Sometimes I just don’t have time to put together an article about specific posts about the net-zero transition and climate change that I have read that I think are relevant. This is a summary of posts that I think would be of interest to my readers.
I have been following the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act (Climate Act) Climate Act since it was first proposed and most of the articles described are related to it. I have devoted a lot of time to the Climate Act because I believe the ambitions for a zero-emissions economy embodied in the Climate Act outstrip available renewable technology such that the net-zero transition will do more harm than good. . The opinions expressed in this article do not reflect the position of any of my previous employers or any other company I have been associated with, these comments are mine alone.
Massachusetts Plan to Meet Its Climate Goals
This article describing an implementation plan for Massachusetts caught my eye becauseit argues that the first order of business is to analyze what it will cost to achieve its climate goals. The report argues that the cost of inaction are less than the cost of action but the report “suggests that state agencies submit preliminary recommendations for how Massachusetts can come up with the money to meet its goals by the end of 2024.”
When it comes to climate and clean energy goals, Massachusetts has some of the most ambitious in the country. But what the state doesn’t have is a detailed plan to achieve them.
To help bridge this gap, the state’s Climate Chief, Melissa Hoffer, published a new report this week with 39 recommendations for how the state can do three big things: Zero-out carbon emissions by mid-century, build more clean energy and prepare for more severe weather.
Massachusetts has detailed climate goals for 2050, but it has no idea what it will cost to achieve them. So, the first order of business, according to Hoffer’s report, is a comprehensive economy-wide analysis of what the state will need to spend to decarbonize — or dramatically slash planet-warming emissions. This work entails connecting a whole lot more renewable energy to the electric grid, protecting natural lands that suck carbon out of the air, protecting coastal communities and preparing for a future with more extreme weather.
GHG Emissions and Climate Change
Francis Menton writes:
It’s by far the most important scientific question of our age: Do human emissions of CO2 and other such “greenhouse gases” cause significant global warming, aka “climate change”? Based on the belief that an affirmative answer to that question is a universally accepted truth, our government has embarked on a multi-trillion dollar campaign to transform our economy.
The authors of the two new papers beg to differ. First, we have a paper by John Dagsvik and Sigmund Moen of Statistics Norway, dated September 2023, titled “To what extent are temperature levels changing due to greenhouse gas emissions?”
The second important new paper is from Antonis Christofides and co-authors dated September 26, 2023. They introduce their paper with a long post of that date at Climate, Etc. titled “Causality and Climate.”
Both papers evaluate historical data and the results “appear to refute, and certainly does not prove, the endlessly repeated claims of impending climate doom from human CO2 emissions”.
There are so many signs that the aggressive renewable deployment schedule mandated for the Climate Act that I find it very troubling that there hasn’t been any sign of concern by the Hochul Administration. For example, the green energy sector shows signs of distress, as illustrated by the plummeting shares of Siemens Energy. An article on ZeroHedge meticulously unfolds the tale of challenges and uncertainties clouding the renewable energy sector, with Siemens Energy at its epicenter.
Wind Industry Cost Increases in Great Britain
Here is another example. RWE Renewables has just told the Government that it needs its subsidy “strike price” to rise by 70% if any more wind farms are to be built.
Net Zero Watch director Andrew Montford said:
Rishi Sunak has said that there has been a long-term deception of the British public. RWE’s demand for more subsidy confirms it. The Green Blob has been lying about renewables costs for years. The truth is that wind power is expensive, and becoming more so. The energy “transition” is a transition to poverty, but few in Westminster seem to have the guts to say so.
Heat pumps are a key component in the Climate Act plan to electrify home heating, but there are issues. “It’s now clear from the evidence that heat pumps are an impractical form of heating for millions of UK homes. This is due not only to high upfront costs but also the lack of insulation in older buildings and the inability of systems driven by heat pumps to respond quickly to weather variations”
Electric Vehicles
Another key component of the Climate Act transition is to electrify transportation. This article suggests that the plan to shove electric vehicles into every driver’s life may be in trouble. Axios reports that a new analysis findsa”strong and enduring correlation” between political ideology and U.S. electric vehicle adoption.
Driving the news: The working paper, from UC Berkeley’s Energy Institute at Haas, explores county-level new car registrations from 2012-2022 and compares them to voting records in presidential races.
- “During our time period about half of all EVs went to the 10% most Democratic counties, and about one-third went to the top 5%,” the study found.
- “There is relatively little evidence that this correlation has decreased over time, and even some specifications that point to increasing correlation.”
Why it matters:If EV uptake remains a big thing only in very blue places, it may be “harder than previously believed” to reach high market penetration, they write.
In my opinion, the idea that battery electric heavy-duty trucks will ever be a viable transportation are simply absurd. There are too many trucks that are going so far to expect that any battery system is going to be able to effectively replace the existing system. This article describes a National Grid study that will begin modeling Northeast electric truck charging needs.
National Grid’s study will focus on highways with heavy trucking traffic and areas with commercial activity like ports. Modeled sites will be in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the New England states.
“This roadmap will inform efforts by states, utilities, communities, and industry leaders to create a seamless truck charging network across the region,” Franey said.
“This study will help deepen the understanding of electrification needs and help New York State and the region strategically put more medium and heavy-duty electric trucks on the road,” said David Sandbank, vice president of distributed energy resources at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
An off-hand remark supports my concern:
The work will build on National Grid’s “Electric Highways Study,” which was published in 2022 and concluded a large highway fast-charging site could have power demands similar to a small town by 2045.
If every truck stop is supposed to be replaced by a fast-charging site and they require the power demands of a small town, then the infrastructure needs will be enormous across the country. Do these people ever go on a long trip and see how many trucks and how many truck stops there are?
Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York 