I don’t remember when I stumbled on Beau – he describes himself as a southern journalist and his takes are thoughtful – but this morning there was this nugget I was unaware of, so I went searching for more information. This is why I’m posting a quick hit climate post this morning before I run off to take care of my long list of things-to-do today.
Here’s the announcement:
There is a lot to disseminate, but you can read more here, here, and here.
FERC’s new transmission and cost allocation rule, Order No. 1920, continues the essential work of the Commission – ensuring a reliable grid – by requiring the nation’s transmission providers to plan for the transmission we know we will need in the future.
This rule adopts specific requirements addressing how transmission providers must conduct long-term planning for regional transmission facilities and determine how to pay for them, so needed transmission is built. The final rule reflects more than 15,000 pages of comments from nearly 200 stakeholders representing all sectors of the electric power industry; environmental, consumer and other advocacy groups; and state and other government entities.
The grid rule contains these major elements:
- Requirement to conduct and periodically update long-term transmission planning to anticipate future needs.
- Requirement to consider a broad set of benefits when planning new facilities.
- Requirement to identify opportunities to modify in-kind replacement of existing transmission facilities to increase their transfer capability, known as “right-sizing.”
- Customers pay only for projects from which they benefit.
- Expands states’ pivotal role throughout the process of planning, selecting, and determining how to pay for transmission facilities.
Now back to how transforming soil and rewilding is an important part of climate solutions:
A couple of success stories.
Free-roaming animals reintroduced in Romania’s Țarcu mountains are stimulating plant growth and securing carbon stored in the soil while grazing
A herd of 170 bison reintroduced to Romania’s Țarcu mountains could help store CO2 emissions equivalent to removing 43,000 US cars from the road for a year, research has found, demonstrating how the animals can help mitigate some effects of the climate crisis.
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The European bison herd grazing in an area of nearly 50 sq km of grasslands within the wider Țarcu mountains was found to potentially capture an additional 54,000 tonnes of carbon a year. That is nearly 9.8 times more carbon than without the bison – although the report authors noted the 9.8 figure could be up to 55% higher or lower, so making the median estimate uncertain. This corresponds to the yearly CO2 released by a median of 43,000 average US petrol cars, or 84,000 using the higher figure, or a median of 123,000 average European cars, due to their higher energy efficiency, the researchers said.
A lot more information at the link on the facts behind it and the challenges.
Mossy Earth has a good video on the Bison:
Feb 18, 2023The iconic European Bison is making a comeback across the old continent. However, the question remains, do we have space for them? Are we able to co-exist with this mighty keystone species? In this video we try to explore these ideas and also lay down the foundation for a future bison project.
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Meanwhile in India:
Mar 12, 2024Permaculture Instructor Andrew Millison travels to the village of Laporiyah in Rajasthan India to see the 45 year water harvesting and community development project spearheaded by waterman Laxman Singh. We spent 2 days touring the village with Laxman and his team, including well known academic Vishnu Sharma. Vishnu has specialized in the revitalization of Rajasthan during his long career and we were very lucky to have him as Laxman’s interpreter. This village has experienced such an incredible transformation due to the work of the villagers, it is hard to express in one video. For my regular viewers, you will see that this is flat terrain, with very different strategies than the regularly visited hilly locations. Enjoy!
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Here are the last two Carbon Cowboy videos:
May 14, 2020 • CLARKESVILLEMurray Provine lived the traveling executive lifestyle until prostate cancer was diagnosed. With a focus on his personal health, he changed his 110 acre horse farm to Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) cattle grazing – with the tutelage of Allen Williams. 3 years into the change, Murray and his land are in much better health. Filmed in Clarkesville, Georgia
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May 14, 2020 ALBERTAA research team led by ecologist Steve Apfelbaum explores 4 regenerative grazing ranches in Alberta, Canada. The ranchers were some of the very first to adopt organic farming and AMP grazing in Canada – making their ranches profitable, and a haven for wildlife. Filmed in Alberta, Canada
At their Youtube page, Roots So Deep there are many, many more videos talking with farmers, showcasing their research, and community town halls where they spread the good news and answer folks’ questions.
