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Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged in a graduation speech at MIT late last week to spend $500m on a campaign focused on persuading state and local governments to speed the closure of the 241 remaining coal-fired power plants in the U.S. and to end the growth of plants that run on natural gas. Blocking natural gas from filling in behind coal will be especially difficult, and Axios’ Amy Harder reported that it was “the fastest-growing energy source last year —accounting for 45% of all such growth — with most regions and many industries turning to the fuel as a cleaner alternative to coal and oil.”
WhyThis Matters: This will be a tall order — with experts believing the cost of replacing the remaining coal capacity with wind and solar power could cost as much as $800 billion in hardware and in addition require $150 billion to increase energy storage capacity. Scientists and environmentalists are increasingly opposed to natural gas as a coal alternative because although natural gas is better, it is not good enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a level scientists say would avert the worst climate impacts. It will be interesting to see if any of the Democratic Presidential candidates who do not have specific climate plans pick up on the Bloomberg initiative.
Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida have the highest amount of coal power — with Texas being by far the largest at 33,000 MW.
After coal, natural gas currently provides 28 percent of United States energy demand, while 11 percent comes from renewable sources.ccording to the United States Energy Information Administration.
Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement before the announcement, “We’re in a race against time with climate change, and yet there is virtually no hope of bold federal action on this issue for at least another two years. Mother Nature is not waiting on our political calendar, and neither can we.”
By Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer Cities across the US are transitioning their buildings to clean energy, which would mean banning natural gas in new construction and promoting electric appliances. But the question remains whether or not infrastructure — foundational and historic — is ready to handle such a demand for electricity. Why this […]
As more people around the nation are taking to the roads and skies for their vaccinated vacations, one car rental company is making it easier for folks to not only travel in style, but travel green. Hertz has announced that it will be purchasing 100,000 Tesla electric vehicles by the end of 2022 alongside an […]
By Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer Last year, the average American household experienced eight hours without power, as storms hammered electrical systems built with less erratic climate conditions in mind. That average outage time is double what it was five years ago. But only looking at the average obscures the experience of people who lived […]
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