"The amount of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere grew at record rate in 2016 to a level not seen for millions of years, potentially fuelling a 20-metre rise in sea levels and adding 3 degrees to temperatures, the United Nations said on Monday."
"Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main man-made greehouse gas, hit 403.3 parts per million (ppm), up from 400.0 in 2015, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. That growth rate was 50 percent faster than the average over the past decade, driving CO2 levels 45 percent above pre-industrial levels and further outside the range of 180-280 ppm seen in recent cycles of ice ages and warmer periods."
"You don’t often find oil and gas companies lining up to take business advice from a bunch of tree huggers—especially when it comes to climate change. But that’s exactly what happened when the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) decided to tackle the problem of leaking methane, a rarely mentioned but extremely potent greenhouse pollutant. Methane, the main constituent of natural gas, is a lot cleaner than coal when used to make electricity, but when it gets into the atmosphere unburned it behaves like an invisible blanket. At least 10 million tons of methane escapes from the nation’s sprawling oil and gas system every year, resulting in about a good portion of the warming the planet is currently seeing."
"Rebecca Cantwell of the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association said they’ve never seen anything like this, with a few U.S. solar panel manufacturers now pitted against the remainder of the industry. Domestic panel makers want imports to cost more, providing protection for their products. That could hurt the rest of the industry which has grown because of — and grown accustomed to — cheaper goods manufactured in South Korea, Malaysia and Mexico. One Oregon company supports the trade case and wants import taxes to level its playing field. Tim Brightbill, who represents SolarWorld, said a surge of foreign panels has put more than 30 U.S. solar cell and module manufacturers out of business in the last five years." “These remedies would help strengthen the industry not only bring it back to where it was, but make it a world leader for decades to come,” Brightbill said.
"So why is most of the American solar industry taking a stand against the trade case (The two U.S. firms that initiated the case are subsidiaries of foreign-based companies), the tariffs on imported panels and other companies like SolarWorld? It’s because the bulk of the domestic solar industry focuses on everything but making black shiny slabs of solar cells. They make the wires, electrical equipment and racking. They install large systems for municipalities or utility companies and smaller systems on household roofs. "It’s those large-scale projects that stand to lose the most right now. John Hereford at Oak Leaf Energy Partners said he hasn’t closed many deals on projects past December — just when a tariff decision could kick up prices."
"California may be a leader in climate policies, but much of its abundant oil reserves are nearly as carbon-intensive to extract and refine as Alberta tar sands crude. Many experts now say that reform of the state’s methods of producing oil is long overdue."
"Strange as it may seem, most fatal electric shocks happen to people who should know better. Here are some electro-medical facts that should make you think twice before taking that last chance."
"Offhand it would seem that a shock of 10,000 volts would be more deadly than 100 volts. But this is not so! Individuals have been electrocuted by appliances using ordinary house currents of 110 volts and by electrical apparatus in industry using as little as 42 volts direct current. The real measure of shock's intensity lies in the amount of current (amperes) forced though the body, and not the voltage. Any electrical device used on a house wiring circuit can, under certain conditions, transmit a fatal current. While any amount of current over 10 milliamps (0.01 amp) is capable of producing painful to severe shock, currents between 100 and 200 mA (0.1 to 0.2 amp) are lethal. Currents above 200 milliamps (0.2 amp), while producing severe burns and unconsciousness, do not usually cause death if the victim is given immediate attention. Resuscitation, consisting of artificial respiration, will usually revive the victim. From a practical viewpoint, after a person is knocked out by an electrical shock it is impossible to tell how much current has passed through the vital organs of his body. Artificial respiration must be applied immediately if breathing has stopped."
"A new Environmental Defense Fund white paper accuses Avangrid and Eversource of artificially constraining natural gas pipeline capacity in New England, leading to inflated energy costs for consumers in Massachusetts and the six-state region."
"By reserving pipeline capacity, and then not using it the next day, energy companies pocketed an extra $3.6 billion between 2013 and 2016, according to the report, titled Vertical Market Power in Interconnected Natural Gas and Electricity Markets."
"DOE's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) has created some odd allies of convenience. Natural gas generators, renewable energy developers, electric cooperatives, munis and others joined together last week to ask FERC to extend its consideration timeframe for the controversial rule. They were joined later by industrial energy consumers and the National Association of Utility Regulatory Commissioners, the association for state utility regulators. The groups argued at least 90 days was necessary to evaluate the rule."
"The only entities to openly support FERC's proposed timeline were coal and nuclear generators, which would be the direct beneficiaries of the reforms. Even so, the commission dismissed the motions for extension in just 50 words."
"The DOE NOPR would provide cost recovery for merchant power plants in wholesale electricity markets that keep 90 days of fuel supplied onsite. But just which wholesale markets it would apply to became less clear in recent days. The version of the NOPR filed in the Federal Register on Oct. 10 states that cost recovery would apply to merchant plants in ISO and RTO jurisdictions with "energy and capacity markets." The original version of the NOPR, filed Sept. 29 at the FERC eLibrary, said nothing about a capacity market requirement. Of the six grid operators under FERC jurisdiction, three have capacity markets — ISO-New England, the New York ISO and the PJM Interconnection. The Southwest Power Pool and the California ISO do not have a capacity markets, and the Midcontinent ISO has a voluntary capacity market, making it unclear how the rule would be applied there. FERC does not comment on ongoing proceedings, but DOE spokesperson Shaylyn Hynes said her agency considers the later version filed in the Register to be the final proposal. "