Monday, August 20, 2012

The roles of wind and natural gas in US energy

On Ezra Klein's Wonkblog in the Washington Post, Brad Plummer writes, The rise-and possible fall-of wind power, a very concise summary of wind power growth in the US, and a cautious prediction of reduced future growth due to incentives being eliminated.

Also from Wonkblog Brad Plummer presents an excellent summary of how cheap natural gas is displacing coal for electricity generation, which in turn is reducing CO2 emissions, BUT is not necessarily reducing global warming significantly. Why? Two main reasons - one, natural gas production releases methane to the atmosphere, and methane is 23 times more potent as a greenhouse gas, and two, cheap electricity from natural gas reduces incentives to convert to wind, solar and other forms of renewable power generation.

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GREENLAND - Will probably be the focus of near term sea level rise

Greenland is almost all covered by a very thick glacial ice cap. If all of Greenland's ice either melted or slid into the oceans, sea le...