Perpetual Innovation

Category: EPA

  • EPA proposes strict emission limits on new power plants

    EPA proposes strict emission limits on new power plants:

    Coal power plants, especially new ones, are under fire.

    As well they should be. Deaths in mining, deaths and health associated with smog and pollution, and the dirty secret of coal ash are enough to make a sane person push back from more coal power plants.

    BUT, here’s the kicker. What if we ship all of our coal over to China and have them burn it without any of the scrubbers and safety that we have in the Sates. ???

    China now burns half of the world’s coal. It’s causing them some smog problems and social unrest, but …

    India, of course is increasing rapidly as well.

    If we don’t burn it hear, only to have it burned there, then what have we really gained? šŸ™

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  • Taking a fresh look at solar energy’s benefits | Highlands Today

    Taking a fresh look at solar energy’s benefits | Highlands Today:

    Local article to Central Florida. It is good to see some movement on solar.

    Great. We all need to be more sustainable. Glad to see Coronado Solar getting out there and making it happen.
    Couple areas that aren’t precise. Probably lost something in the translation. Payback on solar hot water is usually 2 to 4 years. Really good ROI for pools (unless you like to polar-bear it in the winter). Payback for solar is usually 6 to 9 years; that’s probably the 6.5 years mentioned in the article.
    CO2e saved per home is about 6.68 metric tons per year based on 11.3MW per year with typical US electric power. (http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/refs.html)
    That would be about 155 trees planted from seedlings for 10 year (not 20+ years life of the solar array). (http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calculator.html)
    It is always hard to visualize our carbon foot print. Each person in the US produces 5 metric tons of CO2 (or equivalent). Figure 2 people per household. And an acre of trees/forest takes out about 2 MTons per year (until about 30 years, then only 1MTon). So a household of 2 needs to plant at least 5 acres of new forest today to cover all of their burning of ancient forest (coal and oil) for the next 20-30 years.
    Oh well, energy-ize your house and save 15%-25% of your utilities for the change in your pocket. Get solar water heaters and save 5-15% and plan to go solar completely within the next few years. Maybe start the array and get the meter so it can easily be expanded in the future. Prices continue to drop and efficiency improve:-)
    Visit: http://www.carbonfootprint.com to calculate your own carbon footprint, individual or business.

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  • AP IMPACT: CO2 emissions in US drop to 20-year low – Yahoo! News

    AP IMPACT: CO2 emissions in US drop to 20-year low – Yahoo! News:

    CO2 from the US is down. WOW!. See the full EIA report on CO2 Emissions.

    The last time we had that was in 2009, we all assumed that was mainly because of the economic slowdown. But apparently, even then, part of it was because of the switching to NatGas.

    “[T]he U.S. Energy Information Agency, a part of the Energy Department, said this month that energy related U.S. CO2 emissions for the first four months of this year fell to about 1992 levels. Energy emissions make up about 98 percent of the total.“

     So the big reasons for the CO2 emissions reduction is primarily because of the switch to NatGas from coal in energy generation! … The slowing of economic growth down to 1.8% is another reason. 

     What’s amazing about this is that the switch to natgas is primarily driven by market forces. The power industry has been wining endlessly about the big food of the EPA on the juggler veins of the power industry… and of course the US economy. Yet, the move happened way ahead of schedule. 

     Low prices of nat gas make it, well, irresponsible, not to switch to clean gas away from dirty coal.

    Health benefits (fewer deaths and injuries in mining). Massive improvement in air and water quality. No coal ash to deal with.

     This would all be a good thing, if it weren’t for the massive increase in coal consumption from China and India. Where, exactly, is the benefit of us cutting back on coal when we simply ship it to China and they burn it. And they don’t worry about scrubbing it as much as we.

    China now burns half the coal in the world, and rising quickly.

     Sorry for looking good news in the eye and sounding skeptical. We sometimes simply need a little good news here and there and just to enjoy it.

     Ahhhh, NatGas, A cleaner addiction to a unsustainable problem.

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  • Federal Appeals Court Ruling Puts Climate Change into Election Debate

    Federal Appeals Court Ruling Puts Climate Change into Election Debate:

    So there is no question. The EPA can, in fact, regulate greenhouse gasses (GHGs).

    It gives additional credibility to the science of GHGs=> Global Warming => Not good things for the future.

    There are a couple things that this will do. It will elevate the EPA and its regulations in the election world.

    It should escalate the attacks on the EPA.

    And one would hope that at least COAL would start to lose favor.

    It will be interesting to see how this plays forward.

    Here’s the AP take on the same court ruling in the San Francisco Chronicle.

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  • EPA is finally going to conduct a big Environmental Study on Gas Fracking

    There has been a painfully slow move to NatGas in the US, even though we appear to have centuries worth of it using new fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques.
    The one holdup, kinda, is being blamed on the possible environmental impact from gas drilling. (As if it could be worse than oil with its BP Gulf and Exxon Yellowstone spills in the last two years.)
    With NatGas at a price of $1 (to $2) for the equivalent of a gallon of diesel in vehicle fuel ($4/gal), many people argue that it’s a “no brainer” decision for the US to switch to NatGas. But inertia and the massive interests in the current oil & coal economy seem to have us doing the ā€œno brainā€ part of a far better decision than imported oil or much dirtier/deadly coal.
    Check out the Utica Shale and Marcellus Shale informationā€¦ The Utica Shale formation that is below the Marcellus is just now becoming commercially available using new drilling techniques that have really been worked out since about 2005.