Climate Change

Roccus7 said:
True enough and it's very unlikely they can rebud in a single season...

Maple Syrup producers already concerned as this "on again, off again" run of sap is going to negatively impact their output this year...
Click to expand...
As a kid growing up in Centerport NY, we had two maple trees on our little property...huge trees. My dad would tap them with a dowl, empty milk jug underneath to collect the clear syrup, and we would take it to his friend's farm in Northport and he would do the whole process. Sweetest maple syrup!
 
www.yahoo.com

'Strangest winter we’ve had yet': Southern California sees rare blizzard conditions, heavy rain

A winter storm was bringing blizzard conditions, heavy rains and mudslides throughout Southern California.
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The weather service in San Diego issued its first-ever blizzard warning for mountain areas including Big Bear, Lake Arrowhead and Wrightwood through Saturday.

Heavy snow wasn't the only concern in California. Forecasters say they're worried about torrential rain leading to flash flooding in downtown LA, where parts of the city are expecting up to 8 inches of rain, according to AccuWeather.

"In urban areas where we've got a lot of concrete, the water runs very, very quickly. And if you've got too much of it and it can't drain, all of a sudden you've got ponding on roadways and intersections," she said.

Central and northern California were at risk for damaging thunderstorms, hurricane force winds and waterspouts — which are tornadoes over water — that can come onshore as landspouts, Freeze said.

Snow reaches Hollywood sign in LA​

There was a faint trace of accumulating ice and snow on the hills surrounding the famed Hollywood sign in LA Friday, according to Freeze, the Fox Weather meteorologist.

"It's almost, you think, special effects, right?" Freeze said. "We're in the middle of a movie, somebody's making snow on the Hollywood sign. But this was real life."

Nearby in the San Gabriel mountains, Mt. Wilson — which is at a lower elevation than the Hollywood sign — is expecting over an inch of snow to accumulate by Friday night.

In higher elevations of the county and Ventura County to the north, winds could gust up to 80 mph, with 2 to 5 feet of snow above 4,000 feet and as much as 8 feet of snow in areas including Mount Baldy, Los Angeles County's tallest peak and a popular destination for hikers, skiers and mountaineers.
 
www.yahoo.com

Climate change is causing droughts everywhere

Much of the Northern Hemisphere is struggling with drought or the threat of drought, as Europe experiences an unusually warm, precipitation-free winter and the swaths of the American West remain mired in an epic megadrought.
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com

U.S. region driest in 1,200 years: Estimate​


Much of the Northern Hemisphere is struggling with drought or the threat of drought, as Europe experiences an unusually warm, precipitation-free winter and swaths of the American West remain mired in an epic megadrought.

But it’s not just those pockets feeling the pain in the U.S. Most of the Western United States is in some form of drought, with areas of extreme drought concentrated in the Great Plains and Texas. A 23-year megadrought has left the Southwest at the driest it is estimated to have ever been in 1,200 years, based on tree-ring data.

That’s very bad news for Texas cotton farmers. The New York Times recently reported that “2022 was a disaster for upland cotton in Texas,” leading to short supplies and high prices of tampons and cloth diapers, among other products. “In the biggest loss on record, Texas farmers abandoned 74 percent of their planted crops — nearly six million acres — because of heat and parched soil, hallmarks of a megadrought made worse by climate change,” the Times noted.

Even recent heavy storms in California haven’t brought the state out of drought, because the precipitation deficit is so big.

"I want to be clear that these storms — and the likely rain and snow we may get over the next few weeks — did not, nor will they fully, end the drought, at least not yet,” Yana Garcia, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, said last Wednesday. “We’re in better shape than we were two months ago, but we’re not out of the woods.”

Just days earlier, Lake Powell, the second-largest U.S. reservoir, dropped to a new record low. Powell is created by a Colorado River dam along the Arizona-Utah border, and if the reservoir goes much lower, experts warn, water won’t be able to pass through it. Millions of people who rely on the Colorado would then lose access to their water supply.

“If you can’t get water out of the dam, it means everyone downstream doesn’t get water,” Brad Udall, a water and climate scientist at Colorado State University, told USA Today. "That includes agriculture, cities like Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix." The hydroelectric power plant for which the dam was constructed would also cease to function.

