And there are equally crucial battles
over coal and gas from the Appalachians to the Pacific coast.
Not exact matches
The fossil fuel divestment campaign began on university campuses in 2011 but the new report reveals that concerns
over investments in
coal, oil
and gas have now entered the financial mainstream, with more than 80 % of the funds now committed to divest being managed by commercial investment
and pension funds.
Cleaner burning natural
gas has been replacing aging
coal power plants in droves
over the past several years thanks to both economics
and environmental reasons.
But for those who oppose fracking, there is this: Burning the natural
gas produced by fracking may be much better for the environment
and public health,
over the long run, than burning
coal.
We know that fast - growing countries such as China are planning to transition from
coal to natural
gas over the next four to five years,
and we need to position ourselves to capitalize on these long - term opportunities.»
Over a year which has seen large banks halt funding for fossil fuel projects, major institutions divest from oil, gas and coal holdings, and oil companies snap up power and renewables companies in a bid to diversify their asset base, research published today by the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) and the Climate Change Collaboration suggests nervousness over climate risk has shot up in financial circ
Over a year which has seen large banks halt funding for fossil fuel projects, major institutions divest from oil,
gas and coal holdings,
and oil companies snap up power
and renewables companies in a bid to diversify their asset base, research published today by the UK Sustainable Investment
and Finance Association (UKSIF)
and the Climate Change Collaboration suggests nervousness
over climate risk has shot up in financial circ
over climate risk has shot up in financial circles.
Admittedly we are a net importer of oil (increasingly so as Bass Strait reserves diminish), but Australian entities make large exports of natural
gas and thermal
coal, whose prices are highly correlated with oil prices
over time.
The shale oil boom has driven natural
gas prices lower
and coal - fired power plants are switching
over to natural
gas.
To put this all in perspective: «Solar employs slightly more workers than natural
gas,
over twice as many as
coal,
over three times that of wind energy,
and almost five times the number employed in nuclear energy,» the report notes.
Wood, water power,
coal, oil,
and gas are insufficient to provide for the world's energy needs
over any extended period.
If you don't fancy starting a charcoal barbecue, meats
and fishes can be grilled with good results on
gas grills, although of course the taste
over coals is superior.
The venture has been repeatedly delayed
over several years amid changing state regulations for
coal seam
gas and a lack of capital to move forward after the collapse in oil prices.
Scatter a handful of wood chips
over coals if using a charcoal grill, or place in smoker box
and place
over direct heat if using a
gas grill.
If using wood chips: Scatter
over coals, if using a charcoal grill; place in a disposable foil pan
and set
over lit burner, if using a
gas grill.
Prepare grill for high, indirect heat
and fit with grill pan (for a charcoal grill, bank
coals on 1 side of grill
and put drip pan on empty side; for a
gas grill, leave 1 burner turned off
and place drip pan
over unlit burner).
canola oil salt
and pepper Preparation: Heat
gas grill to high or heat
coals in a charcoal grill until they glow bright
and ash
over.
Hours later,
over 100 New Yorkers rallied at Comptroller Scott Stringer's office, delivering a divestment valentine with thousands of petition signatures urging the City's pension funds to divest
coal, oil
and gas holdings.
This graph shows the ratio of warming from accumulated atmospheric carbon dioxide to warming from combustion for
coal, oil,
and gas plants
over time.
The extraordinary growth in fracking — the hydraulic fracturing of deeply buried shale rock to extract natural
gas — has transformed the United States
over the past 15 years, boosting energy stocks, cutting pollution from conventional
coal - power plants,
and creating new jobs.
«With slower economic growth
and a big push towards
gas and renewables, the golden decade for
coal is
over.»
The findings, reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, add to a burgeoning debate
over the climate impact of replacing oil -
and coal - fired power plants with those fuelled by natural
gas.
Replacing old
coal - fired power plants with new natural
gas plants could cause climate damage to increase
over the next decades, unless their methane leakage rates are very low
and the new power plants are very efficient.
If production continues as planned,
over the next couple of decades natural
gas could supplant
coal as the leading domestic fossil fuel, serving as a cleaner way to heat our homes
and fire our electric plants.
