In Pro-Trump West Virginia Coal Country, the Jobs Keep Leaving
Energy
What Is Benzene? | Chemical Safety Facts
As a building block chemical, benzene is reacted with other chemicals to produce a variety of other chemistries, materials and, ultimately, consumer goods.
Benzene is used to make other chemicals like ethylbenzene, cumene and cyclohexane, which are then reacted and used in the manufacture of a variety of materials and plastics such as polystyrene, ABS, and nylon. There can be many steps in the process that starts with the benzene molecule and ends with a completed material or consumer product. For example, benzene is a building block used to make ethylbenzene, which is then used to make styrene, which is used to make polystyrene. The end material, polystyrene, is a completely different material chemically than benzene.
For consumer products where benzene is used as a building block or intermediate, the benzene is typically fully reacted in a closed system, with little to no benzene remaining in the finished consumer product.
Benzene also is used to make some types of lubricants, rubbers, dyes, detergents, drugs, explosives and pesticides.
study | Utility Dive
California just got sobering news that despite its nation-leading renewables build, it may be a century late in achieving its ambitious climate goals.
The shift to renewables allowed California to meet its 2020 mandate to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels four years early, accoring to an Oct. 8 Next 10 report. But the state's GHG reduction rate must be three times faster to get to the next target of 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, Next 10 found.
Trump looks to open up railroads for LNG shipments – HoustonChronicle.com
More ways for Albany to go bang. And don't think they aren't coming to Albany. At least if they burn up half of the city, it will be a clean burning fuel, with less benzene to clean up once the fire burns out.
The railroad could offer an enticing alternative to natural gas customers when pipeline projects are under increasing scrutiny over natural gas’s contribution to climate change, with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blocking construction of new pipelines running through his state and into New England. At the same time the rush to develop oil fields in West Texas - far from the nation’s pipeline network - has resulted in many drillers flaring the natural gas that is a byproduct of crude production.
“Pipelines are still the most optimal way to transport gas, but LNG by rail can be a great way to move gas into places with pipeline constraints, like the Northeast and potentially out of the Permian Basin,” said Katie Ehly, senior policy adviser at the trade group Natural Gas Supply Association. “It just makes sense.”
But tanker cars full of flammable natural gas traveling through American cities and towns represents a significant safety risk, the scale of which was evidenced six years ago when an oil train derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, setting off a massive explosion that killed more than 40 people.
Major Natural Gas Line Pipelines In NY
This map shows the major high-pressure natural gas pipelines that cross New York State, showing where gas service is available and where it moves across our state.
Data Source: Energy Information Agency, Natural Gas Interstate and Intrastate Pipelines. https://www.eia.gov/maps/layer_info-m.php
Inefficient coal plant scheduling cost ratepayers $3.5B from 2015 to 2017, report says | Utility Dive
Regulated utilities cost ratepayers over $3.5 billion from 2015 to 2017 through uneconomic coal practices, according to a report released Tuesday from the Sierra Club.
Vertically-integrated utilities consistently operated coal units based on their own scheduling rather than relying on market signals to determine when running that plant would be most economic, the report found. The practice, known as self-scheduling, became common when there were fewer cost-effective alternative resources, but now hinders the ability of other resources, wind and solar, to compete in power markets, research has previously found.
Without self-scheduling, coal-powered generation would have dropped 10% and the median market price would have risen 30% or $7.7/kWh in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) from 2015 to 2017, according to modeling scenarios run for the report by Synapse Energy Economics.
Southwestern Power Administration – Wikipedia
I never heard about the Southwestern Power Administration. It was a creation of Sam Rayburn, it's like a small Tennessee Valley Authority but only is in the hydroelectric and power distribution business. It still distributes low cost power to mostly municipal power systems serving 8 million customers.