NEWS FLASH
Obama Carbon Pollution Rules Boost Cleaner Power | By Daniel J. Weiss
The Washington Post reported this evening that the Obama administration plans to propose the first nationwide standard to reduce carbon dioxide pollution from new power plants:
“The Environmental Protection Agency will issue the first limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants as early as Tuesday, according to several people briefed on the proposal. The move could end the construction of new conventional coal-fired facilities in the United States.”
Under the standard, a new coal fired power plant would need to have carbon pollution levels 43% lower than current plants, which would most likely require some sort of carbon capture and storage technology. The typical new natural gas fired power plant could meet the standard without additional controls.
Once finalized, the “new source performance standard” for new power plants will ensure that utilities begin to employ more efficient, cleaner power generation systems. Although coal will continue to generate electricity in existing plants, it is clear that future electricity generation will rely much more on new technologies, including wind, solar, and other renewable sources. The proposed rule will further expand the market for such carbon-pollution-free electricity generation, which had already been growing steadily because of sharp declines in cost.
The new vehicle fuel economy standards and states’ renewable electricity (or portfolio) standards both drove investments in innovative technologies that protect public health by reducing pollution, and create jobs from the development and manufacturing of cleaner, more efficient technologies. These first-of-a-kind carbon pollution reduction standards should have a similar effect on the electricity industry.
This is the third major executive action launched by the Obama administration to reduce carbon pollution. The first two established two rounds of carbon pollution reductions from vehicle tailpipes, and will “eliminate 6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution.” With this proposal, the administration is tackling power plant pollution, the other major source of climate change pollution in the United States. With growing evidence that the serious impacts of climate change are already here, President Obama deserves credit for this new standard. We must urgently adopt and implement these new pollution reduction standards for power plants.
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Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
That’s how you start when you do something about the problem, which started with the consequences of more extreme weather and which made us all so nervous.
Daniel,
Do you know if the new rules will reflect much higher than previously thought natural gas emissions? Howarth is being vindicated by other studies. Switching to natural gas, instead of wind and solar, is useless.
Did anyone watched this yet?
The Crisis of Civilization
The Crisis Civilization is a documentary feature film investigating how global crises like ecological disaster, financial meltdown, dwindling oil reserves, terrorism and food shortages are converging symptoms of a single, failed global system. Proving that ‘another world’ is not merely possible, but on its way. Written by Anonymous
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1970039/
Got released a few days ago..
Well, the EPA limits have been delayed for years and I thought the administration was going to put them off through the election, but here it is.
As long as the GOP can’t kill it, it’ll be a good thing (from the standpoint of cleaner air for us).
The real solution of course will be an aknowlegement in our political machine that CO2 is enemy #1 (and then natural gas plants will start getting eliminated before their normal retirement lifetime) – until then its all just window dressing.
So until that political time if we can stop new coal plant production (we’re not close to that currently) and keep it closed more power to the President. I only wish he’d done this 3 years ago (then we wouldn’t still be building new Coal plants this year).
Must watch… risk assessment.
THE CRISIS OF CIVILIZATION http://climateprogress.net/item/the-crisis-of-civilization.html
Well, I guess this is a no-brainer from a political perspective. Few coal plants were being built anyway and the reserves of domestic natural gas may be cheap for decades, and recent climate change news is genuinely scary. So Obama gets to don the mantle of environmentalism just in time for the election. At least he knows how to jump in front of a parade when he sees one going by.
More B.S. from an uninformed follower of Faux News:
“So Obama gets to don the mantle of environmentalism just in time for the election.”
Obama is and has worked on the environment his entire time in office.
now be informed:
There is an inordanate amount of the disinformation and hate that is going on in this country. Ironically in the name of freedom of speech and the heartland. When it is in the interests of BIG OIL. But I digress Let me say this as plain as I can: ”ANYONE who denies global warming IS UNAMERICAN.”
