The Guardian: ‘This used to be a beautiful place’: how the US became the world’s biggest fossil fuel state

"To witness how the United States has become the world’s unchallenged oil and gas behemoth is to contemplate the scene from John Allaire’s home, situated on a small spit of coastal land on the fraying, pancake-flat western flank of Louisiana.

Allaire’s looming neighbor, barely a mile east across a ship channel that has been pushed into the Gulf of Mexico, is a hulking liquified natural gas (or LNG) plant, served by leviathan ships shuttling its chilled cargo overseas. Another such terminal lies a few miles to the west, yet another to the north. The theme continues even in Allaire’s seaward vista – alongside a boneyard of old oil rigs, a new floating offshore LNG platform is in the works.

“I’m pretty much surrounded,” said Allaire, a retired oil industry engineer who has a trailer, a couple of friendly dogs, and a patch of marshland and beach in Cameron parish. Yet another gas export plant is planned just a few hundred yards from Allaire’s property, while his existing imposing neighbor, which Allaire compares to Las Vegas due to its incandescent flaring of gas into the night’s sky, is on track to expand to become one of the largest such facilities in the world.

“We don’t really have a Gulf coast in the US,” said Allaire. “We have the east coast, the west coast and the carbon coast. This is simply a sacrifice zone for the oil and gas industry.”

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required) ->

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/24/fossil-fuel-liquified-natural-gas-louisiana

No country has ever in history produced as much oil and gas as the US does now and Louisiana is ground zero

State Rep Jeff Roy provides update on MA House climate legislation

State Representative Jeff Roy writes:

"The House passed legislation accelerating a responsible, innovative and equitable clean energy transition. The legislation overhauls outdated siting, permitting, and interconnection processes to empower the Commonwealth to deploy clean energy projects and infrastructure to meet its net-zero goals and create better outcomes for communities, clean energy companies, and utilities. 

It further harnesses innovative technologies to power our green transition such as advanced metering, fusion energy, battery storage, grid-enhancing technologies and the buildout of fast-charging infrastructure and meter socket adapters to support wide scale adoption of electric vehicles and heat pumps. 

This involves generating and procuring more clean power, solving interconnection issues, and incentivizing consumers and businesses to adopt green technologies. 

You can read more about the legislation at   https://jeffreyroy.com/2024/07/23/house-passes-critical-energy-reforms-to-meet-2050-net-zero-climate-goals/"

State Rep Jeff Roy provides update on MA House climate legislation

In this episode we go from elections, to sustainability, to local action as Ted helps me make sense of climate (audio)

FM #1237 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 1237 in the series. 

This session of the radio show shares my conversation with Ted McIntyre, Franklin resident and climate activist. We met to record at the Franklin TV & Radio studio on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.  

We continued making sense of climate by working our way from good weather to Mexico’s election of the first woman president (also a climate scientist) to the pros/cons advocating for a “Sustainability Director”, to local activity in lieu in action by government bodies, to the potential of the MA climate omnibus containing an authorization of nuclear power as ‘clean’ and touched on a few other topics along the way. 

This discussion continues our journey understanding the MA roadmap toward net zero and while it helps me “make sense of climate”, we hope it helps with your understanding as well. 

If you have climate questions or Franklin specific climate questions, send them in and we’ll try to answer them in a future session.  

The conversation runs about 49 minutes. Let’s listen to my conversation with Ted.

Audio link -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1237-making-sense-of-climate-46-06-11-24

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Articles referenced along the path of our discussion:

Sabrina Shankman article on sustainability director

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2024/06/theres-secret-for-mass-cities-and-towns.html

Claudia Sheinbaum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Sheinbaum

C40 - Michael Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.org/environment/supporting-sustainable-cities/c40-cities-climate-leadership-group/ 

Pemex - The Mexican oil Company (not PetroMex as mentioned in our conversation)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemex

Seabrook Station is still operating with a license authorized through 2050 (2nd largest to Millbrook in CT)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabrook_Station_Nuclear_Power_Plant

Geothermal microdistrict in Framingham

https://www.thinkgeoenergy.com/networked-geothermal-heating-pilot-to-go-online-in-framingham-massachusetts/

MIT spinoff to develop drilling for geothermal power

https://energy.mit.edu/news/mit-spinout-quaise-energy-working-to-create-geothermal-wells-made-from-the-deepest-holes-in-the-world/

** See the page that collects all the “Making Sense of Climate” episodes -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/02/making-sense-of-climate-collection.html 

--------------

We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.  

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors

• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit www.franklin.news/ or  www.Franklinmatters.org/ 

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

------------------

You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

We talk path dependence, critical juncture, and behavioral changes in this Making Sense of Climate episode (audio)

FM #1138 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 1138 in the series. 

