Juice screening at COP, voters veto Big Wind, Ridley updates Viral, Bluebirds in Georgia
Juice screening at COP, voters in OH and MI reject Big Wind, Ridley on the podcast, & Bluebirds in Georgia
The last week has been a blur. I have done four speaking engagements since I flew out of Austin last Friday. On Saturday, I was in Georgia. On Monday, I was in South Carolina. On Tuesday morning, I was back here in Austin for an engagement with a cool company called American Innovations. The final engagement was also here in Austin. I gave a 20-minute presentation called “A Sober Look At The Energy Transition,” at the annual meeting of the Secured Finance Network. In that presentation, I reiterated some of the themes I’ve been talking about lately, including the fact that renewables are still not displacing huge amounts of hydrocarbons. Instead, they are largely being added to our existing energy mix. Since getting home, I’ve recorded two podcasts and published an article in Real Clear Energy. So, yes, I’m a bit knackered. But I’m also very pleased with some recent developments, including the news that our documentary, Juice: How Electricity Explains the World, will be screened at the COP 27 meeting in Egypt next Tuesday. (More on that below.) I’m also pleased to report that my longtime publisher, PublicAffairs, will be publishing the paperback version of A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations, in May 2023. I am in the process of writing a new epilogue to the book that will include updates on what has happened since the book was published in March 2020. And yes, much has been happening in the electricity sector. On to business. Four items today:
Ridley on Britain’s energy crisis & possibility that Covid was caused by a lab leak
Bluebirds in Georgia
The shot of the Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) above was taken in 2010 in Michigan.
Juice screening at COP27 at Sharm El-Sheikh
Earlier this week, my colleague, Tyson Culver, and I got confirmation that our film, Juice: How Electricity Explains The World, will be screened at the COP 27 meeting in Egypt. The screening is being sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency and will be held in the IAEA’s pavilion on Tuesday, November 15, at noon local time. As I’ve noted before, we didn’t set out to make a pro-nuclear documentary. But that’s where the story led us. And now, about three years after Juice was released, it continues to get traction. I have to say, and I am speaking for Tyson here, it’s flattering and gratifying to see that the film is still getting traction. Further, it’s obvious that the film is still very relevant. Last week, the International Energy Agency reported that the number of people on the planet who “live without electricity is set to rise by 20 million in 2022.” The agency notes this is the first increase since it began tracking the numbers two decades ago. It also estimates that about 775 million people around the world today have no access to electricity.
This morning, Real Clear Energy ran my piece on Tuesday's election results in Ohio and Michigan. I began:
The hype about renewable energy keeps colliding with motivated opposition in rural America. That fact was made clear again on Tuesday when several rural communities in Ohio and Michigan voted overwhelmingly to reject proposed wind and solar projects. In Crawford County, Ohio, residents voted by a 3 to 1 margin to reject the proposed 300-megawatt Honey Creek Wind Project which was being promoted by Apex Clean Energy. As reported by Gere Goble of the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum, “The room erupted into cheers as Kay Weisenauer read the results to members of Crawford Neighbors United who had gathered at the Crawford County Courthouse on Tuesday night: A referendum vote had upheld a 10-year ban on industrial wind development in Crawford County.”
Also on Tuesday, voters in three Michigan townships “resoundingly rejected ordinances enabling the Montcalm Wind project by Apex Clean Energy, a developer attempting to erect 75 turbines on farmland in Montcalm County northeast of Grand Rapids.” That’s from an article written by Garret Ellison of Mlive.com. Voters in Maple Valley, Douglass, and Winfield townships rejected ordinances amid what Ellison called “growing animosity toward wind and solar projects among rural residents in Michigan who see them as a potential threat to health and property values.” In addition, voters in Belvidere Township rejected an ordinance that would have allowed solar energy projects, and “seven township officials in Montcalm County were recalled over their support” of Apex’s proposed wind project.
I concluded:
On Thursday morning, I spoke by phone to Norm Stephens, a retired middle-school teacher who lives in Almer Township, Michigan. Stephens became active in opposing wind projects in Michigan and elsewhere in 2017 after Almer Township was sued in federal court by NextEra Energy, the world’s biggest renewable-energy producer. As I reported in National Review back in 2017, NextEra filed the suit after Almer Township officials implemented an ordinance that banned wind projects. NextEra lost that lawsuit.
