Ed, these are the kind of facts everyone needs to understand the reality of the climate/energy relationship. Keep up the great work!
BTW, I am a small town Texas country boy who has lived a lifetime of climate change. The climate variability and weather events that are being publicized today have occurred during my 80+ years and millennia before that. It’s obvious the issue of “Climate Change”isn’t about the Science and reality!
Remember the hot dry days in the American Midwest during the 1930s - the "Dust Bowl" years? Have the temperature records from that time been scrubbed? US temperature records going back to 1900 are sparse. It took until 1927 to establish a world-wide weather network. Measurements derived from satellite observation started circa 1960.
The greenies will tell any lie and misconstrue any data in their effort to destroy our access the affordable and reliable energy. It's truly disgusting and I appreciate your efforts to expose these charlatans.
Thanks, Jim. Yes, it is past time to call out the lies that are destroying our power grids and out lives if it doesn't stop. Thanks for your comments, JIm. Ed
I believe the following historical record for monthly temperature in the US to be factual and unaltered. I was born in the mid 30’s when, according to the chart, there were two months of the hottest days over 100 degrees. There were few cars then, little air conditioning and mostly wood and coal burning stoves. How in the world did we survive?
Thanks for sharing your recollections and thoughts, Dana. You point out that the weather has always been changing and will continue to change. The decade of the 1930s was the dust bowl, with hot temperatures and drought which devastated the food supply and cause many deaths. Just 80 years before that, the Mini Ice Age was winding down. Weather changes have nothing to do with CO2 emissions! Thanks, Dana. I know our subscribers appreciate your thoughts.
Thinking back to my youth, I recall having cast iron wood stoves for cooking and heating. One of my grandfathers chopped wood and dug wells for a living, so having wood was seldom a problem. Being the oldest and only boy, when I was big enough, it was my job to bring in the wood and take out the ashes. When I was about 12 years old, one of my happiest memories was when mother got an electric stove. Shortly after a propane tank and stoves were installed to heat the house. It was an evolutionary process based on cost benefits. I don’t recall government involvement in the decision process. Maybe that is part of what freedom is about…
Great story, Dana. Yes, our freedoms are being infringed more every day. The possibility of losing the freedom to choose the type of stove to cook is indicative of how much freedom we are losing every day. If Americans will pay more attention, this can be turned around.
In 1934, the year I was born, authentic temperature records show it be the hottest year of days exceeding 100 degrees. I remember the 50’s better than the 30’s. A noted writer of time referred to that
Thank you for your fact-packed article, Ed. My wife and I lived in Texas from 1993 to 2006, when the power was far more reliable than it is now. Unfortunately, I went from the "frying pan into the fire." We now live in California, where I help to advocate for extended operation of Diablo Canyon Power Plant, which is located about 10 miles from where we live. See HTTPS://TINYURL.COM/DCPP-VERSUS-COAL
for additional background.
California has extremely unreliable power in comparison to times to before 2010. The state has the greatest amount of solar generation of any state and usually has clear skies, which should make it a leader. Unfortunately, solar power diminishes to zero on a daily basis when the Sun sets - at a time of peak peak electricity demand. As @Carl Wurtz notes, no amount of investment in solar power will compensate for the laws of physics.
California is also distinguished by importing the greatest amount of power of any state. The state's annual imports are approximately 100 terawatt-hours, where a terawatt-hour is a billion kilowatt-hours. Coal-fired power plays a significant role.
During the past five years, California has had significant grid emergencies, which are likely to intensify. I believe the root cause is the deep-pocketed special interests that have driven this push to solar and wind are the ones that have benefited while saddling ratepayers with ever-increasing power bills. (As the events of December, 2022 established, California natural gas wholesalers derived significant financial benefits from natural gas delivery constraints at the time of the year that solar's contribution is minimized by the Sun being low to the horizon and cloudier skies. ) @Meredith Angwin notes in her 2020 book Shorting the Grid this outcome is likely a "Feature," not a "Bug." :-(
BTW, the U.S. EIA shows that California natural gas consumption for electricity generation has been climbing since 2019, despite the state investing tens of billions of dollars in solar and wind generation. http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n3045ca2a.htm
Gene, it is great to have you as a subscriber! Your experience with the California nuclear situation is fantastic. Congratulation on the success of keeping Diablo Canyon open. That alone is helping to save California from its many bad decisions regarding its power grid. We especially appreciate your thoughts about our posts. I monitor all U.S. power grids daily and have written other posts that you may enjoy. Thanks again for becoming part of our community of readers and we appreciate your thoughts and comments. Thanks for the links.
Ed, I appreciate your endorsement. CGNP filed thousands of pages of testimony before regulatory and oversight bodies at the local, state, and federal level. Upon request, we can send you some relevant files to your TCU email address. I believe that the motto that serves to explain recent energy system decisions is, "Follow the Money." Those decisions seem to rarely be based on application of scientific, engineering, or economic principles.
Thanks, Gene. I would appreciate you sending those files to e.ireland@tcu.edu. By the way, we had Michael Shellenberger on campus a few months ago. Yes, "following the money" is usually productive! Ed
Excellent! I will send you a sample of our filings. Michael Shellenberger was our keynote speaker at CGNP's annual holiday party a few years ago. Unfortunately, the decisions by monied interests tend to be self-serving instead of serving society.
Ed, these are the kind of facts everyone needs to understand the reality of the climate/energy relationship. Keep up the great work!