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That’s enough for today. I’m off to continue rewilding my yard (hey it’s year THREE of killing my grass – you can see the latest photos here and read an update). I’ll continue with rewilding in the next post – still want to get to what’s going on in the arctic tundra.
Doomerism is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.
It is how authoritarians win. Let’s try to fight the doom.
Michael Mann and Timothy D Snyder
This is a doom and gloom free zone
TaMara
Oh, and I wanted to remind everyone, we are almost there is Adam & Rosie’s fundraiser. Link here.
Trivia Man
It is no mow may in my yard but i might not make it the whole month. I have minimal lawn but also some good wild and native sections.
MagdaInBlack
I love these posts, TaMara. Thank you.
Peke Daddy
A couple of technological advances to greatly speed the unclogging of the grid through replacement of current transmission lines. Can largely eliminate need for new rights of way.
A Night at the Foster Museum With Amory Lovins
TF79
“Customers pay only for projects from which they benefit.” – while I understand the intent of that rule, I worry about potential unintended consequences. One of the major environmental benefits of interstate transmission is getting cheap, clean power out of the plains to offset fossil fuels in more populous regions in the east (similar dynamics elsewhere). I could easily see states in between using this as an excuse to say “why should we pay for transmission infrastructure in our state to move power from one state to some other state? Our consumers don’t benefit”. It’s already a sticking point, and codifying it in FERC rule may exacerbate that (though there may be other pieces of this in terms of “regional” planning that could help overcome it).
TaMara
@Peke Daddy: Thanks for this! Love Amory.
I also fixed the link.
TaMara
@TF79: Or it works as advertised and if it doesn’t they tweak it as they go, as we do with most innovations.
TaMara
@MagdaInBlack: Thank you, because there as some days I wonder why I even take the time. LOL
TS
@TF79:
I find this weird – imagine if we did it with education/aged care/public transport. Power supply is an essential service, it should be treated as same
Peke Daddy
@TaMara: Thank you! The entire lecture is worth a view. A much needed granular overview and a bracing shot of possibilities and progress.
TaMara
@TS:
@TF79:
How about you two provide us with some useful links on how this is bad and then we can discuss, otherwise, this is just your version of doomerism and should be treated as such.
Ten Bears
I’m concerned about those places encouraging, paying, people to rip out their meager lawns to ensure the beer brewers have enough to waste five gallons of water for every gallon of beer brewed. Rewilding your little lawn while golf-courses flourish is a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face. That little bit of lawn is a pleasant part of the garden, it’s not a part of the problem
In many ways it’s industry guilt-tripping you for their crimes …
TS
@TaMara:
Certainly nothing to do with doomerism, everything to do with having wealthy communities being able to pay for their own infrastructure, while companies refuse to invest in those communities without the ability to pay.
Being critical of one part of a proposal does not make it entirely unusable, nor a failure, but essential services have to be supply driven or they would never exist.
https://www.energy.gov.au/households/your-rights-energy-customer
Energy is an essential service and it is important that everyone can access it. Laws exist to protect you, and to provide consistent safeguards in terms of the sale of energy to customers.
Or another point of view
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/electricity-essential-service-up-point-anthony-seipolt
TF79
@TS: right, I don’t think it’s doomerism at all to point out that there’s lots of “states rights”/NIMBY BS around transmission infrastructure, and the “consumer” wording here struck me as very individualistic for what is ultimately a collective problem. I’m generally hopeful this collection of rules will lead to more transmission! It’s long been noted FERC needs to take a more active role in interstate transmission.
TheronWare
I like Beau’s YouTube channel, he’s a good fellow.
WaterGirl
As long as we are finishing up fundraising, we are just over $400 short of meeting our $25,000 political fundraising goal for VAAC.