Cornell University researchers factored in the carbon emissions
over the course of natural
gas's life cycle when it is extracted using hydraulic fracturing — which includes drilling the wells, erecting the construction sites, building pipelines to transport the
gas, fueling the pumps that force the water underground,
and transporting the wastewater —
and concluded that natural
gas is dirtier than
coal.
Natural
gas might still have an advantage
over coal when burned to create electricity, because
gas - fired power plants tend to be newer
and far more efficient than older facilities that provide the bulk of the country's
coal - fired generation.
For two centuries, we have been tapping into «fossilised sunlight», burning solar energy trapped
over millions of years in
coal, oil
and natural
gas.
Sub-Saharan Africa, who in the worst - case
over the next 40 years would be 4 percent of greenhouse
gas emissions, you can give them a pass
and say, «Hey, any way that you guys can get energy, if it's natural
gas,
coal, gasoline, you know, whatever you want.
$ 8 billion)
over first ten years for deficit reductionObeys PAYGO; Starting in 2026, 25 % of auction revenues for deficit reductionFuels
and TransportationIncrease biofuels to 60 million gallons by 2030, low - carbon fuel standard of 10 % by 2010, 1 million plug» in hybrid cars by 2025, raise fuel economy standards, smart growth funding, end oil subsidies, promote natural gas drilling, enhanced oil recoverySmart growth funding, plug - in hybrids, raise fuel economy standards $ 7 billion a year for smart growth funding, plug - in hybrids, natural gas vehicles, raise fuel economy standards; offshore drilling with revenue sharing and oil spill veto, natural gas fracking disclosureCost ContainmentInternational offsetsOffset pool, banking and borrowing flexibility, soft price collar using permit reserve auction at $ 28 per ton going to 60 % above three - year - average market price» Hard» price collar between $ 12 and $ 25 per ton, floor increases at 3 % + CPI, ceiling at 5 % + CPI, plus permit reserve auction, offsets like W - MClean Air Act And StatesNot discussedOnly polluters above 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, regional cap and trade suspended until 2017, EPA to set stationary source performance standards in 2016, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedOnly polluters above 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, regional cap and trade pre-empted, establishes coal - fired plant performance standards, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedInternational CompetitivenessTax incentives for domestic auto industryFree allowances for trade - exposed industries, 2020 carbon tariff on importsCarbon tariff on importsReferences: Barack Obama, 2007; Barack Obama, 8/3/08; Pew Center, 6/26/09; leaked drafts of American Power Act, 5/11/
and TransportationIncrease biofuels to 60 million gallons by 2030, low - carbon fuel standard of 10 % by 2010, 1 million plug» in hybrid cars by 2025, raise fuel economy standards, smart growth funding, end oil subsidies, promote natural
gas drilling, enhanced oil recoverySmart growth funding, plug - in hybrids, raise fuel economy standards $ 7 billion a year for smart growth funding, plug - in hybrids, natural
gas vehicles, raise fuel economy standards; offshore drilling with revenue sharing
and oil spill veto, natural gas fracking disclosureCost ContainmentInternational offsetsOffset pool, banking and borrowing flexibility, soft price collar using permit reserve auction at $ 28 per ton going to 60 % above three - year - average market price» Hard» price collar between $ 12 and $ 25 per ton, floor increases at 3 % + CPI, ceiling at 5 % + CPI, plus permit reserve auction, offsets like W - MClean Air Act And StatesNot discussedOnly polluters above 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, regional cap and trade suspended until 2017, EPA to set stationary source performance standards in 2016, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedOnly polluters above 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, regional cap and trade pre-empted, establishes coal - fired plant performance standards, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedInternational CompetitivenessTax incentives for domestic auto industryFree allowances for trade - exposed industries, 2020 carbon tariff on importsCarbon tariff on importsReferences: Barack Obama, 2007; Barack Obama, 8/3/08; Pew Center, 6/26/09; leaked drafts of American Power Act, 5/11/
and oil spill veto, natural
gas fracking disclosureCost ContainmentInternational offsetsOffset pool, banking
and borrowing flexibility, soft price collar using permit reserve auction at $ 28 per ton going to 60 % above three - year - average market price» Hard» price collar between $ 12 and $ 25 per ton, floor increases at 3 % + CPI, ceiling at 5 % + CPI, plus permit reserve auction, offsets like W - MClean Air Act And StatesNot discussedOnly polluters above 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, regional cap and trade suspended until 2017, EPA to set stationary source performance standards in 2016, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedOnly polluters above 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, regional cap and trade pre-empted, establishes coal - fired plant performance standards, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedInternational CompetitivenessTax incentives for domestic auto industryFree allowances for trade - exposed industries, 2020 carbon tariff on importsCarbon tariff on importsReferences: Barack Obama, 2007; Barack Obama, 8/3/08; Pew Center, 6/26/09; leaked drafts of American Power Act, 5/11/
