant growth and reduces water demand even further.
Long-lasting herbicides control weeds that would otherwise steal moisture and nutrients from crops – and enable farmers to utilize no-till farming that avoids breaking up soils, reduces erosion, retains soil moisture and preserves vital soil organisms.
Technologies developed in Israel make it possible to grow an amazing array of crops in the Negev and Arava Deserts, which receive a fraction of the annual rainfall that Arizona gets. Desalination plants turn seawater into 80% of Israel’s drinking water, dramatically reducing pressure on the Sea of Galilee, manmade reservoirs and groundwater supplies.
Israelis then recycle 90% of their home, business, school and hospital water – for use in agriculture, where drip irrigation delivers precise amounts of water precisely where crops and other plants need it, minimizing evaporation.
Huge high-tech tractors use GPS systems, sensors and other equipment to steer precise courses across fields, while constantly measuring soil composition, and injecting just the right kinds and amounts of fertilizers and herbicides, along with seeds, to ensure optimal harvests.
Not all these technologies are available across the globe. However, farmer can access information about both the technologies and the modern practices through online libraries and programs on cell phones.
Instead, this progress is under assault – by ill-advised or ill-intended, but well-funded organizations that want to turn the Green Revolution into Green Tyranny, Eco-Imperialism and global malnutrition.
Their hatred of biotech crops is intense and well-documented. But many also despise hybrid seeds. They want modern herbicides and insecticides banned, in favor of “natural” alternatives – which are often toxic to bees, fish, other animals and people and have not been tested for long-term harm to humans.
These agricultural anarchists also demand “natural” fertilizers, which typically provide a fraction of the nutrients that modern synthetic fertilizers do. At the very least, they want global organic farming, which would mean much lower crop yields per acre than conventional farming, and plowing many millions of additional acres of wildlife habitat and scenic land, to get the same amounts of food.
They say people in Africa, Asia and Latin America should practice subsistence farming – which they prefer to call “traditional” farming, Agro-Ecology, “food sovereignty,” or the “right to choose” “culturally appropriate” food produced through “ecologically sound and sustainable methods,” based on “indigenous agricultural knowledge and practices.”
In plain English, Agro-Ecology is rabidly opposed to biotechnology, monoculture farming, non-organic fertilizers, chemical pesticides, and even mechanized equipment and hybrid seeds.
You can imagine how Agro-Ecologists would react if African farmers wanted to assert their food sovereignty, self-determination and right to choose by planting biotech Bt corn, to get higher yields, reduce pesticide use, enjoy better living standards and send their kids to school. The agro-anarchists would vilify them as vile supporters of violence against women, land-grabbing corporations, expropriation of indigenous rights, genocide and other “crimes against humanity.”
They also promote “alternative protein.” They say Africa would be “the perfect laboratory” for testing new foods – such as “crackers, muffins, meat loaves and sausages” made from lake flies. In fact, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Popular Science magazine and many other outfits extol the virtues of “entomophagy” – the clever progressive term for eating bug burgers, instead of hamburgers.
They even offer recipes and techniques for processing “edible insects” into tasty, nutritious products that can improve diets and livelihoods, create thriving local businesses, and even promote inclusion of women. In fact, they say, bugs can have twice as much protein per pound as beef; grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, beetles, ants and cicadas make great snacks, desserts, guacamole and even entire meals; and mealworms have “an earthy flavor, similar to mushrooms,” making them excellent additions to brownies. Sautéed with a little salt, mealworms also make “protein-boosted potato chips.” Yummy!
Who are these guys – these agriculture and nutrition anarchists and revolutionaries? Stay tuned.
https://heartland.org/opinion/waging-war-on-modern-agriculture-and-global-nutrition/
****************************************Italy approves decree banning installation of solar panels on agricultural land
The Italian government approved a decree that will ban the installation of solar panels on agricultural ground, local media reported on Monday, citing officials.
