Blog Post: Step Into These Shoes While Wearing a Climate & Energy Hat

Blog Post - Step Into These Shoes While Wearing a Climate & Energy Hat

Greetings,

I hope your January was a good one and that you are enjoying the longer hours of daylight.

I am sometimes asked by one of you how I select the items for the “Caught My Eyes” section. The process is not easy given how much news there is to choose from in the two weeks prior to when I publish this newsletter. The world of energy & climate change is one that is obviously growing and evolving at a rapid clip.

In choosing what blurbs to write, I try and steer away from stories or news that everyone is carrying, including general media. You don’t need me to tell you something like that you are seeing in multiple other places.

I look for items where I think I can interpret what that news means, based on my own experience. I look for where I can connect the dots between that news item and something else. In some cases, I also let my opinion on something show through.

I try to spread my net around, and not keep reporting on the same topics. That can get challenging, especially when an area like EVs seems to be spinning out an interesting story almost every day.

The biggest challenge is trying to limit the number of blurbs so that I am not adding too much to your already heavy reading pile. I did try to keep it to no more than three, but that has gotten harder.

So…I hope you enjoy today’s blurbs as well as my Op Ed. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or criticisms on anything I write, do not ever hesitate to let me know.

Best,

Dan

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Links to Past Posts:

Resilience Recognition is Rising - But There is That Other Thing

There is no "O" in Climate Change

It was an Instagram COP - And I am Finally OK with That

How to Talk About Climate With Your Crazy Uncle at Thanksgiving

Monty Python and Climate Change

What You Need to Know About NIMBYism

H mm..So How Much Did My Heat Pump Really Cost?

What it Means to Be a Climate Voter

The Climate Conundrum of Air Conditioning

Predictions Made About Utilities Made 10 Years Ago - How Did They Hold up?

My Vote For The Most Under-Appreciated Impact of Climate Change

10 Things I Should Have Written About

So I Went to the COP - Here Are My Top 10 Takeaways.

Efficiency and Clean Energy - Faster vs More

Efficiency & Clean Energy - More vs. Faster

It's Time For A Climate Vote - On the Record

Good COP, Bad COP .....Thoughts Before Glasgow

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

What I Should Have Written About

The Serenity of Being a Climate Voter

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Some Things That Caught My Eye ...

Take a Moment and Indulge Yourself In Something Beautiful

The Winners of the 2023 Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Awards have been announced, and the top picks are stunning.

I predict that this is not the first time you will see the photo that won the top prize.

You can see an article at the free link below and within that article is a link to all of the entries in the contest.

https://wapo.st/42zrIsu

Stopping the COP Arms Race?

You know from reading my past writings that I am not a fan of the COP in terms of it being a way to address climate change via hard-wired policy and agreements. (However, as my Post from December on COP28 showed, I am now OK with the “other COP” – the gathering part).

From what the article below is reporting, there are a lot of changes being discussed, including how to stop the escalation of COP as an extravaganza by host countries trying to out-do the previous ones.

In the article a long-time academic observer at COPs piece gives her thoughts on one way the COP has evolved (in line with my recent comments). The observer mused on how negotiators have no idea where the non-negotiator events are, and don’t have time to walk that far anyway, resulting in the links between negotiations and the rest of the COP beginning to break down.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04022024/un-climate-talks-need-reform-but-change-would-be-difficult/

Will Someone Remind Me Why We Need Crypto?

The Federal Government, though its Energy Information Administration (EIA) will soon start collecting information from Crypto Miners on its electricity consumption. Info collected will be fuel source for generation and location of the generating resource.

Cryptocurrency mining in the U.S. has grown significantly over the past few years, especially after a 2021 crackdown on the activity in China.

The EIA said that under the low-end of its estimate, cryptocurrency mining represents electricity usage equal to entire states like Utah and West Virginia and makes up from 0.6 percent to 2.3 percent of the nation’s total electricity consumption.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4444715-us-to-require-cryptocurrency-mines-to-report-energy-use-data/?utm_medium=email

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61364#:~:text=The%20CBECI%20estimates%20that%20global,to%20have%20been%2027%2C400%20TWh

Et Tu, EU?

Here is some good news.

It seems often that the issue with trying to transition energy and tackle climate change is a country or company not wanting to step out and make a change before its competitors do (and that includes competition among countries).

It seems the European Union has taken note of the Inflation Reduction Act.

The EU just reached agreement on a new law to bolster local green tech manufacturing — which is being reported in Europe as a key step in the bloc’s plans to withstand mounting competition from the U.S. and China.

The bill, dubbed the Net-Zero Industry Act, will prioritize permitting and funding for technologies deemed necessary to make the EU climate-neutral by 2050 — a goal set down in a previous law

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/02/06/net-zero-industry-act-council-and-parliament-strike-a-deal-to-boost-eu-s-green-industry/#:~:text=The%20net%2Dzero%20industry%20act%20is%20one%20of%20the%20three,rapid%20transition%20to%20climate%20neutrality.

https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2024/02/06/eu-finalizes-green-tech-bill-responding-to-us-effort-ee-00139899

Solar NIMBYs Are Talking a Lot About This

When it comes to siting a solar farm, you might think that pretty much the entire focus would be on “the site”, e.g. site vegetation, drainage, set-backs, visual coverage, forest removal, etc.

But increasingly, NIMBYs are going beyond that and trying to discredit a solar farm as a generator. They are asking about snow and pollen on panels, and what that does to their efficiency. They are also focusing on storm damage, often using a field of panels destroyed in a Cat 4 hurricane as an example of what any strong storm would do.

