An underlying story here is the ongoing emergence of the anti-regulatory "environmental" movement. It's creeping in everywhere--note recent editorials in the NY Times, etc. etc.
"We need transmission lines"--ease regulation!
"We need solar capacity"--ease landuse regulations!
etc. etc. etc.
And underlying myth to much of this is that there is endless land, especially out west. There isn't.
I am definitely the sort of environmentalist you are referring to. Please look at the projections for how much clean energy Texas is going to install over the next 18 months:
Meanwhile land use (and ocean use) resistance is slowing down California’s switch to renewable energy.
And zoning rules are driving rents and homelessness through the roof. In Minneapolis, the housing rules changed, and mostly what got built are apartment buildings along boulevards. It has stopped rents from rising, which has massively blunted inflation there.
Bill - thanks for another article on LNG "single biggest greenhouse gas bomb on planet earth.". I write from the other end of the supply / demand chain in the UK wherever are seeing increasing LNG imports, and the building of LNG imports infrastructure - LNG ports.
This week I have been in the UK High Court with a case against a gas fired power station with CCS called Net Zero Teesside (NZT). An LNG port and blue H2 plant are also planned.in the same area, all linked.
I think we need to join up campaigners from the expiry side (eg: US) and import side (eg: UK/Europe). In the UK, the investment decision on NZT is due in September. The new UK Govt have said they will put a £1bn into CCUS, and this will LNG demand for gas-CCS, and blue H2 (despite new energy minister Miliband's good words on increasing renewables etc).
Sneakier and sneakier. At least we still have President Joe Biden until January 19, 2025. He can veto anything that poisonous worm Manchin gets through and it still takes 2/3 vote to overrule a veto. Kamala is pro-climate mitigation too. I'm sure their is no love lost toward Manchin or Sinema
Dear Bill - greatly appreciate all your leadership and you elevating Environmental Justice issues in the piece. I understand your intent in using Simone Biles name in your piece but unfortunately the impact is different from your intent. To be honest, I would have otherwise shared the piece. I’m hoping the online platform allows you to revise and you would consider changing that reference so the piece can be more broadly resonant. Thanks for considering and for all your work.
Different topic: Also is there a specific call to action you recommend at this time?
@jessicacraven101 @chopwoodcarrywater maybe jessica can write a resist bot for this action, Bill. (I don’t know how to ping on this site) thank you for all you do Bill,. You’re the real deal.💙
Please, please, please do NOT use the name of an accomplished and hard working champion athlete in the same breath and in a description of Joe Manchion! What is with that? Shame on you!
Theodora, are you by any slim chance related to the late great Paul Tsongas? I supported him way back when he was a candidate for the Democratic party presidential nomination. My support must have been a curse since I also supported Dukakis, another Greek-American who ran against one if the Bushes and lost!
one of the first candidates i ever volunteered for, when he was running in my congressional district in massachusetts in 1974 and won the seat in a big upset!
The fossils (aka "Big Oil") are wolves painting themselves as sheep. Emily Atkin & Arielle Samuelson ("Heated" on Substack) are constantly citing examples of "greenwashing," where the fossils buy these gorgeous ads showing sunshine, smiles, and all the great things they're doing to save our environment. As Robert Reich would say, "Bunk."
Executives at the fossil fuel company are highly paid and highly efficient: through strategic campaign contributions and ad campaigns, they get politicians and the people who vote for them to do their bidding for them - which results in billions of dollars in profits, and citizens attacking Biden and the Democrats because they have to pay another $7 to fill the tank of their gigantic pickup truck.
They're not likely to slow down, either - there are many more billions of dollars in profit to be made.
I think deregulation will turn the energy sector into a race between renewables and fossil fuels. And I believe renewables will win that race, because they are cheaper and faster to deploy — and they are becoming cheaper still every month.
Please look at the projections for how much clean energy Texas is going to install over the next 18 months:
By all means please share content that dispels this notion.
Meanwhile land use (and ocean use) resistance is slowing down California’s switch to renewable energy.
I don’t believe these investments will “lock in” fossil fuel use. I believe they will bankrupt the companies that build them. They will be worthless in ten years:
As usual, human politics is somewhat depressing but it's how things get done (and sometimes for the better) so unavoidable. Gods-eye views of climate change are necessary, but the gravity of human politics pulls us down to the mechanics' shop, where everyone gets their hands dirty trying to do the job right.
