COP26 urges all nations to end coal power
The UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on November 1-12, 2021. Business leaders will be taking a key role to provide the financing and transparency needed to keep the world habitable.
Taking the gloves off
President Joe Biden promised to slash US carbon emissions by half. Staying below a 2°C increase in global temperature by 2030 is a non-negotiable target. The extreme weather today is bad enough. But not everyone is in agreement, and the gloves are coming off.
The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, a climate criminal, sided with the High Court against a UK attorney who disclosed the planned expansion of Heathrow Airport, which would increase carbon emissions. The UK recently approved the first deep coal mine in three decades. Dr. James E. Hansen sent Johnson a letter saying, “In leading the UK, as host to COP26, you have a chance to change the course of our climate trajectory – or you can stick with business-almost-as-usual and be vilified in the streets of Glasgow, London, and around the world.”
On the other hand, COP26 President Alok Sharma said, “This is our moment, urging all nations to end coal power forever.” Alok Sharma is the former UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy.
To transition away from coal, without burning wood pellets or natural gas, safe nuclear clean power is on the table. The UK’s Nuclear Industry Association said nuclear energy is the best low-carbon baseload replacement for coal. Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry endorsed small modular reactors.
Drax fooling with Mother Nature
Like Boris Johnson, Will Gardiner, Drax’s CEO, has a few months to get his act together. Nature’s carbon cycle to grow plants and trees starts with carbon dioxide from the air, water, and sunlight to create glucose and release oxygen.
By burning wood pellets, Drax releases in an instant the carbon that has been stored in trees over decades, resulting in more carbon dioxide emissions than burning natural gas or coal. Burning wood is not good for the climate and the PM-2.5 air pollution increases COVID-19 mortality and the risk of dementia.
What is Gardiner going to do at COP26? It is time for him to put on his dancing shoes – he is a good talker but has nothing to show. Under his lead, Drax has wasted billions of taxpayers’ funds over the last eight years with false promises of capturing the carbon emissions coming out of a massive smokestack from six boilers burning wood pellets and natural gas.
Drax’s Arkansas pellet mills must go
Last week, several people from the US, Canada, UK, and Germany sent emails to the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission ((APC&E) ) asking why the PM-2.5 report I sent in October 2020 attached to my comment opposing the pellet mill was ignored.
Without video evidence showing Thomas Rheaume dragging the file into the trash, we are left with a logical argument. “When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
APC&E responded by saying they don’t speak for the Division of Environmental Quality, adding that the appeal opposing the air permits was denied for the failure to follow Rule 8.607(A), Rule 8.607(C), and Rule 8.601, as stated in Order No. 5. Ignorantia juris non excusat (ignorance of the law is not an excuse) is a legal maxim, but ignorantia facti excusat (ignorance of a fact is an excuse).
DEQ is responsible for reviewing public comments and attachments, to provide the commission with the full facts. In the current system, DEQ hides comments from the public and does not send a receipt. The note “references attached” should have been sufficient to include the attachment.
DEQ is not concerned with the integrity of the public comment process, nor the accuracy of the notifications. DEQ says Arkansas air quality is better than other states.
Will Gardiner got the Drax air permits with the help of DEQ, but his lies on burning wood pellets will not work at COP26.
Dr. Luis Contreras
Drax has a long way to go … all they have done is replace the coal supply chain with a much higher cost supply chain for US wood pellet mills. Their ambition fell short, the Selby station is burning a mix of wood pellets and gas. But burning gas (methane) creates higher greenhouse emissions during 2020 – 2040 at the time we need to lower carbon dioxide from the atmosphere!
Drax wants more subsidies … after failing for over 8 years. Here is what they said in March 2021:
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Drax has “ambitions” to go further by using BECCS to permanently remove millions of tonnes of CO2 each year from the atmosphere, and create a negative carbon footprint for the company.
In order to deploy this cutting edge, negative emissions technology Drax must secure a Development Consent Order (DCO) from the government – a process which takes around two years to complete, and which will get underway in March.
Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO said: “Kickstarting the DCO process this March is a landmark moment in deploying BECCS at Drax and delivering against our ambition to be a carbon negative company by 2030.
https://www.drax.com/press_release/drax-kickstarts-application-process-to-build-vital-negative-emissions-technology/
DEQ says Arkansas air quality is better than other states, ignoring the size of the population.
This detailed report shows Arkansas air quality needs great improvement
https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/annual/measure/air/state/AR/
The Arkansas DEQ Air Quality … is not concerned with the integrity of the public comment process, nor the accuracy of the notifications.
https://www.adeq.state.ar.us/downloads/commission/p/21-002-P Arkansas BioEnergy LLC/2021-04-06_Exhibit_O-Public_Notification_Deficiencies.pdf/
Dr. James Hansen: A letter to Boris Johnson
With the UK hosting the next round of climate talks, the prime minister needs to lead.
Science, Hansen says, shows that fossil fuel use will be phased out rapidly via a rising carbon fee with all funds distributed uniformly to the public.
The effect is anti-regressive, as most wealthy people have a large carbon footprint. Seventy percent of the people come out ahead. Fee & dividend is a base that aids all other carbon policies.
https://www.dailyclimate.org/boris-johnson-climate-talks-2650298658.html
NO more coal
COP26 President Alok Sharma said, “The days of coal providing the cheapest form of power are in the past. And in the past, they must remain. Because the science is clear that to keep 1.5 degrees alive, coal must go,” he said.
The UK’s Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) said that nuclear energy is the best low-carbon baseload replacement for coal, while US Special Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry highlighted the development of small modular reactors.
In response, NIA Chief Executive Tom Greatrex said that, “as a reliable, always-on, emissions-free source of power”, nuclear is a tried and tested way for countries, including those in the developing world, seeking to replace coal, or avoid it altogether. “If we are serious about reaching net zero, countries must invest in proven ways to cut heavy reliance on coal and other fossil fuels, at the same time meeting growing energy demands; nuclear can do that,” he said.
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/COP26-Presidents-calls-for-end-to-coal-power/