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Obama’s Bipolar Approach To Energy And Climate Change
Obama’s Bipolar Approach To Energy And Climate Change
With less than two years to go in office, President Obama has already sealed his fate with regards to his legacy on climate change.
When historians look back and assess his actions on what could be one of the biggest issues of his presidency, they will undoubtedly be using the term “disappointing” quite a bit.
The main problem is not that he has ignored the issue as his predecessor, President George W. Bush, did; it is that he has consistently said one thing about the threat of climate change and then done the exact opposite of what he has called for.
When he was first running for president, Obama made it clear that his approach to energy was an “all of the above” platform that included coal, renewables, oil, natural gas, and even nuclear. This was his way of trying to appease both the fossil fuel interests and those of us who understand that renewable energy is what’s needed to protect the planet.
It isn’t unique for politicians to backtrack on campaign promises. In fact, that is the status quo for the most part, and when you take into consideration the fact that Obama was very up front with us about his energy policy, we cannot accuse him of being dishonest in this situation.
But what is unique in this situation is President Obama’s constant public reminders that climate change is a threat to the United States, proclamations that are typically followed by an anti-environment executive action.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Energy round-up: tectonic shifts
Energy round-up: tectonic shifts
Photo credit: 
gnuckx
Three things you shouldn’t miss this week
- Chart: Is the global economy becoming less energy intensive?
Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2015
- Article: Fossil fuel divestment is rational, says former Shell chairman – Mark Moody-Stuart is also worried about the lack of industry progress in addressing climate change.
- Article: BP sees ‘tectonic shift’ in world energy production – Energy consumption slows dramatically as China cutback and Opec battle US shale drillers.
This week the latest edition of the BP Statistical Review of World Energynoted two important trends.
- Renewables are still the fastest growing source of global energy
In 2014 global energy consumption growth fell to its lowest level since 1998: even better is that renewables made up 30% of that growth. While this is positive, the scale of the challenge can’t be underestimated: BP’s report shows that renewables still contribute just 3% of global primary energy.
Indeed, a new report from the IEA this week called for more policy support for the sector because the current rate of progress is not fast enough to meet the 2°C climate target. For the same reason, a group of scientists and economists led by Sir David King, former chief scientific advisor to the UK government, called for an Apollo-style mission to make renewable power cheaper than coal within a decade.
- Global greenhouse gas emissions growth has slowed to 0.5%
However, the emissions figures aren’t as positive as the IEA’s preliminary estimates which showed 2014 emissions stalling at 2013 levels. While it’s encouraging to see emissions growth starting to slow, we mustn’t forget that what we really need is a rapid decrease overall.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Renewable Energy Will Not Support Economic Growth
Renewable Energy Will Not Support Economic Growth
Container terminal image via shutterstock. Reproduced at Resilience.org with permission.
The world needs to end its dependence on fossil fuels as quickly as possible. That’s the only sane response to climate change, and to the economic dilemma of declining oil, coal, and gas resource quality and increasing extraction costs. The nuclear industry is on life support in most countries, so the future appears to lie mostly with solar and wind power. But can we transition to these renewable energy sources and continue using energy the way we do today? And can we maintain our growth-based consumer economy?
“Green” Policies Don’t Make Economic Sense Even on Their Own Terms
“Green” Policies Don’t Make Economic Sense Even on Their Own Terms
When confronting the typical proponents of “green” government policies, the free-market economist must make a 
strategic decision: Since most of these recommended (and often, actually implemented) State measures make no sense even on their own terms, one course of action is to stipulate the alleged goals and simply point out that the policies do not achieve them.
However, the danger with such concessions “for the sake of argument” is that the interventionists can then say, “So you agree with us that the free market, left to its own devices, will drive humanity over a cliff, and now we’re all just quibbling over the details.” That’s why it’s also important to stress that the underlying fearmongering is baseless, too.