In Europe, an unusually warm, dry winter has forced ski resorts in the Alps to close for lack of snow, and left the canals of Venice running dry in Italy. Some of the city’s iconic gondolas are stuck in the mud. Europe experienced its third-warmest January on record, France has seen a record dry spell of 31 days without rain, and the Alps have received less than half their normal snowfall so far this winter.

Last Wednesday, Britain’s National Drought Group warned that one hot, dry spell would return England to the severe drought conditions it endured last summer.
 
Going to need a LOT of windmills...

How would Micron’s electricity-hogging plant here live with NY’s war on fossil fuels?​

  • Updated: Feb. 28, 2023, 6:17 p.m.|
  • Published: Feb. 28, 2023, 6:00 a.m.
Micron in Clay

Rendering shows Micron Technology Inc.'s planned semiconductor fabrication facility in Clay. Micron says the $100 billion plant will create 9,000 jobs over 20 years and four times that many support positions at related suppliers and service companies. (Micron Technology)

Syracuse, N.Y. – Micron Technology’s planned semiconductor fabrication plant in Clay would consume more electricity than the entire state of Vermont.

When fully built, the complex of four chip fabs would use 640 million kilowatt-hours a month, more than enough for 1 million average New York homes.

Micron has promised to buy all that electricity from renewable sources, a promise that reflects New York state’s commitment to have an emission-free electric grid by 2040.

But Micron could find it tough to keep that promise unless the floodgates open to new wind and solar farms.

It’s one of the least-discussed challenges of the Micron project, as New York’s signature economic development success story collides with a major environmental aspiration.

Micron announced in October that it planned to invest up to $100 billion building four giant chip fabs at a 1,400-acre site in Clay. The fabs would employ up to 9,000 people directly and could spin off 40,000 more jobs, state officials said.

The development won’t happen all at once. Micron said it plans to start producing chips in 2026 and will fully build the complex within 20 years.

That timeframe coincides with what state officials hope will be a wholesale transformation of the energy sector.

In addition to Micron’s anticipated leading role in the Central New York economy, the company could play a big part in the state’s effort to fight climate change.

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, state law calls for eliminating fossil fuels by 2040 from the electricity system, where they now supply nearly half the power. By 2030, the law calls for 70% of all electricity to be produced by renewable sources like wind, solar and hydro.

At the same time, state officials hope to gradually convert every building and new vehicle to run entirely on electricity rather than gasoline, natural gas, propane or other fossil fuels. That will add to the challenge.

Even before Micron surfaced, operators of the statewide electric grid were estimating an 8.7% increase in electricity consumption by 2035, according to forecasts by the New York Independent System Operator.

Micron could add another 5%, according to estimates worked up by National Grid and Micron as part of a term sheet agreement with state officials. The documents indicate that Micron could draw an average of 928 megawatts – the output of a large nuclear plant – as soon as 2035.

Micron officials support the move to renewable energy.

In the United States, where Micron will operate facilities in New York, Idaho and Virginia, the company promises to use 100% renewable energy beginning in 2025, said Scott Gatzemeier, a Micron vice president in charge of expansion efforts in the U.S.

Micron recently made a deal with Idaho Power to build a 40-megawatt solar farm near Micron’s headquarters in Boise.
And last year Micron bought enough renewable power in Malaysia to supply its operation there, which does not include a chip fab.

But both of those initiatives pale in comparison with the electric needs it will have in Central New York. A 40-megawatt solar plant in Clay would provide less than 1% of the Micron megafab’s anticipated power supply.

The Green CHIPS pledge​

Micron’s promise to use all renewable power is more than goodwill. Its ability to collect up to $5.5 billion in state subsidies depends on that pledge.

According to the term sheet Micron signed with economic development officials, the company agreed to use “100% renewable energy for electricity.”

Micron must enter a state-approved sustainability plan in exchange for the billions in aid. The plan has not been finalized yet, but there will be plenty of wiggle room. State economic development officials aren’t likely to box in Micron if it prevents the company from building.

For example, Micron will have leeway to buy renewable energy credits from out of state and still qualify for the tax credits, although the company must prioritize in-state sources if possible, said Kristin Devoe, speaking for Empire State Development, the state’s economic development agency.

Wind, solar and hydro projects sell renewable energy credits equal to the amount of power they produce. The credits provide extra revenue to the power plants and can be bought by customers such as Micron to fulfill a renewable energy commitment.

If Micron cannot meet the terms of its sustainability plan, it has the option to donate money to a nonprofit chosen by ESD to meet its obligation for that year, according to the proposed regulations for the Green CHIPS program.