and borrowing flexibility, soft price collar using permit reserve auction at $ 28 per ton going to 60 % above three - year - average market price» Hard» price collar between $ 12
and $ 25 per ton, floor increases at 3 % + CPI, ceiling at 5 % + CPI, plus permit reserve auction, offsets like W - MClean Air Act And StatesNot discussedOnly polluters above 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, regional cap and trade suspended until 2017, EPA to set stationary source performance standards in 2016, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedOnly polluters above 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, regional cap and trade pre-empted, establishes coal - fired plant performance standards, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedInternational CompetitivenessTax incentives for domestic auto industryFree allowances for trade - exposed industries, 2020 carbon tariff on importsCarbon tariff on importsReferences: Barack Obama, 2007; Barack Obama, 8/3/08; Pew Center, 6/26/09; leaked drafts of American Power Act, 5/11/
and $ 25 per ton, floor increases at 3 % + CPI, ceiling at 5 % + CPI, plus permit reserve auction, offsets like W - MClean Air Act
And StatesNot discussedOnly polluters above 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, regional cap and trade suspended until 2017, EPA to set stationary source performance standards in 2016, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedOnly polluters above 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, regional cap and trade pre-empted, establishes coal - fired plant performance standards, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedInternational CompetitivenessTax incentives for domestic auto industryFree allowances for trade - exposed industries, 2020 carbon tariff on importsCarbon tariff on importsReferences: Barack Obama, 2007; Barack Obama, 8/3/08; Pew Center, 6/26/09; leaked drafts of American Power Act, 5/11/
And StatesNot discussedOnly polluters above 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, regional cap
and trade suspended until 2017, EPA to set stationary source performance standards in 2016, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedOnly polluters above 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, regional cap and trade pre-empted, establishes coal - fired plant performance standards, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedInternational CompetitivenessTax incentives for domestic auto industryFree allowances for trade - exposed industries, 2020 carbon tariff on importsCarbon tariff on importsReferences: Barack Obama, 2007; Barack Obama, 8/3/08; Pew Center, 6/26/09; leaked drafts of American Power Act, 5/11/
and trade suspended until 2017, EPA to set stationary source performance standards in 2016, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedOnly polluters above 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, regional cap
and trade pre-empted, establishes coal - fired plant performance standards, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedInternational CompetitivenessTax incentives for domestic auto industryFree allowances for trade - exposed industries, 2020 carbon tariff on importsCarbon tariff on importsReferences: Barack Obama, 2007; Barack Obama, 8/3/08; Pew Center, 6/26/09; leaked drafts of American Power Act, 5/11/
and trade pre-empted, establishes
coal - fired plant performance standards, some Clean Air Act provisions excludedInternational CompetitivenessTax incentives for domestic auto industryFree allowances for trade - exposed industries, 2020 carbon tariff on importsCarbon tariff on importsReferences: Barack Obama, 2007; Barack Obama, 8/3/08; Pew Center, 6/26/09; leaked drafts of American Power Act, 5/11/10.
Concerns
over climate change have encouraged governments
and consumers to demand that electricity is decarbonised — which means no more burning of
coal and gas wherever possible.
Our results suggest that, globally, a third of oil reserves, half of
gas reserves
and over 80 per cent of current
coal reserves should remain unused from 2010 to 2050 in order to meet the target of 2 °C.
Among Freeman's specific recommendations are a «20 percent federal tax credit to electricity
and natural
gas utilities that gives highest priority to the efficient use of the energy they supply,»
and ban on new
coal or nuclear plants
and retirement of the existing plants within the next 30 years, government - funded demonstration plants for Big Solar
and hydrogen, increasing federal fuel economy standards one mile - per - gallon a year
over the next 24 years, tax credits for plug - in hybrids or flex - fuel vehicles,
and an excess - profits tax on oil to fund the tax credits.