In the present blog post, I’ll move through the spectrum of possible responses. First, Ross McKitrick–who wrote a graduate-level textbook on the economic analysis of environmental policy–has a new study for the Canadian Fraser Institute, critiquing Canadian “green” regulations that make no sense on their own terms.
Specifically, McKitrick shows that if we stipulate for the sake of argument that (say) Canadians are emitting too much carbon dioxide, then the proper policy response would directly target CO2 emissions. So even if you thought this were a worthy objective, it would still be ludicrous (McKitrick argues) to ban 100W incandescent light bulbs–especially in Canada, where most of the electricity is generated through hydro and nuclear.
Similarly, direct mandates on “energy efficiency” in household appliances are also absurd. The government is playing “central planner,” telling Canadians how to achieve reductions in CO2 emissions which any textbook will say is a very costly way to achieve targeted emission reductions. (Naturally, the U.S. federal and state governments have similarly absurd regulations.)
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Revolution? More like a crawl
Revolution? More like a crawl
The energy visionary Vaclav Smil — Bill Gates’s favorite author — says that when our leaders promise quick energy transformations, they’re getting it very wrong.
America in 2015 finds itself almost in a new energy reality. It recently became the world’s second–largest extractor of crude oil, and since 2010 has been the leading producer of natural gas, whose abundant and inexpensive supply has been accelerating the retreat from coal as a national source of electric power.
Some see this as the beginning of an even bigger transition, one in which America’s dominant status as a producer of hydrocarbons ends its allies’ dependence on Russian gas and makes OPEC terminally irrelevant, while its entrepreneurial drive helps it quickly advance to harness renewables and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
All of this sounds too good to be true — and it is. Indefensible claims of imminent transformative breakthroughs are an unfortunately chronic ingredient of American energy debates.
When American leaders talk about energy transitions, they tend to sell them as something that can be accomplished in a matter of years. Al Gore, perhaps the country’s most prominent climate activist, proposed to “re-power” America, making its electricity carbon-free, within 10 years, calling the goal “achievable, affordable and transformative.” That was in 2008, when fossil fuels produced 71 percent of American electricity; last year 67 percent still came from burning fossil fuels.
President Barack Obama, who has a strong rhetorical dislike of oil — although kerosene distilled from it fuels the 747 that carries him to play golf in Hawaii — promised in his 2011 State of the Union message that the country would have 1 million electric cars by 2015. That goal was abandoned by the Department of Energy just two years later.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
No Climate Protection without Climate Justice; No Climate Justice without Degrowth
No Climate Protection without Climate Justice; No Climate Justice without Degrowth
Shortly before the most crucial UN climate change conference after the failure of Copenhagen, it seems that the international climate-movement is finally getting its act together: resistance against fossil fuel extraction is gaining ground and a rising global movement is putting pressure on institutions to divest their money from fossil fuels to finance renewables instead. Green jobs in the renewable energy sector have been a success story and it is broadly accepted that we need to keep 80% of the known fossil fuel reserves in the ground if we want to prevent runaway climate change. Last year, more than 400 000 people flooded the streets of New York City in the largest climate march in history and, as the global development of renewable energy increases in scale and efficiency, people are starting to believe in a transition away from fossil fuel dependency.
This is of course good news, and nobody concerned about climate change would seriously doubt that the global transition towards renewable energy is an absolute necessity. However, much as right-wing conservatives, mostly in the US, deny anthropogenic climate change, the majority of the climate movement tends to deny an equally important issue: that renewables are unable to maintain our Western growth-based consumer lifestyles on a global level.
