Energy

The Case For A ‘Bold Idea’ To End The Era Of Coal, Oil And Gas

November 22, 2024 Matthew Green, DeSmog. Strategize! Activism, Canada, climate crisis, Energy, Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty, Fossil Fuels, Politics and Policy

Could the world negotiate a wind-down of the fossil fuel industry — just as Cold War adversaries once agreed to limit their stockpiles of nuclear weapons? In an interview for the Climate Consciousness Summit 2024, Tzeporah Berman, founder and chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative said a growing wave of support for the proposal — which has been endorsed by more than 3,000 scientists, 121 cities and sub-national governments, and 14 nations — could ultimately make new fossil fuel projects unacceptable, even in the United States, the world’s biggest producer of oil and gas.

Evidence During COP29 That Biomass Is A Disaster

November 19, 2024 The Canary. Educate! Biomass, climate crisis, COP29, Energy, False Solutions

The global biomass energy industry will triple by 2030, increasing woody biomass supply from monoculture plantations by 13 times and woody biomass supply overall by three times, according to a new report Burning up the Biosphere: A Global Threat Map of Biomass Energy Development released on Monday 18 November by the Biomass Action Network of EPN International. The natural forests which supply the wood burnt for energy production will suffer from intensified logging, degradation, and plantation conversion, exacerbating both the climate and biodiversity crises and adversely affecting communities throughout the global supply chains.

Removing Hydropower Dams Can Restore Ecosystems

November 11, 2024 Katie Schmidt, Resilience. Educate! climate crisis, Dam Removal, Dams, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Hydropower, Indigenous Rights, Landback, Water

A free-flowing river supports abundant fish and wildlife, provides drinking water, and other intangible recreational benefits. But humans have sought to block rivers with dams for millennia. While dams have provided benefits like hydroelectricity and water storage, they have also been ecologically disastrous. Besides blocking fish migrations, these human-made structures can destroy seasonal pulses of water that keep ecosystems in balance. Some dams—especially those used for power—can deplete water in streams, leaving entire stretches of river bone dry.

COP29 Must Not Be Another Greenwashing Event

November 8, 2024 The Canary. Resist! Biomass, Climate Change, COP29, Energy, Environment, greenwashing

Countries must find real solutions for climate action and climate finance and reject false solutions such as biomass energy, says the Biomass Action Network as the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the UN Climate Convention is set to open in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 11 November. COP29 will focus on finance, as did the Biodiversity COP16 which was suspended last weekend due to the lack of agreement. Developed countries refuse to commit to sufficient financial support for developing countries. Instead, they promote false solutions like centralised (large scale) biomass energy.

How A Former ExxonMobil Employee Confronted Climate Disinformation

November 8, 2024 Matthew Green, DeSmog. Resist! Activism, Disinformation, Energy, ExxonMobil, False Solutions, Retaliation

Lindsey Gulden, a climate scientist, spent more than a decade working as a data scientist for ExxonMobil until she was fired in 2020 after internally reporting an allegedly fraudulent overvaluation of the company’s assets in the Permian Basin, an oil and gas-producing region spanning Texas and New Mexico. (ExxonMobil says her termination was unrelated and denies fraud took place). That experience prompted her to ask deeper questions about the oil and gas company’s assurances to staff that it is committed to playing a leading role in the energy transition.

Claudia Sheinbaum De-Privatizes Two Major Oil And Energy Companies

November 2, 2024 Pablo Meriguet, People's Dispatch. Create! Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), Big Oil, Claudia Sheinbaum, De-privatize, Energy, Mexico

On October 30, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum made a very clear anti-neoliberal gesture in her morning press conference: the de-privatization of two emblematic Mexican energy companies. Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) will now be fully controlled by the federal government. The government also signed a decree for the Mexican State to regain full rights over passenger railroads. This was achieved through a constitutional reform approved by Congress, in which MORENA has a majority. Although Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Sheinbaum’s predecessor) sent the proposal several weeks ago, the current president takes the most important credit for having concluded the process.

Utility Industry Dollars Pour Into Public Service Commission Elections

November 2, 2024 Sara Sneath, DeSmog. Educate! Democrats, Elections, Energy, Louisiana, Money in Politics, Politics and Policy

On Tuesday, Louisiana voters in 13 parishes will decide who will fill a vacant seat on Louisiana’s Public Service Commission, a little known but powerful five-member body that regulates electric companies, oversees telecommunications services, and sets utility rates. The person elected to District Two of the Public Service Commission will fill the seat left by Dr. Craig Greene, a moderate Republican who was seen as the commission’s sole swing voter. He is not seeking re-election. Earlier this year, Greene voted alongside the two Democrats on the commission to approve energy efficiency programs aimed at reducing electricity costs for residents.

Plan For Aging Gas Pipelines Runs Up Against Energy Transition

November 1, 2024 Sharon Kelly, DeSmog. Educate! Chicago, Energy, Energy Transformation, Gas, Illinois, Pipelines

If you ask Chicago’s gas pipeline utility, Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company, or PGL, the best way to fix the problem of leaks from underground gas pipelines, their answer is the most ambitious option — running new, upgraded plastic pipelines throughout the city, leaving their old network of leak-prone iron pipes behind. Consumer watchdogs, however, are calling foul. A newly published report by the Illinois Citizens Utility Board (CUB), a nonprofit utility watchdog established by the state legislature, finds PGL’s cost projections underestimate how expensive and time-consuming those upgrades would be, while massively overestimating how costly other options might be.