Bill: A team of Third Way, RFF, RMI, and Jesse Jenkins @ Princeton has just released a comprehensive report on this bill. Will you give it a read and reconsider your position?
I wonder whether the LNG blocked from being 'permitted' would simply be replaced by other nations' LNG. Would a policy of 'no LNG' in the US mean people freezing in the winter? How could this be politically or morally tolerable?
I would like Manchin to one day realize the number of deaths his failures have caused. Perhaps, like Scrooge, his remorse would be deep and transformative. Perhaps it would change the views of his fellow travelers. Just a dream!
The evil Koch Brothers’ best investment was the Manchin they bought in West Virginia.
Manchin is clearly evil.
An underlying story here is the ongoing emergence of the anti-regulatory "environmental" movement. It's creeping in everywhere--note recent editorials in the NY Times, etc. etc.
"We need transmission lines"--ease regulation!
"We need solar capacity"--ease landuse regulations!
etc. etc. etc.
And underlying myth to much of this is that there is endless land, especially out west. There isn't.
The gentleman who will replace "clearly evil" Manchin in the US Senate would not have voted for IRA.
I am definitely the sort of environmentalist you are referring to. Please look at the projections for how much clean energy Texas is going to install over the next 18 months:
https://x.com/curious_founder/status/1816488340155248653?s=46
My sense is that this inevitably means the state’s fossil fuel use will go down. By all means please share content that dispels this notion.
Here’s a headline from this past winter:
https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2024-02-26/more-than-80-of-electricity-on-the-texas-grid-was-carbon-free-at-one-point-sunday
Meanwhile land use (and ocean use) resistance is slowing down California’s switch to renewable energy.
And zoning rules are driving rents and homelessness through the roof. In Minneapolis, the housing rules changed, and mostly what got built are apartment buildings along boulevards. It has stopped rents from rising, which has massively blunted inflation there.
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2024/01/04/minneapolis-land-use-reforms-offer-a-blueprint-for-housing-affordability
Same goes for easing development restrictions in the name of promoting affordable housing. What do builders then continue to do? Build McMansions.
Where I live (expat living in Vancouver, BC) the city just labels housing "affordable" and that's enough.
Thank you so much Bill for PAYING ATTENTION!!
No to any LNG expansion!
Bill - thanks for another article on LNG "single biggest greenhouse gas bomb on planet earth.". I write from the other end of the supply / demand chain in the UK wherever are seeing increasing LNG imports, and the building of LNG imports infrastructure - LNG ports.
This week I have been in the UK High Court with a case against a gas fired power station with CCS called Net Zero Teesside (NZT). An LNG port and blue H2 plant are also planned.in the same area, all linked.
I think we need to join up campaigners from the expiry side (eg: US) and import side (eg: UK/Europe). In the UK, the investment decision on NZT is due in September. The new UK Govt have said they will put a £1bn into CCUS, and this will LNG demand for gas-CCS, and blue H2 (despite new energy minister Miliband's good words on increasing renewables etc).
So I am reaching out here to all your readers, and you, Bill. A great report on impact of LNG and CCUS in UK energy/climate policy is here: https://carbontracker.org/reports/kind-of-blue/
And you can read about my legal case against at UK Govt here on CCS at NZT here : https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/net-zero-teesside/
Bill, if you want to cover this in a future article, please contact me.
LNG campaigners, please contact me at andrewboswell@fastmail.co.uk
Sneakier and sneakier. At least we still have President Joe Biden until January 19, 2025. He can veto anything that poisonous worm Manchin gets through and it still takes 2/3 vote to overrule a veto. Kamala is pro-climate mitigation too. I'm sure their is no love lost toward Manchin or Sinema
Dear Bill - greatly appreciate all your leadership and you elevating Environmental Justice issues in the piece. I understand your intent in using Simone Biles name in your piece but unfortunately the impact is different from your intent. To be honest, I would have otherwise shared the piece. I’m hoping the online platform allows you to revise and you would consider changing that reference so the piece can be more broadly resonant. Thanks for considering and for all your work.
Different topic: Also is there a specific call to action you recommend at this time?
okay, done--by popular demand!
meanwhile, i think the best action is to contact your senator and tell them the manchin permitting bill is a bad idea.
