Energy

Fusion Energy: The Nuclear Weapons Connection

December 25, 2022 Karl Grossman, Counter Punch. Educate! Energy, fusion energy, Nuclear, Nuclear Weapons

In 1980, in my book Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power published that year, I wrote: “What about fusion? This has been held out by the nuclear establishment as a somewhat cleaner form of nuclear power—as the hydrogen bomb, a fusion device, is somewhat cleaner in fall-out than an atomic bomb. Somewhat.” “Fusion is theoretically supposed to get its power from fusing nuclei together,” I continued. “This would be the opposite of fission, which blasts the nuclei apart. But to start the process, extremely high temperatures are required—100 million degrees Centigrade, more than six times the estimated temperature of the sun’s interior.” “Although Dwight Eisenhower, when he was President, suggested that the AEC keep the public ‘confused about fission and fusion,’ fusion is a dirty, radioactive process, too.

Fusion—And Its Radioactive And Nuclear Weapons

December 21, 2022 Karl Grossman, Nation Of Change. Educate! Energy, Nuclear, Radioactive, weapons

There was great hoopla—largely unquestioned by media— with the announcement last week by the U.S. Department of Energy of a “major scientific breakthrough” in the development of fusion energy. “This is a landmark achievement,” declared Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. Her department’s press release said the experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California “produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it” and will “provide invaluable insights into the prospects of clean fusion energy.” “Nuclear fusion technology has been around since the creation of the hydrogen bomb,” noted a CBS News article covering the announcement. “Nuclear fusion has been considered the holy grail of energy creation.” And “now fusion’s moment appears to be finally here,” said the CBS piece.

House Committee Wraps Up Historic Investigation Into Oil Industry

December 19, 2022 Nick Cunningham, DeSmog. Educate! Big Oil, Congress, Energy, Oil and Gas

Congressional investigators released a new set of documents that underscored the oil and gas industry’s ongoing attempts to block climate policies and confuse the public about their long-term investments in fossil fuels. The latest tranche of documents caps off a nearly two-year investigation that appears set to come to an end with Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives in January. On December 9, the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee published its latest set of documents as part of its ongoing investigation into the oil industry’s history of climate denial and obfuscation. The documents offer more evidence showing that the industry’s “greenwashing” continues up to the present day.

Corporate Greed At Its Worst

December 18, 2022 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. Educate! Class Struggle, Corporatism, Energy

With colder winter weather looming, a new analysis released Tuesday shows that the nine largest energy utility companies in the U.S. raked in nearly $14 billion in combined profits during the first three quarters of this year—and dished out roughly $11 billion to their wealthy shareholders—as tens of millions of U.S. households struggled to pay their utility bills due to soaring costs. The watchdog group Accountable.US found that NextEra Energy, Duke Energy, Southern Company, Dominion Energy, Constellation Energy, Eversource Energy, Entergy Corporation, DTE Energy, and CMS Energy Corporation brought in $13.8 billion in the first nine months of this fiscal year. The firms, the nine largest in the U.S. by market capitalization, returned over $11.2 billion to shareholders during that period in the form of dividends and stock buybacks.

The UK Is Mired In An Energy Crisis, But Not On Goldsmith Street

December 13, 2022 Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch. Create! Energy, Inflation, Passive House, Social Housing, United Kingdom (UK)

When the Goldsmith Street social housing development was completed in Norwich, UK, in 2019, it was the country’s largest residential complex built to energy efficient Passivhaus standards. At the time, it was dubbed a “modest masterpiece” and won the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize. Now, as the UK braces for the first full winter of a cost-of-living crisis and the energy crisis prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is winning its residents something even more important: savings on their heating bills. “We don’t have to put the heating on so it’s cheaper,” resident Jayed Abdas Samad told The Guardian. “We feel very lucky.” Passivhaus standards were first developed in Germany and are the go-to standards for new construction there.