“Renewable” does not equal “unlimited”
The limitations and environmental impacts of renewables are being discussed in breadth and depth elsewhere; suffice to say here that e.g. wind mills and solar panels are very energy-intensive in production – and intensive in other natural resources too, such as metals, minerals and rare earths. Windmills for example require lots of concrete which is a highly CO2 intensive industry. Solar photovoltaic systems use on average 23-59 kg of aluminium per kW – the aluminium sector being another CO2 intensive industry.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Power for All Shows Peabody a Real Plan to End Energy Poverty
Power for All Shows Peabody a Real Plan to End Energy Poverty
Peabody Energy would like you to believe that coal is the only way to light up the homes of the roughly 1.1 billion who still live in energy poverty.
A new campaign launched Thursday at the United Nations’ Sustainable Energy For All Forum in New York City offers a much different solution. Clean, distributed energy sources, argue the groups behind Power for All, can eliminate energy poverty more quickly and for a fraction of the cost of centralized electric grids anchored by fossil fuels. And, of course, without poisoning the air of communities and lining the atmosphere with even more greenhouse gases.
If the world were to invest just $70 billion, energy poverty could be virtually eliminated from the globe within a decade, with renewable energy filling the void.
The battle for the “energy poverty” high ground
“Energy poverty. It’s the world’s number one human and environmental crisis.”
If spoken from the podium at the United Nations’ Sustainable Energy For All events this week, this line would’ve garnered applause. Rather, it’s copy from an ad for the world’s largest privately held coal company, Peabody Energy, which has poured millions into promoting the fossil fuel as the solution to energy poverty through their Advanced Energy for Life PRcampaign.
Peabody: Advanced Energy for Life
Which is why this coalition of clean energy companies, non-profits, and policy groups behind Power for All is seeking to reclaim the term from the jaws of fossil fuel industry propaganda, and to promote the healthier, more effective, and cheaper alternative of distributed, off-grid clean energy.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Suits Are Flocking to Renewables
The Suits Are Flocking to Renewables
Investors like the ‘predictability’ of clean energy.
But the 350-odd delegates to the first Renewable Cities Global Learning Forum made it clear last week that revolution is decidedly their goal. They intend, by every means possible, to consign fossil fuels to the dustbin of history. And much, much sooner than most people are prepared to expect.
This is not journalistic interpretation or a suggestion from the most optimistic and least powerful delegates, idling on the side of the room. Ross Beaty, founder and still chair of the second-largest silver mining company in the world (Pan American Silver Corp.), and one of the conference’s main sponsors, said it plainly halfway through the first day: “It’s a revolution.”
The “it” in question is the corporate swing from non-renewable fuel sources like coal and oil to the alternatives that Beaty now makes available through his most recent venture, Alterra Power, a mid-sized renewable energy company with solar, wind, hydro and geothermal operations in B.C., Ontario and Iceland.
In a panel discussion, in answer to a question about ethical divestment of fossil fuels, Beaty said, “It’s almost irrelevant. Coal, especially, is a dinosaur industry. It’s going out of busines …. It’s just a bad industry to invest in, whether you divest for ethical reasons or not.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Are We Witnessing The Beginning Of The End For Fossil Fuels?
Are We Witnessing The Beginning Of The End For Fossil Fuels?
Bloomberg recently declared the era of fossil fuels irrevocably in decline: “The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas, and oil combined. And there’s no going back.”
The sea change in how we power our economies officially occurred in 2013, Bloomberg’s Tom Randall writes in “Fossil Fuels Just Lost the Race Against Renewables.” That year, there were 143 gigawatts (GW) of renewable electricity capacity added globally, versus just 141 GW of new fossil-fueled capacity.
Despite low oil prices, the trend toward renewables is not going to slow down anytime soon, given that the cost of solar and wind power has steadily fallen to the point that it is now cheaper than grid electricity in some parts of the world, Randall argues. “The shift will continue to accelerate, and by 2030 more than four times as much renewable capacity will be added.”
That’s for electricity generation, of course, but before you can officially call the race in renewables’ favor, you have to consider transport. Our cars and trucks and planes mostly run on fossil fuels, after all. As Vox’s Brad Plumer points out, “Electricity and heat were only responsible for about 42 percent of global CO2 emissions from fuel combustion in 2012. For clean energy to truly win the race, it will have to make inroads in other sectors as well, particularly transportation.”