@jessicacraven101 @chopwoodcarrywater maybe jessica can write a resist bot for this action, Bill. (I don’t know how to ping on this site) thank you for all you do Bill,. You’re the real deal.💙
Please, please, please do NOT use the name of an accomplished and hard working champion athlete in the same breath and in a description of Joe Manchion! What is with that? Shame on you!
she's the greatest at what she does (and i'm a huge fan--already watched the practice rounds from Paris).
and he's the greatest at what he does (corrupting himself for Big Oil) and I'm not a fan.
Theodora, are you by any slim chance related to the late great Paul Tsongas? I supported him way back when he was a candidate for the Democratic party presidential nomination. My support must have been a curse since I also supported Dukakis, another Greek-American who ran against one if the Bushes and lost!
one of the first candidates i ever volunteered for, when he was running in my congressional district in massachusetts in 1974 and won the seat in a big upset!
You're not from Brookline by any chance?!
Solar PV alone is expected to meet roughly half of the growth in global electricity demand over 2024 & 2025
And solar & wind combined are set to meet as much as three-quarters of the growth
https://x.com/iea/status/1816824550622933010?s=46
"Big Oil is sneaky ..."
Now THERE is a classic British understatement!
The fossils (aka "Big Oil") are wolves painting themselves as sheep. Emily Atkin & Arielle Samuelson ("Heated" on Substack) are constantly citing examples of "greenwashing," where the fossils buy these gorgeous ads showing sunshine, smiles, and all the great things they're doing to save our environment. As Robert Reich would say, "Bunk."
Executives at the fossil fuel company are highly paid and highly efficient: through strategic campaign contributions and ad campaigns, they get politicians and the people who vote for them to do their bidding for them - which results in billions of dollars in profits, and citizens attacking Biden and the Democrats because they have to pay another $7 to fill the tank of their gigantic pickup truck.
They're not likely to slow down, either - there are many more billions of dollars in profit to be made.
I think deregulation will turn the energy sector into a race between renewables and fossil fuels. And I believe renewables will win that race, because they are cheaper and faster to deploy — and they are becoming cheaper still every month.
Please look at the projections for how much clean energy Texas is going to install over the next 18 months:
https://x.com/curious_founder/status/1816488340155248653?s=46
Look at how other red states have handled renewables:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/26/red-states-lead-usa-renewable-energy-wind-solar-power
My sense is that this inevitably means the states’ fossil fuel use will go down. Look at how much wind power there is in the Dakotas and in Iowa.
Here’s a headline from this past winter:
https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2024-02-26/more-than-80-of-electricity-on-the-texas-grid-was-carbon-free-at-one-point-sunday
By all means please share content that dispels this notion.
Meanwhile land use (and ocean use) resistance is slowing down California’s switch to renewable energy.
I don’t believe these investments will “lock in” fossil fuel use. I believe they will bankrupt the companies that build them. They will be worthless in ten years:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/nov/04/fossil-fuel-assets-worthless-2036-net-zero-transition
There is a massive backlog of renewable energy waiting to be hooked up to the nation’s grid:
https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/28/23811031/ferc-renewable-energy-solar-wind-project-interconnection-electricity-grid
LNG + LCA (Howarth) = > 1.5°
LNG = (<RE + >CFP) in Asia/EU
LNG = Scope 3 = undisclosed GHGs
LNG = Big Oil + Big PE = Big ROC
LNG + Net Zero pledges = Bullshit
US ≠ aligned co2 pricing ≠ Paris raisson d'etre
US = 5/8 global mkt cap + 1/4 historical GHGs =
RESPONSIBILITY?
As usual, human politics is somewhat depressing but it's how things get done (and sometimes for the better) so unavoidable. Gods-eye views of climate change are necessary, but the gravity of human politics pulls us down to the mechanics' shop, where everyone gets their hands dirty trying to do the job right.
Bill: A team of Third Way, RFF, RMI, and Jesse Jenkins @ Princeton has just released a comprehensive report on this bill. Will you give it a read and reconsider your position?
https://www.thirdway.org/memo/quantifying-the-emissions-impacts-of-the-energy-permitting-reform-act-of-2024
I wonder whether the LNG blocked from being 'permitted' would simply be replaced by other nations' LNG. Would a policy of 'no LNG' in the US mean people freezing in the winter? How could this be politically or morally tolerable?
I would like Manchin to one day realize the number of deaths his failures have caused. Perhaps, like Scrooge, his remorse would be deep and transformative. Perhaps it would change the views of his fellow travelers. Just a dream!