The Environment Thread

[FrostyWinnipeg]

1 hour ago, Mark F said:

 

"In a stunning announcement, GM says it will stop making all diesel and gas-powered cars and trucks. Its goal is to be carbon neutral by 2040 so to that end it will stop all diesel and gas-powered production by 2035. That’s it. No more Duramax Silverados. No more V8 Corvettes. In fact; no more internal combustion anything."

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/28/general-motors-plans-to-exclusively-offer-electric-vehicles-by-2035.html

 

 

Welcome to last month

Edited February 26, 2021 by FrostyWinnipeg

[Mark F]

surprised me.

https://journalistsresource.org/environment/energy-prices-manufacturing-employment/

 

The study’s findings include:

• Areas of the U.S. with weaker union protections, lower energy prices and more lax air pollution regulations see a higher concentration of energy-intensive industries.
• While energy prices play a role in the choice of sites for some manufacturing industries, such prices are only a significant factor in a limited number of industries.
• If places such as California and the northeastern United States, where emissions reduction targets have also been legislated, introduce a $15 per ton cap-and-trade program, job losses on the order of 0.1% to 1.1% could be expected.

Overall, the study’s researchers found that the effect of electricity price on where manufacturers choose to locate was “modest.”

Edited February 27, 2021 by Mark F

[Tracker]

58 minutes ago, Mark F said:

surprised me.

https://journalistsresource.org/environment/energy-prices-manufacturing-employment/

 

The study’s findings include:

• Areas of the U.S. with weaker union protections, lower energy prices and more lax air pollution regulations see a higher concentration of energy-intensive industries.
• While energy prices play a role in the choice of sites for some manufacturing industries, such prices are only a significant factor in a limited number of industries.
• If places such as California and the northeastern United States, where emissions reduction targets have also been legislated, introduce a $15 per ton cap-and-trade program, job losses on the order of 0.1% to 1.1% could be expected.

Overall, the study’s researchers found that the effect of electricity price on where manufacturers choose to locate was “modest.”

Unless its Texas.

[Tracker]

Monarch Butterfly Population In Mexico Drops By More Than A Quarter

The population of monarch butterflies that arrived in Mexico’s forests to hibernate this winter fell by 26 percent from the year before, the country’s Commission for National Protected Areas and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said on Thursday.

Millions of orange and black monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico on a 2,000-mile (3,220-km) journey each year from Canada across North America.
But the butterflies occupied only 2.1 hectares in December 2020, compared with 2.8 hectares the previous winter season, the conservationist group WWF said in a statement.

Climate change had a “considerable impact” on the butterflies’ migration pattern, as well as the reduction in their milkweed breeding habitant in the United States, the WWF said.

Mexico’s western state of Michoacan is home to the country’s largest monarch butterfly reserve, typically a major tourist attraction. Visitors to the reserve have plummeted during the pandemic, sanctuary officials said.

[FrostyWinnipeg]

https://globalnews.ca/video/7666006/iceberg-roughly-the-size-of-los-angeles-breaks-off-from-antarctica

[FrostyWinnipeg]

https://driveteslacanada.ca/news/petaluma-california-bans-construction-new-gas-stations-encourages-ev-chargers/

[Mark F]

Canadian ( B.C.)/Norwegian company 

"Bergen, Norway and Vancouver, Canada, February 17, 2021 — Corvus Energy is proud to announce that it has reached an agreement with Seaspan Ferries Corporation, of Delta, British Columbia, Canada, for the first delivery of Corvus’ Blue Whale ESS, to be installed onboard one of their cargo ferries.

Blue Whale is a new large-scale energy storage system (ESS)—a groundbreaking battery system designed for large ships with high zero-emission energy demand, such as cruise ships, large Ro-Pax and Ro-Ro ferries, and cargo ships. Its unique rack-free design of stacking modular blocks provides the industry’s highest volumetric battery room energy density and, consequently, maximizes a ship owner’s passenger or payload opportunities.

For its inaugural field trial, the Blue Whale battery system will be installed on board Seaspan Reliant, a roll-on/roll-off drop-trailer cargo ferry built in 2016 that sails the Salish Sea, with service between B.C.’s Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island."