This session of the radio show shares the output of The Climate Minute podcast episode hosted by Ted McIntyre, Franklin resident and climate activist. We met to record in the Franklin TV & Public Radio studio on Tuesday, January 16, 2024.  

The topic thread we talked of as we continued this "making sense of climate" discussion went something like this:

• Climate Leader Community

• State pilot to allow gas bans in 10 communities 

• Path dependence 

• Critical juncture

• Behavioral changes underlying energy revolution/overshoot/planetary management

• Need for new behavior now

• End of world? Viewpoints matter.

This discussion continues our journey understanding the MA roadmap toward net zero and while it helps me “make sense of climate”, we hope it helps with your understanding as well. 

If you have climate questions or Franklin specific climate questions, send them in and we’ll try to answer them in a future session.  

The conversation runs about 54 minutes. Let’s listen to my conversation with Ted.

Audio link ->  https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1138-making-sense-of-climate-38-01-16-24

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Links to references made during this episode

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yCyhz-ZVVJImfYvJXnbaOmMhXE9RRX1E/view?usp=drive_link 

Link to the MA page on Climate Leader Communities -> https://www.mass.gov/info-details/climate-leader-communities 

Links to other places you can find The Climate Minute

• You can listen to the #ClimateMinute on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-climate-minute/id589025783 

• You can listen to the #ClimateMinute on Podbean https://massclimateaction.podbean.com/ 

• You can listen to the #ClimateMinute on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3UIZfLRoUQVLXUY2jMAsCk 

** See the page that collects all the “Making Sense of Climate” episodes -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/02/making-sense-of-climate-collection.html 

--------------

We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.  

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors

• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit www.franklin.news/ or  www.Franklinmatters.org/ 

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

------------------

You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

We talk path dependence, critical juncture, and behavioral changes in this Making Sense of Climate episode (audio)

The Guardian view on Cop28: a phase-out of fossil fuels is the only decision that makes sense | Editorial | The Guardian

"It was never really in doubt. But the first week of Cop28, which ended with a rest day on Thursday, made one crucial fact impossible to ignore: the fossil fuel industry is not planning to go quietly. Far more of its lobbyists are in the UAE than have attended UN climate talks before. One analysis counted 2,456 of them – nearly four times the number registered last year in Egypt.

The battle is hotting up over what next week’s report on progress towards the Paris goals, known as the global stocktake, will say. Fossil fuel interests – both corporate and national – are pushing hard to avoid references to the phase-out that would signal the end of their business model and vast profits. They don’t want an energy transition that leads to their demise.

Last week, the Guardian revealed that Sultan Al Jaber, who holds the Cop presidency and leads the UAE’s state oil company, recently asserted that “no science” indicates that “a phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C”. Forced on to the defensive, he later said that “the phase-down and phase-out of fossil fuel is inevitable”. But it is the nations at Cop28 that will decide, and there is no guarantee that any such pledge will appear in the final text.

One of the key battlegrounds at Cop28 is that of language: whether fossil fuels will be phased “down” or “out”. The choice is either reducing carbon energy sources or getting rid of them entirely. The latter would be preferable, but there are many other battles to be won. There will be haggling over whether a transition to a cleaner future should see fossil fuels “unabated”, with greenhouse gas emissions released directly into the atmosphere, or “abated”, where carbon capture technology and carbon offsets reduce the harm caused. The latter have so far failed to deliver promised benefits, appearing more of a risk than a solution, in enabling the necessity of replacing fossil fuels to be ducked."

Continue reading The Guardian article online -> (subscription may be required)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/08/the-guardian-view-on-cop28-a-phase-out-of-fossil-fuels-is-the-only-decision-that-makes-sense

Credit: Kiara Worth | UN Climate Change

"Beyond slashing carbon emissions, the grant-funded work will make living in these renovated units more comfortable"

Miriam Wasser (@MiriamWasser) posted on Tue, Nov 21, 2023:

"The first installment of Massachusetts' $50m grant to decarbonize affordable housing developments went out today.

The money will be used to electrify and retrofit over 700 units across the state. "

Full article -> https://t.co/sypqvNKjgq

Shared from -> https://twitter.com/MiriamWasser/status/1727087328181751961

MASS.gov press release -> https://www.mass.gov/news/healey-driscoll-administration-awards-27-million-to-decarbonize-affordable-housing-across-massachusetts

Mass. awards $27 million to help ‘decarbonize’ hundreds of affordable housing units

Starting with a bicycle story, we shift gears to cover climate topics around the region and cycle back to a key report (audio)

FM #1102 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 1102 in the series. 

This session of the radio show shares my conversation with Ted McIntyre, Franklin resident and climate activist via the Zoom conference bridge Monday, November 13, 2023.  