Our last angel already put his $500 in, so every penny – up until the thermometer reads $22,500 – will be 4x matches. As soon as we hit $22,500, there are no matches at all.
There is a $2,500 check already in the mail from the angel who writes paper checks, which gets us to $25,000.
$416.12 is the exact amount we need.
Trivia Man
@Ten Bears: I don’t mind a small lawn, i prefer more wild and diverse. Lots of living creatures of all kinds have a home here. When my kids were small we had a big lawn for playing.
WaterGirl
Yes, I listened to Beau as I was waking up this morning. He seems to think the new energy rule – the “rule” is like 1,300 pages long, if I am recalling the number correctly – he seems to think this is a big Joe Biden deal, that this is what will allow us to meet the goals that have already been laid out.
Sure Lurkalot
Very grateful for these posts, TaMara, and that you squeeze them in your busy life.
Yesterday’s walk was in Cherry Creek State Park, which after 65 years is nestled amidst an urban landscape. The route taken is one along a creek with water fowl (herons and egrets on this walk) and prairie filled with….prairie dogs. I got curious and learned these critters are not the nuisance to get rid of when someone wants to build another real estate project.
In connection with this post, prairie dogs and bison have co-habited for thousands of years…bison enjoy the forage the mounds encourage and like to sleep in the middle of colonies.
What we think are pests or weeds or nuisances often are not because the connections are the key.
frosty
@WaterGirl: I’m in for another $25.00.
TaMara
@TS:
@TF79:
I stand by my comment
TaMara
@Ten Bears: No, it’s not
Engagement and seeing results in your own little plot of land, not only shows what is possible, but encourages people to take larger action, including taking on industry and making cities rethink their landscaping choices.
ETA: Not to mention it reduced my water bill by half and maintenance is quick and easy.
trollhattan
@Ten Bears: Very willingly tore out the lawn and gave the mower away. We weren’t metered at the time so IDK how much, if any water the net savings might be. The net drop in chemicals use is a lot, plus no gas-powered yard equipment. Allergies improved too.
Still get weeds though, so that’s no better.
trollhattan
For power generation, CAISO presently has 20GW renewables and is consuming a scant 1.2GW natural gas, one of the lowest values I’ve seen. Exporting rather than importing with another fraction charging batteries.
What a future grid will resemble elsewhere, eventually, serving about 10% of the nation today.
WaterGirl
@TaMara: I’m not sure a lot of folks get what it’s like to take the time and put a post together and then see critical comments right out of the gate.
I also think that if someone agrees with 90% of something, they are less likely to say “hey, good point, that mostly makes sense, that’s a good idea”.
Without a conscious effort to do otherwise, I think human nature is to jump right in with the 10% they don’t agree with or see differently.
It’s not that we think that what we’ve written is perfect, or that we don’t want constructive criticism, or aren’t good with disagreement and spirited discussion in the post.
For me, when it’s in the first 5-10 comments, it can feel like cold water thrown in your face, and it can set the tone for all the comments, and that can be frustrating.
TF79
@TaMara: Wasn’t my intent to be doomy and gloomy, sorry!
WV Blondie
I have so many thoughts on the proposed new rule, most of them ranging the gamut from skeptical to hostile. I lived through a transmission fight, and the corporate dishonesty was breathtaking. And honestly, while I support climate action, renewables, environmental protection, etc., most of the groups are not particularly interested in mitigating their preferred solutions’ impacts on the communities between the Great Plains and the urban coasts (which, coincidentally, are pretty much red states – thus adding to the divisions roiling the country).
Just one for-instance: did you know FERC actively promotes new transmission, by granting new projects “incentive ROI adders” that ratepayers will pay for decades? But it doesn’t provide the same kind of incentives for rebuilding old lines or using new reconductoring technology to increase line capacity.
Subcommandante Yakbreath
In for $25.
WV Blondie
I’m sorry, WaterGirl, I do appreciate the proposed rule getting wider attention. But it fits within an economic system I’ve seen up close that sucks!
