Oil

Retirements of U.S. Electric Generating Capacity to Slow in 2024

Operators plan to retire 5.2 gigawatts (GW) of U.S. electric generating capacity in 2024, a 62% decrease from last year when 13.5 GW was retired and the least in any year since 2008, according to our latest Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory. Coal and natural gas jointly account for 91% of the planned capacity retirements in the United States this year.

Once a Superfund site. TheoFoss Waterway in Tacoma, Washington. Image by Cynthia Shahan | CleanTechnica.

EPA’s Carbon Standards Are a Powerful Tool

The EPA’s standards to curb carbon emissions from power plants are crucial to addressing climate change. Strong and comprehensive rules are needed to address this major source of carbon pollution. Power plants are the nation’s second-largest source of carbon emissions after transportation, and, after years of delay, the U.S. Environmental … [continued]

ChatGPT & DALL-E generated image from a bird's eye view that captures a large pipeline rupture, with carbon dioxide forming a dense, ground-hugging mist that ominously envelops nearby residences and buildings.

Proposed European Carbon Dioxide Pipelines & Terminals Would Endanger Tens Of Millions

In 2020, a bucolic part of western Mississippi, the tiny village of Satartia, experienced a terrifying disaster. About 300 people live in the village and surrounding area. It’s in the county of Yazoo, whose population density is 11 per square kilometer. For contrast, New York City’s density is 1,000 times … [continued]

ChatGPT & DALL-E generated panoramic image that vividly contrasts the environmental and economic impacts of burning fossil fuels and attempting carbon capture with the sustainable, clean energy production from wind and solar power

CCS Redux: Global Spend On Carbon Capture Since 1970 Would Have Avoided More CO2 If…

Carbon capture and sequestration in all of its various ineffective, inefficient and expensive forms is having another run up the hype cycle. Nothing has really changed. The problems still exist. The alternatives are still better. The potential for use is still minuscule. And so, the CCS Redux series, republishing old … [continued]

ChatGPT & DALL-E generated panoramic image that visualizes the concept of Energy Returned on Energy Invested (EROEI) through the metaphor of a balance scale

Energy Return On Investment Rears Its Misshapen Head Again

Over the past year or so, energy return on energy invested (EROEI) has shown up multiple times for me as an attack on technologies that are now superior. A nuclear shipping advocate tried to gotcha me with that for biofuels for shipping. Others reasonably asked about it for biofuels in … [continued]

DALL.E creation by Carolyn Fortuna/CleanTechnica

Historic Funding to Plug Orphaned Oil & Gas Wells

Interior Department Announces Nearly $5 Million from President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to Clean Up Legacy Pollution in Missouri Historic funding to plug orphaned oil and gas wells will address environmental and safety hazards, create good-paying jobs in communities across Missouri. WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior today … [continued]

ChatGPT & DALL-E generated panoramic image visually captures the metaphor of the excessive cost of carbon capture and storage as a Sisyphean task.

CCS Redux: Carbon Capture Is Expensive Because Physics

Carbon capture and sequestration in all of its various ineffective, inefficient and expensive forms is having another run up the hype cycle. Nothing has really changed. The problems still exist. The alternatives are still better. The potential for use is still minuscule. And so, the CCS Redux series, republishing old … [continued]

ChatGPT & DALL-E generated panoramic image of a city with clouds artistically shaped like hydrogen and derivative molecules, symbolizing the illusion of hydrogen wealth over the city.

Epicenters Of Hydrogen Folly: These Cities & States Have Achieved Uncritical Mass

It’s always interesting to figure out why irrational things occur. In the case of London’s foolish hydrogen buses, apparently Wrightbus going into administration aka bankruptcy proceedings led to well-connected people like Wrightbus owner Jo Bamford’s father, Lord Bamford, the man who inherited British firm JCB and was also knighted for … [continued]