Renewables cheaper than coal plants

This article (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/30/new-york-might-take-second-swing-electrification/) covers several environmental issues, but the part that really caught my eye was:

99% of U.S. coal plants pricier to run than renewables, analysis finds

A coal plant in Delta, Utah, in June. (Rick Bowmer/AP)

Nearly all coal plants in the United States are more expensive to operate than renewable energy projects that could replace them, according to an analysis.

The report by Energy Innovation, an energy and climate policy firm, looked at the cost of running the country’s remaining 210 coal plants in 2021.

For 99 percent of the coal plants, it would be cheaper to build and operate a new wind or solar project, the analysis found. That marks a major increase from 2019, when the firm first conducted the analysis and found that 62 percent of existing coal capacity was uneconomic compared to new renewables.

Replacing the 210 coal plants with wind and solar would create cost savings large enough to finance the addition of nearly 150 gigawatts of battery storage, increasing the reliability of the new renewables, the analysis concluded.

The report’s authors acknowledged that many communities depend on coal plants for jobs and tax revenue. But they noted that clean energy projects would also create jobs and economic growth, and that the Inflation Reduction Act offers additional tax credits to developers of clean energy projects in communities historically reliant on fossil fuels.

Pentagon: climate change threatens global security

Today, bad news (in the sense that bad things are coming; good news that we are recognizing it). Excerpts from a Washington Post article:

Sweeping assessments released Thursday (10/21/2021) by the White House, the U.S. intelligence community and the Pentagon conclude that climate change will exacerbate long-standing threats to global security.

“Climate change is altering the strategic landscape and shaping the security environment, posing complex threats to the United States and nations around the world,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

Drought and other extreme weather can spark conflicts and force population displacements… one report that estimates that by 2050, up to 143 million people in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia could move for climate-driven reasons.

Geopolitical tensions are likely to rise in the coming decades as countries struggle to deal with the physical effects of climate change — which scientists say already is producing more devastating floods, fires and storms.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/intelligence-pentagon-climate-change-warnings/2021/10/21/ea3a2c84-31d3-11ec-a1e5-07223c50280a_story.html

The cow that could feed the planet

Cultured meat — meat from real animals but grown in bioreactors — could (1) greatly reduce global warming and environmental issues, and (2) reduce animal cruelty. About 4,800 words:

https://time.com/6109450/sustainable-lab-grown-mosa-meat/

Eventually, says (Mark) Post, we would need only some 30,000 to 40,000 cows worldwide, instead of the 300 million we slaughter every year, without the environmental and moral consequences of large-scale intensive cattle farming.
…Mosa is in the process of applying for regulatory approval from the E.U. In the meantime, the company is already expanding into a new space with roughly 100,000 liters of bioreactor capacity, enough to produce several tons of meat every six to eight weeks.