Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

[wjfox]

UK government scraps plan to ban sale of gas boilers by 2035

Mon 6 Jan 2025 12.59 GMT

The government is to scrap the 2035 ban on gas boilers in its new housebuilding standards.

The previous Conservative government had laid plans to phase out gas heating for homes by banning the sale of new gas boilers by 2035, so people replacing their gas boilers after that date would instead have to buy a heat pump or other environmentally friendly way of heating homes.

Using gas to heat the UK’s homes adds a huge amount to the country’s carbon footprint; home heating accounted for 18% of all UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, and the average UK gas boiler is responsible for more CO2-equivalent emissions in a year than taking seven transatlantic flights.

The former prime minister Rishi Sunak was criticised by scientists and policy experts when he announced his backtrack on a range of environmental measures. This included significantly weakening the plan to phase out the installation of gas boilers by 2035, instead aiming for only an 80% phase-out.

Now, the plan will be scrapped altogether and there will be no requirement to replace a gas boiler with an environmentally friendly alternative.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... rs-by-2035

[weatheriscool]

Biden, in 11th Hour Move, Bans Offshore Drilling in Most Federal Waters


BY MATTHEW DALY / APJANUARY 6, 2025 5:28 AM EST

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is moving to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, a last-minute effort to block possible action by the incoming Trump administration to expand offshore drilling.

Biden, whose term expires in two weeks, said he is using authority under the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska's Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing.

“My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs," Biden said in a statement.

“As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren," he said.

Read more: https://time.com/7204985/biden-bans-new ... illing-us/

[caltrek]

More on that:

Sweeping Biden Offshore Drilling Ban Throws Wrench in Trump's Plans
by Andrew Freedman
January 6, 2025

Introduction:

(Axios) President Biden is moving to block about 625 million acres of offshore areas from future oil and gas drilling, the White House announced Monday morning.

Why it matters: The sweeping actions — which drew strong criticism from the oil industry — may hinder President-elect Trump's ability to quickly deliver on plans to scale up fossil fuel production.

• The steps rely on a provision from a 72-year-old law and affect wildlife-rich areas in the northern Bering Sea; the eastern Pacific Ocean off the West Coast; the eastern Gulf of Mexico; and areas up and down the East Coast.

Driving the news: The steps, in the form of two presidential memos, are designed to permanently protect vast tracts of offshore lands to potentially benefit states dependent on fisheries and tourism.

• Withdrawing hundreds of millions of acres — equivalent in size to the states of Alaska, California and Colorado — from potential leasing may also help limit greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming.

Conclusion:

The bottom line: While Trump can still move forward with plans to boost land-based oil and gas production, he will now face new legal hurdles on offshore drilling.

Read more here: https://www.axios.com/2025/01/06/biden ... ling-ban

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The order could open up drilling in areas that the Biden administration sought to preserve, including in Alaska and off the East Coast.

Jan. 20, 2025, 9:56 AM EST
By Rob Wile and Shannon Pettypiece

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday plans to declare a “national energy emergency” that would give him authority to increase U.S. energy production, including opening up drilling in Alaska.

Incoming White House officials said that given the “resounding mandate” he received in the November election, Trump would seek to reorient U.S. energy production away from “parochial interests” of the past — an apparent reference to backing renewable resources — and toward “putting the American people first.”

The officials said the emergency declaration would enable Trump to “unlock a variety of different authorities” that would allow the U.S. to build up natural resources, including drilling in the Arctic ocean, something outgoing President Joe Biden had sought to block.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald ... rcna188382

[funkervogt]

The order could open up drilling in areas that the Biden administration sought to preserve, including in Alaska and off the East Coast.

Jan. 20, 2025, 9:56 AM EST
By Rob Wile and Shannon Pettypiece

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday plans to declare a “national energy emergency” that would give him authority to increase U.S. energy production, including opening up drilling in Alaska.

