QUICK NEWS, June 6: Without Paris, A Carbon Price Is Critical; Consumers Getting Smarter About The Smart Grid; EVs Come Clean As More Grids Go New Energy

Without Paris, A Carbon Price Is Critical Forget the Paris accord. Here’s what can really fight climate change.

Michael Gerson, June 5, 2017 (Washington Post)

“…[The President claims the Paris climate agreement’s] relatively modest, entirely voluntary agreement that essentially maintains the current momentum of reductions in carbon emissions would somehow destroy the U.S. economy. It wouldn’t. Some [Paris agreement] advocates seem to imply that a relatively modest, entirely voluntary agreement that essentially maintains the current momentum of reductions in carbon emissions would somehow save the world. It can’t…Here is the climate bottom line, as far as science can currently describe it: In order to keep the rise in average global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius and thus avoid the worst climate disruption, it will be necessary to keep more than 80 percent of existing coal reserves in the ground, unexploited…[The best hope for keeping hydrocarbons in the ground is for non-carbon-based alternatives] to cost less. Putting a price (such as a tax) on carbon emissions would help…[To avoid the worst climate disruption, we need] massive, urgent, strategic, public and private investment in energy research and development…[Trump did not] propose this rather obvious, market-oriented alternative to the Paris agreement…” click here for more

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Consumers Getting Smarter About The Smart Grid Survey finds growing awareness of smart grid programs but still low participation

David J. Unger, June 5, 2017 (Midwest Energy News)

“…[ Nearly three-fourths of] U.S. energy consumers are increasingly aware and broadly supportive of the smart grid, but relatively few of them participate in most smart-grid related programs and products…Seventy-two percent of respondents were familiar with smart meters in 2017, up from 52 percent in 2015...Slightly less — 70 percent — were familiar with the smart grid…[up from 47 percent in 2015, according to Consumer Pulse and Market Segmentation Study–Wave 6. Utilities across the country] are investing billions into grid modernization efforts and deploying smart meters, smart switches and various other ‘smart’ technologies across the power distribution network…Many view the power system as becoming more of a two-directional system, in which the line between production and consumption is blurred…This requires a shift in perception given that the power grid has, largely by design, operated inconspicuously without much thought from the average consumer…” click here for more

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EVs Come Clean As More Grids Go New Energy Number one argument against electric cars is now completely debunked

Fred Lambert, June 5, 2017 (electrek)

“…[W]hile there are places where the grid is so dirty that it doesn’t make a big difference whether someone drives an electric car or a very efficient gas-powered car, most of the US electric grid is clean enough that it doesn’t come close to the efficiency of electric cars…As the grid gets cleaner, thanks to solar, wind, hydro and other renewable energy sources, the electric car’s advantage is increasing every day and the latest data shows that it’s not even a contest anymore…The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) updated their state-by-state study of the emission generation from electricity [based on 2014 EPA data] to account for the average electric car’s equivalent mpg on the electric grid…[T]he grid got a lot cleaner since, but even the jump from 2009 to 2014 shows a massive improvement…The average electric car in the US now gets the equivalent efficiency of a non-existent 73 mpg gas-powered vehicle – and that’s before accounting for refining, transportation, etc., when it comes to petrol…” click here for more

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