from the where-the-stars-at-night-are-big-and-bright dept.
Texas can get to net zero by 2050 and simultaneously bolster the economy:
Texas could eliminate its carbon pollution in fewer than 30 years, and decarbonizing would actually strengthen the state's economy, according to new research from energy scientists at The University of Texas at Austin.
The report warns that global markets are already casting a wary eye on goods and services that rely on fossil fuels. Those shifting consumer preferences could mean trouble for Texas, which built an economy larger than those of most countries on the strength of its oil and natural gas industries. Texas risks losing its economic footing unless it embraces new approaches to energy production, the report says.
[...] But Texas, despite its reputation for big rigs and black gold, is also an emerging clean-energy hub, with breathtaking solar and wind potential. The state is well positioned to decarbonize, according to the report, titled "Don't Mess with Texas: Getting the Lone Star State to Net-Zero by 2050." The researchers studied four approaches to reaching net-zero emissions. To their surprise, all four approaches produced greater economic output than "business as usual"—the state's annual gross domestic product was anywhere from 1.6% to 7.9% higher.
[...] "This doesn't have to mean the decimation of the oil and gas industries," Webber said. For example, the team's analysis finds that keeping some natural gas in the power sector's fuel mix provides valuable dispatchability when other resources are not available.
[...] Accompanying the report is a new online tool, the Texas Energy Policy Simulator (TX-EPS), with which anyone can test their ideas about decarbonizing the state. TX-EPS was developed by climate/energy think tank Energy Innovation.
[...] "The thing Texas does is deploy at scale. That's our superpower," Webber said. "We can do things at a globally relevant scale in a matter of decades or even years."
Original Source: Texas Can Get to Net Zero by 2050 and Simultaneously Bolster the Economy
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @12:15AM
Humph.. yeah, by leaving everything to rot. A few more hurricanes, a couple more cold snaps... that should knock 'em off line long before 2050,
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @12:42AM
But da rEeL precedent sed windy thingys bad and gib u caaaancer and keeels lossa boirds! We care about boirds now!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Thursday April 21 2022, @01:00AM (4 children)
rolling coal [melmagazine.com] is still a thing, so what are they going to do to balance that?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 4, Informative) by anubi on Thursday April 21 2022, @02:24AM (3 children)
They are playing with fire.
Texas may adopt the California CARB laws, and refuse to register diesel vehicles that do not have nannies hardcoded in the engine control computer.
I have a diesel, and am very careful to not go around making a mess. Even though I presently am allowed to have the thing, I am always aware that " right" can disappear at the stroke of a pen.
This is what happened here:
https://www.oilburners.net/threads/california-diesels-dmv-regulations-do-i-have-a-chance-of-keeping-my-truck.66062/ [oilburners.net]
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @05:16AM (1 child)
Hurr durr what's neXt, compulsory vAgiNas ? Hurr durr.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @01:01PM
Well, that is going to be your future if you don't start shining red light on your balls [theguardian.com] RIGHT NOW.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Friday April 22 2022, @05:04AM
Here's some more on California's clamping down on people who roll coal...
https://www.oilburners.net/threads/the-sky-really-is-falling-for-commercial-trucks-14k-lb-gvw-and-up-in-kali.82386/ [oilburners.net]
Like I stated before, I live here, and I too see others who have machines similar to mine abuse the ability to make a mess. And I live in fear these people will destroy everyone's ability to own one of older mechanical diesels.
First off, these old machines are very economical to own. They follow simple laws of chemistry and physics. Used properly, they are very useful. But like anything else, they can be used to make a helluva mess.
My engine was designed and made by International Harvester, which had been honing it's design for over ten years. The only other contenders at the time for the smaller Diesels suitable for cars and trucks were Mercedes-Benz and Cummins. I consider the older Cummins as the most robust diesel engine ever made. However, our government empowered a bunch of bureaucrats to redesign the engines. They've been trouble ever since.
Dodge used the Cummins in their trucks. But I really wanted a Van. So Ford E350 with the International Harvester IDI. Indirect Diesel Injection. All mechanical. Everything done with gears, cams, pushrods, valves, and pistons. Not even as much as a timing chain.
Mine is a 7.3 Liter displacement. Oooh! Big Engine!
Power!... I get a walloping 185 HP. I've seen motorcycles with more than that.
It's big and heavy because of the physical constraints of the materials we have to build these with.
What I have is Naturally Aspirated. I have to have more air than fuel at ALL times. I have to run lean. Always. Never rich. If I do, I do not have enough oxygen in the cylinder to combine with the carbon in the fuel. I end up with carbon dust. Coal. Very wasteful. Messy. I flat will not run mine that way.
