Two new Podcasts; Amish v Big Wind; Is Biden's Plan Plausible?
Happy Friday afternoon,
In today’s email blast:
The Power Hungry Podcast is #52 in US science podcasts!
First Amendment rights of Amish at stake in NY wind fight.
My latest in Forbes on Biden’s energy plan
Update on the Power Hungry Podcast
It has been heartening to see the positive reaction to the podcast. The latest rankings have it at #52 in the US in the Science category. I have also had a significant number of encouraging emails from people telling me how much they are enjoying it.
As I said, the response has been very welcome and heartening.
The latest episodes of the podcast feature Roger Pielke Jr. and Jessica Lovering. A professor at the University of Colorado, Pielke is an expert on climate change, sports governance, and what he calls the “messy interface” between science and government. I first interviewed Pielke about a dozen years ago for a print publication about the politics and science of climate change. In the new podcast we talked about climate policy, cancel culture and the concerted effort mounted by his critics to tarnish his reputation and prevent him from publishing his views. We also talked about his eighth and most-recent book -- The Rightful Place of Science: Disasters and Climate Change -- as well as governance failures in sports and politics, the slow pace of energy transitions, and the possibility that college sports will be canceled this fall.
Lovering is a PhD candidate at Carnegie Mellon University in engineering and public policy and an expert on nuclear energy. In our conversation, we talked about the potential for US-made small modular reactors to become, as she put it, the "iPhone of nuclear reactors." We also talked about her new organization, the Good Energy Collective, why she is trying to engage young climate activists in the nuclear effort, and the obstacles facing nuclear. We also talked about why it could make sense to locate new nuclear plants at the site of retired coal plants (they already have transmission lines in place) and how the United States could return to a leadership role in the deployment of nuclear-generation technology around the world.
Both episodes are great. Give them a listen.
As I noted in my last email, I am loving the podcast. It's a very human medium. It lets me share ideas in a new way. It allows me to talk to people who can then tell their stories in their own cadence, with all the nuance and timbre that comes with the splendor of the human voice. Better yet, I can make that happen without going through someone else’s filter or channel.
So here’s my ask:
Please subscribe to Power Hungry Podcast and encourage others to do the same.
Please go to Ratethispodcast.com/powerhungry and give it a 5-star rating.
Also, a reminder, we are posting the video of the Power Hungry Podcasts on YouTube. Have a look!
My latest article, published Thursday in Real Clear Energy, contains one of my favorite ledes:
The Swartzentruber Amish community in Cattaraugus County, New York are in danger of having their horse-drawn carriages run into the ditch by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s all-renewable-energy express train. That train is barreling out of Albany station and aims to plant huge numbers of wind turbines and solar panels across upstate New York, including the 340-megawatt Alle-Catt wind project.
But the Swartzentruber, who are among the most conservative of the Amish, might derail some of Cuomo’s efforts to turn New York into the climate-change promised land. And it may be the Amish sect’s religious devotion and the First Amendment that does the derailing.
As I explain in the piece, the Swartzentruber are among the most conservative of the Amish sects. They don't want the Alle-Catt project "built near their homes or churches. On that fact rests a big test for the First Amendment rights – and land rights -- of the Swartzentruber."
The Swartzentruber don't build churches. Instead, they hold their worship services in their homes and barns. The town of Farmersville, which opposes the wind project, recognized the unique nature of the Amish's worship practices and passed a law that provided a 2,200-foot setback between any wind turbines and their homes. (That was the same setback the town implemented for churches.) Last month, New York regulators ignored the local law and approved the Alle-Catt project. In response, lawyers representing the opponents of the Alle-Catt project filed petitions for rehearing with the New York State Siting Board in which they claim that the huge wind project will violate the First Amendment rights of the Swartzentruber to practice their religion.
The fight over the Alle-Catt project provides yet another example of the growing land-use conflicts over energy infrastructure that are happening all over the country. It also provides another example of the class divide. The battle over the Alle-Catt project is also about class. Allegany and Cattaraugus are among the poorest counties in New York. Of the 62 counties in New York, the two rank 59th and 58th respectively, in median household income.
There’s no small bit of irony that a handful of Amish families stand in the way of Cuomo’s devotion to renewables. The Swartzentruber don’t vote. They don’t file lawsuits. And they don’t use electricity. Indeed, by nearly every metric that modern society cares about, the Swartzentruber are an anachronism.
But their faith, which requires them to shun modern conveniences, may be the thing that saves them from the encroachment of Big Wind. As Ginger Schröder, a member of the Cattaraugus County Legislature, told me this week, “You don’t have to vote to be protected by the First Amendment.”
Another Look at Biden's Energy Plan: Is It Even Plausible?
During my podcast with Roger Pielke Jr., we talked about some calculations he had posted on Twitter regarding the implications of Joe Biden's energy plan. On Monday, I published a piece in Forbes with my own calculations and comparisons.
Recall that Biden promised to have the US grid running solely on "clean" electricity by 2035. The problem with that notion -- like many other schemes that aim to overhaul our energy and power systems -- is the daunting problem of scale. As I show in the graphic above, last year, natural gas-fired generators produced about 1,700 terawatt-hours of electricity and coal-fired plants produced about 1,050 terawatt-hours, for a total of 2,750 terawatt-hours. For perspective, that’s nearly three times as much juice as what was generated last year in Japan. Here are three more comparisons:
Replacing that quantity of electricity with non-carbon sources would require as much nuclear capacity as now exists on the planet.
Replacing that 2,750 terawatt-hours of energy per year with solar would require 25 times as much solar capacity as now exists in the U.S. or nearly four times as much as exists on the planet.
Replacing it with wind would require installing nine times as much wind capacity as now exists in this country or roughly twice as much as current global capacity.
My reason for writing the piece was not to attack Biden, but rather to underscore the enormity of our electricity system. In the piece, I quoted another Power Hungry Podcast guest, Matt Ridley, the author, most recently, of How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom, in which he says that energy transitions are “crucial, difficult and slow."
Any effort to transform the domestic electric grid will be difficult and slow -- so slow, in fact, that I am willing to bet that in 2035, the grid will still be heavily dependent on natural gas generators, which now provide about 38 percent of the juice we consume.
I made one other point in the piece on Biden's plan by citing work done last year by energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, which estimated that “full decarbonization of the US power grid” would cost about $4.5 trillion. That's an enormous sum of money. As WoodMac pointed out, “From a budgetary perspective, the cost is staggering at US$35,000 per household – nearly US$2,000 per year if assuming a 20-year plan.”
I expect the energy issue to be a significant one in the showdown between Biden and Trump. Biden had better be prepared to defend his energy plan. Trump is almost certain to attack him over it, and in particular, over its cost and plausibility.
Thanks again for tuning in.
rb
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