 

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-climate-change-natural-gas-use-1.5935078

Quote

Two city councillors acknowledge they don't have all the answers, but hope Winnipeg's public service can find out whether it would be practical to shift from gas pipes to electrical wires.

A motion to be presented at an upcoming meeting of the city's water, waste and the environment committee from Couns. Brian Mayes (St. Vital) and Jason Schreyer (Elmwood-East Kildonan) would charge the bureaucrats to dig into the subject of alternatives to natural gas.

"This is an issue — how we heat our buildings — and there are some pretty grand targets in our climate change plan," Mayes, who chairs the water and waste committee, told CBC.

"If we put out these targets, we should make some effort to meet them. So I'm no expert, but I thought I'd work with Coun. Schreyer and we will ask some questions."

The councillors have requested specific feedback from the city's public service, including:

• A timeline for halting the further expansion of natural gas infrastructure within the city of Winnipeg as soon as reasonably possible.
• A timeline for halting the use of natural gas in newly constructed areas of the city already serviced by natural gas infrastructure.
• A plan and timeline for the city to exclude the use of natural gas in all tenders related to the construction of new municipal buildings.

The City of Winnipeg's current greenhouse gas emission targets include a 20 per cent reduction by 2030 and an 80 per cent reduction by 2050 (relative to total city emissions in 2011).

The fact the councillors are asking the questions is music to the ears to Manitoba's Climate Change Connection. 

"If we are going to tackle the climate crisis, the first step is to stop making it bigger," said the advocacy group's Curtis Hull. "We have to stop expanding the natural gas distribution system."

Climate Change Connection recently released an action plan for the province to meet emissions targets, which calls calling for a moratorium on natural gas use.

Hull says a concerted effort to use geothermal systems — especially through a district heating system, which involves a linked geothermal system that serves several buildings — could help lower reliance on gas and be affordable. 

Those kind of programs, Hull says, along with building retrofits to improve energy efficiency and using better materials in new construction, are all part of the equation. 

 

[Tracker]

7 minutes ago, blue_gold_84 said:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-climate-change-natural-gas-use-1.5935078

 

What does not seem to be talked about is the huge cost of heating with electricity as opposed to gas. In the 80's I built a new home and was told that the gas supply was nearly run out and that the cost of natural gas heating would soon reach or exceed the cost of electricity. So I installed an electric forced-air furnace but no gas shortages ever happened and it turned out that the cost of electrical heating was more than  150% of gas. When it came time to see the house, I really took a beating because of the electric heating. 

[Tracker]

                                        

[Mark F]

k"The EIA, IEA, and other analysts are playing a critical role in mispricing conventional energy assets that is analogous to the role that the credit rating agencies played in mispricing subprime mortgage assets, which led to the housing bubble and financial crisis in 2007. We call on investors, policymakers, civic leaders, public utility commissions, and other decision-makers to demand reality-based conventional LCOE estimates in order to protect their stakeholders and society."

https://www.rethinkx.com/energy-lcoe-executive-summary

solar wind battery would soon drive conventional out of business in a free market.

 

 

Edited March 14, 2021 by Mark F

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

20 hours ago, Mark F said:

k"The EIA, IEA, and other analysts are playing a critical role in mispricing conventional energy assets that is analogous to the role that the credit rating agencies played in mispricing subprime mortgage assets, which led to the housing bubble and financial crisis in 2007. We call on investors, policymakers, civic leaders, public utility commissions, and other decision-makers to demand reality-based conventional LCOE estimates in order to protect their stakeholders and society."

https://www.rethinkx.com/energy-lcoe-executive-summary

solar wind battery would soon drive conventional out of business in a free market.

 

 

I often wonder how well renewables would work and how cost efficient they would be if they had the same tax benefits and subsidies as their fossil fuel counterparts enjoy.

[Mark F]

1 hour ago, wanna-b-fanboy said:

I often wonder how well renewables would work and how cost efficient they would be if they had the same tax benefits and subsidies as their fossil fuel counterparts enjoy.

without some intervention, renewable is now cheaper than any other source of energy.

and the gap is growing, wide adoption, and improving technology.

the raw material.... sun, wind, is free.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Mark F

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/labrador-nunatsiavut-sea-ice-1.5951551

Quote

The experiences and statistics emerging from the 2020-21 ice season are startling. But they are also foreshadowing, according to the co-author of a recent study about climate change in Nunatsiavut and Nunavik.