To be fair, solar panels are in the outdoors and in the elements, and things like hurricanes, severe hailstorms, etc. can impact them – a new Study released discusses that.

https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2024/02/02/extreme-weather-chips-away-at-solar-production-study-00139157

But the thing that stakeholders seem to not understand is that a solar project developer is not building a static structure, as if it were a barn or multi-car garage. If it was doing the latter, it would be paid for the job once construction ends and be done with it. But the developer is building an electricity

generating plant, and it making money on the sale of electricity. If the plant doesn’t operate, it makes no money. If it loses efficiency, it makes less money.

To me, this is another example of the average person not understanding the electricity industry. I am not sure if that is a situation to do something about or a case of "it is what it is", and hope that government siting officials will understand all they need to such that they can act appropriately.

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Step Into These Shoes While Wearing a Climate & Energy Hat

OK. I am guilty.

Of what you say?

Well… I plead guilty to always talking and acting as if doing climate-beneficial things was simple and easy. After all, all you have to do is think ONLY of climate change when you make any decision, right?

It’s not that simple, is it.

Climate is not “job 1” for most people. Yet our climate future will depend on hundreds of thousands (more?) decisions large and small. Many of them may look like no-brainers if the decision-maker views them only through only a climate lens. But they will not be doing that. And this is what I have been thinking of based on some things that have (virtually) crossed my desk lately.

Put yourself in the shoes of the leader of an African country where a large new gas deposit has been found. Your country is considered a “Developing” nation. Your country (not to mention your continent) is responsible for only a micro-portion of historical emissions. You have a share of the estimated 600,000 African’s yet to have electricity access.

You look at the largest and most robust economy in the world and know that it is responsible for the largest share of historical emissions. You also know that it is the largest gas exporter in the world and continues to drill for more.

You look at the buzz being made over creation of special international funds and financing for developing countries, and the fact that COP29 reached agreement on reparations. But you also know that the country pledges so far are not enough to fully fund these things. And you know that country pledges are just that – a pledge, and climate pledges have had a way of changing.

So – put yourself in the shoes of a leader of this Country. What would you do?

Oh….and this is not a hypothetical that I created. It is the situation in Senegal as described in this article.

https://wapo.st/3UAh56K

Let’s look at another example.

You are the head of the entity responsible for ensuring the reliability of the electricity system in a defined area. But wait – reliability is being defined in two ways: reliability of supply and reliability of delivery. And there’s more: you are also supposed to make sure that a fair price for electricity ultimately consumed.

And then carbon emissions and climate change are added on top of all of that.

If you are this person, you understand that solar and wind are the cheapest things you can add to the grid. You understand that despite claims to the contrary, it is those resources – not the gas plants – that helped Texas make it through the extreme weather they had a couple of years ago. You also know that distributed resources (DER) make sense, especially for reliability and security.

But you also know that there are utilities and other parties that stand ready, willing, and able to build a gas plant - peaking plant or otherwise. You know that gas is available and abundant. You know that a gas plant is a generator. You can pretty much turn it on when you want.

So … put yourself in the shoes of this person or entity – What do you do?

Again, not a hypothetical. The head of the North American Electric Reliability Corp was recently quoted as saying “The resource that keeps the lights on is natural gas. And it's not because I love natural gas. It’s because I love the performance of natural gas generation" He is not the only one in the PJM footprint saying things like that.

Now for example 3.

You are the head of an electric utility. You have an obligation to serve all customers. You are the wires company, and responsible for the maintenance and operation of all or part of the physical grid.

If you are an Investor-Owned Utility (IOU) you are under constant vigilance of and pressure from your state public utility commission and Wall Street. You also are responsible to stockholders, and responsible for spinning off dividends and practicing fiduciary accountability.

You know that you are still working with a business model that was put in place a long time ago, and it is one that incentivizes you to build things, or “put iron in the ground” as the saying goes.

Your industry sector is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases. You are expected to totally change your company so that you still provide electricity, but with no such emissions while also keeping all those people above happy.

Step into those shoes … what would you do?

Let’s not forget some other shoes.

What would you do if you were an investor who knew that by investing in a portfolio with fossil fuel companies you would get higher returns than investing in one with only clean energy ones. The natural thing, for better or for worse, is to seek higher returns so that we put the proverbial food on the table and pay for college. How do you make that investment decision?

How would you vote if you knew that a ballot question that would reduce emissions would also raise the cost of your energy bill?

So … what is my point in dumping such long thoughts?

I have three:

1. It is easy to say that climate should be Job 1, but it’s not that easy in practice. Climate action does not exist in a vacuum.

2. Because of that, there is a tendency to act on climate in incremental, “small-ball” fashion, essentially fitting it into the other metrics we are already beholden to.

3. Because of that, emissions are continuing to rise even though many emission-reducing actions are taking place. The latter just aren’t big enough or being done fast enough.

So, what should we do about this? How do we make it easier to make not just climate decisions, but climate decisions that meet the need for magnitude and speed?

I have several ideas, with many of them focusing on policy, which can often alleviate a post-policy decision-maker of tough decisions, but this Op Ed is already too long. (:

What about you? If you have just tried stepping into any of the shoes above, what do you think would cause you to make more climate-positive decisions? If you are trying to induce greater climate action on the part of a decision-maker, what should you do? What would you support?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Dan

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If you were forwarded this email, click the button below to sign up to receive these Blog Posts.

Join Our Email List

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Links to Past Posts:

Resilience Recognition is Rising - But There is That Other Thing

There is no "O" in Climate Change

It was an Instagram COP - And I am Finally OK with That

How to Talk About Climate With Your Crazy Uncle at Thanksgiving

Monty Python and Climate Change