[TheClimate.Vote] July 6, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Mon Jul 6 09:47:45 EDT 2020
/*July 6, 2020*/
[pipeline shutdown - press releases]
*Dominion Energy and Duke Energy Cancel the Atlantic Coast Pipeline*
RICHMOND, Va. and CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 5, 2020 /PRNewswire -- Dominion
Energy (NYSE: D) and Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) today announced the
cancelation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline ("ACP") due to ongoing delays
and increasing cost uncertainty which threaten the economic viability of
the project.
Despite last month's overwhelming 7-2 victory at the United States
Supreme Court, which vindicated the project and decisions made by
permitting agencies, recent developments have created an unacceptable
layer of uncertainty and anticipated delays for ACP.
Specifically, the decision of the United States District Court for the
District of Montana overturning long-standing federal permit authority
for waterbody and wetland crossings (Nationwide Permit 12), followed by
a Ninth Circuit ruling on May 28 indicating an appeal is not likely to
be successful, are new and serious challenges. The potential for a
Supreme Court stay of the district court's injunction would not
ultimately change the judicial venue for appeal nor decrease the
uncertainty associated with an eventual ruling. The Montana district
court decision is also likely to prompt similar challenges in other
Circuits related to permits issued under the nationwide program
including for ACP.
This new information and litigation risk, among other continuing
execution risks, make the project too uncertain to justify investing
more shareholder capital. For example, a productive tree-felling season
this winter is a key milestone to maintaining the project's cost and
schedule. Unfortunately, the inability to predict with confidence the
outcome of the project's permits and the potential for additional
incremental delays associated with continued legal challenges, means
that committing millions of dollars of additional investment for
tree-felling and subsequent ramp up for full construction is no longer a
prudent use of shareholder capital.
A series of legal challenges to the project's federal and state permits
has caused significant project cost increases and timing delays. These
lawsuits and decisions have sought to dramatically rewrite decades of
permitting and legal precedent including as implemented by presidential
administrations of both political parties. As a result, recent public
guidance of project cost has increased to $8 billion from the original
estimate of $4.5 to $5.0 billion. In addition, the most recent public
estimate of commercial in-service in early 2022 represents a nearly
three-and- a-half-year delay with uncertainty remaining.
Thomas F. Farrell, II, Dominion Energy chairman, president, and chief
executive officer, and Lynn J. Good, Duke Energy chair, president, and
chief executive officer, said:
"We regret that we will be unable to complete the Atlantic Coast
Pipeline. For almost six years we have worked diligently and invested
billions of dollars to complete the project and deliver the much-needed
infrastructure to our customers and communities. Throughout we have
engaged extensively with and incorporated feedback from local
communities, labor and industrial leaders, government and permitting
agencies, environmental interests and social justice organizations. We
express sincere appreciation for the tireless efforts and important
contributions made by all who were involved in this essential project.
This announcement reflects the increasing legal uncertainty that
overhangs large-scale energy and industrial infrastructure development
in the United States. Until these issues are resolved, the ability to
satisfy the country's energy needs will be significantly challenged."
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline was initially announced in 2014 in response
to a lack of energy supply and delivery diversification for millions of
families, businesses, schools, and national defense installations across
North Carolina and Virginia. Robust demand for the project is driven by
the regional retirement of coal-fired electric generation in favor of
environmentally superior, lower cost natural gas-fired generation
combined with widespread growing demand for residential, commercial,
defense, and industrial applications of low-cost and low-emitting
natural gas. Those needs are as real today as they were at project
inception as evidenced by the recently renewed customer subscription of
approximately 90 percent of the project's capacity. The project was also
expected to create thousands of construction jobs and millions of
dollars in tax revenue for local communities across West Virginia,
Virginia and North Carolina.