THE U.S. NAVY in it’s own paper titled:
Navy Climate Change Road Map 21 may 2010
an excerpt:
“A preponderance of global observational evidence shows the Arctic Ocean is losing sea
ice, global temperatures are warming, sea level is rising, large landfast ice sheets
(Greenland and Antarctic) are losing ice mass, and precipitation patterns are
changing.” ref 1,2
“While there has been criticism on the details of the methods and results found
in reports published by the IPCC and other entities, the Navy acknowledges that
climate change is a national security challenge with strategic implications for the Navy.
Climate change is affecting, and will continue to affect, U.S. military installations worldwide.
Melting permafrost is degrading roads, foundations, and structures on DoD and
USCG installations in Alaska. Droughts in the southeast and southwest U.S. are
challenging water resource management. Sea level rise and storm surge will lead to an
increased likelihood of inundation of coastal infrastructure, and may limit the availability
of overseas bases.”
The following is from The Director of the Navy’s Task Force Climate Change.++
Navy Rear Adm. David W. Titley:
“The observations have shown us that through the 20th century, sea level rose by an average of two millimeters per year, So that means over the course of the century, we had about 20 centimeters, or roughly eight inches, of sea level rise. The sea level rise we’ve seen in the first 10 years of the new century is already 50 percent greater than the average sea level rise in the 20th century.”
Please read this information with an open mind. And without malice. Save our planet.
‘nough said!
references:
1. UNSW Climate Change Research Centre, The Copenhagen Diagnosis, 2009:
Updating the World on the Latest Climate Science (November 2009).
2. United States Global Change Research Program, Global Climate Change Impacts in
the United States, Cambridge University Press (2009).
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/documents/CCR.pdf
+http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110324/ap_on_sc/us_sci_restless_wind?cmtnav=/mwphucmtgetnojspage/headcontent/main/apus_sci_restless_wind//num_rating_up/desc/11/0#mwpphu-container
++ http://www.navy.mil/Search/print.asp?story_id=54197&VIRIN=83499&imagetype=1&page=1
Navy Official Discusses Climate Change Investment Strategy
Story Number: NNS100621-08
6/21/2010
By Bob Freeman, Office of the Oceanographer of the Navy
other sources hopelessly out of date yet correct and still ignored:
* Popular Science Aug 1989 “Global Warming: Are we waking up 15 years too late?”
**Fundamentals of Meteorology Second Edition Louis J. Batton ISBN 0-13-341123-0
In 2010 this would have been moderately helpful – now new coal construction has bout dried up.
[Tracking New Coal-Fired Power Plants]( http://www.netl.doe.gov/coal/refshelf/ncp.pdf )
One plant is scheduled for construction in 2014 and then thats it really.
Whats sad is there is not nearly enough nuclear and even less wind scheduled.
Solar isn’t even covered as a serious source.
Cheap Natural Gas Unplugs U.S. Nuclear-Power Revival
The EIA has forecast that the nation will add 222 gigawatts of generating capacity between 2010 and 2035—equivalent to one-fifth of the current U.S. capacity. The biggest chunk of that addition—58%—will be fired by natural gas, it said, followed by renewable sources, including hydropower, at 31%, then coal at 8% and nuclear power at 4% ( http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304459804577281490129153610.html )
Remember also that addition is just one fifth of the power generated now.
And Now Gas is the winner by far.
At the end of 2010, natural gas-fired generators constituted 39% of the Nation’s total electric generation capacity of 1,042 gigawatts (GW). Nearly 237 GW of natural gas-fired generation capacity was added between 2000 and 2010, representing 81% of total generation capacity additions over that period. ( http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=2070 )
“The typical new natural gas fired power plant could meet the standard without additional controls.”
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that gas plus the methane leaks from fracking combine to emit about 1/3of the CO2e of coal. We’re better off, but not by much.
We’re much to close to 450ppm, and too far over 350ppm CO2e to take any more chances with our future. We need to kick the fossil fuel habit now.
Forget nukes. Concentrated solar power can provide all the base load power the planet needs.
Amen Brother
Why do People DENY GLOBAL WARMING even EXISTS. Is it because they don’t know where the sun goes at night and are afraid of the dark. So they DENY it’s potential to PRODUCE Electric POWER and DENY it’s potential to even HEAT the GROUND.
