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Sustainable Development

How to Cut U.S. Emissions Faster? Do What These Countries Are Doing.

           

nytimes.com - by Brad Plumer and Blacki Migliozzi - February 13, 2019

The United States is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions far too slowly to help avert the worst effects of global warming. But what would happen if the country adopted seven of the most ambitious climate policies already in place around the world?

1)  adopt an economy-wide carbon tax similar to British Columbia’s

2)  require utilities to produce all their electricity from zero-carbon sources

3)  encourage aggressive electric-vehicle incentives similar to Norway’s

4)  set efficiency targets for industries

5)  set energy efficiency standards for new homes and commercial buildings

6)  curb methane emissions from oil and gas operations

7)  adopt legislation to end the use of hydrofluorocarbons similar to the European Union’s

CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE AND METHODOLOGY

 

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Puerto Rico Plans Stop Short of the Grid of the Future

           

Photo by Fluor Corporation, Public Domain

CLICK HERE - PREPA’s draft 2019 Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) (310 page .PDF document)

pv-magazine-usa.com - by Christian Roselund - February 7, 2019

PREPA’s draft IRP calls for rapid deployment of solar and batteries, including the installation of as much battery storage as is currently online in the entire United States over the next four years, in a system broken up into “minigrids”. However, it stops short of utilizing behind-the-meter PV and storage . . .

 . . . PREPA’s final IRP is scheduled to be published on February 12.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - Puerto Rico Energy Bureau - Critical Projects - Documents

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More Than 300 Local Officials From 40 States Call For Green New Deal, End Of Fossil Fuels

           

Workers install solar panels.  Associated Press

The open letter includes a signature from a former high-level Mobil Oil executive.

CLICK HERE - Elected Officials to Protect America - Empowering lawmakers to act boldly on climate

huffingtonpost.com - by Alexander C. Kaufman - December 14, 2018

In a little over a month, the so-called Green New Deal has won endorsements from more than three dozen sitting or incoming federal lawmakers as Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) makes a high-profile bid to shift debate over climate change toward policy on the scale of the crisis. 

On Friday, the effort got a boost from 311 state and local officials.

Forty-four mayors, 63 county and state legislators and 116 city council members were among the officials from 40 states ― including some top oil and gas producers ― who signed an open letter issuing a sweeping, full-throated call for the phaseout of fossil fuels and adoption of Green New Deal-style climate policies.

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Some Homeowners Left Out of Harvey Funding

kfdm.com - by Cassidy Wood - December 11, 2018

Orange County homeowners are struggling to balance large loan payments and credit card debt after rebuilding from Harvey.

With many programs becoming available for those who need help rebuilding, there is one group of people who feel they are being left behind; homeowners who began rebuilding shortly after the storm using their own financial means. These homeowners are taking out loans and increasing their debt and now need help; homeowners like Linda Rose . . .

. . . After Harvey, Rose got some money from flood insurance; but her policy would go up substantially unless she rebuilt her home feet higher. So, Rose, and the rest of her neighbors on Meadowlark Street in Bridge City, are paying out-of-pocket to elevate their homes.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Costa Rica Runs Entirely on Renewable Energy for 300 Days

submitted by Jeff Williams

           

"Eólica" or wind power plant in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. ICE Group / Twitter

ecowatch.com - by Lorraine Chow - November 21, 2017

Costa Rica has charted another clean energy accolade. So far this year, the Central American country has run on 300 days of 100 percent power generation from renewable energy sources, according to the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE), which cited figures from the National Center for Energy Control. . . .

 . . . Costa Rica currently receives 99.62 percent of its electricity from five renewable sources, the highest proportion since 1987. This year, 78.26 percent of electricity came from hydropower, 10.29 percent from wind, 10.23 percent from geothermal energy and 0.84 percent from biomass and solar. 

Costa Rica has emerged as a global environmental leader, with its frequent 100 percent renewable energy streaks and its 2021 goal of becoming carbon neutral—a deadline set a decade ago.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Hurricane Maria Has Made Puerto Rico the Land of Opportunity for Solar Power

           

Leaning on the lines.(Raquel Pérez Puig for Quartz)

qz.com - by Ana Campoy - November 11, 2017

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Seven weeks after hurricane Maria, the traffic lights are still down in San Juan. The narrow, cobbled streets of the city’s historic center, one of the island’s top tourist attractions, turn pitch black as soon as the sun sets. With appliances useless during the blackout, many of the city’s residents can’t cook, store food, or take a real shower.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

 

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Failed Levee Near Taylor Bayou Could Compromise Portion of Jefferson County - Texas

A hole in the basin near Taylor Bayou created a shift in the dirt and the wall where the levee exists, County Judge Jeff Branick tells KFDM/KBTV. It is not clear what caused the hole. There is no timetable for repairs but workers are attempting a temporary fix. They were building a pad at the levee late Monday morning. There is also no official cost estimate of the fix. The levee is close to the Valero docks. (KFDM/KBTV photo)

kfdm.com - by Angel San Juan and Brandon Scott - August 7, 2017

A failed levee near Taylor Bayou could compromise a portion of Jefferson County south of Beaumont - mainly Port Arthur and its surrounding refineries - if a tropical storm or hurricane hit the area, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In a news release dated Aug. 4, the Corps states it was notified by Jefferson County Drainage District-7 of a failure of a section of floodwall near Taylor Bayou last Tuesday morning.

A hole in the basin created a shift in the dirt and the wall where the levee exists, County Judge Jeff Branick tells KFDM/KBTV.

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Utilities companies won't let you sell your own solar power. Why not?

The electric utility sector is broken – but the transformation we need will be virtually impossible so long as a handful of wealthy elites are calling the shots

           

Utilities companies have their sights on ending net-metering: your ability to sell excess power at market rates. Photograph: Rex

CLICK HERE - REPORT - Energy and Policy Institute - Utilities Knew: Documenting Electric Utilities’ Early Knowledge and Ongoing Deception on Climate Change From 1968-2017

theguardian.com - by Kate Aronoff - August 1, 2017

A new report from the US-based Energy and Policy Institute last week found that investor-owned utilities have known about climate change for nearly 50 years – and done everything in their power to stop governments from doing anything about it.

From their commitment to toxic fuels to their corrosive influence on our democracy to their attempts to price-gouge ratepayers, it’s long past time to bring the reign of privately-owned electric utilities to an end.

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World Energy Hits a Turning Point: Solar That's Cheaper Than Wind

           

Emerging markets are leapfrogging the developed world thanks to cheap panels.

bloomberg.com - by Tom Randall - December 15, 2016

A transformation is happening in global energy markets that’s worth noting as 2016 comes to an end: Solar power, for the first time, is becoming the cheapest form of new electricity. 

This has happened in isolated projects in the past: an especially competitive auction in the Middle East, for example, resulting in record-cheap solar costs. But now unsubsidized solar is beginning to outcompete coal and natural gas on a larger scale, and notably, new solar projects in emerging markets are costing less to build than wind projects, according to fresh data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

 

 

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Before the Flood

nationalgeographic.com - October 30, 2016

From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Fisher Stevens and Academy Award®-winning actor, environmental activist and U.N. Messenger of Peace Leonardo DiCaprio, Before the Flood presents a riveting account of the dramatic changes now occurring around the world due to climate change, as well as the actions we as individuals and as a society can take to prevent the disruption of life on our planet.

CLICK HERE - National Geographic - Before the Flood

CLICK HERE - YouTube - Before the Flood

CLICK HERE - About the Film - Before the Flood

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