Biden’s solar plan, McKinnon talks politics, birding books

Biden's 45% solar plan ignores history, land-use and nuclear, Mark McKinnon on "The Circus," my guide to bird guides

It has been another busy week. On Monday, my colleague, Tyson Culver, and I drove to Louisiana to do some reporting and filming on the electric grid after Hurricane Ida. When we arrived on Monday night, more than 100,000 people in the state still didn’t have power. We did some interviews in New Orleans and  drove through LaPlace, a small town that was hammered by the hurricane. On Wednesday, we drove to Houma, the biggest town in Terrebonne Parish, where the devastation was apparent on almost every street corner. Downed trees, powerlines, and signs were everywhere. We talked to people who had lost power and had been using small generators ever since the storm hit on August 29. I will be writing more about what I saw in the weeks ahead. It was a vivid reminder, and a confirmation of one of the things we emphasized in Juice: How Electricity Explains The World. That is: people will do whatever they have to do to get the electricity they need. 
 
I will keep this note brief as I’m finishing it while onboard a plane. I'm headed back to Austin from Wichita, Kansas. This morning, I presented to the members of the Kansas Power Pool. The caption of my presentation was “Renewable Dreams, Hydrocarbon Realities, & The Real Fuels of the Future.” Four items today: 

• My New York Daily News piece on Biden’s 45% solar plan

• Mark McKinnon on the Power Hungry Podcast talks politics and “The Circus”

• Media hits

• A shelf-full of bird books 

Note: the image above is the endpaper  from a vintage copy of Peterson’s A Field Guide To the Birds. Photo credit: Lorin Bryce

On Monday, the New York Daily News ran my piece on the Biden Administration’s recent report which claimed the US could be getting 45 percent of its electricity from solar by 2050. (Never mind that Biden has said he wants to decarbonize the electric grid by 2035). In any case, I began the piece: 

• Hyping solar energy is one of Washington, D.C.’s most renewable resources. Back in 1979, President Jimmy Carter declared the U.S. needed to capture more energy from the sun because of “inevitable shortages of fossil fuels.” Last week, President Biden released a plan that claims the U.S. should be getting nearly half of its electricity from solar by 2050, up from 3% today, because — contrary to what Carter said back in 1979 about shortages of fossil fuels — we are using too much coal, oil, and natural gas and because climate change poses “an existential threat to our lives. But Biden’s plan ignores history, land-use conflicts, and the need to preserve and expand our use of nuclear energy.

I concluded this way:

• Before closing, I would be remiss if I failed to mention that nearly half of the global supply of the polysilicon used in panels has been coming from China’s Xinjiang province, where hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs are working in slave labor conditions. I’d also be remiss not to mention the recent study by three economists at Harvard University who warned about the looming wave of toxic “solar trash” and their prediction that by 2035, the amount of discarded solar panels could “outweigh new units sold by 2.56 times.” In short, it’s time for Biden and his team to quit hyping solar and get serious about nuclear energy.

Again, here's a link.

Mark McKinnon  on the podcast: "I'm literally concerned about our democracy.”
 
Mark McKinnon is a former political strategist and the creator and co-host of The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth on Showtime. In this episode, McKinnon and I talked about the state of American democracy, gerrymandering, and the growing  partisanship in Washington, DC. When I asked McKinnon, who worked for Democratic and Republican politicians (including George W. Bush), about the current state of American politics, he replied, "it’s really depressing." He also said that he was in the crowd in Washington on January 6 when Donald Trump gave the speech that was followed by the riot at the U.S. Capitol. He said, I "would have been surprised if people hadn’t gone to the Capitol and rioted, given the tone and tenor of his remarks." 

We also talked about the politicians he believes could lead a reform movement, and why despite his many concerns about the United States, he remains “a prisoner of hope.”  Here's a link.

Media Hit
I was on a fun podcast this week with Kris Clewell and his colleague, Jake Solberg on Overcrest Productions. Both of them are hard-core car guys. It was a fun chat. You can find it here. 
 

A shelf-full of bird guides  

As you can see from the photo just above, I am an avid collector of birding books. Most of them are second-hand copies that I bought at the Half Price Books store near our house in Austin. I usually buy whatever guidebook they have on hand. I’ve given several bird books to friends and family members. I like to think that by giving them away, I will help them develop an appreciation for birds. 
 
I have three or four copies of Peterson’s A Field Guide To the Birds, including one that was printed in the 1940s and another from 1960. I also have a copy of Peterson’s A Field Guide to the Birds of Texas, that has lost most of its hardback cover, so I put it back together with packing tape. I don’t really use it. But it’s too cool to throw away. 
 
For me, bird books and natural history guide books, are a fun way to see how experts organize and present information. It’s also fun to see how birding books have evolved over the decades, how the organization of the information and bird images has changed. Of course, Roger Tory Peterson was the father of the birding book. His multiple talents – as an artist, photographer, naturalist, writer, and observer – allowed him to revolutionize the sport of birdwatching. When I interviewed him in 1991, when I was writing for the Austin Chronicle, he said the success of the Peterson guides was due to their straightforward approach.  “I simplified it so the average person could understand it. In the old days, there was a manual that described the robin and it started at the tip of the beak and ended at the tail. It was only halfway down the page that you learned it had a red breast. It seemed to me they could always be an easier more direct way. By using these little arrows, I would point to these things and it made things easier for a lot of people.”
 
When I began birdwatching, I seldom went into the field without a birding guide. I would put one into my backpack, or maybe tuck it into the small of my back and carry it that way. Having the book along gave me confidence that if I saw a bird, I’d be able to look it up and maybe make a note of where and when I’d seen it. These days, when Lorin and I go birding, I might pack a book in the car, but I never take it with us when we go on our (very) short hikes. Instead, as I’ve explained in previous “news” letters, I use iBird. The app is great and easy to use. But I write books. I love books. I love the thingness of them. I like their heft and permanence. I like that they don’t have a switch or be recharged. I like to write in the margins and underline things. Given that predilection, combined with my love of birdwatching, I suppose it’s not a surprise that I collect bird books. 
 
A long time ago, I asked Steve Feld, an ethnomusicologist, about what was keeping him busy. He replied something to the effect of: “I am cultivating my eccentricities.” Bird books are one of my eccentricities. 

Have a great weekend.
 

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