Bosses at world's most ambitious clean coal plant kept problems secret for years

02.03.18

News

Bosses at world’s most ambitious clean coal plant kept problems secret for years

Senior staff at the Kemper plant in Mississppi – held up as a model for a new generation of “clean coal” power plants – knew for years about serious design flaws and budget problems, but tried to withhold this information from regulators, the Guardian reports. Internal documents obtained by the paper provide evidence that: “the company had information showing that the project would blow through state-imposed budget limits five years before the company decided to reverse course and become an exclusively gas-fired energy plant”. The documents show that the plant required vastly more maintenance downtime than originally predicted, which ultimately doomed Kemper’s “clean coal” plans by raising its lifetime costs dramatically. This could be a serious setback for the world’s international climate agreements, which “rely heavily on developing practical carbon capture technologies that have so far largely proved elusive”, the Guardian writes. The Guardian has also written an accompanying in-depth feature investigating “how America’s clean coal dream unravelled”.

UK’s National Grid warns of gas shortfall due to big freeze

Financial Times

Supply disruptions and high demand for heating have forced National Grid to issue a warning that the UK may not have enough gas to meet demand. Households will not be affected but industrial gas users may be asked to curb their consumption in return for compensation. This is the company’s first deficit warning for eight years, the Financial Times reports. Experts told the Times that gas supplies could come under more pressure in the coming days, “especially if winds subside, reducing power output from wind turbines and forcing Britain to burn more gas for electricity”, the paper writes. Ineos, which wants to frack for shale gas in the UK, said the situation highlighted the need for Britain to develop its own domestic supplies. Same-day gas prices soared 130% yesterday, the Financial Times reports. Electricity prices have also risen, because gas-fired power plants are one of Britain’s main sources of electricity supply. However, this morning National Grid withdrew its “gas deficit warning”, adding that it will continue to “monitor developments closely”. Elsewhere, BusinessGreen reports that the supply fears have sparked “calls for UK to revamp energy efficiency efforts”.

These provocative images show Russian trolls sought to inflame debate over climate change, fracking and Dakota pipeline

Washington Post

Russian trolls used social media platforms to “inflame US political debate over energy policy and climate change”, according to a new report from the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, covered by the Washington Post. Russians created posts on topics such as fracking, the Dakota Access pipeline and government efforts to curb global warming, which are contentious political issues in the US. The posts were designed to appeal to either liberal or conservative audiences: for example, some posts expressed concern about climate change, while others mocked it. “This report reveals that Russian agents created and spread propaganda on U.S. social media platforms in an obvious attempt to influence the U.S. energy market,” said committee Chairman Lamar Smith. Smith is a longtime advocate for increased oil and gas drilling in the country. The Hill also carries the story, while Grist reviewed the Russians’ memes as “truly terrible”.

Chevron says its business is resilient to climate change

Reuters

Oil giant Chevron has said that its business is resilient to a wide range of climate change scenarios and that the effect of climate change on its operations will be minimal for decades to come. The climate report summarises Chevron’s work to test the competitiveness of its current assets under multiple scenarios, including some of the most restrictive greenhouse gas reduction proposals, Reuters writes. “We believe we are equipped to continue to succeed in any business environment as we deliver affordable, reliable energy”, commented Chevron’s chief executive Michael Wirth in the report. Bloomberg also covered the story.

Energy companies warn about effect of steel tariff on US industry

The Hill

America’s oil and gas industry has raised concerns over the US government’s plans to place tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. The fossil fuel industry relies on steel for drilling as well as for facility production at refineries, petrochemical plants and pipelines, the Hill notes. “Today’s announcement by the Department of Commerce to recommend sweeping tariffs around all steel and aluminium imports, in the guise of national security concerns, doesn’t make sense for the US economy”, said Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute.