Stephens said decided to help other communities organize against big wind and solar projects because small towns were “getting the bully push from big wind companies.” He was ebullient about the victories in Crawford and Montcalm counties. “This sends a strong message that people in rural America oppose irresponsible siting of wind turbines,” he said. “There’s pushback because nobody wants a pig farm or landfill 1,000 feet from their home. They don’t want a 656-foot-high wind turbine, either.”
Again, here’s a link.
These graphics ran with my piece in Real Clear Energy
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Matt Ridley: Rishi Sunak's ban on fracking is "bonkers"
Matt Ridley is the author of ten books, including most recently, with co-author Alina Chan, Viral: The Search For the Origin of Covid-19. In his third appearance on the podcast (previous appearances were July 7, 2020, and January 4, 2022), Ridley talks about Britain’s energy crisis, why Rishi Sunak’s ban on fracking is “bonkers,” the increasing evidence that the Covid pandemic was started by a lab leak, why China’s vaccines haven’t been effective, the recent breakout of bird flu in Britain, and the joy of birdwatching. Also in this episode (#147) we also talked about the progress that is being made in Africa and why, in his view, “the secret to a happy life is to avoid getting on committees. They take minutes and waste hours.” I always enjoy talking to Matt. He is an original thinker and a great conversationalist. (This episode was recorded on November 2, 2022.)
The audio and transcript are available on my website. As always, the episodes of the Power Hungry Podcast are also available on YouTube.
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Watching Bluebirds without binoculars
Last Saturday afternoon, I decided to get out of the hotel and hike around the property. The grounds at the resort -- Chateau Elan in Braselton, Georgia -- are beautiful. I purposely left my binoculars in the room because I didn’t really plan to do any birdwatching. But shortly after starting my walk, I noticed a lot of bird activity. Usually, when I’m birding, I spot a bird and immediately train my binoculars on it, decide what it is, and move on to the next thing. But birding without binoculars is a different experience. It requires patience and humility. (Neither are my strong suit.) What I found during the 45 minutes or so that I had before darkness set in, was that birding without binoculars can be just as fun as birding with them. To be sure, it’s a different experience. It requires slower movement and a desire to get as close to a perching bird as possible without spooking it. It also means accepting the realization that you may not be 100 percent certain about your identification of various species. For instance, I stood beneath some very tall trees watching a group of birds arrive and depart. I never got a close look. Using the old technique of GISS (general impression, size, and shape) I believe that what I was seeing were American Robins, mixed in with Northern Cardinals.
As dusk was setting in, I walked near some tennis courts and plopped myself down in a lawn chair for a while to watch the sunset. Just then, a few yards to my left, three birds perched atop the fence that encircles the courts. I couldn’t get close to them without spooking them, so I stood up and sidled up to a tree. I stood still and watched them for maybe two or three minutes. That was long enough for me to conclude that they were Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) I deduced that by noting their size, how they were perching, and then confirming that they had the familiar patch of brown/buff color on their chests. (The photo above was taken in 2010 by William H. Majoros.) Yes, I’ve seen Bluebirds before, but I’ve usually watched them through binoculars with 8x magnification. Watching them without binoculars made them seem new again. Here’s what Wikipedia says about it:
a small North American migratory thrush found in open woodlands, farmlands, and orchards. The bright-blue breeding plumage of the male, easily observed on a wire or open perch, makes this species a favorite of birders. The male's call includes sometimes soft warbles of jeew or chir-wi, or the melodious song chiti WEEW wewidoo. It is the state bird of Missouri and New York... Bluebirds tend to live in open country around trees, but with little understory and sparse ground cover. Original habitats probably included open, frequently burned pine savannas, beaver ponds, mature but open woods, and forest openings. Today, they are most common along pastures, agricultural fields, suburban parks, backyards, and even golf courses. Populations also occur across eastern North America and south as far as Nicaragua. Birds that live farther north and in the west of the range tend to lay more eggs than eastern and southern birds...Bluebirds were popular with early American colonists and associated with the coming of spring. They were referred to as the 'blue robin' because of their resemblance to the European Robin. Bluebirds have been mentioned in the works of many writers including Thoreau's writings, Robert Frost's "The Last Word of a Bluebird (as told to a child)", the "Over the Rainbow" song from The Wizard of Oz, the song "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" ("Mister Bluebird's on my shoulder") from Disney's Song of the South, and John Burrough's "The Bluebird". Lawrence Zeleny said that bluebirds represent joy to Americans.
I hope you have a lovely weekend.
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