Micron plans to use natural gas for heating. Gatzemeier said the company will investigate alternatives, such as hydrogen. But the company also would be exempt, as a manufacturer, from proposed state legislation that would require most buildings eventually to go all-electric.

A rush of renewables​

State energy leaders are banking on a wave of new wind, solar and hydro power sources to come online in the coming years. They are also counting on huge power savings from energy efficiency programs and tighter building codes.

New York is expected to add at least 18,200 megawatts of renewable generating capacity by the time Micron is complete, Devoe said.

There’s a long list of proposed renewable energy projects in various stages of planning and development. But officials at the New York Independent System Operator pointed out in a report last November that it could be difficult to hit the state’s deadlines.

The NYISO said the state will need to add 20,000 megawatts of renewable capacity in just seven years to meet the goal of 70% renewable power by 2030. By comparison, only 12.9 gigawatts have been added to the grid in the past 24 years, and most of that was fossil-based.

The NYISO report cited the need for “an unprecedented pace of project deployment.”

There are at least five wind farms and six solar farms under construction, representing 669 megawatts of total capacity, according to the Alliance for Clean Energy NY, a renewables industry group. Another four wind projects and 33 solar farms, totaling 3,198 megawatts, have secured permits to build but have not yet begun, the group reports.

The approval process for new power producers takes years, said Deb Peck Kelleher, deputy director at the Alliance for Clean Energy. Just getting a site permit can take up to three years, she said. Developers also can face delays waiting for permission from the NYISO to connect to the power grid.

The long development process, plus the need for new transmission lines to carry renewable energy to customers, makes some industry observers skeptical that New York will meet its aggressive timeline for renewable power.

“These numbers are unattainable,’’ said Gavin Donohue, executive director of the Independent Power Producers of New York, whose members include both fossil and renewable power companies.

New York’s energy policy is ambitious because of the increasingly urgent threat from climate change, officials say. Removing gas-fired power plants also will eliminate air pollutants, reducing the rate of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, Peck Kelleher said.

But if new energy sources come online too slowly, the retirement of natural gas-fired power plants will likely be delayed. To keep the system reliable, “continued operation of fossil will be required’' until new technologies emerge that can provide power on demand, the NYISO concluded.

For now, NYISO officials are working to assess how Micron will impact the electric grid.

“Due to the size and scope of the project, our planning engineers are already working closely with Micron and National Grid to identify potential impacts on the bulk electric system,’’ said Andrew Gregory, speaking for the NYISO.
 
When I started to think about Maine I was hoping to catch an Atlantic Salmon. Struck out on them while living in Ireland, and always hoping to get this Bucket List item ticked off. Well turns out they are in a world of hurt in Maine. Of course tearing out dams would help this fish, but since dams and their hydropower are "good" for us, and the blind eye is cast on the ecological "Friendly Fire" of the "cures"...

Last wild Atlantic salmon can survive Kennebec River dams, federal agency says​

pressherald.com/2023/03/20/last-wild-atlantic-salmon-can-survive-kennebec-river-dams-federal-agency-says/

By PATRICK WHITTLE March 20, 2023

The federal government ruled Monday that the last wild Atlantic salmon in the country can coexist with hydroelectric dams on the Kennebec River, dealing a blow to environmentalists who have long sought to remove the dams.

The salmon, once abundant in the U.S., now return to only a few Maine rivers. One is the Kennebec, dammed by Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday that the dams are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the salmon if conservation measures are taken.

Conservation measures along Brookfield’s four Kennebec dams are designed to improve fish passages and will require an investment of more than $100 million by Brookfield, NOAA said. The dam upgrades would allow the salmon to swim up the Kennebec from the Atlantic Ocean to freshwater inland habitats for the first time since the construction of the dams in the 19th century, the agency said.

The agency reviewed the dams because Brookfield is seeking to relicense one of them and amend the licenses for three others, said NOAA spokesperson Allison Ferreira. NOAA said in a statement that it will “oversee an extensive monitoring program to ensure that the dams meet the expectations of improved fish passage in the Kennebec River.”

NOAA’s opinion “is an important milestone in ensuring that these facilities can continue to support Maine’s clean energy future and traditional industries along the lower Kennebec River,” said David Heidrich, a spokesperson for Brookfield.