"A year like this gives us a bit of a window into potentially the types of conditions that we will see on average, say, 30 years down the road," said Robert Way, a professor of geography at Queen's University in Kingston who specializes in climate change in Labrador.

Way, who is of Labrador Inuit descent and has been back in his hometown of Happy Valley-Goose Bay during the pandemic, called this a "really weird winter." He recalled water flowing off his roof during a 5 C day in March. It should've been about 15 degrees colder, he said.

 

Way's study compiles the wide-ranging effects of climate change in Nunatsiavut — including almost 40 fewer days of snow on the ground since the late 1950s and the sea ice "changing pretty dramatically." In fact, northern Nunatsiavut is losing its ice coverage faster than anywhere in the Canadian Arctic.

This year's temperature surge tracks with how Labrador climate change is unfolding in what can feel like fits and starts, Way said. Thanks to factors like the North Atlantic Ocean, there's always been variability in the region that makes some years milder than others. But as climate change prompts continual climbing temperatures, the natural swings are amplified, resulting in extreme years like this one.

 

[FrostyWinnipeg]

Supreme Court rules Ottawa's carbon tax is constitutional

[JCon]

18 hours ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

Supreme Court rules Ottawa's carbon tax is constitutional

I hate lazy, clickbait, headline writers. It's not a tax, it never has been and the SCC just confirmed this in it's decision. It's insulting. 

[Mark F]

4 hours ago, JCon said:

I hate lazy, clickbait, headline writers. It's not a tax, it never has been and the SCC just confirmed this in it's decision. It's insulting. 

no doubt comes from oil p.r. dpt.

14000 comments a few hours ago, probably 12000 from Alta.

meanwhile in the reality based world

The American Petroleum Institute said Thursday that it supports putting a price on carbon emissions — a term that typically refers to emissions taxes or permit trading systems.

axios.

Edited March 26, 2021 by Mark F

[Tracker]

5 minutes ago, Mark F said:

no doubt comes from oil p.r. dpt.

14000 comments a few hours ago, probably 12000 from Alta.

meanwhile in the reality based world

The American Petroleum Institute said Thursday that it supports putting a price on carbon emissions — a term that typically refers to emissions taxes or permit trading systems.  Why it matters: The new posture marks a major shift for the powerful K Street lobbying group, though signs of the endorsement emerged weeks ago.
Axios.

Someone said that the secret of leadership is to find the parade and get in front of it.

[FrostyWinnipeg]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/dry-winter-manitoba-drought-concerns-1.5965785

Winnipeg had its third driest winter on record, with only about 25 millimetres of precipitation in December, January and February.

Edited March 27, 2021 by FrostyWinnipeg

[FrostyWinnipeg]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/29/vw-accidentally-leaks-new-name-for-its-us-operations-voltswagen.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-us-voltswagen-operations-was-april-fools-marketing-prank-source-says.html

Edited March 30, 2021 by FrostyWinnipeg

[Mark F]

"Batteries capable of fully charging in five minutes have been produced in a factory for the first time, marking a significant step towards electric cars becoming as fast to charge as filling up petrol or diesel vehicles."

“A five-minute charging lithium-ion battery was considered to be impossible,” he said. “But we are not releasing a lab prototype, we are releasing engineering samples from a mass production line. This demonstrates it is feasible and it’s commercially ready.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/19/electric-car-batteries-race-ahead-with-five-minute-charging-times

 

Edited April 12, 2021 by Mark F

[Mark F]

"Western U.S. may be entering its most severe drought in modern history"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drought-western-united-states-modern-history/

 

[Tracker]

1 hour ago, Mark F said:

"Western U.S. may be entering its most severe drought in modern history"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drought-western-united-states-modern-history/

 

But climate change is not real.

[Mark F]

59 minutes ago, Tracker said:

But climate change is not real.

drove to Los Angeles through  south dakota, west then down through nevada...... when you see some of the uses they make of water, it is bizarre.

eg irrigating desert to grow hay to sell to asia. nuts.

something definitely coming, probably not good.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2021 by Mark F

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

This is why we can't have nice things:

 

 

 

 

Best response: