While Colorado strikes me as the current hotness in state level climate action, one issue I like to press is: what happens when we do everything except confrontation of the existing cars? That's where I think OR, WA, and CA are now: unless we do something about transport, further progress minimal.
A variation on this question: which are the states that started earlier, such that their accomplishments are largely in the rear-view, and need new momentum. My state of OR comes to mind. Early to wind power, early to urban reformation (highways, roads, bikes, transit). But now what?
Britain has also closed a crapton of coal power, finally zeroed it out. In 2010, NG power in the UK produced 175.7 TWh of power, and in 2020 produced 112.7 TWh of power. 2023: 97.9 TWh. Natural gas did not help the UK lower emissions. Closing coal did. NG doesn't lower emissions.
Only in a world which contains no economically affordable solution to the closing of coal-power other than the building of NG-power can we say that NG is the thing that helps us lower emissions. We do not live in that world, and we haven't for a while.
Wind, solar, and storage have been replacing coal in the US for more than a decade. That we allowed NG to also feast on coal's decline along with wind, solar, and storage is a policy decision. Not a law of energy physics, not even a law. /3
I say this because many smart observers like @mattyglesias have lapsed into thinking that it's the NG that helps us lower the emissions, because NG does indeed have lower emissions than coal. Have you seen the rising emissions chart from US NG in the US power sector? /2
When it comes to US power sector emissions, the closing of coal plants lowers emissions, and the deployment of wind, solar, and storage in substitution preserves those lower emissions. Increased use of NG in the power sector does not lower emissions.
Points well taken. Perhaps the game now is to see when they crack, and actually do something now that the CEO is spinning even further out of control.
It's actually pretty sad what has happened to $TSLA. On Earth II, Musk reliably advocates for the climate change fight and uses the company platform as a friendly welcome mat to everyone who agrees. Alas, here on Earth I, it's just value destruction. And absolute insanity. All the way down.
I did a write up of the new California law that greenlights 30 pilot projects for "neighborhood-scale electrification" Basically, CA utilities are going to start moving whole neighborhoods off gas. People will get free retrofits and appliances. gasoutlook.com/analysis/cal...
