Energy

PG&E: Don’t Break it Up. Take It Over

November 22, 2018 Johanna Bozuwa, Commondreams.org Strategize! California, Energy, Wildfires

There is strong evidence that the wildfires raging through California right now—killing at least 80 people, with at least an additional 1,000 missing as of November 18—have been sparked at least in part by the large investor-owned monopoly utility, PG&E. Further, PG&E’s apparent negligence and its consequences aren’t new. Cal Fire found that three separate wildfires across the state in 2017 were caused by PG&E, and the utility could be liable for up to $12 billion in damages from more than 800 civil lawsuits. With that backdrop, PG&E teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, and the California Public Utility Commission is now thinking of breaking up the utility. But the commission shouldn’t stop at breaking up PG&E. The public should take it over.

Investigations Point To Energy Corporation’s Negligence In California Wildfire

November 15, 2018 E.P. Milligan, Wsws.org Educate! California, Corporations, Energy, Investigation, Wildfires

An investigation is now underway that will assess the culpability of Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) in starting the Camp Fire, now the deadliest wildfire in the history of California. The company acknowledged Tuesday that it had submitted an “electric incident report” to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on November 8, moments before the wildfire broke out. The report detailed a power failure on a transmission line in Butte County at 6:15 a.m., 15 minutes before the fire was reported as starting in the same area. More than 100 people are still listed as missing by the Butte County Sheriff’s Office after the fire destroyed the town of Paradise, California Thursday morning.

The Dark Side Of The Biofuel Economy

November 7, 2018 Biofuel Watch, Popular Resistance. Resist! Biofuels, Climate Change, Energy, Environment

An international coalition of more than 120 organisations from 40 countries today warns that the rapid global growth of the so-called bioeconomy poses a grave risk to the climate, nature, and human rights. In addition to publishing an Open Letter [1], a petition [2] is being launched today to coincide with the International Day of Action on Bioenergy which calls on governments around the world to support proven low carbon technologies, reduce overconsumption, and protect forests and other ecosystems. In recent years, governments from the UK to Brazil to South Korea have promoted burning forest biomass for energy as a substitute for fossil fuels.

Puerto Ricans Want A Clean And Just Energy Future

October 25, 2018 By Nithin Coca, Equaltimes.org Create! Energy, Puerto Rico, Water

One year after Hurricane Maria ravaged the United States territory of Puerto Rico, leaving more than 3000 dead and, at its peak, the entire island of 3.5 million residents without electricity, youth and labour activists are calling for a just energy transition that would better protect the island’s economy and energy system for future climate-related disasters. “The transition to clean energy is very important because in Puerto Rico we suffered the onslaught of Hurricane Maria, and many of the deaths were people with health issues who depended on electric machines,” says Rosalina Alvarado, a science teacher and leader of the local environmental group, PANAS.

IPCC Report: Urgent Changes Required To Limit Climate Catastrophe

October 8, 2018 Jonathan Watts, The Guardian. Educate! Climate Change, Energy, IPCC, United Nations

The world’s leading climate scientists have warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people. The authors of the landmark report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released on Monday say urgent and unprecedented changes are needed to reach the target, which they say is affordable and feasible although it lies at the most ambitious end of the Paris agreement pledge to keep temperatures between 1.5C and 2C.

Beyond Extreme Energy ‘Welcomes’ FERC Nominee

October 8, 2018 Melinda Tuhus, Beyond Extreme Energy. Resist! Congress, Energy, FERC, Oil and Gas

President Trump has just nominated Bernard McNamee, Executive Director of the Office of Policy for the U.S. Department of Energy for the open Republican seat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). This is a man who is clearly in love with fossil fuels, as shown in his Earth Day paeon in The Hill last April – on Earth Day, no less! He rhapsodized about how coal, oil and gas have made the good life possible, by powering everything from our cars to incubators for premature babies. In his current job he...

How Energy Companies And Allies Are Turning The Law Against Protesters

August 23, 2018 Nicholas Kusnetz, Insideclimatenews.org Resist! Corporations, Energy, Protesters, Repression

The activists were ready for a fight. An oil pipeline was slated to cross tribal lands in eastern Oklahoma, and Native American leaders would resist. The Sierra Club and Black Lives Matter pledged support. The groups announced their plans at a press conference in January 2017 at the State Capitol. Ashley McCray, a member of a local Shawnee tribe, stood in front of a blue "Water is Life" banner, her hair tied back with an ornate clip, and told reporters that organizers were forming a coalition to protect native lands. They would establish a rural encampment, like the one that had drawn thousands of people to Standing Rock in North Dakota the previous year to resist the Dakota Access Pipeline. The following week, an Oklahoma state lawmaker introduced a bill to stiffen penalties for interfering with pipelines and other "critical infrastructure."

[Act Out! 170] – #RiseTogether Against Dirty Energy + How To Hack Apathy

July 26, 2018 Eleanor Goldfield, Occupy.com Resistance Report Energy, Louisiana, Pipelines

This week on Act Out! The #RiseTogether weeks of action against dirty energy projects and their financiers continue, and I share what I witnessed in the swamps of Louisiana as the fight against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline escalates. Next, Dr. Kristin Laurin joins us to talk rationalization and the power of human psychology in addressing – and indeed, not addressing the greatest socio-political problems of our time.