An analysis by the International Energy Agency found that the amount of energy used for transport has doubled over the past three decades, and that slightly more than half of all oil is used for transport.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
How Much Longer Can The Oil Age Last?
How Much Longer Can The Oil Age Last?
History has been so fascinated with oil and its price movements that it is indeed hard to imagine our future without oil. Over the last few months, we have witnessed how oil prices have fluctuated from a 6 year low level of $42.98 per barrel in March 2015 to the current levels of $60 per barrel. It is interesting to note that, in spite of the biggest oil cartel in the world deciding to stick to its high production levels, the oil prices have increased mainly due to falling US crude inventories and strong demand. However, the current upward rally might be short lived and there may yet be another drop in the international oil price when Iran eventually starts pumping its oil into the market at full capacity, potentially creating another supply glut. In these endless price rallies, it is important to take a holistic view of the global energy industry and question which way it is heading. Are the dynamics of global energy changing with current improvements in renewable energy sources and affordable new storage technologies? Can the oil age end in the near future? Will we ever stop feverishly analyzing the rise and fall of oil prices? Or, will oil remain irreplaceable in our life time?
Are Renewables ready to take over?
With little or no pollution, renewables like solar, wind and biofuels are viewed by many as a means to curtail the rising greenhouse emissions and replace oil as a sustainable alternative. There is little doubt as to why China, US, Japan, UK and Germany, some of the world’s biggest energy gluttons have invested heavily in renewables.
Image Source: EIA
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Why the World’s Appetite for Oil Will Peak Soon
Why the World’s Appetite for Oil Will Peak Soon
The conventional wisdom about steadily rising demand is wrong. Within two decades, global oil use will start to fall.
When it comes to oil demand, the conventional wisdom is clear: Population growth and a rising global middle class guarantee that demand—and prices—will rise over the coming decades. It is a story line that is almost universally accepted by investors, governments and industry alike.
But like many such consensus views, it is one that should be treated with caution.
The world’s economy is experiencing transformational changes that, I believe, will dramatically alter patterns of energy use over the next 20 years. Exponential gains in industrial productivity, software-assisted logistics, rapid urbanization, increased political turmoil in key regions of the developing world, and large bets on renewable energy are among the many factors that will combine to slow the previous breakneck growth for oil.
The result, in my opinion, is as startling as it is world-changing: Global oil demand will peak within the next two decades.
A less potent weapon
The geopolitical and economic implications of peaking demand will be huge. The fall in the importance of Saudi Arabia is already palpable, with all the major powers from the U.S. to China more willing to accommodate Saudi archrival Iran. In addition, Russia’s ability to use oil as a weapon will wane, as will the economic leverage of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. As economic growth becomes increasingly disconnected from oil, world powers will likely shift their attention to other increasingly scarce resources that will be equally critical to economic well-being, such as food, water and minerals. A greater interest in Africa, for example, is already starting to emerge.
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Texas Town First Of Many To Switch To 100% Renewable Power
Texas Town First Of Many To Switch To 100% Renewable Power
On March 18 the city of Georgetown, Texas announced that it would soon be generating 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.
Georgetown agreed to purchase the power from a 150-megawatt solar farm that is to be constructed by SunEdison and online in 2016. Coupled with a 2014 agreement to buy wind power, Georgetown will be able to generate all of its electricity needs without any help from coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear power.
Texas, the largest oil producer in the United States, is not normally known for its green tendencies. But Georgetown will be the first of many cities in Texas and around the country that will increasingly turn to renewables for electricity. And that has less to do with environmentalism than it does with dollars and cents. Solar has seen its panel prices fall by more than 63 percent since 2010, with wind posting similar cost declines. As a result renewables are the fastest growing form of electricity.
