[GWSG] New CH4 rules; new world; no coal in UK; reasons to hope; 7 hotter months; 70 times more US renewables in Q1

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The Obama administration has finalized emissions rules for new and modified oil and gas structures.  The rules are expected to cut methane emissions almost in half.  Rules for existing facilities have not been announced.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/12/obama-methane-emissions-rule-oil-gas-climate-change



2.  In Almost Everything You Know About Climate Change Solutions is Outdated, Joe Romm observes that we have no more time for developing new technologies but need to deploy the ones we have if we are to move the power-sector emissions to zero before 2050, as we must.   The price on carbon needs to start at a moderate level or higher and go up from there.  Part 2 is to follow.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/10/3776465/everything-you-know-climate-change-solutions-outdated/



3.  For the first time since 1882, England used no coal power for about twelve hours last week.  The government has set a target date of 2025 for phasing it out entirely.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/13/uk-energy-from-coal-hits-zero-for-first-time-in-over-100-years



4.  Clive Hamilton, a British professor of public ethics and author of Requiem for a Species, recounts recent efforts and developments which give him hope that we will control emissions in time to avoid the more severe global warming scenarios.  News to me: the Lima-Paris Action Agenda to mobilize "non-state actors," and the positive developments in investing in the last year.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/12/how-scared-or-hopeful-should-we-be-in-a-warming-world



5.  April was the seventh month in a row to set global heat records, and the third in a row to break records for increases.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/16/april-third-month-in-row-to-break-global-temperature-records



6.  In the first quarter this year the US added seventy times more new renewable energy capacity (1,291 mw) than it did natural gas (18 mw), and that does not include rooftop solar because FERC doesn't track it.  No new energy was added from coal, oil, or nuclear sources.  Demand is flat and, thanks to efficiency gains, should remain flat for some time.  NOAA indicates that we could carry out the transition to renewable energy as a source for electric power in fifteen years with improvements to the transmission system but no new technology.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/16/3778542/grid-70-times-renewables-natural-gas/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cptop3&utm_term=3&utm_content=43  ?

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