NY Times Blog notes EIA isn't calling for emissions to increase

A blog entry at the New York Times today reviewed the revised US Energy Information Administration (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook.

They emphasized the part where emissions, which the EIA had forecast to grow 37% by 2030 in 2006, they now forecast emissions to remain below 2005's level until 2027 -- and that's planning on no major legislative programs, and coal remaining the workhorse of American electricity generation.

I note the bullet on the IESO site on revisions to the preliminary report from a few months ago:

• Revised amount of wind builds in 2012 (7 rather than 10 gigawatts) 

Figure 3 in the Executive Summary indicates that 2012 is also the year wind ceases to grow (and solar follows it into holding at a steady level in 2015).  The longer-term non-hydroelectric renewable bets are on biomass and geothermal.

Donald Jones: “An alternative Long Term Energy Plan for Ontario—an 80/20 nuclear/hydro generation mix by 2045”

Guest post by Donald Jones: “An alternative Long Term Energy Plan for Ontario—an 80/20 nuclear/hydro generation mix by 2045”

Donald Jones had contributed some of the most popular posts on this blog, and now provides an alternative LTEP at the excellent Canadian Energy Issues blog.

Ontario to Phase Out Coal by 2007, or 2014, or ...

How about 2018.
 From the Hansard for April 17th, 2011:

Ms. Helena Jaczek: My question is for the Minister of Energy. There’s no doubt that Ontario’s electricity system is turning the corner. Eight years ago, our power system was, by all accounts, an ugly, unreliable mess from top to bottom. Our system lost generating capacity the equivalent of Niagara Falls running dry; the PC government of the day was trying to privatize Ontario’s transmission grid; the use of coal had increased by 127%; and the province was on life support from temporary leased generators and imported electricity that cost Ontarians $1 billion in less than two years.

What progress is the government making in cleaning up our electricity system to build a healthier future for our kids and grandkids?

Hon. Brad Duguid: I want to thank the member for Oak Ridges–Markham for her question and assure her indeed that tremendous progress is being made to clean up the dirty, unreliable mess the PC Party called an electricity system.

The member, and other members who are heckling right now, may be interested to know that, compared to the first quarter of 2003, the first quarter of 2011 saw a reduction of 90% in coal use, probably for the first time ever.

We’ve permanently shut down eight coal-burning units so far. That’s like taking 2.5 million cars off Ontario roads. We’ve announced the conversions of the Atikokan and Thunder Bay generating stations. Ontario will be completely coal-free by 2018—not an easy thing to do, but we have a plan and we have the leadership, unlike the opposition—

................

CORRECTION OF RECORD

Hon. Brad Duguid: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker: In a response to a question earlier today, I think I said that we’d be out of coal by 2018. The actual time is 2014. I don’t know if I said that, but I got a note that said that, so I just wanted to correct the record.----

ahh, that makes more sense now.

That's when the horrible dirty PC government of 2003 planned to exit coal, before losing to an election promise to do it by 2007.

Roadmap for Fukushima Daiichi restoration

Roadmap for Fukushima Daiichi restoration

Ontario Government notes 90% reduction in coal use

Use Of Coal Power Down 90 Per Cent
Over the first 3 months of 2011.

This is the key strategy of bringing Ontario cleaner air and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Here's something to ponder during the 1.5 hour commute ... how much is the ground-level ozone, the VOCs, and overall air quality in Toronto faring compared to the first 3 months of 2010?

Aldyeen Donnelly on Cap-and-Trade Policy in Federal Election

 Aldyen Donnelly: Politicians ignoring the constitutional crisis that would accompany cap and trade | Energy Probe

Index of Wellbeing adresses Environmental Issues

 The Canadian Index of Wellbeing

• Air quality is showing mixed signs but is still problematic and is costly to Canadians’ health, particularly in large traffic-congested cities.
• Water quality is good, but supplies are shrinking in parts of the country and, combined with high demand, raise concerns for the future.
• Canadians are consuming more and disposing more. There are some signs of reduced consumption in the last few years, but it remains to be seen whether this was because of actual behaviour change or the onset of the recession. Recycling is increasing but not enough to reduce total waste.