In this episode we cover multiple topics from the release of the Hopper Report, we run through a series of articles from around New England, and then back to MA, covering what has been happening recently to close with some quotes from the Hopper Report.

Links to the many articles we talk of are collected in one PDF doc linked to below.   

This discussion continues our journey understanding the MA roadmap toward net zero and while it helps me “make sense of climate”, we hope it helps with your understanding as well. 

If you have climate questions or Franklin specific climate questions, send them in and we’ll try to answer them in a future session.  

The conversation runs about 47 minutes. Let’s listen to my conversation with Ted as we help ‘make sense of climate.’ Audio link -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1102-making-sense-of-climate-35-11-13-23

--------------

  

Links to articles referenced for this episode are collected in one PDF -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fYRQvznj3SB1YU4NqXOR7NslMPM2gArf/view?usp=drive_link

** See the page that collects all the “Making Sense of Climate” episodes -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/02/making-sense-of-climate-collection.html 

--------------

We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.  

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors

• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit www.franklin.news/ or  www.Franklinmatters.org/ 

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

------------------

You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

Starting with a bicycle story, we shift gears to cover climate topics around the region and cycle back to a key report (audio)

CommonWealth Beacon: "Let’s be honest about cost, challenges of electrification"

Consider the author's point of view: "Michael S. Giaimo is the director of the northeast region of the American Petroleum Institute" 

"You may have missed it, but there is a pervasive movement afoot to electrify everything: cars, trucks, buses, homes, offices, stoves, and appliances. It may sound easy, but it is a massive undertaking rife with challenges. Policies seeking to simultaneously electrify our transportation system, our homes, and commercial buildings will require an upfront investment of billions of dollars in preparing and expanding the power grid to accommodate this increased demand for electricity. That is just for starters.  

When policymakers discuss this issue, they focus on the perceived benefits of decarbonization but consistently gloss over the process and associated challenges. When they consider mandatory electrification, among the questions they leave unanswered are: How much power is going to be needed to preserve reliability? Where is that power coming from? How is the power going to get where it needs to go? And how much is this all going to cost?

Let’s start with the question about the amount of power needed. According to the 2023–2032 Forecast Report of Capacity, Energy, Loads, and Transmission (CELT Report) – the region’s demand for electrical power is projected to increase by a quarter over the next decade – and that prediction might be understated."

Continue reading the article online ->

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/opinion/lets-be-honest-about-cost-challenges-of-electrification/

Reports referenced in the article are also available via Franklin Matters:

• 2023–2032 Forecast Report of Capacity, Energy, Loads, and Transmission (CELT Report) (Yes, it is an Excel file)  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dlwPUid6Fi6Kuwa44n4ItREbYO1qE71I/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=101938843903614700481&rtpof=true&sd=true
• NationalGrid outlook ->   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dn0UzxmP5c8wWb7LwtIS_e9xIykVbac-/view?usp=drive_link
• Eversource outlook ->  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e170UznBm4OHedajXqOaAor5fVpyQAQu/view?usp=drive_link

Stay tuned into the "Making Sense of Climate" podcast series as we have these discussion about how we are going to get where we need to be. It will only happen with a concerted effort on the part of all involved ->   https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/02/making-sense-of-climate-collection.html

CommonWealth Beacon: "Let’s be honest about cost, challenges of electrification"

Boston Globe: "Boston’s plan to ban fossil fuels in new buildings goes up in smoke"

"Wu’s decision not to apply for the program came as a surprise to environmental advocates and legislators who have been trying to move the state away from heating and cooling new structures with fossil fuels. Constructing buildings that are only powered by electricity is considered among the low-hanging fruit of plans to decarbonize. Buildings account for roughly 70 percent of Boston’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The decision marks an abrupt departure from the mayor’s recent statements, delivered in press conferences and radio interviews, that the city intended to participate in the program and lead by example.

Wu said, “it breaks my heart,” but that the city was not applying for the state program because it appears it was not actually intended for a city as complex as Boston, with its large population and already-strained electric grid. She said she had gotten “clear indications that Boston would not be chosen for the one available spot.”

Maria Hardiman, a spokesperson for the state Department of Energy Resources, said the challenge for Boston is that it’s “electrically similar” — meaning the age of the infrastructure and demands on the system are comparable — to several other cities or towns that have already been selected for the program, including Cambridge, Brookline, Newton, and Arlington. Those similarities “would have presented a challenge in the selection process” because the pilot program is aimed at getting data from a diverse group of communities."

Continue reading the article online ->    https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/11/13/science/boston-will-not-apply-to-ban-fossil-fuels/

Shared from Sabrina Shankman (@shankman)->    https://twitter.com/shankman/status/1723830814788518112

Boston Globe: "Boston’s plan to ban fossil fuels in new buildings goes up in smoke"