News & Articles on Fossil Fuels
Fossil Fuels ares not renewable, obviously. They are listed here for organizational reasons. I don’t write about fossil fuels–as a rule. However, fossil fuels and those who promote them are not going away quietly. Thus, I felt it necessary to include the topic to distinguish articles that are not about nuclear power or renewable energy.
Jimmy Carter, the White House, & Me
By
Paul Gipe
I’ve been invited to the White House only once. Jimmy Carter was the only President to ever invite me. For …
Some early lessons of 2024 in the energy sector
By
Jérôme Guillet
Meanwhile, incumbents (utilities), long used to dominating the debate and government policies have been caught on the receiving end of the anti-renewables propaganda they spewed in the past, and which have been weaponized wittingly or unwittingly by the political opponents of the greens, usually the rightwing populists, who are ascendant right now. So the current debate on energy is highly polarized, mostly tribal, and renewables are on the losing side in the public debate. It does not matter much because the march of solar and batteries is relentless and irreversible, but it makes policy making harder, and investment decisions scarier.
Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap
By
External Source
The time has come to voice our fears and be honest with wider society. Current net zero policies will not keep warming to within 1.5°C because they were never intended to. They were and still are driven by a need to protect business as usual, not the climate. If we want to keep people safe then large and sustained cuts to carbon emissions need to happen now. That is the very simple acid test that must be applied to all climate policies. The time for wishful thinking is over.
A Refinery by Night
By
Jacques Lacarrière
A refinery by night: an oriental city with illuminated minarets, a party ship on motionless waves, a hive of phosphorescent bees … thus can you imagine it from a certain distance away. From afar, everything suggests a party, a grand reception in some city of the future, and images still more enchanting (if you squint a little): a checkerboard of flaming figures, a fortress of stars, an extra-terrestrial vessel descended from the heavens.
UK To Pour $28 Billion Into Carbon Capture & Storage Over 25 Years
By
Steve Hanley
Critics of carbon capture respond that it is a giant boondoggle that has never worked and never will work. Just a few weeks ago, our own Michael Barnard posted an article in which he said carbon capture is “an overly hyped, overly hoped for solution that isn’t and won’t scale remotely economically.” He suggests when you are digging a hole for yourself, at some point it is best to stop digging and start facing reality.
The UK coal-fired power station that became a giant battery
By
External Source
With the closure of the last coal-fired power station in the UK, it raises questions about how old fossil fuel infrastructure can be repurposed. One option is to use them to store energy from renewables. It’s an unassuming place for a major era of British history to come to an end. Surrounded by farmland drenched by recent rains and trees with leaves starting to turn ahead of the autumn – all within earshot of the thundering traffic from the M1 motorway – the UK’s last coal-fired power station is shutting down for good. As of 30 September 2024 the turbines at the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power plant in Nottinghamshire will fall silent while smoke and steam will cease to belch from the chimney and cooling towers that dominate this part of the landscape. The power station, which has been operating since 1967, is to undergo a two-year decommissioning and demolition process.