Yes, one can deliberately adjust the fuel injector pump to inject way too much fuel. That's what those clowns in my parents photo did.
Diesels can be run very clean. But you don't want to push them. Although my engine is known in some circles as the "million mile engine", it's also known as the "molasses engine". Big, heavy, and slow. But, due to their compression ratio, very efficient. And can run on a variety of liquid fuels.
I wanted it as I am an old retired engineer yet I still love to tinker with things. I can get a new biofuel the Neste company is making. It's made from waste animal fats produced in meat rendering plants. So, in essence, I'm running my van from stuff like chicken and pig fat. Neste and Arco seem to be doing a fine job of making this stuff, out of waste, and I have use for it. It's called "renewable diesel". The stuff I get reportedly has no petroleum in it.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=neste+biodiesel [duckduckgo.com]
My HC and CO emissions are almost non existent, and NOx is quite low as I watch my EGT ( Exhaust Gas Temperature ) even though that is mostly a concern of turbo equipped engines, of which mine is not. I'd have a helluva time trying to suck in enough air to heat the engine that much.
I need efficiency and economy. I can tow damn near anything, but not very fast.
I want something simple enough that even I can understand it.
I would hate to see my ability to have this thing taken from me because some others were using theirs in a destructive manner.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Thursday April 21 2022, @02:57AM (6 children)
...is Alberta, Canada listening?
For years, Alberta pulled in BIG BIG DOLLARS from their oil and gas. Then the price plunged and they started crying like babies. Now, you hear nothing because the price is back up.
Are they spending any money on green tech? Are they diversifying to something better; something else? I hope so because what happens when the price plunges again?
Politicians need to have brains... and unfortunately to become a politician, all you need is 'friends' and a slimy handshake.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @05:21AM (4 children)
Take profit now, cry jaaaaarbs later.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @06:57AM (3 children)
Climate change has been a clear and present danger for decades now.
Conservative media, funded by BIG CARBON, continue the rhetoric that it is a leftist global conspiracy.
Fucking conmen. Vote Morrison OUT.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @11:25AM (2 children)
HOW is a warmer climate any "danger" to people living in places with long, cold winter???
You believe everyone else are gullible fools to be scammed out of their everything. But the thing is, you leeches have caused us a real crisis and a real war and real shortages; people got soft and credulous in the times of plenty, but the lean times are when humans do relearn how to get rid of parasites.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @12:58PM
"We'll figure it out"
Just curious, but do you apply that same principle to planning for your old age, or are you already there and it is "fuck them, I got mine" for the ones behind you?
(Score: 4, Informative) by HiThere on Thursday April 21 2022, @01:37PM
Because it's not a simple system. A "warmer climate" in not equally distributed, the poles warm faster than the equator, reducing the imbalance in thermal energy between them. This leads to a slower jet stream. That means that weather patterns don't move through as quickly, and are more likely to get stuck in place. And THAT means that both hot spells and cold snaps are likely to linger in one place longer. And that means that they'll be more intense, because of dissipating their energy in one place. So a -40 cold snap becomes a -30, but it doesn't just happen and move through, it happens and sticks around for awhile.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @03:03PM
Would that be the provincee that doesn't collect royalties on a third of its wells?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Nuke on Thursday April 21 2022, @12:30PM
Whenever I hear of the economy being bolstered by increasing employment, I think of generating electricty with treadmills. That's an extreme case, but the same principle applies to many of these increased employment schemes. Perhaps we should go back to making everything by hand.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @02:47PM (4 children)
Ctrl-f nuclear, no hits. Usual garbage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @06:10PM (3 children)
You fuking pro-nuclear cultists are all the same. "fuck you, got mine". Who cares if our grandchildren die because the water table is poisoned by nuclear waste, right ?
If a windmill fails catastrophically (and it will), worst case scenario: A few cows get beheaded. Maybe.
If a nuclear reactor fails catastrophically (and it will), worst case scenario: Dozens of people die immediataly, hundreds more die later of a horrible, gruesome death, thousands are forcibly displaced from their homes and lose everything they've worked for all their lives, and thousands, if not tens of thousands, of square miles of land are made uninhabitable for hundreds of thousands of years.
But since that will likely not happen within your lifetime, you don't give a shit.
Burn in hell, fucking pro-nuclear cultists.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @11:27PM (1 child)
Does anybody have the death toll of nuclear power?
(Score: 1) by nomadianomad on Tuesday April 26 2022, @05:31AM
Comparison Chart:
https://res.cloudinary.com/engineering-com/image/upload/w_640,h_640,c_limit,q_auto,f_auto/Deaths_Chart_zdb1zl.jpg [cloudinary.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 22 2022, @01:29AM
You can't hug your children with nuclear arms.