The companies remain steadfast in the belief that fuel diversity,
including renewables, nuclear, and natural gas, is critical for reliably
and sustainably serving our customers and communities. Both will
continue aggressively pursuing the development of renewables, storage,
nuclear license renewals, electric vehicle infrastructure, energy
delivery infrastructure, as well as energy efficiency and demand side
management programs to meet their customers' needs while creating jobs
and spurring new business growth in the aforementioned regions.
Dominion Energy and Duke Energy will separately provide additional
information for their respective stakeholders and shareholders as
relates to the company-specific financial, environmental, operational,
and other impacts of this announcement.
https://news.dominionenergy.com/2020-07-05-Dominion-Energy-and-Duke-Energy-Cancel-the-Atlantic-Coast-Pipeline
[dampened]
*Rain followed the fireworks at Mount Rushmore*
Almost one-fifth inch fell shortly after the fireworks ended
Rain fell shortly after the July 3 fireworks show at Mount Rushmore. The
official Remote Area Weather Station at the Memorial recorded 0.17 inch
between 10 p.m. and 12 p.m MDT. In less than an hour the relative
humidity went from 44% to 86%. The rain was followed 24 hours later with
another 0.03 inch at 11 p.m. MDT July 4...
- -
In addition to the 27 fires started at Mount Rushmore by previous uses
of fireworks from 1998 to 2009, many of those concerned about the
environment have additional concerns:
- Putting even more carcinogens in the water. Studies from 2011 to
2015 by the USGS found 270 times more perchlorate in the water at
Mount Rushmore than in the surrounding area and determined that it
likely came from fireworks. The Centers for Disease Control says
high levels of perchlorate can affect the thyroid gland, which in
turn can alter the function of many organs in the body. The fetus
and young children can be especially susceptible.
- The trash can never be completely picked up. Left on the sculpture
and in the forest are unexploded shells, wadding, ash, pieces of the
devices, and paper; stuff that can never be totally removed in the
very steep, rocky, rugged terrain.
https://wildfiretoday.com/2020/07/05/rain-followed-the-fireworks-at-mount-rushmore/
[online activism]
*A VEGAN WORLD BY 2026? HERE'S HOW IT'S GONNA HAPPEN - SAYS LEGENDARY
ENVIRONMENTALIST SAILESH RAO!*
Do you want to know how we will will get to a Vegan world by 2026? What
is a thermostat species? Why must we go from being Homo Sapien to Homo
Ahimsa? Legendary Environmentalist Dr Sailesh Rao, answers all these
questions and more today on the Action Hour! According to statistical
data that Dr Rao will discuss on the show; the world turning Vegan by
2026 is not only possibility but is probable! Dr Rao, Founder and
Executive Director of Climate Healers and Ray Kowalchuk, who works with
Dr Rao and is an activist and contributor to Jane Unchained News are my
guests today on the Action Hour. Lindsey Baker hosts #LIVE on the ACTION
Hour on JaneUnChained News Network. #climatechange #actionhour
#parisclimateaccord #greennewdeal #envirtonmentalist #2026
#veganworld2026 #climatehealers #torontopigsave #climatehealers
#veganworld2026 #climate #eartthwarming #earthcooling #globalwarming
#theenvironment #animalagriculture #govegan #actionhour #species
#extinction #thermostatspecies
https://www.facebook.com/JaneVelezMitchell/videos/612215066343308/
[Paleoclimatology in the Journal Nature]
Published: 30 June 2020
*Speaking to the past*
Harry Dowsett
"Speak to the past and it shall teach thee." I first read those words on
a dedication tablet within the John Carter Brown library at Brown
University where I was a graduate student. Little did I know the phrase
would accurately describe the next three and a half decades of my
career. Paleoclimate data are the language we use to look into the past
to understand ourselves and ultimately our future.
