Growth in #solar & #wind power pushed #renewable generation to a record 30% of global electricity production in 2023, putting a global target to triple renewable capacity by 2030 within sight, Ember find https://buff.ly/44zrTER
The U.S. just changed how it manages a tenth of its land
For decades, the federal government has prioritized oil and gas drilling, hardrock mining and livestock grazing on public lands across the country.
That could soon change under a far-reaching Interior Department rule that puts #conservation, #recreation and #renewable#energy development on equal footing with resource extraction.
The final rule released Thursday represents a seismic shift in the management of roughly 245 million acres of public property
— about one-tenth of the nation’s land mass.
It is expected to draw praise from conservationists and legal challenges from fossil fuel industry groups and Republican officials,
some of whom have lambasted the move as a “land grab.”
Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, known as the nation’s largest landlord, has long offered leases to #oil and gas companies, #mining firms and #ranchers.
Now, for the first time, the nearly 80-year-old agency will auction off “#restoration leases” and “#mitigation leases” to entities with plans to restore or conserve public lands.
Before everyone starts dissing #EVs and celebrating the #BMW's iX5 Hydrogen, believing that #cars are going to run on pure #water tomorrow, remember that the 2 primary methods of producing #hydrogen at scale are steam #methane reformation & autothermal reforming using oxygen and #CO2. From 'blue' (as aforementioned) to 'pink' or 'yellow', all production methods hide under the unicorn #green method, hurling us towards total #climatebreakdown.
Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo produced more than 99.7 per cent of the electricity they consumed using #geothermal, #hydro, #solar or #wind power.
This is true basically everywhere. Most countries have far more available renewable energy than they use. The only problem is the lack of storage. Hydrogen is the best way of storing it, as it requires very little in the way of raw materials to implement. Skeptics are quietly repeating the arguments made by climate change deniers that were slurred against all renewable energy.
Last month, Alberta, Canada's 🇨🇦 main crude #oil producing province implemented a ban on #renewable power projects that were to come on prime agricultural land & also ordered creating buffer zones so wind turbines 'don't spoil scenic views' https://buff.ly/3PcYbPN
A power company that has received £6bn in UK green subsidies has kept burning wood from some of the world's most precious forests, the BBC has found.
The way #Drax and others can keep on burning wood because it counts as #RenewableaEnergy is just scandalous. We really must drop the language of #Renewable (a hangover from peak oil worries anyway) and go for #ZeroCarbon energy instead.
🇬🇧 🤝 🏜️ 🐪 #Britain is moving forward with a plan to connect it's electrical grid to #solar and wind farms in the #Sahara
Once completed, it's should bring up to 3.6GW of power to the UK (roughly the same as 5-6 #nuclear reactor's worth of power), supplying #renewable#energy for up to 8% of the country's electricity demand 🌞
Opinion: Why the birthplace of the Western #Apache religion shouldn’t be destroyed by a #CopperMine
by Luke Goodrich
February 6, 2024·
"A federal court is poised to decide whether a #NativeAmerican#sacred site will be destroyed by a massive #copper#mine. Mining proponents claim that destroying the #SacredSite is necessary for the development of #GreenEnergy. That claim is both factually wrong and morally repugnant. And recent polling shows that the vast majority of Americans agree with what the constitution requires: #Native sacred sites deserve the same protection as all other houses of worship.
"Since before European contact, #WesternApache and other Native tribes have lived and honored their #Creator at #OakFlat, or 'Chi’chil Bildagoteel.' The site is the birthplace of Western Apache religion and the site of ancient religious ceremonies that cannot take place anywhere else. Because of its religious and cultural significance, Oak Flat is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been protected from mining and other destructive practices for decades.
"That changed in 2014, when several members of Congress, supported by #corporate#mining#lobbyists, slipped an amendment into a must-pass defense bill authorizing the transfer of Oak Flat to a foreign-owned mining giant. That company, #ResolutionCopper, announced plans to obliterate the sacred ground by swallowing it in a mining crater nearly two miles wide and 1,100-feet deep, ending Apache religious practices forever. That was no surprise given the company’s sordid history dealing with #IndigenousPeoples. The majority owner of Resolution Copper is #RioTinto (the world’s second largest mining company), which sparked international outrage in 2020 when it destroyed a 46,000-year-old rock shelter with some of the most significant #Aboriginal artifacts in all of #Australia.