WaterGirl
@Subcommandante Yakbreath: Hey, we’re at 22,250! Just $250 to go!
WaterGirl
@WV Blondie: No need to apologize to me. Sometimes it’s easier when a person who didn’t write the post can explain what it feels like.
My comment wasn’t intended as a criticism of anyone – I just thought it might be helpful for folks to hear from someone on the other side of the equation.
TBone
@TaMara: I’m standing there with you girl. Doom free zone. My bestie in near beach town, DE just sent me photos of her little orchard, and her fruit and veggies gardens and they’re LUSH, I’m very proud of her. Long list of goodies!
Baud
FERC is a mixed bag, but I don’t think that rule is really about climate. I don’t have enough information to know if it’s a good or bad rule.
West of the Rockies
@TF79:
I bet available studies reveal how all 50 states stack up in terms of net taxation versus federal returns. A lot of states receive far more from the federal government than they pay in taxes.
Probably some of those Plains states through which transmission lines will pass are in that category.
Trivia Man
@trollhattan: the only exception i make for poison is applied with a brush to tiny stumps. Buckthorn, mulberry, and the like. Otherwise no weed killers of any kind.
Indoors i use liquid ant bait.
gene108
@West of the Rockies:
Some amount of federal money states receive in excess of taxes paid are benefits for poor* people. It’s not all farm subsidies to agribusiness or wealthy farmers.
*ETA
Trivia Man
Good news: my solar means i make more electricity than I use every month. No idea the financial benefit, I didn’t do it as an investment. Next step when i can afford good technology is a battery do ill still be up when power goes out. Apparently if you don’t have a battery they dont allow generation when the power gies out.
pika
@Ten Bears: I don’t feel guilted in the least; instead, I feel gratified. Ripping out my front lawn over the years and replacing it with perennials has returned many kinds of bees to the immediate area in the city where I live. We’ve even encountered frogs and some garter snakes. The perennials are an ever-changing kaleidoscope all season until very early in the fall when they do become leggy and rangy and I am sure some neighbors hate me. But not everyone does because I get compliments and then other folks follow suit. As others have affirmed here, I use less water, too. I hear you on the injustice of large-scale water users, but it doesn’t mean that small-scale transformations don’t themselves scale if enough people try the method out
OzarkHillbilly
Gloom, Despair, Agony on me
Deep dark depression excessive misery
If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all
Gloom Despair Agony on meeeeee.
TaMara
@Baud: Reliable grid and upgraded transmission lines are essential to meeting climate goals via electrifying everything we can.
I did a post on it a few weeks back. It’s not my area of expertise, but I understand the basics.
TaMara
So full disclosure (we did talk about this a couple of months ago) – even though the front yard has minimal grass and lots of native plants, the backyard has grass. It only seems fair for the critters to have it.
We had a lengthy discussion here on what I should replace the fescue, that wasn’t standing up to the dogs (shocker, I know) with and after a ton of research, I went with a rye, drought tolerant bluegrass mix, both cool weather.
The clovers (red and white) that I planted last year are thriving, the new grass is thick and I think it will withstand both the dry conditions here and the dogs.
The biggest concern with going with native grasses was they all go dormant during drought and winter, which leaves them vulnerable to being completely destroyed by the dogs.
My point in all of this is, figure out what you need, and then make the best choices you can for the future of our kids and grandkids. :-)
No one is asking you to live in an underground bunker without fun and pretty things. 😘
Starfish
@TF79: I think there were definitely some incentives in there to make states play more nicely with each other.
With the current structure, the rules are so that projects that are easier to get through regulatory hurdles are more likely to get done rather than projects that are most necessary.
Some of the stuff about crossing state lines means more regulatory hurdles, and the new rules are cutting some of that away.
MomSense
@TaMara:
Done!
