QUICK NEWS, December 19: Can Cities Save The Planet? - Will Solar Save The World? - Will Rick Perry Save Wind Energy At DOE?

Can Cities Save The Planet? Cities can pick up nations’ slack on combating climate change

Nick Stockton, December 18, 2016 (Grist)

“…[Deadline2020 is a 100-plus-page study detailing how the C40 Cities’ 90 affiliated cities can, and are, taking rapid, impactful actions to keep the Earth from warming to the point of catastrophe. It] is based on goals set out in the Paris Agreement [signed by 117] countries to keep the average global temperature from rising to 2 degrees C above preindustrial levels…[and] stay as close to 1.5 degrees C as possible…[T]he next four years are critical…If the C40 cities want to meet that 1.5 degrees C goal, its members need to collectively cut the average emissions of city-dwelling folks from 5.1 tons to 2.1 per person by 2020…If they succeed, the cities of C40 will have contributed 40 percent of the reductions necessary to meet the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement. Come hell or high water, their home nations are largely responsible for the other 60 percent…Cities can’t save the Paris Agreement, or the world, on their own. But they can do a lot. And they can do it a lot faster, and a lot more reliably, than nations…Those actions aren’t always sexy, but they are tangible…” click here for more

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Will Solar Save The World? World Energy Hits a Turning Point: Solar That's Cheaper Than Wind; Emerging markets are leapfrogging the developed world thanks to cheap panels.

Tom Randall, December 14, 2016 (Bloomberg News) “…[As 2016 comes to an end, solar] power, for the first time, is becoming the cheapest form of new electricity…[U]nsubsidized solar is beginning to outcompete coal and natural gas…[and] new solar projects in emerging markets are costing less to build than wind projects…While solar was bound to fall below wind eventually, given its steeper price declines, few predicted it would happen this soon…[In 2016 auctions, where] private companies compete for massive contracts to provide electricity, established record after record for cheap solar power. It started with a contract in January to produce electricity for $64 per megawatt-hour in India; then a deal in August pegging $29.10 per megawatt hour in Chile. That’s record-cheap electricity—roughly half the price of competing coal power…When all the 2016 completions are tallied in coming months, it’s likely that the total amount of solar photovoltaics added globally [now projected at 70 GW] will exceed that of wind [projected at 59 GW] for the first time...[The world is now] adding more capacity for clean energy each year than for coal and natural gas combined…” click here for more

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Will Rick Perry Save Wind Energy At DOE? Will Rick Perry's pro-wind power stance carry on in the Trump administration? Choice of former Texas governor to lead energy department is a potentially encouraging sign for those alarmed by Trump’s nomination of climate deniers

Tom McCarthy, 15 December 2016 (UK Guardian)

“…[Environmental activists in Texas say former Governor Rick Perry, now nominated to head Trump administration Department of Energy, defended TXU’s 2005 bid to build coal plants because of the utility’s 2001 to 2011] $633,575 in campaign contributions to Perry…But the nomination of Perry, who presided as governor over an explosion of wind power infrastructure in Texas, has been taken in some corners as a potentially encouraging sign…Perry – who has firsthand experience of how wind power can create jobs, make money for landowners and drive energy prices down for consumers – could help guide the Trump administration in the direction of renewables…The success of the Texas experiment with wind power under Perry is not disputed. In 2006, the governor signed legislation that raised benchmarks for the production of wind power and promoted environmentally sensitive siting for transmission lines. The legislation is credited with creating tens of thousands of jobs in the wind industry and attracting tens of billions of dollars in investment…[Perry is not an environmentalist in any meaningful sense of the word, but was] a chief executive with an eye on growing the economy and keeping business happy…[T]here is concern that the job of energy secretary could overwhelm Perry…[before he gets to] transmission lines…” click here for more

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