"The Apache and their allies, represented by my firm, the #BecketFundForReligiousLiberty, have been fighting in court to ensure that such an atrocity won’t repeat itself at Oak Flat. After initial court rulings against the Apache, a full panel of 11 judges at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reheard their appeal last spring. A decision on whether the government can execute the land transfer is expected any day.
"Resolution Copper and its backers want the public to believe that building the mine is essential for developing #renewable energy. Extracting the copper beneath Oak Flat, they say, will help to build batteries necessary for powering #ElectricVehicles and thus fight #ClimateChange. In other words, we have to destroy Oak Flat in order to save the planet.
"These claims, however, are false — and they are specifically designed to obscure the physical and cultural destruction the project would wreak on the land.
"The mine will destroy the #environment, not save it. It is undisputed that the mine will swallow the ecologically diverse landscape of Oak Flat in a massive crater, decimating the local #ecosystem. It will also leave behind approximately 1.37 billion tons of '#tailings,' or #MiningWaste, which, according to the government’s own environmental assessment, will pollute the #groundwater and scar the landscape permanently. And the mine will consume vast quantities of water at the time it is most needed by drought-stricken towns and #farmers.
"Supporters of the mine are also at odds with the majority of Americans. According to this year’s Religious Freedom Index, an annual survey conducted by Becket, 74% of Americans believe that Native sacred sites on federal land should be protected from mining projects, even when the projects are purportedly pro-jobs and pro-environment.
"That conclusion is both sensible and humane. America can transition to renewable energy without blasting the cradle of Western Apache religion into oblivion. And it should. For too long, our nation has made excuses for taking advantage of #IndigenousPeople and their land. Indeed, our nation drove the Western Apache off Oak Flat and surrounding lands in the 1800s precisely to make way for #MiningInterests. It shouldn’t repeat that #injustice again.
"It is past time to protect Indigenous sacred sites from further destruction. Basic fairness and our constitutional commitment to religious freedom require no less. And, happily, most Americans agree."
2023 brought even greater recognition of the power grid’s centrality to #renewable power. All the wind turbines & solar☀️ arrays in the world can’t overtake #FossilFuel energy if they don’t plug into anything https://buff.ly/489IfV2
Did you know? In 2017 anti-#nuclear lobby group NRDC stated:
"A new report finds that clean energy—including energy efficiency, #renewable power sources like #solar and #wind, and related transmission solutions—can fully and economically replace the Indian Point nuclear power plant after it closes in 2021."
It was a complete lie 👇 I wonder how many people have died due the higher air pollution. That's on the #NRDC's hands, next to the extra #ClimateChange caused by them.
I posted the other day about how #renewable energy isn’t free from dirty things like mineral extraction, environmental impact, etc…but it’s also not free from rapacious capitalism and dirty money. It very much isn’t. https://tooters.org/@jdm2/111884372487470727
The #UK produced enough #renewable energy to power all its homes in 2023
Jack Loughran
January 3, 2024
"UK-based renewables generated over 90TWh of energy in 2023, which is more than enough to power all of the UK’s 28 million homes, an analysis has found.
[...]
"There are also several large new #WindFarms in the pipeline such as an £11bn 3GW project led by Germany’s RWE and UAE’s Masdar, which followed the opening of #Scotland’s largest offshore #WindFarm yet in October."
Vietnam hits 20 GW of electricity from solar and wind. Pending, another 66 GW planned, but, as usual, failure to improve the transmission grid has slowed progress.
Rehabilitated farmland used for solar energy facilities that are planted with native wildflowers and grasses can create lush habitats for insects, birds and bees, a new study has found.
Pollinator-Friendly Solar Installations Can Help Solve Climate and Biodiversity Crises (lighthouse-eco.co.za)
Rehabilitated farmland used for solar energy facilities that are planted with native wildflowers and grasses can create lush habitats for insects, birds and bees, a new study has found.