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.
Steps to Electrification: Dumping Fossil Fuels
By
Paul Gipe
This is the first in a series of articles on electrifying our house so we can “stop burning stuff.” Yes, we already have electricity, but we use fossil gas for heat, hot water, and cooking. That’s what we plan to electrify, eliminating fossil gas from our home. Our gas is provided by PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric Co.), our notorious utility company. Notorious because it killed eight people in San Bruno, California in a massive gas explosion in 2010 then they followed that up by killing another 85 people by starting the Camp Fire in 2018. In 2020 the company filed for bankruptcy, and since then been resuscitated. However, to its customers it’s still the same old PG&E.
LA Times: Time for California to get serious about cheaper, cleaner energy
By
Sammy Roth
Californians pay some of the nation’s highest electricity rates. They’re also being devastated by the consequences of fossil fueled climate change, including more deadly and expensive wildfires, droughts and heat waves. Politicians need to stop promising they’ll confront these challenges and start doing it. The recent fires in Los Angeles County should serve as a political rallying cry to accelerate the phaseout of oil and gas. Instead, they’re threatening to derail Sacramento’s long-promised focus on more affordable energy.
The Fossil Fuel Industry: Trapped & Dangerous
By
Steve Smiley
Brandi Carlile, at a Gorge Amphitheater concert a couple years ago, remarked that her father, a hunter, told her the most dangerous animal was one that was wounded and cornered. This is a good characterization of the present fossil fuel industry. They are cornered and dangerous because the simple truth is that the fossil fuel industry is no longer economically competitive.
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.
