this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world.  About 1C of total warming.  Second chart:  about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability.  Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases.  About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:

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For people who want news coverage of this, the are articles from the Associated Press and Reuters

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

We probably won't see a dime here in Texas since our dumbass politicians think it's best to separate ourselves from the grid. In hopes that Texas might sucede or some stupid shit.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

More wind and solar is always awesome! I would say I hope this involves more nuclear power as well, but that just takes so long to get up and running. I still think it's a good investment, but setting up clean energy that gives more immediate returns is also extremely helpful and could even make building nuclear in the future even easier.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Part of the reason nuclear takes forever is because the contractors don’t have experience with building them. Bit of a catch 22

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Too many undefined asterisks. Everytime they say clean energy im skeptical, like its intentionally distinct from renewable energy. Like natural gas projects with carbon offset schemes, or some bullshit like clean coal again.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, it would be better to do nothing! /s

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

As opposed to more fossil fuel projects, yeah.

Looking a bit more into the specific projects though, it looks like there's no energy generating projects at all here, its all distribution infrastructure, with sprinklings of renewable energy wording because they use powerlines too.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Your desperation to be displeased, while oh so edgy and endearing to the ladies, isn't helpful.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

We are talking about the bill that issued millions of acres in new oil and gas leasing. Im fully expecting emissions to continue increasing

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No, the bill did not do that. Oil leases do not require Congress pass a bill and are completely unrelated.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

And thus proving my statement. Prompted does not mean legislated. Yes, to appease Manchin they had to line his pockets. It is sad but once more you prove that your assumptions are invalid.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Man you really just looked at the link text

"This is the first onshore oil and gas lease sale since the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act, which required that significant federal oil and gas lease sales take place"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

100% false. It was agreed to for Manchin's Vote. It had nothing to do with it otherwise. You are desperate to condemn what you don't remotely understand. Your assumptions are 100% invalid and the whine you have is that to get the benefit, Manchin had to get paid off, but you target the Bill and pretend that the agreement to make the leases was the point.
It was required to get Manchin's Vote. The Inflation Reduction Act had nothing in it requiring that to occur. It was a condition to get it passed, not remotely the intent nor any part of it as you claim.

What the bill required was that specific lease sales which were already filed no longer be delayed or blocked, not that new leases take place.

Here is the actual wording: (Sec. 50264) Interior must accept the highest bid for oil and gas leases under the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Sale 257 within 30 days of the act's enactment. It must also conduct (1) Lease Sale 258 by the end of 2022, (2) Lease Sale 259 by March 31, 2023, and (3) Lease Sale 261 no later than the end of the FY2023.

(Sec. 50265) The act limits Interior's authority to issue leases and rights-of-way to develop wind or solar energy on onshore or offshore land for 10 years. Interior may grant such rights-of-way and leases if it offers a certain amount of land for oil and gas leases and holds oil and gas lease sales.

Lease Sale 257, 258, and 259 were required to take place as a result of the Bill but were not created by it. At no point does the Bill create a single new lease, it required existing lease sales occur.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

here is literally the full text of the bill https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5376/text/pl

Section 50264 outlines the 4 new oil and gas lease sales. Lease 257 for 1.7 million acres
Lease 258 for 958 thousand acres
Lease 259 for 1.6 million acres
and Lease 261 for an astounding 67 million acres of land, all exclusively for fossil fuel extraction

these are not optional, these are mandated sales the Secretary of the Interior must comply with "the Secretary shall, without modification
or delay--(A) accept the highest valid bid for each tract or
bidding unit of Lease Sale 257 for which a valid bid was
received on November 17, 2021; and
(B) provide the appropriate lease form to the
winning bidder to execute and return."

My statement "We are talking about the bill that issued millions of acres in new oil and gas leasing." I have cited the source bill and given all the text outlining exactly my claim. Legislated, meaning written into legislation and passing congress and signed into law by the president. There's no room for interpretation here.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yup, details of the lease, which was already waiting for action but was being delayed and Manchin wanted to get moved forward. It was well documented at the time the negotiations were going on. Well done. you are almost there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

the...4 leases. 2 of which were barred by Biden, and 2 brand new leases. You're not reading what Im writing anymore.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yup, which is why Manchin demanded they be aloud to move forward. still 100% not a part of the bill as they were existing lease sales which simply were being held up.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah youre still not reading what i wrote

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No, what you wrote is tripe and I read the text and researched the topic. You've no leg to stand on outside of some pure "I don't like how the sausage is made!" immature idealism.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

You read the part about 2 new leases?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Carbon "sequestration"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Clean usually means nuclear is included

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's part of the Inflation Reduction Act, so it's far from the only thing happening. My expectation is that consistent with the history of US electric supply, private capital will supply the bulk of what's needed here.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

For sure. This is basically the incentives and kick starting. Sustainable energy and utility production are already massively profitable. This is just a basic usage of the tax system to prioritize and incentivize specific actions for the systems/places that likely need it most.

A ton of private capital will be flowing and it’s likely that many investors and private business owners will get very wealthy from these programs. Not to mention that many others will gain valuable employment.

Will it be completely perfect? Nope. But it’s exactly what developed nations do to create a nice place to live with reliable, advanced infrastructure. And they’ll create many economic windfalls while doing so.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

I'll take this over nothing.