Energy

Half Of Texas Without Clean Water

February 22, 2021 Chase Lawrence, WSWS. Educate! Energy, Extreme weather, Texas, Water

More than 14.6 million Texans, about half of the population of the state, remained under a boil-water advisory Friday, according to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokeswoman Tiffany Young. This encompasses more than 1,225 water supply systems and 63 percent of Texas counties following the record winter storm which hit the state last weekend. In a press conference Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros stated that “we know that there are tens of thousands of leaks,” and that the Austin Fire Department responded to “thousands upon thousands of burst pipes.” In Houston, the fire department received almost 5,000 reports of burst pipes. Texas Republican officials are currently in the process of trying to pin the blame on each other for the disaster. Governor Greg Abbott blamed the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), claiming that it told state officials five days before the blackouts that everything would be under control.

Texas’s Independent Electric Grid Leaves Millions Without Power

February 18, 2021 Sharon Zhang, Truthout. Educate! Electric Grid, Energy, Extreme weather, Texas

On Tuesday, millions of Texans woke up to find themselves without power as unusually cold conditions for the state knocked out the state’s power grid. The blackouts began on Monday when the state grappled with a winter storm and record low temperatures. Over 4.3 million people in Texas remain without power as the state’s power grid struggles to keep up with high demand. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the state’s grid, had originally announced 45-minute rolling blackouts starting around 1:25 a.m. in order to conserve energy. But the blackouts instead extended throughout the day and into Tuesday, and there is still uncertainty about when they will end.

A Fossil Fuel Fail In Texas

February 17, 2021 Jamie Henn, Fossil Free Media. Educate! climate crisis, Energy, Texas

As you may have seen on social media, a group of climate deniers, right wing politicians, and fossil fuel industry mouthpieces are spreading a bunch of disinformation about how wind and solar energy is to blame for the current blackouts in Texas. This is a lie. In reality, the blackouts in Texas are a fossil fail: the result of our over dependence on a fossil fuel energy system in the era of climate disruption. Fossil Free Media has pulled together a set of talking points that you can use to share the truth about what’s going on in Texas and pushback on the fossil fuel industry’s disinformation campaign.

Thursday: Day Of Action Targeting The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

February 17, 2021 Beyond Extreme Energy, Popular Resistance. Resist! climate crisis, Energy, FERC, Fossil Fuels, Renewable Energy

Something new is happening this Thursday, February 18 at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). A person will be chairing a FERC Commissioners meeting who has written publicly that he appreciates why some consider FERC to be a rubber-stamp agency. Richard Glick has done more than this in his three-plus years as a FERC Commissioner. He has openly opposed and written strong dissents, primarily but not only on climate grounds, to majority decisions approving new gas pipelines, LNG terminals and compressor stations. Those dissents likely helped lead the DC Court of Appeals to strike down last year, FERC’s “Kafkaesque” (their words) decades-long abuse of...

Scientists Demand Stop To Tree Burning As A Climate Solution

February 16, 2021 Andrea Germanos, Commondreams. Resist! Biomass, climate crisis, Energy, Forests

A group of over 500 international scientists on Thursday urged world leaders to end policies that prop up the burning of trees for energy because it poses "a double climate problem" that threatens forests' biodiversity and efforts to stem the planet's ecological emergency. The demand came in a letter addressed to European Commission President Urusla Von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The signatories—including renowned botanist Dr. Peter Raven, president emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden—reject the assertion that burning biomass is carbon neutral.

Cheaper Solar Power Means Low-income Families Can Also Benefit

January 24, 2021 Galen Barbose, Eric O’Shaughnessy, and Ryan Wiser, DeSmog Blog. Create! Energy, Housing, Low Income, Solar Energy

Until recently, rooftop solar panels were a clean energy technology that only wealthy Americans could afford. But prices have dropped, thanks mostly to falling costs for hardware, as well as price declines for installation and other “soft” costs. Today hundreds of thousands of middle-class households across the U.S. are turning to solar power. But households with incomes below the median for their areas remain less likely to go solar. These low- and moderate-income households face several roadblocks to solar adoption, including cash constraints, low rates of home ownership and language barriers. Our team of researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory examined how various policies and business models could affect the likelihood of people at all income levels adopting solar.

Decoding The Hype Behind The Natural Gas Industry’s Hydrogen Push

January 18, 2021 Justin Mikulka, Nation of Change. Educate! Energy, Fracked Gas, Hydrogen, Renewable Energy

It seems like nearly every day another hopeful article touts the potential of using hydrogen as a fuel to tackle climate change. What’s known as “green hydrogen” — which relies on renewable power for production — is getting the bulk of that attention. In December, ABC News ran an article with the headline “Why green hydrogen is the renewable energy source to watch in 2021.” And as Bloomberg has reported, Airbus is betting big on hydrogen as a fuel for its planes. Meanwhile, South Korea’s SK Global just announced an investment in U.S. hydrogen fuel cell producer Plug Power; in the past year, the company’s stock value has increased ten-fold.