BTW, I am a small town Texas country boy who has lived a lifetime of climate change. The climate variability and weather events that are being publicized today have occurred during my 80+ years and millennia before that. It’s obvious the issue of “Climate Change”isn’t about the Science and reality!
I agree, Dana. What we are talking about is weather and the weather is always changing. Thanks for reading and commenting, Dana. Ed
Remember the hot dry days in the American Midwest during the 1930s - the "Dust Bowl" years? Have the temperature records from that time been scrubbed? US temperature records going back to 1900 are sparse. It took until 1927 to establish a world-wide weather network. Measurements derived from satellite observation started circa 1960.
The greenies will tell any lie and misconstrue any data in their effort to destroy our access the affordable and reliable energy. It's truly disgusting and I appreciate your efforts to expose these charlatans.
Thanks, Jim. Yes, it is past time to call out the lies that are destroying our power grids and out lives if it doesn't stop. Thanks for your comments, JIm. Ed
Wonderful post, Ed!
Thanks, Tom. Ed
I believe the following historical record for monthly temperature in the US to be factual and unaltered. I was born in the mid 30’s when, according to the chart, there were two months of the hottest days over 100 degrees. There were few cars then, little air conditioning and mostly wood and coal burning stoves. How in the world did we survive?
https://i0.wp.com/realclimate.science/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/screenhunter_284-nov-15-22-53.jpg?resize=640%2C427
Thanks for sharing your recollections and thoughts, Dana. You point out that the weather has always been changing and will continue to change. The decade of the 1930s was the dust bowl, with hot temperatures and drought which devastated the food supply and cause many deaths. Just 80 years before that, the Mini Ice Age was winding down. Weather changes have nothing to do with CO2 emissions! Thanks, Dana. I know our subscribers appreciate your thoughts.
Thinking back to my youth, I recall having cast iron wood stoves for cooking and heating. One of my grandfathers chopped wood and dug wells for a living, so having wood was seldom a problem. Being the oldest and only boy, when I was big enough, it was my job to bring in the wood and take out the ashes. When I was about 12 years old, one of my happiest memories was when mother got an electric stove. Shortly after a propane tank and stoves were installed to heat the house. It was an evolutionary process based on cost benefits. I don’t recall government involvement in the decision process. Maybe that is part of what freedom is about…
Great story, Dana. Yes, our freedoms are being infringed more every day. The possibility of losing the freedom to choose the type of stove to cook is indicative of how much freedom we are losing every day. If Americans will pay more attention, this can be turned around.
In 1934, the year I was born, authentic temperature records show it be the hottest year of days exceeding 100 degrees. I remember the 50’s better than the 30’s. A noted writer of time referred to that
Thank you for your fact-packed article, Ed. My wife and I lived in Texas from 1993 to 2006, when the power was far more reliable than it is now. Unfortunately, I went from the "frying pan into the fire." We now live in California, where I help to advocate for extended operation of Diablo Canyon Power Plant, which is located about 10 miles from where we live. See HTTPS://TINYURL.COM/DCPP-VERSUS-COAL
for additional background.
California has extremely unreliable power in comparison to times to before 2010. The state has the greatest amount of solar generation of any state and usually has clear skies, which should make it a leader. Unfortunately, solar power diminishes to zero on a daily basis when the Sun sets - at a time of peak peak electricity demand. As @Carl Wurtz notes, no amount of investment in solar power will compensate for the laws of physics.
California is also distinguished by importing the greatest amount of power of any state. The state's annual imports are approximately 100 terawatt-hours, where a terawatt-hour is a billion kilowatt-hours. Coal-fired power plays a significant role.
During the past five years, California has had significant grid emergencies, which are likely to intensify. I believe the root cause is the deep-pocketed special interests that have driven this push to solar and wind are the ones that have benefited while saddling ratepayers with ever-increasing power bills. (As the events of December, 2022 established, California natural gas wholesalers derived significant financial benefits from natural gas delivery constraints at the time of the year that solar's contribution is minimized by the Sun being low to the horizon and cloudier skies. ) @Meredith Angwin notes in her 2020 book Shorting the Grid this outcome is likely a "Feature," not a "Bug." :-(
BTW, the U.S. EIA shows that California natural gas consumption for electricity generation has been climbing since 2019, despite the state investing tens of billions of dollars in solar and wind generation. http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n3045ca2a.htm
Gene, it is great to have you as a subscriber! Your experience with the California nuclear situation is fantastic. Congratulation on the success of keeping Diablo Canyon open. That alone is helping to save California from its many bad decisions regarding its power grid. We especially appreciate your thoughts about our posts. I monitor all U.S. power grids daily and have written other posts that you may enjoy. Thanks again for becoming part of our community of readers and we appreciate your thoughts and comments. Thanks for the links.
Ed
Ed, I appreciate your endorsement. CGNP filed thousands of pages of testimony before regulatory and oversight bodies at the local, state, and federal level. Upon request, we can send you some relevant files to your TCU email address. I believe that the motto that serves to explain recent energy system decisions is, "Follow the Money." Those decisions seem to rarely be based on application of scientific, engineering, or economic principles.
Thanks, Gene. I would appreciate you sending those files to e.ireland@tcu.edu. By the way, we had Michael Shellenberger on campus a few months ago. Yes, "following the money" is usually productive! Ed
Excellent! I will send you a sample of our filings. Michael Shellenberger was our keynote speaker at CGNP's annual holiday party a few years ago. Unfortunately, the decisions by monied interests tend to be self-serving instead of serving society.