Energy Warring in Canada: Free Market Capitalism, Anyone?
By Dave Harbour -- March 14, 2016“Those rejecting just and reasonable (i.e. ‘rule of law’) fossil-fuel decision-making in the name of ‘climate change, global warming, an ‘”abundance of caution'” or other alibis’, are either ignorant of the realities laid out above or treacherously aware of their effort to undermine the public interest in pursuit of their own accumulation of power.”
In a recent Calgary Herald editorial, Chris Nelson takes on the Quebec hypocrites and enviroactivists stonewalling TransCanada’s Energy East Pipeline Project, a 2,858-mile pipeline that would carry 1.1-million barrels/day of crude oil from Alberta and Saskatchewan to refineries in Eastern Canada. Part of the project converts TransCanada’s underutilized natural gas facilities to oil.
Here we stand: the powers out of Quebec have decided to block a market-supported oil pipeline to Alberta, and Edmonton could retaliate by banning Alberta from buying British Columbia’s excess electricity until the national government reverses its pipeline obstructionism.…
Continue ReadingEPA’s Methane Rule: All Burden for No Climate Benefit
By Steve Everley -- March 11, 2016Between 2025 and 2100, EPA’s methane rule would result in a global average temperature reduction of just 0.004 degrees Celsius, four one-thousandths of one degree. Methane emissions ten times larger than what EPA data suggests would still not affect global temperature measurably.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed new rules targeting methane and other emissions from the oil and natural gas industry. The EPA claims these rules are necessary to “combat climate change,” but public data show that the climate impact of reducing methane would be practically non-existent: 0.004 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
Methane emissions from all industries in the United States only constitute about 10 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, which incorporates methane’s relatively high warming potential. According to the EPA and the U.N.…
Continue Reading“Grid-Enabled” Water Heating: “Deep Decarbonization” as Crony Environmentalism (Part II)
By Mark Krebs -- March 10, 2016[Editor note: An under-the-radar energy intervention is to force fossil-fuel fired water heating to go electric “regardless of adverse economic impacts,” as Mark Krebs explains in this post and Part I yesterday.]
Why should electricity monopolize energy if gas-fired alternatives are more economical as determined by self-interested consumers?
If the objective is low carbon water heaters, there are more direct means of doing so. The following graphics compare the full fuel-cycle efficiencies of traditional gas water heater to electric water heaters:
Gas Storage Water Heater Site and Source Energy Efficiency
Electric Resistance Storage Water Heater Site and Source Energy Efficiency
Note: The previous two graphs are used with permission form the Gas Technology Institute
The electric utility industry prefers a site-based energy efficiency metric because it can indicates that switching to an electric resistance water heater from a gas water heater can “save” over 30% more energy. …
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