Monday June 10th … Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Big Egalitarian Boost To End Coal
Last week we learned that Billionaire Michael Bloomberg announced that he would contribute $500 million to help end coal powered plants in the United States. We certainly need more millionaires and billionaires to step up their game as the climate crisis worsens. Bloomberg’s “Beyond Coal” effort, which also may limit natural gas use, is most welcome and very good news. Here are some details reported and quoted from this article:
https://newsworldbreaking.com/michael-bloomberg-promises-500-million-to-help-end-coal/
Michael Bloomberg Promises $500 Million to Help End Coal
Ensuring that natural gas does not fill the energy void left by coal will be an even trickier proposition. While the leading Democratic candidates agree that fighting climate change should be a priority for the country, none has called for limits on the expansion of natural gas.
Natural gas has been referred to as a “bridge fuel.” The idea is that it should be used to reduce dependence on dirtier energy like coal and heating oil on an interim basis while the costs of renewables like wind and solar fall.
Mr. Pope said the campaign was prepared for a “major communication challenge” to persuade people that the bridge has been crossed.
Karen Harbert, president of the American Gas Association, an industry group, called Mr. Bloomberg’s plan a “beyond energy” campaign. She noted that, overall, United States emissions have come down drastically over the past decade thanks in part to natural gas, and said that, without it, renewable energy would stagnate.
Natural gas is no longer a transitional fuel, Ms. Harbert said, but “foundational in our energy landscape.”
According to the United States Energy Information Administration, a government agency that tracks energy data, natural gas currently meets 28 percent of United States energy demand, while about 11 percent comes from renewable sources.
Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, a research firm, called Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign “a tall order.” He estimated that replacing the country’s remaining coal capacity with wind and solar power could cost as much as $800 billion in hardware and require an additional $150 billion to increase energy storage capacity.
“It’s not going to be easy to do what he’s talking about doing,” Mr. Book said.
Mr. Bloomberg has already donated more than $150 million to the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations as part of his previous environmental campaign, known as Beyond Coal. He announced in March that he would not run for president in 2020.
For more news on climate and the environment, follow @NYTClimate on Twitter.
I did some checking in my own state of Georgia, which alone has thirteen active plants according to the latest data from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Georgia_(U.S._state)
Fossil fuel power plants[Georgia]
| Plant | Nearest City | Number of Units | Capac. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bowen Steam-Electric Generating Plant (Plant Bowen) | Cartersville, Georgia | 4 | 3,160,000 kW |
| Harllee Branch Jr. Steam-Electric Generating Plant (Closed April 2015 [2]) | Milledgeville, Georgia | 4 | 1,539,700 kW |
| William P. Hammond Steam-Electric Generating Plant | Rome, Georgia | 1 | 800,000 kW |
| Kraft Steam-Electric Generating Plant | Savannah, Georgia | 4 | 281,136 kW |
| John J. McDonough Steam-Electric Generating Plant | Smyrna, Georgia | 2 | 490,000 kW |
| McIntosh Steam-Electric Generating Plant | Savannah, Georgia | 9 | 810,000 kW |
| McIntosh Combined Cycle Plant | Rincon, Georgia | 2 | 1,240,000 kW |
| Clifford Braswall McManus Steam- Electric Generating Plant | Brunswick, Georgia | 2 | 596,000 kW |
| W. E. Mitchell Steam-Electric Generating Plant (31°26’41.13″N, 84°8’2.34″W) | Albany, Georgia | 4 | 243,000 kW |
| Robins Steam-Electric Generating Plant | Warner Robins, Georgia | 2 | 166,000 kW |
| Robert W. Scherer Steam-Electric Generating Plant (Plant Scherer) | Juliette, Georgia | 4 | 3,520,000 kW |
| Wansley Steam-Electric Generating Plant | Carrollton, Georgia | 2 | 951,872 kW |
| Allen B. Wilson Combustion Turbine Plant | Waynesboro, Georgia | 354,100 kW | |
| Eugene A. Yates Steam-Electric Generating Plant | Newnan, Georgia | 7 | 1,250,000 kW |
I have a feeling that it’s going to take more like a half trillion dollars rather than a half billion to close every carbon belching plant in the United States, making sure that solar and wind infrastructure is in place to produce as much power as needed by the public. We will see what transpires in my home state ang the rest of the world as we move into the 2020s.
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Here is more climate and weather news from Monday.
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article.)
Here are some ETs from Monday:
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Guy Walton- “The Climate Guy”