Timill
@Trivia Man: You also need a proper isolating switch, otherwise you might be feeding power into broken lines. This isn’t good for the linemen fixing the breaks…
TaMara
@OzarkHillbilly: OMG, you just took me deep, deep into my childhood and fond memories of my grandpa.
Jess
Thank you for these posts, TaMara! I’m spearheading the creation of a sustainability studies program at my university (way overdue!), and am always eager for news. I’ll have to watch the videos later when I’m home, but do they explain why bison are able to help with carbon capture, while beef cattle are a huge problem
Edit: We’re not doomed unless we choose to be!
TaMara
@Jess: Actually, cattle are very helpful – see any of the Carbon Cowboy videos. It just has to be done thoughtfully.
For the Bison, it’s about rewilding Europe to reinvigorate the permaculture. They are also doing AMP grazing of cattle over there, too.
Next week or so, I’m going to do an update on how they are using ruminants to protect the permafrost.
Ruminants are just amazing…
raven
We just hired “Dead Silent Lawn Care” run by a young man that we have known since he was a mere pratt! He only uses manual and electric equipment he’s pretty expensive but we’re going t give it a go!
Jess
@TaMara: Thanks, TaMara! How did you get onto this track? Were you always on it, or did you (like me and so many fellow travelers) jump on when you saw we were all headed over the cliff?
Also, have you read Kim Stanley Robinson’s book “The Ministry for the Future”? I highly recommend it! It keeps me going when my determinations starts to flag.
frosty
@Jess: Ministry for the Future was a great read. I especially liked getting the laid off oil drillers down to Antarctica to pump out the underlying water so the ice sheets stuck to the rock again. So many things we could be doing!
TaMara
@Jess: It feels like forever. At least since the early 90s. My gateway was passive solar houses…and then it was electric vehicles. In between I actually worked for a solar company.
But I’m really digging (ha!) the focus on regenerative solutions – soil health, rewilding, alternative farming methods.
And I just learned that it’s possible to recapture the methane from landfills to generate electricity. Fascinated by that.
TaMara
@Jess:
@frosty:
Okay, I’ll put that on my reading list!
Gretchen
Do these grid rules apply to Texas? They appear to need some help keeping their grid up and running.
Jess
@TaMara: Cool! Everywhere I turn people are doing amazing (not just amazingly stupid) things. Have you checked out David Byrnes’ creation Reasons to be Cheerful? Great stuff.
https://reasonstobecheerful.world
Edit: I also visited The Land Institute two years ago to photograph their set up. Maybe I could share some images here sometime?
https://landinstitute.org/
MagdaInBlack
@TaMara: If you’ve not, look up Sec of Ag Earl Butz and his edicts of ” plow fence-row to fence-row” and ” get big or get out.”
Which led us to where we are today with industrial size “farms” and everything that goes with that.
https://www.theyellowbirdtable.com/blog/wendell
zhena gogolia
@raven: That sounds great. I wish we had something like that.
TBone
@Jess: thanks for posting!
Dan B
The video from Rajasthan is amazing. I spent three days in Rajasthan with friends just before the war in Iraq. It’s the most densely populated desert region in the world. In addition to the barren countryside everywhere there was one excursion that was eye opening. We went to the hunting lodge of the Maharaja of Jodhpur. It’s one of the most gorgeous Art Deco buildings I’ve ever seen. From the bluff It’s built upon you look out over a vast lake. In February it was dry as far as the eye could see. We watched a local woman trudge across the barren expanse. Greening even 10% of Rajasthan would be miraculous. Summer temperatures reach 50°C. It’s to be endured. Besides, the architectural wonders are fantastic.
TaMara
@Jess: Yes! Send them to my main email
whats4dinnersolutions (at) live (dot) com
trollhattan
@Gretchen:
ERCOT seems seven ways screwed up and their refusal to tie into adjacent regional grids seems short-sighted [that’s a little electricity humor].
