Want to check our Monthly News from previous months? This is the place!
(for issues from 2023, see here)
Monthly Environmental News Roundup 11/1/24
Nuclear power is the answer, right? The very short answer to that question is: no. Now here’s the longer answer: building enough nuclear power plants to make a meaningful reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would cost trillions of dollars and create tens of thousands of tons of deadly radioactive waste. Where and how will that dangerous waste be stored? We still don’t have a sufficient answer to that question, 70 years after the first nuclear power plant went online.
Monthly Environmental News Roundup 10/1/24
The Massachusetts Legislature failed to pass a comprehensive climate bill when the legislative session ended in August, after environmental groups and individuals across the state had been working for two years to help craft the bills that were part of the proposed legislation: filing comments, calling and meeting with individual House and Senate members, participating in legislative meetings and spreading information through the press and social media to increase understanding of the issues by the voting public.
Monthly Environmental News Roundup 9/1/24
The concentration of methane (CH4) in the atmosphere has more than doubled over the past 200 years. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that has caused around 30% of all human-caused global warming since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s. Most methane emissions are anthropogenic, but about 40% of methane emissions are from natural sources. In fact, wetlands are the world’s largest natural source of methane emissions.
Monthly Environmental News Roundup 8/1/24
The climate is in crisis. The burning of fossil fuels is well known to be the primary cause. Yet the growth of fossil fuel infrastructure continues unabated, pouring gasoline onto our burning house. The cause of that is also well known: the fossil fuel companies’ preference for profits over the planet, and the government regulators who abet them. The Peabody Peaker Is coming online.
Monthly Environmental News Roundup 6/1/24
What is an interconnection queue? Project developers seeking to connect to the grid are required by utilities and regional grid operators (RTOs) or Independent System Operators (ISOs) to undergo a series of studies before they can build their facilities, and completing the requisite grid studies is only one of many steps in the development process. Projects must also have agreements with landowners, communities, power customers, and equipment suppliers, as well as demonstrating financial readiness.
Monthly Environmental News Roundup 5/1/24
Our electric grid is laboring to keep up with increased demand for electricity as we transition to renewable energy from fossil fuels. Grid congestion, which costs billions of dollars in extra electricity, can result in squandering wind or solar power. US consumers pay over $6B in transmission congestion costs every year, as hundreds of gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy are waiting to connect to the grid but remain stalled in interconnection queues.
Monthly Environmental News Roundup 4/1/24
No one who understands the consequences of failing to take urgent action to transition the world away from fossil fuel-based energy would argue that we don’t need to expedite the construction of new renewable energy infrastructure. At the same time, moving ahead with this transition at breakneck speed without taking the time to evaluate in detail the potential unintended results of the process risks causing harm, and even creating situations that exacerbate rather than alleviate climate risks.
Monthly Environmental News Roundup 3/1/24
This month I’d like to talk for a moment about Aaron Bushnell, the airman who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy recently to protest US support for the war on Gaza. His choice to end his life in that horrific manner has understandably raised a great deal of discussion about his motivation, whether the act itself calls into question his mental health, and the efficacy of his protest as a means to accomplish his aims. Perhaps the simplest explanation is the most likely: he just felt he had no other choice.
Monthly Environmental News Roundup 2/1/24
Reliability Must Run (RMR) Agreements have been used to keep certain power plants operating past their planned retirement dates when grid operators and energy regulators are concerned that taking them offline will lead to a shortage of available power in times of high demand. However, modern energy storage technologies are quite capable of providing these services, often with faster start-up and ramp times than traditional generators.