Coal, oil,
and natural
gas provide
over 85 % of the U.S. energy supply, including two - thirds of the electricity
and nearly all of the energy used for transportation.
While oil
and natural
gas operations may have taken something of a downturn in the state
over the last five years, Wyoming is still, incontestably,
coal country.
Substantial reductions in greenhouse
gas emissions from the electricity sector are achievable
over the next two to three decades through a portfolio approach involving the widespread deployment of energy efficiency technologies; renewable energy;
coal, natural
gas,
and biomass with carbon capture
and storage;
and nuclear technologies.
The shale
gas in recent exploration in the United States, that could meet the domestic demand of the country for natural
gas at current levels of consumption for
over 100 years, is extremely negative for the environment because it generates half the carbon emissions from
coal,
and pollutes the sheets underground aquifers.
I wonder if that study takes into account that EVs
and plug - in hybrids become cleaner
over time as
coal - fired plants are replaced with natural
gas - fired plants, wind turbines,
and solar plants.
Experts say that if we bought $ 50 to $ 200 billion worth of solar panels
over the next 10 — 20 years, the price of solar could come to down to the price of natural
gas and even
coal, not just in the U.S. but even in developing countries like China, where
coal is especially cheap.
Imagine a man or woman being so arrogant,
and selfish, that they'd take a job driving a CO2 belching truck, or dig for
coal in a mine, or fish for salmon in the ocean, or fly a CO2 belching airliner, or flip beef patties that came from CH4 exhausting cows, or teaching a classroom of students all of whom belch CO2
and exhaust CH4
and whom will have offspring that produces even more of those evil
gases, or working as a climate scientist in an office heated by CO2 belching FFs
and occasionally traveling around the world by CO2 belching airliner — all the while using computers made from FFs
and powered by CO2 belching FF power plants, or working as a Senator from Tennessee who was President of the USA for a few hours
and who travels all
over the world in CO2 belching airliners, or one of the millions of people who mine, process, manufacture
and transport every product you have ever seen in your life
and all the ones you haven't seen as well.
Now, many people opposing greenhouse -
gas restrictions are on the warpath
over your reference to death trains
and crematoria in your argument for freezing
coal - plant construction to avoid dangerous human - driven warming.
Compared to
coal, the [climate] footprint of shale
gas is at least 20 % greater
and perhaps more than twice as great on the 20 - year horizon
and is comparable when compared
over 100 years.
However, in their recent publication in Climatic Change Letters, Howarth et al. (2011) report that their life - cycle evaluation of shale
gas drilling suggests that shale
gas has a larger GHG footprint than
coal and that this larger footprint «undercuts the logic of its use as a bridging fuel
over the coming decades».
For
over two hundred years, beginning with
coal and later joined by oil
and gas, fossil fuels have literally fueled the industrial revolution
and have produced astonishing improvements in living standards.
The value of doing this is clear: «Experts say that if we bought $ 50 to $ 200 billion worth of solar panels
over the next 10 — 20 years, the price of solar could come to down to the price of natural
gas and even
coal, not just in the U.S. but even in developing countries like China, where
coal is especially cheap.»
Over the past several months, I completely two relevant fact - finding trips: one to West Virginia to get a firsthand look at surface mining for
coal, aka mountaintop removal,
and the other to Pennsylvania to get a sense of the impacts of natural
gas drilling.
Over 50 percent of electricity in the U.S. comes from lower carbon sources of energy like hydro, nuclear, natural
gas, wind
and solar
and just 45 percent comes from dirty
coal.
But, again, the notion that
gas holds no advantage
over coal, in weighing the climate implications of energy choices, is fading fast (to my reading of the science
and that of many others).
Broadly stated: if you reject a lease
and take a large portion of a commodity (here
coal, but it could have been natural
gas, tar sands, etc.) off the market, you decrease the supply, increase the cost,
and,
over the long term, decrease the use of that commodity.
ProPublica has published a good update on concerns that existing practices for extracting
and piping natural
gas, through leakage, substantially cut into the fuel's substantial greenhouse -
gas advantage
over coal.
Coal towers
over oil
and gas.
The authors note that as fossil fuel reserves shrink, as air pollution worsens,
and as concerns about climate instability cast a shadow
over the future of
coal, oil,
and natural
gas, a new world energy economy is emerging.