They have vast generating capacity that’s not always gettin’ ‘er done. Wind, for example: 39GW installed that’s currently generating 3+GW.
https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards
Statewide demand is WAY out of proportion for the population #s and efficiency measures will help them even more than building more production. Will they? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
To their credit they have built 22GW of solar and I presume much of the state is sunny much of the time, so more seems prudent. They should dial their coal and gas dependence back a lot, relying on gas for peaking and overnight.
West of the Rockies
@Jess:
Butte College and CSU Chico, CA (where I used to teach) both have excellent sustainability programs. Butte went solar big time years ago and was, I believe, a net energy producer. Maybe contact their sustainability folks for ideas and comradeship?
cain
@WaterGirl:
I think it is a guy thing. I notice I do that a lot and I get called out all the time and so trying to repress those things. Not always successful.
Barbara
@Gretchen: Texas withdrew from the federal power grid several decades ago. In theory, it is large enough to go it alone but its “free market” culture results in serious gaps.
trollhattan
@MagdaInBlack:
Reading The King of California, a deep dive into how the Boswell family became the nation’s largest ag concern. A rollicking tale that explains much about how we’ve arrived to our present situation. It’s not going to untangle without great shifts in power.
WaterGirl
@raven: That sounds great.
WaterGirl
@Gretchen: Is it just me, or does it seem like no rules apply in Texas? At least if you ask Texas.
Ruckus
@TS:
Many people are selfish bastards and see that spending money to do the large products that we all use and make them better for the future just costs them. IOW they may get some benefit out of it but they have zero concept of sharing that benefit with the future. And it often does not occur to them even if they have children, of one or more generations. It maybe getting worse even as we have far better and far more communications, like what we are doing now. Or maybe not. The world has changed significantly in my 3/4 of a century, in almost every aspect of daily life. Electricity, natural gas, better cars, hell we have electric trains in Los Angeles County. I ride them regularly. I’ve put $20 of gasoline in my car this year. And still have half of that left.
moonbat
TaMara, Thank you again for this collection of positive, effective action stories. I’ve been looking for a good video to illustrate the Great Green Wall for my Peoples and Cultures of Africa class and that is just about perfect. And the Carbon Cowboys viddies were great additions to our discussions in my cultural ecology class about the future of ag in this country.
I’m not going to poo-poo this administration’s actions on updating the power grid until I know more. What I do know is that Biden and Obama were talking about something like this during the LAST economic disaster the Democrats were pulling the nation out of. It is LONG overdue. What I do know about this administration is that it has hired some very smart, very efficient, and very proactive people. I’m thinking this is going to be as big a deal as Beau says it is.
ETA Sorry! I found the Great Green Wall viddie after I followed Millison’s YouTube channel. LOTS of good stuff in there.
Martin
@TS: It’s a real problem. Small communities are going to get massacred by this rule if it’s upheld tightly. Consider part of CA and CO where burying power lines is necessary to reduce wind-driven fires. A lot of these lines exist to serve a string of small mining/logging towns that are no longer mining/logging. The cost per resident to bury those lines may be $1000 each – which presumably they can’t have subsidized by the other customers. The alternative is to de-energize those lines every time it’s dry and windy.
There will come a time when we have to more-or-less abandon or relocate towns, and maybe this is the start of that. But this problem is spreading to other states across the whole western US where wind-driven fires are becoming more common.
This will probably also negatively impact Appalachia for similar reasons.
RevRick
@TaMara: I see the common thread of your well-connected post is resilience. How do we build resilience in our electricity dependent world? How do we build resilience in water management? How do we build resilience in soil management?
This last question is especially crucial since all land-dwelling species ultimately depend upon that foot or so of living material called soil.
Jess
@West of the Rockies: Thanks for the tip! (I have some good friends in Chico.)
Trivia Man
@Jess: On The Road submission!
Peke Daddy
@Timill: If utilities continue to try to protect themselves from cheaper rooftop solar, more and more people will defect from them. It’s now possible to isolate a PV house system automatically from the grid to protect workers. Although battery back up is expensive, costs are declining. Also creates a space for battery backup as a service. Already exists for commercial consumers, also offers peak shaving.
