According to FERC’s own figures from 2012 and 2016,
my solar projections from 2013 (and former FERC Chair Jon Wellinghoff’s) were pretty good,
and more U.S. electricity will still come from solar power by 2023.
Since coal and nuclear are already crashing, and natural gas isn’t
increasing even as fast as formerly projected, solar could win even faster.
I constructed
table below from the 2012 and 2016 summaries of total U.S. electric
power generation from all sources, by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Look at the 2012 column:
only coal and natural gas generated more than 25% of total U.S. electricity.
But in 2016 it’s only natural gas, because coal’s growth rate actually
turned negative: utilities are shutting down coal plants, not building them.
Back in 2013 I did not predict that to happen so quickly.
A reminder of why to stop pipeline companies from burying investors’ money in the ground and get on with solar power:
the pipeline that exploded in Texas last week was
half owned by Spectra Energy,
the pipeline company behind
Sabal Trail, AIM, Penneast, and numerous other fracked methane invasions
and behind thirty years of undetected corrosion resulting in leaks, explosions, property damage, and deaths.
The pipeline company didn’t detect it and couldn’t even turn it off quickly.
Want to bet that it,
like Spectra’s Pennsylvania explosion last spring, was corrosion?
A very Texas report said “no people or cattle were injured”
and also notice: “The fire is under control and will burn itself out.” Continue reading →
Written from the perspective of the Hahira, Georgia conclave
in the big city of Hot ‘Lanta,
this song off Ray Stevens’ 1980 LP Shriner’s Convention,
ran up the charts briefly in 1980, and still apparently causes
controversy among Shriners.
I wonder who those pillars of the community,
‘Lustrious Potentate Bubba and Noble Lumpkin Coy, really were?
“I just hope Charlene don’t find out about this, Coy!
What? Well, how’d you get that big motorcycle
Up there on the high dive, Coy?
Now Coy, Dad blame it, that ain’t no way to act”
Parents and grandparents buy 529 college savings plans as safe investments,
so VA529 chose poorly in Spectra Energy,
the very risky company behind the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline now plowing through the Floridan Aquifer drinking water of south Alabama, Georgia, and all of Florida and under the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers against growing opposition.
Maybe you’d like to mention that to
Mary G. Morris, the Chief Executive Officer of Virginia529 College Savings Plan,
the biggest mutual fund investor in both Spectra Energy and in Enbridge, which is buying Spectra.
There’s a handy
VA529 contact form or you can call or write:
1-804-371-0766
Toll-Free: 1-888-567-0540
9001 Arboretum Parkway
North Chesterfield, VA 23236
Front page today in the newspaper of record in the largest city in the Suwannee River Basin:
the WWALS protest against DAPL and Sabal Trail at the US 84 Withlacoochee River bridge last Saturday, between Quitman and Valdosta, GA.
Desiree Carver, Valdosta Daily Times, Friday, September 23, 2016, front page,
Sabal protests continue,
The WWALS Watershed Coalition stood on the bridge between Brooks and
Lowndes County Saturday to show solidarity with Dakota Access
Pipeline opponents in Dakota and to continue its battle against the
Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline.
That’s the US 84 bridge over the Withlacoochee River, on the Continue reading →
Before the names of the dead were read by 50 of the crowd
that numbered at least three times as many;
before the moment of silence and the prayer
and the thanks to all the first responders and police who assisted at the scene in Orlando;
this evening at St Barnabas Church on Bemiss Road
one speaker said we could choose to focus on the person who did this horrible thing in Orlando,
or we could choose to focus on fear, but as for her and her house,
she chooses love:
go out and do something for your neighbor.
Only the smoke stack remains, yet Remerton Mills still took up most of the
Remerton City Council agenda when Gretchen videoed there this month.
The Humane Society wants to house dogs temporarily and house an adoption site for cats. This also requires a variance.
Yes, apparently Remerton has more room for animals than Valdosta.
Here are links to the LAKE videos of each item, from the
agenda.
Also notice Remerton has Citizens to Be Heard first, like
both Lowndes County and Valdosta used to have only a few years ago. Continue reading →