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.
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
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.
Well, the biggest portion of that flip from net importer to next exporter comes from the oil, gas, and coal sectors. However, that said, the titanic rise of wind and solar does mean that have more FF to export.
The problem of the fossil fuel underlayer is not being solved by renewables growth. If you believe it will eventually be solved by renewables growth, then a number of challenges--mostly economic--have yet to be addressed. www.coldeye.earth/p/the-underl...
Monday 30 September 2024
The positive signal in this data series is that small scale solar has maintained its market share position pretty well, over time. While a small contributor overall, the potential remains.
The phrasing is depressing of course, not least because so far it's true.