Barbara
@Martin: I think the key is that they serve towns that have lost their core economic drivers. I have mixed feelings about abandoning places like this, but I think it’s better to try to apply a more comprehensive perspective rather than having each community making it’s own case in isolation. We are seeing this in Virginia with requests for money to combat sea level rise. Tangier Island, with a population of less than 300, wants 10s of thousands per resident to keep its “distinctive” culture intact. I am not in favor.
Jess
@Trivia Man: 👍🏻😀
Suburban Mom
@Jess: my daughter graduated from a tiny, quirky liberal arts school in NC that does a lot in sustainability. If you’re interested in that kind of example check out Warren Wilson College
MagdaInBlack
@Suburban Mom: I love your daughter and that college. Thank you for the website.
Suburban Mom
@MagdaInBlack: Thank you! It is a great place for socially conscious students.
Starfish
@OzarkHillbilly: This belongs in the against doomerism thread, doesn’t it?
Martin
@Barbara: Yeah, it’s a hard problem. Internalizing costs is important to addressing climate issues, but it has these other social impacts. I think it’s worthwhile to the overall effort to rescue these communities, but for something like Tangier Island, that community cannot be saved in-place. It’ll constantly need to be bailed out, so it’s better to relocate the community. I’m sure they don’t want that, but there’s no point applying a continuous flow of band-aids that never cures the problem – and a low-lying coastal community can’t be cured right now.
trollhattan
Remember the music store “No Stairway Zone” in the Wayne’s World movie?
Imagine it paired with Excalibur. SF Craig’s List.
https://images.craigslist.org/00c0c_i51WcZstCbo_0t20CI_1200x900.jpg
citizen dave
Just skimming the comments because it’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Is someone saying that 1920 mandates undergrounding of transmission lines? That seems unlikely to me. This rule is what I do every day. Can’t say I’ve read it yet, but am certainly aware, etc. I think this rule is headed to the courts, and opponents will likely be able to stop it–especially once SCOTUS takes it–under the Major Questions Doctrine, and specifically how they ruled in 2022 in West Virginia vs. EPA.
Wikipedia: “The major questions doctrine is a principle of statutory interpretation applied in United States administrative law cases which states that courts will presume that Congress does not delegate to executive agencies issues of major political or economic significance.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_questions_doctrine#:~:text=The%20major%20questions%20doctrine%20is,major%20political%20or%20economic%20significance.
The FERC rule is also bad form, in that 2 of the 5 commissioner slots are vacant, and this vote was 2-1. I recommend reading (or viewing his oral comments) about Commissioner Mark Christie’s dissent to this rule. I can say that even though he came onto FERC via orange man, Christie is very much an independent thinker, and a pragmatic thinker on these issues.
While there is lots of flowery language in 1920 about long-term planning, etc., it still leaves it up to each Transmission Provider to decide which projects to actually approve and build. As I posted here last time, I think that there is a current transmission building mania and a huge amount of groupthink on this issue. It really reminds me of the Soviet Union central planning efforts, and their Five Year Plans (that sometimes took 7 years), etc. There is certainly a tension between government policies and where technology and markets are going.
The good news–and I’m personally all for solving climate change via renewables, etc.–is that storage technologies are still early in the technological development timeline. As storage becomes cheaper and cheaper, we will be able to produce and store electricity much closer to the load centers, which will greatly obviate the need for this huge transmission buildout that so many want.
Finally, did you know that Amory Lovins is not, and was not, ever a physicist? For decades when I’d come across him, his bio would say that he had been a physicist, or had a physics degree, etc. For me–and I assume for many–such a background would provide more gravitas to his energy career. When I googled it, though, it turns out that while he studied physics for a bit, he transferred from Harvard to Oxford, and was given a “complimentary degree” as a research fellow. For more, https://nucleargreen.blogspot.com/2008/06/amory-lovins.html and https://atomicinsights.com/amory-lovins-the-chief-scientist-who-could-not-complete-a-degree-program-is-at-it-again/
Melancholy Jaques
@trollhattan:
So, hold off on the tumbrels for now?
