This is how fast energy sources can change: from all horses but one automobile in the 1900 New York Easter Parade to all automobiles but one horse in the 1913 Easter Parade.
Source: U.S. National Archives
This is how fast energy sources can change: from all horses but one automobile in the 1900 New York Easter Parade to all automobiles but one horse in the 1913 Easter Parade.
Source: U.S. National Archives
†What do you want? The planet Venus? The current degraded Earth? Or a better world we know how to create?
†Joel Pett, Lexington Herald Leader, 18 March 2012,
The cartoon seen ’round the world
Mostly I post about solar and wind power winning, which is what I think is happening. But sometimes it’s worth a reminder of what could happen if we do nothing about climate change, and I posted on my facebook page a story about that. Which actually didn’t go far enough to the real worst case. Nonetheless, that story has been attacked by numerous parties of all political and scientific and unscientific stripes for being too doom and gloom. Yet none of the attackers bothered to mention a best case beyond “the same world we have now”. I have news for you: the world we have now is an ecological catastrophe, and we can do a lot better. So here’s the real worst case, the current case, which is far from the best of all possible worlds, and the real best case, as I see it. Plus what we can do to head for the best case.
First, the story I posted: David Wallace-Wells, New York Magazine, 9 July 2017, The Uninhabitable Earth: Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak — sooner than you think. Notice that word “could”, which a lot of his critics seem to have ignored. He didn’t say “will”, and he clearly labeled what he was presenting as worst case scenarios.
In case anybody thinks he was making any of that stuff up, Wallace-Wells has also linked to an annotated version with footnotes for every substantial assertion. The annotated version notes at the top: Continue reading
On the anniversary of the French Revolution against a corrupt old regime, the U.S. House of Representatives took a step towards independence from the clammy grip of the fossil fuel companies. This has direct implications on Moody AFB. No more pipelines. Solar power now.
Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, 14 July 2017, In Landmark Move, GOP Congress Calls Climate Change ‘Direct Threat’ to Security: Extreme weather and rising seas threaten bases from Virginia to Guam. For the first time, a Republican House has voted to recognize that.,
One study last year found that rising oceans threaten 128 military installations on the coasts, including naval facilities worth around $100 billion.
The Pentagon has been aware for years of Continue reading
Tom Fanning, our genial CEO host, said some things I’ve never heard him say before like Southern Company is “pivoting towards wind” and SO’s board soon has to decide whether to go forward with Plant Vogtle “or not” probably by August. Fanning gets the first and last word in this blog post, plus a complete transcript of what I asked and Tom Fanning’s response, along with summaries of the other questions and answers.
Please hear me!
I think renewables are exceedingly important in the future.
— Tom Fanning, CEO, Southern Company
In SO’s own meeting video of the 25 May 2017 Stockholder Meeting, you can see much praise about solar power and wind and R&D and a smart grid, along with stockholders wondering: Continue reading
A reminder of why to stop pipeline companies from burying investors’ money in the ground and get on with solar power:
the pipeline that exploded in Texas last week was
half owned by Spectra Energy,
the pipeline company behind
Sabal Trail, AIM, Penneast, and numerous other fracked methane invasions
and behind thirty years of undetected corrosion resulting in leaks, explosions, property damage, and deaths.
The pipeline company didn’t detect it and couldn’t even turn it off quickly.
Want to bet that it,
like Spectra’s Pennsylvania explosion last spring, was corrosion?
A very Texas report said “no people or cattle were injured” and also notice: “The fire is under control and will burn itself out.” Continue reading
Even FPL is doing solar power now, as evidenced by these pictures
John Horton sent back from Daytona yesterday.
So, FPL, how about cancel Sabal Trail and help the sun rise faster on the Sunshine State?
Kelly Pickerel, Solar Power World, 19 February 2016, Three solar canopies complete at Daytona International Speedway, Continue reading
Parents and grandparents buy 529 college savings plans as safe investments,
so VA529 chose poorly in Spectra Energy,
the very risky company behind the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline now plowing through the Floridan Aquifer drinking water of south Alabama, Georgia, and all of Florida and under the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers against growing opposition.
Maybe you’d like to mention that to
Mary G. Morris, the Chief Executive Officer of Virginia529 College Savings Plan,
the biggest mutual fund investor in both Spectra Energy and in Enbridge, which is buying Spectra.
There’s a handy
VA529 contact form or you can call or write:
1-804-371-0766
Toll-Free: 1-888-567-0540
9001 Arboretum Parkway
North Chesterfield, VA 23236
Spectra is so risky it just sold itself so Enbridge would take on about $22 billion of Spectra debt. Debt especially racked up since Continue reading
Two weeks ago,
County Manager Joe Pritchard announced that
Commissioner Joyce Evans is now serving as Vice Chairman,
yes, the
resolution to approve the VSU bonds
was requested by the
South Regional Joint Development Authority (SRJDA),
and
John Stevens is the new VDT reporter.
Citizen Shirley Moore said she’d like a connection to
county water and sewer.
They tabled the
Comprehensive Plan update, apparently because the Commissioners wanted to
“dig into it deeper”.
The rest was mostly approving what they already discussed the previous morning. They meet again Monday morning.
Below are links to each LAKE video with a few notes, followed by a video playlist.
Continue reading
Here are
small, big, huge, and PDF maps from Sabal Trail’s variance request yesterday
to FERC asking for more contractor yards, to
drill under a dam in Terrell County, GA,
and to change its easement on a tributary of Hog Creek (tributary of Okapilco Crek)
in Colquitt County, GA, in
FERC
Accession Number: 20161017-5157,
“Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC Request for Notice to Proceed and Variance Request under CP15-17.”
It includes a notice of Administrative Appeal Process by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and it looks like the deadline has not expired. Continue reading
Small, big, huge, and PDF versions of each and every one of the 144 alignment maps FSC filed with FERC in May 2016 are on the LAKE website.
21040-510-ALS-00001 STA: 00+00 TO 50+00, POLK COUNTY, FLORIDA
PDF
Follow the link for details of what, and how you can help.
For maps of the rest of the Southeast Market Pipelines Project (SMPP, including Sabal Trail), see SMPP.
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