This is a typical refrain from the greenies: they Demand clean, renewable energy to replace the Evil fossil fuels. But, it’s in theory, because, when it comes time to actually build it, they, at best, waffle
Green Groups Are Divided Over a Proposal to Boost the Nation’s Hydropower. Here’s Why
America’s hydropower industry is hoping to reestablish some of its former glory by making itself central to the nation’s transition to clean energy—and it’s turning to Congress for help.
The era of big dams arguably ended long ago. At one point referred to as “white coal,” hydropower was once a major source of electricity around the country, with the United States building more than 150 dams on the Columbia, Missouri and Colorado River basins in the 30 years following World War II. But today, hydropower provides just a small fraction of the nation’s electricity and is quickly being outpaced globally by its clean energy rivals in new development.
Now the industry, with help from a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers, hopes to change that trend. They argue that hydroelectric dams can provide the kind of steady flow of power that’s needed to provide stability and reliability to the energy grid, especially on cloudy days and windless nights. (snip)
A growing body of scientific evidence has found that dam reservoirs are a significant source of carbon emissions—particularly methane, a potent greenhouse gas that’s roughly 80 times more effective at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 20-year time period. Those emissions are the result of organic matter, including vegetation, dead animals and even fertilizer runoff, piling up in large quantities behind dams and decomposing in the reservoirs.
Oh, for goodness sakes. It’s always something with these people.
One reservoir that’s being planned for construction in California would essentially have the same carbon footprint as 80,653 gasoline-fueled cars on the roads, one recent analysis found. Many environmentalists have also condemned hydropower because the dams often cause irreparable harm to the animals living in the rivers and have even contributed to the extinction of entire species.
These wackos want Everyone Else to simply live with no power.
As Congress weighs the hydropower bill, it underscores an increasingly complicated debate, which has splintered many green groups and climate hawks who, for years, have fought on the same side. For now, the increasingly urgent need to address climate change, as well as the mounting evidence of hydropower’s carbon footprint, appears to be only complicating that discussion further.
Crazy.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has activated 250 members of the National Guard to provide basic services at emergency shelter hotels amid an influx of migrants that has service providers stretched thin.
Hurricane Idalia and other recent natural disasters have drained the federal government’s relief funds faster than expected, the Biden administration said Friday in a request to Congress for more emergency money.
The Biden administration’s first-ever auction of offshore wind development rights in the Gulf of Mexico ended with a single $5.6-million winning bid on Tuesday, reflecting meager demand for the clean energy source in a region known for its oil and gas production.
On patrol in the harsh brush along the border in South Texas, Deputy Don White of the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office paused to study some empty water jugs, torn clothing and several indistinct footprints, looking for signs of migrants who might have been lost in the scorching heat.
From the moment I had a sense of the world, I had a sense that it was finite and we were destroying it. I learned about acid rain sometime during third grade. The idea of flesh-burning precipitation, coupled with a hole in the ozone layer that was going to destroy the planet and all of my favorite animals, used to make me itchy with stress. I remember begging my parents, who had very little disposable income, to become paying members of the World Wildlife Fund to save the whales. I talked about chlorofluorocarbons like I was a paid expert, afraid of stepping out into a storm for fear of melting. I was convinced the world was ending, and none of us, my friends and I, would live to see adulthood because of it.
Human-induced climate change could lead to the premature deaths of around one billion people in the next century, according to a study.