The US Continues Its Terror Campaign Against Cuba

October 26, 2024 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Cuba, Electricity, Energy, Terrorism, US blockade on Cuba, US Intervention

All eyes have quite rightly been on Palestine for the past year. Joe Biden’s maniacal pact with Israel has killed an estimated 200,000 people, and Israel is poised to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza and Lebanon. Their war crimes range from starvation, destruction of hospitals, shooting children in the head, rape and torture, attacking United Nations peacekeeping forces, assassinating Palestinian leaders, and burning hospital patients to death. All the atrocities have been documented, often by the perpetrators themselves, and have been defended vociferously. The genocide is a joint project with the U.S. and has more bipartisan support than any initiative which directly impacts people in this country.

Ukraine: Zelenski Begs Russia To Renew Deals He Had Botched

October 24, 2024 Moon Of Alabama. Educate! Energy, Russia, Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky

The actor who has been playing the President of Ukraine for a while is getting cold feet. Winter is coming and the energy networks of Ukraine are near to the point of total breakdown. There could have been agreements in place to prevent that. But the Ukrainian side had botched those deals. Now Zelenski is begging to renew them. In late 2022 the Russian military launched a bombing campaign against electricity switching stations in Ukraine. A lot of transformers got blown up. The Ukrainian military responded by concentrating its air defenses near electricity stations.

Cuba: Power Outages Prolonged Due To Delays In Energy Recovery

October 20, 2024 Telesur, Resumen English. Educate! Cuba, Economic Blockade, Energy, Solidarity, Venezuela

Today, Cuba once again experienced a total power outage after the recovery process of the National Electric System (SEN), initiated the day before following a blackout caused by a failure at a thermoelectric plant, failed. The Caribbean nation is unable to purchase or modernize its electrical machinery due to the draconian, unilateral blockade of the US. The process of re-energizing the SEN was then initiated, gradually restoring power to certain areas of the country with the goal of expanding and connecting them to eventually reach the thermoelectric plants and restart them. However, a new total disconnection thwarted the progress that had been made.

Toronto And Montreal Move Ahead With Fossil Fuel Ad Restrictions

October 18, 2024 Taylor Noakes, DeSmog. Resist! Advertising, Canada, Energy, Media, Montreal, Oil and Gas Industry, Politics and Policy, Public transportation, Toronto

The city of Toronto has passed a motion aiming to restrict fossil fuel advertising on municipal property, one of several recent efforts to curtail fossil fuel advertising in major Canadian cities. The motion passed on Thursday, October 10, giving Toronto city councillors one year to come up with a draft of the proposed legislation. The effort comes as transit agencies in Canada’s two largest cities have either implemented or are considering similar restrictions on using public transit to advertise for Big Oil or related industries.

The First Gas Utility Sued For Climate Deception

October 16, 2024 Emily Sanders, DeSmog. Resist! climate crisis, climate denial, Climate Justice, Energy, Oil and Gas Industry, Oregon, Science Denial

For the first time, a gas utility could be on the hook for its role in deceiving the public about the climate crisis. Multnomah, Oregon, has added NW Natural — Oregon’s oldest and largest supplier of “natural” gas, also known as fossil or methane gas — to the list of defendants in a lawsuit that seeks to make fossil fuel companies pay $52 billion for their role in the deadly 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome. NW Natural “has routinely misrepresented” the climate harms of gas while undermining the energy transition “in an effort to frighten customers and discourage policy makers from using their authority to protect the public,” according to the county’s amended complaint.

Climate Activists Battle The False ‘Solution’ Of Forest Biomass

October 10, 2024 Nick Engelfried, Waging Nonviolence. Resist! Biomass, climate crisis, Climate Justice, Energy, False Solutions, Forests, West Coast

“Who will own the forests? Who will own the sky?” sang dozens of umbrella-wielding protesters as rain drizzled outside the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon on Sept. 25. Inside the building, timber company representatives, investors and others involved in deciding the fate of forest ecosystems were meeting for an event called CANOPY: Forests + Markets + Society. Billed as “the premier annual event on institutional forestland investing,” CANOPY is a conference whose 2023 attendees included Weyerhaeuser, Boise Cascades, biomass energy giant Drax and J.P. Morgan.

Barcelona Is Turning Subway Trains Into Power Stations

October 8, 2024 Natalie Donback, Next City. Create! Barcelona, Electrification, Energy, Trains, Transportation

Most of the passengers emerging from the station in Bellvitge, a working-class neighborhood outside Barcelona, have no idea just how innovative the city’s subway system is. Using technology not unlike the regenerative braking found in hybrids and electric vehicles, the trains they rode generated some of the power flowing to the EV chargers in the nearby parking lot, the lights illuminating the station, and the escalators taking them to the platforms. Every time a train rumbles to a stop, the energy generated by all that friction is converted to electricity, which is fed through inverters and distributed throughout the subway system.

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