Stopping One Incinerator Wasn’t Enough For Baltimore Students

June 25, 2018 Emily Nonko, Nextcity.org Create! Baltimore, Energy, Students

In 2010, the city of Baltimore approved a plan to build the Fairfield Renewable Energy Project, a trash incinerator that would have been the largest of its kind in the nation. Its developer, Energy Answers International, planned to spend nearly $1 billion to build a plant to burn municipal waste, tire chips, auto parts and demolition debris for fuel. By law, the incinerator could emit up to 240 pounds of mercury and 1,000 pounds of lead into the air per year. The project was never completed. And today, the student-led effort that stopped what could have been has evolved into a new opportunity for more students to learn how they can use science to advocate for and improve their community. The Baltimore neighborhoods of Curtis Bay and Brooklyn are separated from downtown by the Patapsco River.

Nationalizing Energy In Response To The Climate Crisis

May 17, 2018 Alexander C. Kaufman, Huffingtonpost.com Create! Climate Change, climate crisis, Energy, Nationalism

The White House is considering plans to invoke an obscure, Cold War-era law to prop up struggling coal-fired power plants, a move that some say could open the door for Democrats to take radical steps to phase out fossil fuels. The Defense Production Act gives the president broad authority to intervene in industries deemed vital amid war or disaster, including nationalizing systemically important companies to avert catastrophe. In 1952, President Harry Truman applied the statute to nationalize the steel industry and forestall a nationwide strike. But President Donald Trump is weighing using the law to fulfill a campaign promise and halt coal plant closures, according to a Bloomberg report published late last month. It’s unclear what the program would look like.

Six Months After Hurricane, Puerto Ricans Are Still Without Light

March 26, 2018 EL Jennings-Maldonado, We Act Radio. Educate! Colonialism, Energy, Hurricane, Puerto Rico

Yabucoa is a municipality located in the southeastern part of Puerto Rico. On Wednesday September 20th, 2017 at 2 AM, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. Now, six months later, only 35 percent of Yabucoa has access to some form of power, which is provided by generators. Of this 35 percent, it is mostly comprised of municipality buildings (i.e. grocery stores, hospitals and local businesses), and the very few families who can afford a generator. A generator is used to run household utilities such as a few lights, a refrigerator (a place where medicine & food is stored), as well, if fortunate enough, a washer and dryer.

More Coal Capacity Closed In 2018 Than First 3 Years Of Obama Admin

February 21, 2018 By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Greentechmedia.com Educate! Coal, Energy, New Economy, Trump Administration

Last week, the Sierra Club announced the latest U.S. coal plant to close: FirstEnergy’s Pleasants Power Station in West Virginia. It’s No. 268 in a long line of U.S. coal plants that have shut down since 2010, and among several to suspend operations this month. The environmental organization lauded the closure as a victory in its Beyond Coal campaign and an affirmation that coal continues to lose when pitted against other fuel sources. The latest Sustainable Energy in America Factbook from Bloomberg New Energy Finance and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy noted that the steady march of coal plant closures did slow somewhat in 2017, with just six plants closing compared to the previous year’s eight. But BNEF expects the closure trend to resume next year, with nearly as much plant capacity set to shut down 2018 as during the 2015 peak, when the coal industry dropped 15 gigawatts.

Union Group Argues For Public Ownership Of Energy Systems

February 20, 2018 Christine Marie, Socialistaction.org Create! Energy, New Economy, Public ownership

According to the International Energy Agency and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IEA-IREA), the investment needed to keep global warming below the threshold of two degrees Celsius would have to double the 2016 levels of investment to $600 billion a year and reach $14 trillion invested in solar and wind by 2030. The chances of this happening, under the current paradigm of public-private partnerships that guarantee profits and mitigate risk to private investors, according to the “Working Paper No. 10” authors Sean Sweeney and John Treat, is zero. In fact, they argue, based on a close study of the situation in the UK, that the idea that we can reach safe levels of renewable energy via aid to private profiteers is “the greatest policy failure ever.” Public money, they argue, is already responsible for the vast bulk of the world’s energy deployment.

No Drop In U.S. Carbon Footprint Expected Through 2050, Energy Department Says

February 10, 2018 John H. Cushman JR., Insideclimatenews.org Educate! Carbon Dioxide, Energy

The carbon footprint of the United States will barely go down at all for the foreseeable future and will be slightly higher in 2050 than it is now, according to a new projection by the Energy Department's data office. If that projection came true, it would spell the end of an era in which the U.S. led the world in reducing the tonnage of carbon dioxide it pumped each year into the atmosphere. The new plateau would reflect Donald Trump's determination to walk away from the Paris climate agreement, to abandon any thought of more ambitious climate change policies, and to overturn the main federal climate protections recently put in place, like President Barack Obama's rules to curtail emissions from electric power plants.

The Clean Power Plan Is Not Worth Saving

January 21, 2018 By Dennis Higgins, Truthout Educate! Climate Change, Energy, Environment

The Clean Power Plan (CPP) was proposed by President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2014 to mitigate human-caused factors in climate change. In censuring Trump's attack on the CPP, valid criticisms of the plan itself have been ignored. No one remembers to mention that promoting gas was always at the heart of the CPP.

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