Incoming White House officials said that given the “resounding mandate” he received in the November election, Trump would seek to reorient U.S. energy production away from “parochial interests” of the past — an apparent reference to backing renewable resources — and toward “putting the American people first.”

The officials said the emergency declaration would enable Trump to “unlock a variety of different authorities” that would allow the U.S. to build up natural resources, including drilling in the Arctic ocean, something outgoing President Joe Biden had sought to block.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald ... rcna188382

Good

[wjfox]

Good

Amazing, and disappointing, to see someone as intelligent and articulate as you, being so ignorant and short-sighted on this topic.

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[firestar464]

Microplastics block blood flow in the brain, mice study reveals

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00178-0

[wjfox]

California just debunked a big myth about renewable energy

Jan 24, 2025

One of the biggest myths about renewable energy is that it isn’t reliable. Sure, the sun sets every night and winds calm down, putting solar panels and turbines to sleep. But when those renewables are humming, they’re providing the grid with electricity and charging banks of batteries, which then supply power at night.

A new study in the journal Renewable Energy that looked at California’s deployment of renewable power highlights just how reliable the future of energy might be. It found that last year, from late winter to early summer, renewables fulfilled 100 percent of the state’s electricity demand for up to 10 hours on 98 of 116 days, a record for California. Not only were there no blackouts during that time, thanks in part to backup battery power, but at their peak the renewables provided up to 162 percent of the grid’s needs — adding extra electricity California could export to neighboring states or use to fill batteries.

“This study really finds that we can keep the grid stable with more and more renewables,” said Mark Z. Jacobson, a civil and environmental engineer at Stanford University and lead author of the new paper. “Every major renewable — geothermal, hydro, wind, solar in particular, even offshore wind — is lower cost than fossil fuels” on average, globally.

https://grist.org/energy/california-jus ... le-energy/

[weatheriscool]

Wind and Solar Generated More US Energy Than Coal in 2024
Though data for December is still pending, wind and solar output for January through November put the country's renewable output above coal for the entire year.
By Adrianna Nine January 29, 2025

New data regarding the United States electrical grid reveals that the country's wind and solar energy output overtook coal last year. Though data for December is still pending, US wind and solar farms sustained an unprecedented level of energy generation between January and November; December is expected to boast similar numbers.

Once a month, the US Energy Information Administration publishes raw electrical grid data for two months prior. Dozens upon dozens of spreadsheets reveal virtually anything anyone could want to know about domestic energy generation, sale, and consumption: how much hydroelectric power a given state has generated, the average cost of energy by sector, how many barrels of fossil fuel were required to provide that month's output, and so on. Thankfully, the administration pairs that data with a monthly report, making an overwhelming amount of information much easier to sift through.

https://www.extremetech.com/energy/wind ... al-in-2024

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[wjfox]

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US supreme court weakens rules on discharge of raw sewage into water supplies

Source: The Guardian

Tue 4 Mar 2025 11.22 EST
Last modified on Tue 4 Mar 2025 11.32 EST

The US supreme court has weakened rules on the discharge of raw sewage into water supplies in a 5-4 ruling that undermines the 1972 Clean Water Act. The CWA is the principle law governing pollution control and water quality of the nation’s waterways.

The Republican super majority court ruled on Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot employ generic, water body-focused pollution discharge limits to Clean Water Act permit holders, and must provide specific limitations to pollution permittees.

The ruling is a win for San Francisco, which challenged nonspecific, or “narrative,” wastewater permits that the EPA issues to protect the quality of surface water sources like rivers and streams relied upon for drinking water. In a 5-4 ruling written by Justice Samuel Alito, the court blocked the EPA from issuing permits that make a permittee responsible for surface water quality, or “end result” permits – a new term coined by the court.

“The agency has adequate tools to obtain needed information from permittees without resorting to end-result requirements,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito, who was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, along with Justice Neil Gorsuch, who joined part of the majority opinion.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... wage-water

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[wjfox]