Our changing climate is an existential threat to the environment,
infrastructure, and public health, often dominating political, economic
and cultural dialogues. The latest climate models project conditions for
the end of this century that are generally outside of the human
experience. Instrumental data extends the climate record back in time by
perhaps a couple of centuries and historical records, e.g. written
records of storms, harvest yields, and phenological changes, several
thousand years for some regions. Deep-time records of paleoclimate
provide insight into the climate system over millions of years sampling
conditions very different from the present day, and in some cases
similar to model projections for the future. Thus, paleoclimatology
provides essential context for the scientific understanding of climate
change needed to inform international policy decisions.
Paleoclimatology does not just provide isolated, anecdotal facts about
the past. By integrating paleoclimate data gleaned from geological
archives with computer modelling, we learn important lessons about how
the climate system may respond under conditions markedly different than
present day3. Past intervals of both recent and deep-time provide
estimates of climate sensitivity to greenhouse gas forcing, magnitude
and rates of change, as well as impacts of change on the biosphere,
hydrosphere and cryosphere. Paleoclimate data are the foundation of how
we understand the inner workings of the climate system and its behavior
under different conditions, and thereby inform adaptation strategies
related to the ecological health of the environment.
Paleoclimate data encompass an array of data types and methodologies. An
informal three-part organization might be primary, secondary, and
model-generated data (Fig. 1). Primary data are observations,
collections and measurements. Examples include population censuses or
quantitative counts of fossil taxa, tree rings, measurements of stable
isotopes or trace elements incorporated in preserved fossil material or
other natural archives, or measurements of biomarkers contained in
sediments. Secondary data are derived by analysis and calibration of
present-day primary data to climate variables like sea-surface
temperature or mean annual rainfall, providing a means to produce
estimates of climate variables (e.g. temperature, salinity,
precipitation) for times in the past. It is important to note that while
secondary data (interpretations of primary data) may change with new
understanding, primary data never change and thus retain value far
beyond the purpose for which they were developed. Time series of
secondary data from a single site can provide information about the
temporal evolution of climate at that location. Secondary data from a
specific chronologic horizon at a number of locations provides a
snapshot of regional or even global paleoclimate conditions. The
combination of time-series and time-slice data allow a better
understanding of the dynamic development and evolution of climates and
environments. Paleoclimate data can also be derived from reconstructions
based upon model simulations, model-produced bioclimatic variables, and
re-analysis products using data assimilation techniques. These
model-generated data sets provide high spatial and temporal resolution
reconstructions that facilitate research on the causes of climate
variability and the impacts of climate change on environmental,
ecological, and evolutionary studies.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-020-0531-6
[video update on promising technology]
*Liquid Air Batteries. Literally energy from thin air. Seriously.
Literally!*
Jul 5, 2020
Just Have a Think
Energy storage from thin air sounds a bit too good to be true, but the
beauty of this potentially transformational technology is the simplicity
of a design that utilises tried and tested components that have been
reimagined and re-engineered to perform a vital function for electricity
grids, now and in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMLu9Dtw9yI
[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - July 6, 2010 *
Washington Post writer Ezra Klein observes:
"There's a range of likely outcomes from a tax on carbon, and we can
handle most of them. There's also a range of outcomes from radical
changes in the planet's climate, and we've really no idea which we
can handle, and which we can't. We don't even really know what that
range looks like. And although a tax can be undone or reformed,
there's no guarantee that we can reverse hundreds of years of rapid
greenhouse gas buildup in the atmosphere. If you want proof, look at
our inability to deal with an underwater oil spill, and consider how
much more experience we have repairing oil rigs than reversing
concentrations of gases in the atmosphere.
"One of the oddities of the global warming debate, in fact, is that
the side that's usually skeptical of government intervention is
potentially setting up a future in which the government is
intervening on a planetary scale. I don't think of myself as
particularly skeptical of the feds, but I'm a lot more comfortable
with their ability to levy a tax than their capacity to reform the
atmosphere. That's why, when faced with the choice between being
risk averse about a tax or about the planet, I tend to choose the
planet."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/07/the_case_for_being_careful_wit.html
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