However, environmental groups said the dams threaten extinction of the salmon, and NOAA’s ruling is shortsighted. They also said the dams endanger other vulnerable species of fish, such as sturgeon.

The dams’ negative impacts on salmon are a violation of the Endangered Species Act, said the Kennebec Coalition, an alliance of several environmental groups supporting dam removal, in a statement. They argue that in addition to blocking access to key spawning habitat, the dams also create hazardous conditions for this fish.

“Removal of these dams provides the best chance to prevent Atlantic salmon from becoming extinct, while also continuing the restoration of a vibrant, healthy Kennebec River,” the statement said.

Atlantic salmon populations in the U.S. fell into the hundreds due to factors such as overfishing and habitat loss, according to NOAA. They’ve been listed under the Endangered Species Act for over two decades.

Conservationists and Native American tribes have for years made the case that Brookfield has not fulfilled its obligations to protect the remaining salmon.
 
Wow, someone noticed - and the NY Times to boot!

www.nytimes.com

Opinion | We Desperately Need a New Power Grid. Here’s How to Make It Happen. (Published 2023)

To make renewable energy widely available, the United States needs a lot of new power lines. The nation is struggling to build them.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

To tap the potential of renewable energy, the United States needs to dramatically expand the electric grid between places with abundant wind and sunshine and places where people live and work. And it needs to happen fast. The government and the private sector are investing heavily in a historic shift to electric-powered vehicles, heating systems and factories, including hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending approved last year as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. But without new power lines, much of that electricity will continue to be generated by burning carbon. Unless the United States rapidly accelerates the construction of power lines, researchers at Princeton University estimate that 80 percent of the potential environmental benefits of electrification will be squandered.

The United States needs 47,300 gigawatt-miles of new power lines by 2035, which would expand the current grid by 57 percent, the Energy Department reported in February. A 2021 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine arrived at a similar figure. To hit that target, the United States needs to double the pace of power line construction.

The current power grid was constructed over more than a century. Building what amounts to a new power grid on a similar scale in a small fraction of that time is a daunting challenge. It will require tens of billions of dollars in financing, vast quantities of steel and aluminum and thousands of specialized workers. But building is the easy part. What makes the target virtually impossible to hit is the byzantine approval process that typically includes separate reviews by every municipality and state through which a power line will pass, as well as a host of federal agencies.
In 2005, for instance, the largest power company in Arizona proposed to build a transmission line to carry electricity to its customers from a new wind farm in Wyoming. Last month, after 18 years of legal battles and hearings and revisions, the TransWest Express project was finally approved. It still won’t be completed until 2028 at the earliest, though.

The most important change necessary to overhaul the permitting process is to put a single federal agency in charge of major transmission projects. Congress has empowered the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve major natural gas pipelines, which helped to expedite construction during the fracking boom. It ought to be at least as easy to build renewable energy projects.
To achieve that goal, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, and Representative Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois, have proposed legislation that would endow the F.E.R.C. with the power to approve the routes of major electric transmission lines that pass through multiple states, replicating the power the agency already has over pipelines. Streamlining regulation to accelerate renewable energy development is a plan that both parties can embrace.

This federal pre-emption of state and local authorities would only apply to major projects of national importance, like the Grain Belt Express, a proposed power line stretching from Kansas to Indiana that has been pursuing state approvals for more than a decade, or the SunZia project between New Mexico and Arizona, which has been on the drawing board since 2006. Under the proposed legislation, state and local governments still would retain oversight of the small projects that make up more than 90 percent of all transmission projects.

The current approval process — or more accurately, the current jumble of approval processes — is a mess created by decades of well-intentioned efforts to prevent corporations from running roughshod over the interests of individuals, communities and the environment. Safeguarding those interests is important, but granting a veto to every community through which power lines may pass comes at the expense of other communities, and it causes other kinds of environmental damage.
Shifting decision-making from state and local governments to the federal government would create a single, national forum in which policymakers can weigh the costs and benefits of power projects. The federal government — the mechanism Americans have created to act in the interest of people in America as a whole — is where those decisions should be made.