Report: America’s Monopolized Energy Sector And How We Can Fix It

January 14, 2021 Virgil McDill, Institute for Local Self Reliance. Create! Democratize, Energy, Monopoly, New Economy

A new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliances shows that America’s monopoly problem is bigger than you might think. While last year’s Big Tech hearings and House antitrust report spotlighted monopoly abuses at Amazon, Google, and other tech giants, the report from ILSR makes clear that America’s monopoly problem has spread into many other sectors of the economy — including the electricity sector. The report is the latest in a series from ILSR focused on fighting monopoly power throughout several sectors of our economy, including Banking, Broadband, Food and Farming, Pharmacy, Waste and Recycling, and Small Business.

Infrastructure Advances Improve Lives Of All Nicaraguans

December 17, 2020 Nan McCurdy, Alliance for Global Justice. Create! Energy, Infrastructure, Neoliberalism, Nicaragua

During the neoliberal governments from 1990 to 2007, the Nicaraguan population suffered lack of electricity an average of five to twelve hours a day. Electricity was needed to pump water so Nicaraguans had even more hours without the precious liquid. In my Managua neighborhood, Ciudad Jardin, we prepared for the outages with candles, kerosene and stored water. We sat outside together in the dark in the early evenings – one good thing – and the kids played. But the frequent electricity cuts ruined refrigerators, televisions, etc. because, when the electricity returned, it would often spike. I recently talked with some Hondurans who confirm that this is part of their suffering even today.

Call To Stop Shutting Off People’s Power For Good

November 28, 2020 Greg Harmon, Deceleration. Create! COVID-19, Energy, Poverty, Power utility

Across San Antonio, the virus was hunting. Food insecurity was high. Mass layoffs and terminations rolled on. And it was hot. Hundred-degree days scorched much of July. Yet the lights and air conditioners—for the first time in many, many summers—were staying on reliably for rich and poor alike across the city. Every side of town. Every block. For thousands of poor families across the city who routinely struggle to keep up with their utility payments, this was perhaps the one gift of a deadly pandemic: a pause on forced electricity disconnections for nonpayment.

Energy Transitions And Colonialism

November 11, 2020 Hamza Hamouchene, Africa Is A Country. Educate! Africa, Colonialism, Energy, Fossil Fuels

The year 2020 has seen an unprecedented oil price crash, causing a shock to the fossil fuel industry. The impact has been brutal among oil companies, especially in the high-cost US shale oil sector. As for oil-producing African countries, such as Angola, Algeria, Libya, and Nigeria, more economic strain has been added to their economies with mounting budget deficits and a hemorrhaging of their foreign exchange reserves. Against this backdrop, some analysts have rushed to speculate that the pandemic could kill the oil industry and help save the environment.

Big Oil Reality Check

September 25, 2020 Oil Change International. Educate! climate crisis, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Oil and Gas

As oil and gas companies claim to be part of the solution of the climate crisis, the reality couldn’t be more different. Our new discussion paper analyzes the current climate commitments of eight of the largest integrated oil and fossil gas companies, and reveals that none come close to aligning their actions with the urgent 1.5°C global warming limit as outlined by the Paris Agreement. This discussion paper measures oil and gas company climate plans against ten minimum criteria, focusing on the ambition, integrity, and ability necessary to implement a just transition and achieve a 1.5°C aligned managed decline of oil and fossil gas.

Springfield Says “No” To Biomass Power Plant

September 5, 2020 Peter Goonan, Mass Live. Resist! Air Pollution, Biomass, Energy, Massachusetts

Springfield, MA - More than 75 people gathered on the steps of City Hall on Thursday calling for an end to a long-proposed biomass project in East Springfield, saying it is a threat to public health and an environmental hazard. Some of those speaking used he phrase “we can’t breathe” in expressing their strong opposition to the wood-to-energy plant proposed by Palmer Renewable Energy LLC at 1000 Page Blvd. Verne McArthur, of the Springfield Climate Justice Coalition, led the activists and residents in chants against the biomass project, including, “We will, we will, block you, block you.”

Israel Cuts Fuel, Gaza Goes Dark

August 22, 2020 By Tamara Nassar, Electronic Intifada. Educate! Energy, Gaza, Israel, War crimes

The Gaza Strip’s only power plant shut down on Tuesday after Israel stopped the transfer of fuel to the territory. The halting of fuel transfers is among a series of collective punishment measures Israel has imposed on Gaza. Israel has claimed the measures are a response to incendiary balloons released from Gaza. The launching of such balloons by some Palestinians is, in reality, a symbolic effort to draw attention to the deteriorating situation in Gaza, long subject to an Israeli siege. Although incendiary balloons caused several fires in Israel, “no injuries or damage have been reported,” according to The Jerusalem Post. Israel has also bombed Gaza on an almost a daily basis over the past week.

Solutionary Rail In A Time Of Pandemic

July 23, 2020 Bill Moyer, SolutionaryRail.org. Create! climate crisis, Energy, Trains, Transportation

CoViD-19 is a confluence of crises that further exacerbates inequities and exposes societal and economic vulnerabilities. Our latest RailBite, Solutionary Rail in a Time of Pandemic explores how this moment of crisis is also an opportunity to address those vulnerabilities, as well as one of the underlying causes of this and future pandemics, i.e. climate change, by undertaking a transformational national infrastructure project. Solutionary Rail offers a pathway to tackle some of the most difficult decarbonization challenges while improving public health, delivering environmental justice, and rebuilding local & national economic vitality. The recent House Transportation Committee's Moving Forward Act (MFA) and the House Climate Action Plan (HCAP) address some important challenges, but leave many of the most difficult problems unresolved.

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