The US Can Get To 100% Clean Power Without New Nuclear

December 1, 2022 Arjun Makhijani, Utility Drive. Create! Energy, Nuclear Energy, Renewable Energy

There is a widespread view that nuclear energy is necessary for decarbonizing the electricity sector in the United States. It is expressed not only by the nuclear industry, but also by scholars and policy-makers like former Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who recently said that the choices we have “…when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine” are “fossil fuel or nuclear.” I disagree. Wind and solar are much cheaper than new nuclear plants even when storage is added. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated the cost of unsubsidized utility-scale solar plus battery storage in 2021 was $77 per megawatt-hour — about half the cost of new nuclear as estimated by the Wall Street firm Lazard. (An average New York State household uses a megawatt-hour in about seven weeks.)

Kenya Is Rapidly Emerging As Africa’s Renewable Energy Superpower

November 29, 2022 Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Resilience. Create! Africa, Energy, Kenya

When William Ruto was sworn in as Kenya’s fifth president in September 2022, he used his inauguration speech to demand an end to humanity’s “addiction to fossil fuels” and reaffirmed Kenya’s commitment to reach 100% clean energy by 2030. Kenya is not far off this target today. In 2021, 81% of Kenya’s electricity generation came from the low carbon sources of geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar power. Over half of this low carbon electricity came from geothermal energy, which Kenya has in abundance. So much in fact, that excess geothermal energy is released during the night when electricity demand is low. Installed geothermal capacity in Kenya could be increased by at least eightfold, which could open opportunities for scaling up green manufacturing capacity or exporting excess electricity to neighbouring countries.

Two EV-Charging Roads Are Coming To Detroit

November 20, 2022 Paige Bennett, EcoWatch. Create! Detroit, Energy, Michigan, Transportation

Detroit, Michigan - You may find yourself driving on an EV charging road in the near future. In Detroit, inductive charging technology is being added to two short roads, a project that will be the first wireless electric road system (ERS) in the U.S. The roads will be capable of charging electric vehicles that install a special receiver while they drive. The roadway will be fully functional by 2023. For the project, roads are embedded with coils that transfer magnetic energy to receivers mounted under EVs. That energy is then used to charge the vehicle battery, whether it is stationary or on the go. “We’re the auto capital. We continue to push technology advancements,” said Michele Mueller, a senior project manager at Michigan Department of Transportation, as reported by Fast Company.

World Falling Short On Energy Transition Targets: IRENA Report

November 9, 2022 Paige Bennett, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, COP27, Energy, Renewable Energy

A new report from International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) at this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 27, reviews energy targets set around the world and how they are progressing. The findings show that countries are falling short on their energy transition targets. The report also notes that only 12 of the 194 parties in the Paris Agreement have a commitment for a specific percentage of renewables in their total energy mixes. In Renewable Energy Targets in 2022: A guide to design, the research shows that globally, countries’ energy transition ambitions are not enough to limit global warming to 1.5°C. By 2030, countries are currently targeting to meet 5.4 terawatts (TW) of renewable energy capacity, but the world needs to meet 10.8 TW of installed renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade to keep warming within the 1.5°C target.

‘Drop Fossil Fuels,’ Over 400 Scientists Tell PR Firm Handling UN Climate Talks

November 6, 2022 Dana Drugmand, DeSmog. Resist! climate crisis, COP27, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Media, Scientists

Ahead of the COP27 UN climate summit, hundreds of scientists are calling on the PR firm in charge of the event’s communications, Hill+Knowlton, to cut ties with its fossil fuel industry clients, which include major oil companies Aramco, ExxonMobil, and Shell as well as an industry coalition called the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative. “These clients have not taken the fundamental steps necessary to address the climate emergency and sharply rein in fossil fuels,” states an open letter to Hill+Knowlton signed by over 420 scientists. “Instead, they have used Hill+Knowlton and other PR agencies to spin, delay, and mislead, in order to continue expanding fossil fuel production and thereby increasing heat-trapping emissions.”