The nation’s environmental laws, especially the National Environmental Policy Act, arose from a sensible desire to ensure that big projects didn’t cause big environmental problems. But members of both parties agree that over time the requirements imposed by the law, which requires careful examination of the impact of major projects, have become unnecessarily cumbersome. One recent analysis calculated that it takes the government a median period of 3.5 years to review renewable energy projects.
The competing environmental priorities of developing renewable energy and protecting existing ecosystems can be better balanced by imposing strict time limits on environmental reviews while also increasing funding to ensure regulators have the capacity to meet those deadlines. Congress also could expedite consideration of inevitable legal challenges by adopting a proposal recently highlighted by the Brookings Institution to send challenges to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Instead of waiting for companies to propose projects, the Energy Department also can accelerate construction — and focus private investment — by identifying where power lines should go and beginning the approval process before companies apply. The Inflation Reduction Act strengthened the federal government’s authority to engage in this kind of planning, but states have resisted federal encroachment on their authority and the Biden administration has declined to force the issue, emphasizing its desire to work with states.

In January, the administration celebrated a small victory, sending Vice President Kamala Harris to Arizona for the groundbreaking on the Ten West Link power line project between Arizona and California, which was first proposed in 2015. But far too many projects remain in limbo, in part because states and communities along power line routes have little incentive to quickly approve projects intended to deliver electricity somewhere else.

The nation’s transmission lines also are broken up into regional grids that operate like jealous petty potentates, resisting stronger links that would allow renewable energy to flow across regional boundaries. In the Midwest, where the Energy Department says the need for new power lines is greatest, the list of projects in limbo includes the SOO Green Line, proposed in 2012, which would carry electricity from Iowa to the outskirts of Chicago underground, alongside railroad tracks. The line would connect a grid called MISO, which covers part of the Plains region, with a grid called PJM, which serves parts of the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic and has opposed the project.

This Balkanization of the electric grid keeps costs unnecessarily high and makes it harder for utilities to meet surges in demand. In February 2021, more than 100 people froze to death in Texas, in part because the local grid operator, the Electric Reliability Organization of Texas, had limited capacity to draw power from neighboring grids. Congress can encourage a greater spirit of cooperation and help to combat climate change by mandating a minimum transfer capacity for each grid.

Congress and the Biden administration have taken a series of promising steps toward ending the nation’s dependence on carbon. But the absence of a plan to build a new electric grid is a critical hole in that emerging strategy. Without decisive action, they will waste a precious chance to limit climate change.
 
sounds like a good argument to me to be looking at nuclear power instead.........

www.yahoo.com

The wind and solar power myth has finally been exposed

Many governments in the Western world have committed to “net zero” emissions of carbon in the near future. The US and UK both say they will deliver by 2050. It's widely believed that wind and solar power can achieve this. This belief has led the US and British governments, among others, to...
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Hey I've been there - water is nice and cool for Texas.
Nice and lazy until you get to the Chute, then all hell breaks loose...

1688653424343.png
 
www.yahoo.com

Extreme heat in Arizona increased hospitalizations to pandemic levels at one medical center

Phoenix once again hit 110 degrees Monday for a record-tying 18th consecutive day at that temperature or higher as the Southwest sizzles under a deadly, unrelenting heat wave.
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CNN

Phoenix ties record streak with 18 consecutive days over 110 degrees as the Southwest swelters under a deadly heat wave​


Phoenix once again hit 110 degrees Monday for a record-tying 18th consecutive day at that temperature or higher as the Southwest sizzles under a deadly, unrelenting heat wave.

The record is expected to be broken Tuesday as the streak continues, with temperatures of at least 115 degrees in the forecast for Phoenix every day through next weekend.

More than 1,500 record-high temperatures were recorded in the US so far this month, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
 
wader said:
www.yahoo.com

Extreme heat in Arizona increased hospitalizations to pandemic levels at one medical center

Phoenix once again hit 110 degrees Monday for a record-tying 18th consecutive day at that temperature or higher as the Southwest sizzles under a deadly, unrelenting heat wave.
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com

CNN

Phoenix ties record streak with 18 consecutive days over 110 degrees as the Southwest swelters under a deadly heat wave​


Phoenix once again hit 110 degrees Monday for a record-tying 18th consecutive day at that temperature or higher as the Southwest sizzles under a deadly, unrelenting heat wave.

The record is expected to be broken Tuesday as the streak continues, with temperatures of at least 115 degrees in the forecast for Phoenix every day through next weekend.

More than 1,500 record-high temperatures were recorded in the US so far this month, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Click to expand...
as you know wader and friends it hot as hell?? here too???,, a few weeks now,,, in the 90s up + ,,,, real feel days are 105* to 109* ?,,,,,,,,,,, ><)))):>
><)))):>
 
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