tingilinde

a texas group taking up the fight against your children and grandchildren

Gearing up for a heavy promotion of fossil fuels.

snip

...

The fishing companies challenging federal permits for the Vineyard Wind project were from the Bay State as well as Rhode Island and New York, and a video made by the opponents featured a bearded fisherman with a distinct New England accent.

But the financial muscle behind the fight originated thousands of miles from the Atlantic Ocean, in dusty oil country. The group bankrolling the lawsuit filed last year was the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin-based nonprofit organization backed by oil and gas companies and Republican donors.

With influence campaigns, legal action and model legislation, the group is promoting fossil fuels and trying to stall the American economy’s transition toward renewable energy. It is upfront about its opposition to Vineyard Wind and other renewable energy projects, making no apologies for its advocacy work.

...

 

 

 

a paper trail

For environmental lawsuits against oil companies.

snip

...

It became a years-long quest, and as he pressed on, Muffett noticed one report kept coming up in the footnotes of the memos and papers he was poring through — a 1968 paper commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute, the powerful fossil fuel trade group, and written by Elmer Robinson and Bob Robbins, scientists at the Stanford Research Institute, known as SRI. Muffett wasn’t sure what it said, but it was cited so often he knew there must be something big in it. Then part of Stanford University, SRI wasn’t an ordinary department, but a contract research outfit that had been intertwined from its founding with oil and gas interests. The paper had been delivered privately to the petroleum institute, not published like typical academic work, and only a few copies had spilled into the public realm. Long since forgotten, they had been gathering dust in a handful of university libraries. Eventually, through an interlibrary loan, Muffett managed to get a hold of one.

...

 

 

changing their tune

With massive federal aid on the table utilities are changing their climate goals.

snip

...

Just two years ago, DTE Energy, a Michigan-based electric utility, was still enmeshed in a court fight with federal regulators over emissions from a coal-burning power plant on the western shore of Lake Erie that ranks as one of the nation’s largest sources of climate-changing air pollution.

But in September, Gerard M. Anderson, who led DTE for the last decade, was on the South Lawn of the White House alongside hundreds of other supporters of President Biden, giving a standing ovation to the president for his success in pushing a climate change package through Congress — a law that will help accelerate the closure of the very same coal-burning behemoth, known as DTE Monroe, that his company had been fighting to protect.

Mr. Anderson’s position reflects a fundamental shift among major electric utilities nationwide as they deploy their considerable clout in Washington: After years of taking steps like backing dark-money groups to sue the government to block tighter air pollution rules, DTE and a growing number of other utilities have joined forces to speed the transition away from fossil fuels.

...

 

 

 

english architecture and dealing with climate

A history of dealing with a cold damp climate.  And now change is coming.

snip

...

“Our biggest challenge is our existing buildings,” says Julie Hirigoyen, CEO of the United Kingdom Green Building Council. “And in the U.K. our homes are some of the draftiest and leakiest across most of Europe.” But choices made to protect from the cold can also trap the heat. Many find themselves living in spaces ill-equipped for either season. There is, says Hirigoyen, “a huge piece of work to be done” when it comes to retrofitting local architecture for both hot and cold weather.

Much of this country’s housing stock was built more than a century ago, and too much of it built poorly and unsustainably. And there are enormous inequities in British housing, creating social fissures that will be exacerbated this coming winter as people deal with soaring fuel prices. But an architectural tour of this country’s houses — from grand iconic structures, like the Elizabethan Hardwick Hall to more modest Victorian Terrace homes and modern tower blocks — suggests that the lessons learned over the centuries about how to deal with the harsh realities of weather may apply today. As one advocate for making older structures more sustainable says, “Buildings are vessels and we’ve forgotten how to sail these ships.”

...

 

 

 

 

climate change from a to z

A large report (audio or text) by Elizabeth Kolbert A longish essay in The New Yorker

Starting, of course, at A

snip

...

Svante Arrhenius was, by nature, an optimist. He believed that science should—and could—be accessible to all. In 1891, he got his first teaching job, at an experimental university in Stockholm called the Högskola. That same year, he founded the Stockholm Physics Society, which met every other Saturday evening. For a fee of one Swedish crown, anyone could join. Among the society’s earliest members was a Högskola student named Sofia Rudbeck, who was described by a contemporary as both “an excellent chemist” and “a ravishing beauty.” Arrhenius began writing her poetry, and soon the two wed.

...

 

hydrogen

More of an inefficient form of energy storage than anything..  any use down the road should be justified.

snnip

...

Most hydrogen is currently made by processes — such as steam reformation of natural gas (methane) — that produce large amounts of CO2 as a by-product. Although ‘green’ hydrogen can be made by using electricity from renewable sources to split water molecules, this process is costly compared with more conventional production methods.

It can also be an inefficient use of renewable resources. Using green electricity to make hydrogen at times of peak demand, when that energy could be feeding the grid and displacing electricity generated from fossil fuels, could result in higher overall emissions than intended. Making hydrogen with electricity generated from unabated use of fossil fuels would be even worse.

...

 

 

 

where will all of the lithium and rare earths come from

Lithium supplies are starting to strain and most of the rare earth materials in lithium-ion batteries come from China, which is potentially an issue. Here's another way of thinking about an issue - how much vehicle does it take to move people around?  The electric version of a Hummer's battery weighs about 3,000 pounds.  Batteries in sedan class cars are in the 1,500 to 2,000 pound range and compacts 1,000 to 1,200.  An electric bike's battery is in the 6 to 10 pound range. 

If your home is in an area with safe enough roads and shopping and most other errands within about five miles, getting an e-bike - particularly an e-cargobike - and using your current car for longer trips makes a lot of sense and may well be the greener choice until EVs are less expensive.  Even then it still makes sense to use the bike.

 

making better use of parking lots

Reducing their number to push for better transportation modes may be better still, but requiring large lots to have solar panel roofs is probably a good idea.

snip

...

Legislation approved by the French Senate this week requires existing and new car parks with space for at least 80 vehicles to be covered by solar panels.

The owners of car parks with between 80 and 400 spaces have five years to comply with the measures, while operators of those with more than 400 will have just three years. At least half of the area of the larger sites must be covered by solar panels.

The French government believes the measure could generate up to 11 gigawatts of power.

...

 

 

as winter approaches in europe

People and governments are preparing.

 

a nice engineering project

College students working on a very specialized electric vehicle.  Lessons learned should prove very useful to them.