“CCS has been slow to take off due to the cost of capture and the limited salability of carbon dioxide as a product. Thirty-nine CCS facilities capture CO₂ around the world today, totaling 45 million tons per year, or about one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) of industrial emissions produced globally.”

The Environmental Protection Agency is working on a new rule that would set stringent limits on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from US power plants. Utilities would be required to retrofit existing plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology or to switch to hydrogen fuel. Others call for the use of CCS to decarbonize heavy industry. But the cost of capture and the amount of CO₂ that proponents say needs to be captured crush any ideas about feasibility.…

H.R. 1 can be characterized as pro-free market and deregulatory. But it is only a start. Free market reforms will ultimately require repealing dusty old federal laws from the New Deal (Public Utility Holding Company Act; Federal Power Act; Natural Gas Act) and laws before and after…. At the same time, numerous states should implement free market reforms by repealing and amending laws.

The Lower Energy Costs Act just passed the U.S. House of Representatives with bipartisan support. Senate confirmation is not expected to pass it, and the Biden Administration has promised a veto. But it is a start, a placeholder, for pro-consumer, pro-taxpayer, pro-freedom policy reform to come.

H.R. 1, in the words of its sponsors, “restores American energy independence by:

• Increasing domestic energy production
• Reforming the permitting process for all industries
• Reversing anti-energy policies advanced by the Biden Administration
• Streamlining energy infrastructure and exports
• Boosting the production and processing of critical minerals

A summary of the Bill follows:

H.R.

“In a free energy market, Solar + Wind would be whittled down to less than 1-2% of total electricity on [India’s] Grid.” (C. S. Krishandev, below)

“Yokosuka is one of the 22 new coal-fired power plants planned to be built in Japan by 2025, and it is the only coal-fired facility being constructed in Japan’s Greater Tokyo area.” (NS Energy, below)

Two recent social media posts by independent energy consultant C. S. Krishnadev provide an interesting look at recent coal developments. One is on India electricity demand, the other on a coal-for-oil/gas plant conversion in Japan. The upshot: Coal has many decades left as a primary energy to generate electricity.

India Current

Krishnadev provided an interesting update on India’s electrical generation mix:

In a 24 hr period, India consumes 4.2 billion Kwh of electricity.

Ed. note: This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete Newsletter for this post can be found here.

Renewables (General):
***The Great Green Energy Transition Is Impossible
*** Why the intermittency problem can’t be solved
***Adequate Storage for Renewable Energy is Not Possible
*** Across the country, a big backlash to new renewables is mounting
*** The U.S. Has Billions for Wind and Solar Projects. Good Luck Plugging Them In.
*** Experts: California’s grid faces collapse as leaders push renewables, EVs
Bangladesh to increase coal power after renewable problems
Dispatchable Intermittent Renewables
Green Energy: Greatest Wealth Transfer to the Rich in History

Wind Energy— Offshore:
*** Thar She Blows
*** CFACT/Heartland Filing Against Dominion’s VA Offshore Project
Why Are Whales Dying Off the East Coast?…