I'll address some aspects of this later, but there are 3 examples of issues that are not being discussed because carbon tax, cap-and-trade, and climate change, continue to be trumpeted 5 years since temperatures started cooling in the thin belt of Canada where the vast majority of the population lives.

Overview of Smart Meter Jurisdictions From the Guardian

Smart grid leaders | Smart revolution | guardian.co.uk

Australia: "The aim was to save energy costs through using power at non-peak times, but fears arose that large-scale businesses would be better equipped than small households to reap these rewards.'
...
"In November 2009, Victoria's auditor-general published a damning report that highlighted gaps in accountability, flaws in cost-benefit analysis and high technological risks. The report's concerns over the inequity of the project's economic outcomes led to a March 2010 moratorium"
-----
Amsterdam: "The bill was later amended to allow voluntary participation in the smart meter scheme. Consumer groups claimed they had issued a forceful reminder to governments that many people consider their personal privacy a higher priority than their electricity bill."
----
The Ontario section might have noted that the 6.5% reduction in energy use in the pilot was a Toronto Hydro pilot in the cool summer of 2009's recession -- and that the entire province had a reduction of the same magnitude, whether on smart meters or economical ones.

New York Times Blog: Maybe the Gas Is Not Greener ...

Fugitive Methane Stirs Debate on Natural Gas - NYTimes.com

Bipartisan Group in U.S. Looks to Jump-Start Energy Policy Debate

Jump-Start U.S. Energy Policy, Bipartisan Group Urges - NYTimes.com

"They want to shift the focus of the debate from the environmental benefits of reducing fossil fuel use to the national security aspects of the nation’s dependence on oil, much of it from the Middle East and other unstable regions. "

Idaho Senate rejects 'Green' Subsidy Bill “developed by the industries that will benefit.”

Idaho Senate kills much-debated energy rebate

Senator Joe Stegner led the successful opposition to a bill that, “would have given alternative energy developers — including geothermal, digester gas and irrigation-canal hydroelectric projects — a 6 percent break on energy production equipment through 2014. Also, the action affects 18 wind projects in their advanced stages that would have sought to qualify for the tax break, which now expires June 30."

"This has been crafted by people who will enjoy that rebate," Stegner said. "It's not been developed by policy makers with regards to whether it's going to be good policy for the state. It's been developed by the industries that will benefit."

Scottland's John Muir Trust Looks at IWT's

And comes to the same conclusions everybody else who looks at the expensive baubles does.

They require full backup - or a populace that tolerates blackouts.
Analysis of UK Wind Power Generation

Nuclear Waste Issue Being Dealt with in US - but only by the opposition

Republicans Open Inquiry on Yucca Mountain Shutdown - NYTimes.com

More Monbiot

The unpalatable truth is that the anti-nuclear lobby has misled us all | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

Quebec's Shame Running Strongly Again This Election.

Harper's pledge an 'attack' on Quebec: Duceppe

Canadians don't pay much attention to Quebec politics, but this article really points out how the atheistic Duceppe assume Quebec has a divine right to suckle on every teat on earth.

Quebec Hydro earns about $2 billion dollars every year reselling the output of Newfoundland and Labrador's Churchill Falls hydroelectric dam. It was a pretty bad deal signed back in the 1960's - with the federal courts demanding Newfoundland respect the deal in the 1980's. Being landlocked, Quebec abandoned concepts of free trade, inter-provincial trade, and any semblance of decency, to get the deal done.

Newfoundland honours the deal - but is fighting for a route to get additional immensely valuable hydro-electric resources to people in fair markets desiring cleaner energy.  

Quebec signed a deal when it harmonized the sales taxes - and it did so to maintain control on exemptions, and it is eliminating exemptions that is the justification for the tax.

Quebec's petty populist says obviously Quebec's adversaries should keep their word when bullied and conned by Quebec, but not vice versa - that he calls stealing.