[GWSG] CO2 drawdown; new suits; Gore interview; costs of coal; cheaper solar +; old CH4; financing coal; new nukes

[Tilley, Al]

1. "Young People's Burden: Requirement of Negative CO2 Emissions" by James Hansen and fourteen others argue that we are likely to need to withdraw CO2 from the atmosphere.  The less stringent our emissions standards now, the more difficult we will make it for our descendants to undertake the withdrawal.  http://csas.ei.columbia.edu/2017/07/18/young-peoples-burden-requirement-of-negative-co2-emissions/



2.  Two counties and a city in CA are suing 37 fossil fuel companies for damages related to sea level rise.  https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18072017/oil-gas-coal-companies-exxon-shell-sued-coastal-california-city-counties-sea-level-rise



3.  The NY Times' Coral Davenport interviewed Al Gore for an hour on climate (Including twenty minutes of questions).  He continues to train activists from this country and others, and sees reason to believe that we will escape the most severe effects through controlling emissions and converting to renewable energy.  His political experience and international travel make the interview particularly substantial. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/climate/al-gore-climate-change-timestalks.html?emc=edit_tnt_20170719&nlid=43628374&tntemail0=y&_r=0



4.   The Navajo Generating Station, a large coal plant about a quarter owned by the federal government, is being sustained with large amounts of subsidies even though it is not economically viable.  The area is one of the poorest in the country; 38% of the Navajo Nation does not have water services, thanks to water diverted to fossil fuel energy plants.  Supplying that water and retraining workers for solar and wind jobs is a superior use of the subsidies.  https://www.nrdc.org/experts/kevin-steinberger/when-coal-plants-close-time-invest-communities



5.  The previous article mentions a power purchase agreement with Tucson Electric for solar plus storage at a low cost of $.045/kilowatt-hour.  That's with four hours of 30 megawatt lithium ion battery storage.  ViZn Energy Systems expects to beat that pricer by 20% with flow batteries.  https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/can-a-flow-battery-beat-that-record-breaking-tep-solar-plus-storage-ppa



6.  Thawing permafrost is releasing methane not only from new rot but from reservoirs of gas now freed by a soil structure that resembles Swiss cheese.  https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18072017/arctic-permafrost-melting-methane-emissions-geologic-sources-study



7.  The boom in south-east Asian coal plants is funded largely by foreign governments and their banks. A majority of the money comes from Japan and China, who are cutting planned coal construction in their own countries.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/20/asias-coal-fired-power-boom-bankrolled-by-foreign-governments-and-banks  Meanwhile, the European Investment Bank is putting 4.3b euros behind renewable energy.  May they prosper (except for their natural gas investments).  https://cleantechnica.com/2017/07/19/european-investment-bank-commits-e4-3-billion-renewable-energy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29



8.  Around fifty designs for small modular nuclear reactors are under development.  They have the potential to contribute cheap, safe, carbon-free energy.  One design is proceeding through the approval process in the US, the first new design to do so in decades. It is not a fourth-generation design, though, and will have the familiar waste problems.  Some in the industry doubt that the reactor will prove cost-competitive when it is launched in about ten years. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608271/small-reactors-could-kick-start-the-stalled-nuclear-sector/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=042d174fb0-weekly_roundup_2017-07-20_edit&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-042d174fb0-154060389&goal=0_997ed6f472-042d174fb0-154060389&mc_cid=042d174fb0&mc_eid=fc22084f2f?


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