Alce _e_ardillo
@WaterGirl: Cue the Republican lawsuits in 3…2…1…
and no, this isn’t doomerism, because this is a BFD, and will probably succeed.
Jackie
@OzarkHillbilly: @TaMara:
I raised my kiddos on country music, and we didn’t have cable tv, so HeeHaw was a weekly ritual. I just shared the video with them, engulfing them in a fond childhood memory 🥰
KM in NS
We’re also doing “ no mow May”. The neighbor is doing his best to surreptitiously pull up our dandelions. Fortunately we have so many it’s a losing battle for him and a luxurious win for the bees.
KM in NS
@Jackie: this also takes me back to my childhood. My grandparents had one channel… KAIT, I think, and that was on!
I couldn’t stand it then… now I get it. Lol
Jess
@Suburban Mom: Thanks! Will check it out…
Barbara
@Martin: I think there has to be some distinction as well between shoring up core services versus building out extraordinary infrastructure.
I wonder also about taking a page from nations with less advanced infrastructure and leap frogging traditional infrastructure with, let’s say, more self-contained solutions for less densely populated areas.
Martin
@Barbara: I think you can break this down into necessary and sufficient conditions. Is the 10K per resident necessary to save the town? Probably. Is it sufficient? Certainly not. So what is sufficient? Is it halting the burning of fossil fuel immediately? Well, that’s not going to happen. Is it 100K pre resident? Then say so. Climate change is very susceptible to throwing good money after bad because we don’t want to face up to the realistic costs, so we bleed money into projects that are doomed to fail.
The self-contained solutions is more or less already happening, depending on the market. California has largely abandoned centralized generation because it’s too susceptible to legal veto by all of the various groups you need to buy into the project in favor of a more decentralized approach. Not all markets are doing this though. And there are limits to what you can do there. Decentralized solutions run into cost issues for maintenance and upkeep unless you radically decentralized and put storage in every household and put that mandate and cost on individuals. So far the state has largely failed to get that to take root, despite legislation that requires it in new construction.
CAs problem is that it spend decades focusing on conservation and minimizing the need for grid capacity because that effort worked. The state consumes the same power today as it did two decades ago despite having 20% more people. But the state has gotten all of the easy conservation gains and is now leaning into two anti-conservation policies – conversion of natural gas use to electric, and replacement of ICE for EVs. These will more than double the per-capita consumption assuming a 1:1 ICE to EV replacement. The state now must upgrade the grid.
The state could shift most of the EV burden to employers, make them build out local generation through solar covered parking, local grid storage, but the state lacks good mechanisms to make that happen. It’d be a new cost that employers need to carry that they currently don’t. Of course they’re going to oppose it.
TBone
https://digbysblog.net/2024/05/18/no-credit-for-old-men/
Fake Irishman
@Gretchen:
FERC rules generally don’t cover ERCOT in Texas because it doesn’t cross state lines. Texas has problems with reliability: making winterizing plants voluntary instead of mandatory resulted in many gas plants shutting down when needed in 2021.
But Texas has ironically often been ahead of the curve on transmission. In the 2000s, the state ledge pushed through several rounds of transmission expansion that let massive amounts (like 20 gigawatts) of wind power from west Texas get to the state’s urban areas.
Fake Irishman
@TS:
Dave Robert’s did a ver long podcast on this proposed rule several months back. The major driver here isn’t about limiting stuff on the grid, but getting more stuff on the grid: right now the transmission queue loads all the costs of expanding transmission on a few projects; the new rule spreads those costs around among multiple generation proposals with the idea that fewer projects will drop out of the queue or delay themselves.
Steeplejack
@Fake Irishman:
Don’t you live in Houston? How are things going there?