Comment

This blast of cold, wintry weather may be a sign of dangerous global warming

Editorial, The Guardian

A number of the UK newspapers focus on the impact of the severe cold spell currently affecting the country. An editorial in the Guardian says: “A blast of winter in Britain and across much of northern Europe is unpleasant but perfectly survivable and affects few people outside the region, but a period of unseasonal warming in the Arctic could be the harbinger of something that changes the whole world for the worse. Both could be connected so that the cold winds that belong in the Arctic have broken out southwards to chill us while warm winds melt the ice cap. We don’t know, but that’s no reason for complacency…The worry is that the freak warming of the Arctic marks the emergence of a new feedback loop where increasing temperature leads to still more destabilising rises. The polar vortex, a great girdle of winds that keeps the cold air of the Arctic separate from the warmer air of temperate regions, seems to be weakening.” Meanwhile, various papers focus on the National Grid’s warning yesterday morning (since cancelled) that gas supplies were running low enough that some businesses might need to curb their use. An editorial in the Daily Telegraph says “this is what happens when the green agenda trumps common sense”. It continues: “Britain is committed to closing every coal-powered plant by 2025. Where will the lost energy come from? Hinkley Point C nuclear station will not come online for years; wind turbines stand idle on windless days. And when Britain switches to electric cars, how will our energy sector cope? In the absence of coal, pressure is put on gas in a country where fracking is discouraged and infrastructure is weak: Centrica has shut down the UK’s largest gas storage facility amid safety concerns. The result?…the Government needs to explain how its current, anti-coal energy strategy will see them through future winters.” Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail writes that the “gas shortage is a searing indictment of our ministers and mandarins”. He adds: “With no major [gas] storage facility, Britain is now hopelessly vulnerable not only to a terrible weather event like the one we are now experiencing…On top of all this, there is the Government’s obsession with clean energy, which in the short term has driven up the demand for gas following the closure of coal-fired power stations. The shortfall we face is a salutary warning of the danger of policymakers rushing pell-mell to wean the nation off carbon fuels long before we have the capacity to produce sufficient energy from sources such as wind farms and nuclear power stations.” An editorial in the Mirror takes a different angle and argues that highlights why the energy industry should be nationalised, as the Labour party is pledging to do: “We’ve had electricity alerts in the past and the gas threat is equally unacceptable. The capacity and reserves should be so big a Beast from the East is easily tamed. Let’s turn up the heat on an energy industry that we’d like back where it belongs – safely in public hands.” An editorial in the Sun (not online yet) says: “How proud those who whip up fracking hysteria must be now, as gas runs low. The shortage is a failure by Tory and Labour governments to build our energy supplies. But it is also true that potentially vast quantities of shale gas under our feet will remain there untapped. Why? Because eco-warriors promoting internet conspiracies successfully scared the public about its safety. What a shameful act of self-harm.”

As Climate Change Intensifies, Here Are the Most—and Least—Resilient Counties in America

Sophie Yeo, Pacific Standard

A feature in Pacific Standard examines the “vast inequalities” around how different communities in the US will cope with the consequences of climate change, such as extreme weather events. A recent survey by the US Environmental Protection Agency revealed that Kodiak Island, a remote community in Alaska, is the most climate-resilient place in the country, while Appalachia, the southeast, and western Texas are on course to fare less well. Yeo notes that: “The EPA resilience report isn’t just about extreme weather events, but also about how factors like inequality, ethnicity, and infrastructure affect a community’s ability to deal with and recover from such events when they do occur…Some of the communities on course to suffer most are the ones already struggling thanks to poverty, inequality, and other challenges”.

Science

Towards a global land surface climate fiducial reference measurements network

International Journal of Climatology

There is overwhelming evidence that the climate system has warmed since the start of instrumental meteorological observations. However, owing to imperfect measurements and ubiquitous changes in measurement networks and techniques, there remain uncertainties in many of the details of these historical changes. A set of high-quality long-term reference measurements of essential climate data will enable future generations to make rigorous assessments of future climate change and variability, providing society with the best possible information to support future decisions. This paper proposes the creation of a global land climate reference network so that the present-day scientific community can bequeath to future generations a better set of observations. This article provides the background, rationale, metrological principles, and practical considerations regarding what would be involved in such a network, and outlines the benefits which may accrue.

Evaluating Emergent Constraints on Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity

Journal of Climate

Emergent constraints are factors that relate observed climate changes to predictions of the future climate. This study explores 19 previously-proposed emergent constraints related to equilibrium climate sensitivity (the global-average equilibrium surface temperature response to CO2 doubling). Shortwave cloud feedback is generally found to be the dominant contributor to correlations with ECS because it is the largest source of inter-model spread in ECS. In all cases, correlation results from interaction between a variety of terms, reflecting the complex nature of ECS and the fact that feedback terms and forcing are themselves correlated with each other. They find that four of the proposed emergent constraints are more robust than the others, and that those four all predict relatively high climate sensitivity. The fact that this study casts doubt upon more constraints than it confirms highlights the need for caution when identifying emergent constraints.

News