All-Electric Community Powered By Solar And Battery Microgrid Launches

November 5, 2022 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Create! California, Energy, Housing, Solar Energy

Menifee, California - About one-fifth of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from fossil fuel residential energy use, like natural gas, oil and coal, which contributes to more frequent and severe weather events. According to the most recent U.S. Energy Information Administration data, from 2013 to 2020, the duration of blackouts caused by extreme weather and other events related to the climate crisis has tripled, reported PR Newswire. This makes the transition to renewable energy all the more important. In a collaboration between the University of California, Irvine, SunPower Corp., Southern California Edison, Schneider Electric and KB Home, a new collection of Energy-Smart Connected Communities — more than 200 homes powered entirely by solar energy — are being built in Menifee, California, and are the first of their kind in the Golden State.

Our Power Delivers Signatures For Referendum On Consumer-Owned Utility

November 5, 2022 Evan Popp, Maine Beacon. Create! climate crisis, Energy, Maine, Public ownership, Voting

A group seeking to place an initiative on the November 2023 ballot to replace Maine’s unpopular investor-owned utilities, Central Maine Power and Versant, with a nonprofit power company submitted over 80,000 signatures Monday, far exceeding the total needed to trigger a referendum. Our Power, the group spearheading the campaign, announced its haul at a press conference at the State House before handing its petitions into the Secretary of State’s Office. That office now has a month to verify the signatures, but with a wide margin over the slightly more than 63,000 signatures needed for a ballot initiative, Our Power’s referendum is very likely to be on the ballot in November 2023. “We have news for you, CMP and Versant, and for your greedy corporate and foreign-government owners. Today, over 80,000 Maine voters are ready to revoke your monopoly privilege,” Andrew Blunt, executive director of Our Power, said at Monday’s press conference.

Set Up A Power Station; Retrofit A Neighbourhood

November 4, 2022 Chris McCartney, Resilience. Create! Clean Energy, Community organizing, Energy, Energy Cooperatives

Newspapers and social media are awash with top tips for cost cutting, but there’s another way of looking at it. What if, instead of putting the pressure on each person, we explored what communities can do together to get through this and be stronger in future crises? After all, the cost of living crisis has complex and systemic causes – it should not be left to individuals to solve it for themselves. Governments need to act, and many are calling for measures from policy-makers to ensure no one goes cold and hungry in one of the wealthiest countries on earth, and to address the root causes of the crises we face, so we are more resilient to future shocks. Warmer this Winter, End Fuel Poverty Coalition, Energy for All and Enough is Enough are among those which have recently sprung up. Meanwhile, we don’t have to sit passively by and wait for solutions to come from above.

EU Confesses ‘Our Prosperity Was Based On China And Russia’

October 20, 2022 Ben Norton, Multipolarista. Resistance Report China, Energy, Europe, European Union (EU), Global Economy, New Cold War, Russia, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

The West’s economic prosperity following the end of the first cold war in 1991 was built on a neoliberal capitalist economic model that was only made possible due to the extraction of wealth from China and Russia, the European Union’s top foreign-policy official, Josep Borrell, has confessed. “Our prosperity was based on China and Russia – energy and market,” Borrell said. China provided the US and EU with a massive market, low-paid labor, and cheap consumer goods. And after the Soviet Union was overthrown, mass privatizations in Russia and steps at integrating it into the West helped Europe secure huge amounts of inexpensive energy. But the significant rise in workers’ living standards in China, as well as the proxy war in Ukraine and the EU’s corresponding pledge to boycott Russian gas and oil, have greatly increased the cost of living and doing business in Europe, making its products uncompetitive in global markets.

Italians Protest US-Led NATO Membership As Energy Crisis Spirals

October 18, 2022 Press TV. Resist! Energy, Italy, Media, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

The massive demonstration, organized by the USB (Unione Sindacale di Base) union, saw people burning energy bills in protest against skyrocketing costs of living, which are taking a huge toll on ordinary people in the southern European country. The demonstrators called on the government in Rome to leave the NATO military alliance and demanded an end to the Russian war in Ukraine, now in its eighth month. The simmering war in Ukraine has resulted in a severe energy crisis across the continent, fueling strong anti-NATO sentiments among people. Italy has been rocked by several such anti-government and anti-NATO demonstrations in recent months. In June, a demonstration was held in the center of the Italian capital for the withdrawal of Italy from NATO, against the supply of weapons to Ukraine and the spread of misinformation about Russia and the Ukrainian war.

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