Climate Change

In Rare Show of Force, House Democrats Pressure Hochul on Climate Bill – The New York Times

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In Rare Show of Force, House Democrats Pressure Hochul on Climate Bill – The New York Times

Several influential members of New York’s congressional delegation are pressuring Gov. Kathy Hochul to fully embrace a climate bill that would compel the state to build wind and solar energy projects when private industry falls short of state environmental goals.

The effort — an unusual show of force by Washington into Albany’s affairs — was made public on Wednesday in a letter sent to the governor that “strongly” encouraged Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, to fall in line with the state’s left-leaning Legislature and support the bill, known as the Build Public Renewables Act.

Nine of New York’s Democratic members of Congress have signed on: Representatives Jerrold Nadler, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Yvette Clarke, Grace Meng, Adriano Espaillat, Daniel Goldman, Nydia Vel?zquez, Patrick Ryan and the effort’s leader, Jamaal Bowman.

The measure would lay the groundwork for a publicly owned renewable energy system by allowing the New York Power Authority to build, own and operate renewable energy generation. Each year, the Power Authority would assess the progress made by private industry on the goals set out by New York’s 2019 climate law and would launch its own projects when the private sector falls short.

NY heat pumps climate change propane industry

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NY heat pumps climate change propane industry

The propane industry in New York — distributors of the colorless, liquefied petroleum gas used for home heating and firing up barbecue grills — is on war footing. Last year, the industry spent almost $1 million across the Empire State opposing policies that would mandate electrified heating in new construction. New information shows that nationally, the Propane Education and Research Council, a federally chartered trade association that collects fees on propane sales to bankroll research campaigns, plans to spend over $13 million this year to battle electrification on all fronts, and they’ve got their eyes set on New York.?

NPR

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Exxon scientists accurately predicted global warming from burning fossil fuels. : NPR

Decades of research by scientists at Exxon accurately predicted how much global warming would occur from burning fossil fuels, according to a new study in the journal Science.

The findings clash with an enormously successful campaign that Exxon spearheaded and funded for more than 30 years which cast doubt on human-driven climate change and the science underpinning it. That narrative helped delay federal and international action on climate change, even as the impacts of climate change worsened.

Over the last few years, journalists and researchers revealed that Exxon did in-house research that showed it knew that human-caused climate change is real. The new study looked at Exxon's research and compared it to the warming that has actually happened.

I was reading the latest silliness about the gas stove ban that isn’t

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I was reading the latest silliness about the gas stove ban that isn’t

There are very legitimate concerns about gas stoves with their open flames burning in enclosed locations. While natural gas and propane burn quite clean, they are fossil fuels and they still produce nitrogen dioxide which can trigger asthma attacks and cause health impacts. Also, with the more and more natural gas coming from fracking, often in radioactive formations, there is a risk of bringing radon into one’s home.

Years ago, with drafty old homes this was not such a problem. But more houses are often much tighter, so you have greater risk of having both radon and nitrogen oxides in your house. While heat exchangers do help bring in outside air, depending on the system, there may not be very good airflow in and out of every kitchen. Plus more and more people use air conditioning, which doesn’t allow as much airflow as open screen windows do.

Plus, now is the time to decarbonize our economy. A single gas stove doesn’t produce much carbon dioxide, but if there are millions of homes that heat with gas, a little bit adds up. And more significantly — at least in colder locations, gas stoves are a natural combination with gas-fired heating. Natural gas heating is a significant source of both gas consumption and carbon emissions — which is why carbon emissions spike in northern United States every winter. Plus, not only does natural gas produce carbon, but natural gas lines are inherently leaky, and natural gas is a powerful warming agent.

Inductance cooking has many of the same benefits of gas stoves but is much less polluting. It can be used in most locations that gas cooking has been used in the past, and has a fraction of the carbon output. Any place that has 230 volt electricity, can easily accommodate such stoves. And for off-grid and remote locations, the amount of propane gas used in conventional gas stoves is pretty de minis compared to all the propane currently used to heat and cook food in millions of urban and suburban households and businesses.

Why Methane Is a Large and Underestimated Threat to Climate Goals – Yale E360

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Why Methane Is a Large and Underestimated Threat to Climate Goals – Yale E360

“The more aggressive the temperature goal, the more important potent, short-lived greenhouse gases such as methane become,” says Rob Jackson, professor of energy and environment at Stanford University. In a new analysis with Abernethy, Jackson calculates that measured on a timeframe to the mid-2040s — the likely deadline for capping warming under the Paris Agreement — methane is three times more important than assumed under existing regulations.

“We are severely undervaluing methane,” says Abernethy. “We need drastic climate action in the short term to achieve our Paris Agreement goals. Methane is the best lever to make that happen.”

This will require action against not just leaks from oil and gas infrastructure, but also the many biogenic sources, such as landfills and livestock. But achieving that is being undermined by what Abernethy calls the “arbitrary and unjustified” timeframe under which regulators currently assess the gas.

NPR

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Promises on fighting climate change are falling far short : NPR

World leaders will begin climate talks in Egypt in a little over a week, and tensions are expected to run high in the negotiations to reduce heat-trapping emissions.

Now, new research shows the world has already fallen drastically behind in adopting the changes needed to avoid a future with even more extreme storms, heat waves and floods.

Collectively, countries have promised to reduce heat-trapping emissions by about 3% by 2030, compared to 2020 levels. That's far from the 45% drop that's needed, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Program.

NPR

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Greenhouse gases reach a new record as nations fall behind on climate pledges : NPR

GENEVA — The three main greenhouse gases hit record high levels in the atmosphere last year, the U.N. weather agency said Wednesday, calling it an "ominous" sign as war in Ukraine, rising costs of food and fuel, and other worries have elbowed in on longtime concerns about global warming in recent months.

"More bad news for the planet," the World Meteorological Organization said in a statement along with its latest annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. It's one of several reports released in recent days looking at several aspects of humanity's struggle with climate change in the run up to the U.N.'s latest climate conference, in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. The U.S. pledged billions to fight climate change. Then came the Ukraine war Goats and Soda The U.S. pledged billions to fight climate change. Then came the Ukraine war

Of the three main types of heat-trapping greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — the biggest jump from 2020 to 2021 was in methane, whose concentrations in the air came in with the biggest year-on-year increase since regular measurements began four decades ago, WMO said.

"The continuing rise in concentrations of the main heat-trapping gases, including the record acceleration in methane levels, shows that we are heading in the wrong direction," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

Methane is more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, but doesn't stay in the atmosphere nearly as long as carbon dioxide and there's 200 times more carbon dioxide in the air than methane. Over a 20-year time-period, a molecule of methane traps about 81 times the heat as a molecule of carbon dioxide but over a century it goes down to trapping 28 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.