Italian Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida said the ban on solar panels would only apply to productive agricultural land, as quarries would still be allowed to be used for energy production. However, EU-funded projects will be exempt from the ban.
With the decree, 'we put an end to the wild installation of photovoltaic panels on the ground,” Italy's ANSA news agency reported Lollobrigida as saying.
The decree is part of a bigger package of measures to protect farming and fisheries, according to ANSA.
The move comes after energy and climate ministers of the G7 countries, including Italy, agreed last week to end the use of “unabated” coal by 2035 and committed to the implementation of the global goal of tripling installed renewable energy capacity by 2030 to at least 11 terawatts.
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World’s Most Populous Nation Has Put Solar Out To Pasture. Other Countries Should Follow Suit
During his debate with former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden claimed: “The only existential threat to humanity is climate change.” What if I told you that it is not climate change but climate policies that are the real existential threat to billions across our planet?
The allure of a green utopia masks the harsh realities of providing affordable and reliable electricity. Americans could soon wake up to a dystopian future if the proposed Net Zero and Build Back Better initiatives — both aimed at an illogical proliferation of unreliable renewables and a clamp down on dependable fossil fuels — are implemented.
Nowhere is this better reflected than in remote regions of India where solar panels — believed to provide clean and green energy — ultimately resulted in being used to construct cattle sheds.
The transformation of Dharnai in the state of Bihar into a “solar village” was marked by great enthusiasm and high expectations. Villagers were told the solar micro-grid would provide reliable electricity for agriculture, social activities and daily living. The promise engendered a naïve trust in a technology that has failed repeatedly around the world.
The news of this Greenpeace initiative quickly spread as international news media showcased it as a success story for “renewable” energy in a third world country. CNN International’s “Connect the World” said Dharnai’s micro-grid provided a continuous supply of electricity. For an unaware viewer sitting in, say, rural Kentucky, solar energy would have appeared to be making great strides as a dependable energy source.
But the Dharnai system would end up on the long list of grand solar failures.
“As soon as we got solar power connections, there were also warnings to not use high power electrical appliances like television, refrigerator, motor and others,” said a villager. “These conditions are not there if you use thermal power. Then what is the use of such a power? The solar energy tariff was also higher compared to thermal power.”
A village shopkeeper said: “But after three years, the batteries were exhausted and it was never repaired. … No one uses solar power anymore here.” Hopefully, the solar panels will last longer as shelter for cows.
Eventually, the village was connected to the main grid, which provided fully reliable coal-powered electricity at a third of the price of the solar power.
Dharnai is not an isolated case. Several other large-scale solar projects in rural India have had a similar fate. Writing for the publication Mongabay, Mainsh Kumar said: “Once (grid) electricity reaches unelectrified villages, the infrastructure and funds used in installation of such off-grid plants could prove futile.”
While green nonprofits and the liberal mainstream media have the embarrassment of a ballyhooed solar project being converted to cattle sheds, conventional energy sources like coal continue to power India’s more than 1.3 billion people and the industries their economies depend on.
India saw a record jump in electricity demand this year, partly due to increased use of air conditioning units and other electrical appliances as more of the population achieved the financial wherewithal to afford them. During power shortages, coal often has come to the rescue. India allows its coal plants to increase coal stockpiles and import additional fuel without restrictions.
India will add more than 15 gigawatts in the year ending March 2025 (the most in nine years) and aims to add a total of 90 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity by 2032.
Energy reality is inescapable in a growing economy like India’s, and only sources such as coal, oil and natural gas can meet the demand. Fossil fuels can be counted on to supply the energy necessary for modern life, and “green” sources cannot.
India’s stance is to put economic growth ahead of any climate-based agenda to reduce the use of fossil fuels. This was reaffirmed when the country refused to set an earlier target for its net zero commitment, delaying it until 2070.
The story of Dharnai serves as a cautionary tale for the implementation of renewable energy projects in rural India, where pragmatism is the official choice over pie in the sky.
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All my main blogs below:
http://jonjayray.com/covidwatch.html (COVID WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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