Related: The $6.8 Billion Great Wall Of Japan: Fukushima Cleanup Takes On Epic Proportion
That is upending monopolies held by utilities, which are fighting back against insurgent solar and wind. Utilities are trying to block new entrants into the market, which has earned the solar and wind industry some new and unlikely allies. In North Carolina, for example, a Republican state representative issponsoring legislation that will open up the market for third party ownership and financing of solar, something that is currently illegal. Dubbed the “Energy Freedom Act,” the legislation could provide a dramatic boost to renewable energy in a state that has in the past banned state agencies from preparing for the threats of climate change.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Rethink the Grid: Personal Power Stations
Rethink the Grid: Personal Power Stations
Rethinking the grid is quickly emerging as one of the hottest topics. The concept of our own personal power stations can be seductive…and just might save us a whole lot of money too.
“Get big or get out!” Those were the famous, and controversial, words of Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture in the seventies. Considering the combination of renewable technology and battery storage, a new popular mantra may emerge: get small and be free.
Much ado about all things renewable together with the objections that technologies can never fully replace fossil fuel generation is popular among a certain set. Here in Texas, among arch conservatives, Solyndra lives on…and on…and on. But the truth is that Solyndra is ancient history. New technologies are ramping up and have been highly successful and may change the way we use the grid forever. Perhaps most interesting of all, however, is the way in which new ways to think about the grid and electricity are prompting entrepreneurs worldwide to rethink, remake and reuse. For instance, what if we all had the ability to transform our homes into micro personal power stations?
The grid is an interesting beast. It typically operates using several different power options together with some back up reserve. Oddly, it runs with virtually zero storage capacity because large amounts of electricity are difficult to store. So nobody really addressed that problem. Until now.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Richard Heinberg on Our Renewable Future
Richard Heinberg on Our Renewable Future
https://soundcloud.com/davidcnswanson/talk-nation-radio-richard-heinberg-on-our-renewable-future/
Richard Heinberg discusses our renewable future and how to get there. He is the author of ten books including:
– Snake Oil (July 2013)
– The End of Growth (August 2011)
– Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines (2007)
– The Party’s Over: Oil, War & the Fate of Industrial Societies (2003)
Heinberg is a Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute athttp://PostCarbon.org He has appeared in many film and television documentaries, including Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour, and is a recipient of the M. King Hubbert Award for Excellence in Energy Education.
‘Fighting for the Places We Love’: A Vision for the Climate Battles to Come
‘Fighting for the Places We Love’: A Vision for the Climate Battles to Come
Ahead of upcoming Global Divestment Day, a conversation between author Naomi Klein and 350.org executive director May Boeve
CD editor’s note: The following conversation between Naomi Klein and May Boeve took place as an online webinar hosted by 350.org last week in advance of the upcoming Global Divestment Day(s), taking place on February 13 and 14, during which individuals and institutions from around the world will take action and urge others “do what is necessary for climate action by divesting from fossil fuels.”
Wide-ranging in terms of topics covered, the overall talk reveals the current thinking of two prominent voices within the global climate justice movement. Klein and Boeve take a look back at the impactful events of 2014, strategic concerns for the year(s) ahead, and explore the unique historical moment that is now presenting itself to those who believe—in the face of an increasingly warming planet—that an economic, political, and energy transition is more necessary than ever.
In one key section, Klein argues what’s most essential is the further emergence of unified global movement—one whose agenda is “simple enough to fit on a postcard”— that can articulate a positive vision while continuing to make clear what it opposes. “We’re fighting to leave it in the ground. No new fossil fuel frontiers. We’re fighting for societies powered by 100% renewable energy. We’re fighting for free public transit. We’re fighting for the principle that polluters should pay, that how we pay for the transition has to be justice based. We’re fighting for the principle of frontlines first, that the people who got the worst deal in the old economy should be the first in line to benefit in the new economy. Those are some principles that we can all agree on and rally behind.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