Space.com asked:
What should the next Mars rover really look for when it arrives on the Red Planet?
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, JUPITER has HYDROGEN. Ships sent up in a continuous bucket brigade could cleanly fuel our planet regardless of our needs. We couldn’t put a dent in the amount of fuel available. N0 Pollution and worth the energy expenditure, if we use LOX and Hydrogen for the initial lift off for ALL the equipment needed to build Shuttle tanks made with moon material and fuel tanks on Mars with Mars material. We send them to Jupiter to fill. Fuel tanks bring it from Jupiter then Shuttle tanks made with moon material bring it in to earth. Transfer orbit on the way to Jupiter but powered to earth with the waste from processing the gasses from the atmosphere of the planet. They expel the waste to change velocity. Building infrastructure would create 100K’s of jobs On earth, in orbit, on the Moon, on Mars and in fuel ships, transport ships and tourist ships in between. We as a planet have to STOP watching TV and move into the 21st century with a purpose.
Why dont you work out the cost, area as well as the storage necessary and get back with us on these numbers for that singular solution.
I’m working on it, but will probably take a few months. Also, I’m probably not the best source of technical information on CSP. Go to the Desertec and the Desertec-UK websites for a lot of good information.
If you want to get more technical than that, Desertec, or an earlier version of the organization called Trec (I think) put out an extensive white paper that they used to persuade a number of European and North African countries and big corporations to get behind importing CSP electricity from Africa. Some of those projects are already under construction, others in the works.
CSP is no joke, or I wouldn’t waste your time with it. The Desertec concept was initiated by a nuclear engineer who thought we could do better than nukes, and the German aerospace administration and a bunch of other heavy hitters are behind it.
Check it out.
I’m working on it, but will probably take a few months. Also, I’m probably not the best source of technical information on CSP. Go to the Desertec and the Desertec-UK websites for a lot of good information.
If you want to get more technical than that, Desertec, or an earlier version of the organization called Trec (I think) put out an extensive white paper that they used to persuade a number of European and North African countries and big corporations to get behind importing CSP electricity from Africa. Some of those projects are already under construction, others in the works.
CSP is no joke, or I wouldn’t waste your time with it. The Desertec concept was initiated by a nuclear engineer who thought we could do better than nukes, and the German aerospace administration and a bunch of other heavy hitters are behind it.
Check it out.
Every dollar that my back yard Solar PV produces passes through my hands first. My RoE will approach 10% this year. Match that on Wall Street if you are not an inside trader. Distributed solar distributes the money as it lowers green house gas. Given that the energy released to the environment by combustion of fossil fuels is ~1/100,000 times smaller than the energy released during the life time of the subsequent CO2 produced, I would say energy from the sun is a win win for the masses.
Get it done!
Just wanted to add – folks seem to think we’re not building many new coal plants (like 1 or 2) here in the U.S. but that’s not the case. The U.S. has had the biggest build out of new coal plants over the last several years (2010 was the peak) since the 1980′s.
According to the DOE as of January 2012 there are 10 New Coal Plants (6GW) under construction in the U.S.. 1 New Coal Plant near construction (0.3GW) and 13 New Coal Plants (8.9GW) that were just permitted (presumably they’ll be grandfathered out of the new rule of course). 24 additional New Coal plants (11.8GW) have been announced but not permitted yet (not sure where they fit into this rule, but I’d guess grandfathered out of it).
While the new rule from the EPA won’t change our current climate change trajectory – it will stop the construction of new coal plants (at some point…how many years down the road?) which will result in the long term cleaning of the air, water and ground in the US which is worth it on its own.
The real question is whether this new rule applies to announced but not permitted plants (24) or only new ones after that (the delay makes sense for industry if the administration let the Coal industry announce all the new plants they wanted before putting the restriction in place) and whether it takes full effect right away – someone on CNBC was talking about a 30 year phase in (guessing that is for the grandfathered plants) which would be 2042.
I don’t think anything permitted will be affected.