Say Goodbye to Cheap & Plentiful Electricity.EPA Imposes First Greenhouse Gas Limits on New Power Plants!
Steverno~POTL~PWCM~JLA
2012/03/28 03:39:13
The Environmental Protection Agency issued the first-ever limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants Tuesday, but stopped short of imposing any restrictions on the nation’s existing coal-fired fleet.
The move sparked protests from Republicans and coal industry officials, but administration officials and most energy analysts said it would have only a modest impact because low natural gas prices are already prompting utilities to build natural gas plants instead.
The rule, which is open for public comment for 60 days, will require any new power plant to emit no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour of electricity produced. The average U.S. natural gas plant, which emits 800 to 850 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt, meets that standard; coal plants emit an average of 1,768 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt.
“Today we’re taking a common-sense step to reduce pollution in our air, protect the planet for our children, and move us into a new era of American energy,” EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in a statement. She told reporters in a conference call Tuesday that the proposal “is in line with investments already being made throughout the utility industry.”
The rule, which comes on the heels of tough new requirements that the Obama administration imposed on mercury emissions and cross-state pollution from utilities within the past year, dooms any proposal to build a coal-fired plant that does not have costly carbon controls. The Washington Post first reported details of the proposal Monday.
Edison Electric Institute president Tom Kuhn, whose group represents the majority of U.S. electric utilities, said in a statement the industry is “deeply concerned” the EPA expects coal-fired plants to adopt pollution controls that will not be commercially viable for years. “By effectively forcing utilities to forgo any new coal generation in favor of natural gas, without commensurate policies to develop commercially acceptable [carbon capture and storage] technologies, EPA’s proposal threatens the viability of coal, an important domestic energy source,” he said.
Jackson said the proposal “may” affect 15 power plants in the permitting pipeline, but even that estimate may be high: The Energy Information Administration estimates only one 900-megawatt coal-fired power plant will probably be built between now and 2030.
“The message here is it’s not costing jobs; the market has already shifted,” said Ned Helme, president of the Center for Clean Air Policy, noting that gas plants employ the same number of workers but emit about half the carbon of coal plants. “It’s simply a shift from a dirtier fuel to a cleaner fuel.”
Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said in a statement that the new regulation provides a new incentive for the United States to think twice before approving eight natural gas export terminal proposals, which according to the Energy Department could export 20 percent of the nation’s total gas production.
“This carbon standard is yet another indication that we need to keep America’s natural gas here at home to provide affordable electricity and capitalize on our competitive advantage to rebuild our manufacturing, chemical and fertilizer industries,” Markey said.
Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/epa-to-...
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Top Opinion
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☆56lady☆POTL~JLA~PWCM 2012/03/28 13:59:45
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Guys,..
as A geek,.. I WISH someone had the means to start a few solar plants.
If we currently have the tech to make a home 100% free from energy needs from the outside, logic dictates that we can do it for cities,.. heck,.. states.
If I had a billion to play with,.. I'd build one just to piss off both the EPA and SDGE.
by Mark Heley
Dmitriev is not the only scientist who thinks this influx of cosmic rays has a major part to play in the recent increases in global temperature. Henrik Svensmark is the head of Center for Sun-Climate Research at the Danish Space Research Institute. In his book The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change, he suggests that when cosmic radiation, especially protons, hit Earth's atmosphere, the reaction they cause has the effect of creating clouds. The more cosmic rays there are the greater the cloud cover.
A shutdown in solar activity and a decrease in the magnetic field of the sun leave our planet more open to the influx of plasmic energy from outside the solar system. This then leads to an increase in cloud cover and the kind of climate change we are now seeing. Svensmark predicts we could be about to enter a new Maunder minimum–like period and that global temperatures are about to rapidly cool.
Dr. Nir Shaviv, an astrophysicist, also thinks cosmic rays affect our planet's climate. By reconstructing the temperature on Earth over the past 500 million years, Shaviv thinks he has found that changes in the amount of cosmic rays are responsible for more than two-thirds of Earth's temperature changes, making it the most important dri...
by Mark Heley
Dmitriev is not the only scientist who thinks this influx of cosmic rays has a major part to play in the recent increases in global temperature. Henrik Svensmark is the head of Center for Sun-Climate Research at the Danish Space Research Institute. In his book The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change, he suggests that when cosmic radiation, especially protons, hit Earth's atmosphere, the reaction they cause has the effect of creating clouds. The more cosmic rays there are the greater the cloud cover.
A shutdown in solar activity and a decrease in the magnetic field of the sun leave our planet more open to the influx of plasmic energy from outside the solar system. This then leads to an increase in cloud cover and the kind of climate change we are now seeing. Svensmark predicts we could be about to enter a new Maunder minimum–like period and that global temperatures are about to rapidly cool.
Dr. Nir Shaviv, an astrophysicist, also thinks cosmic rays affect our planet's climate. By reconstructing the temperature on Earth over the past 500 million years, Shaviv thinks he has found that changes in the amount of cosmic rays are responsible for more than two-thirds of Earth's temperature changes, making it the most important driver of climate change over long periods of time.
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Unless a new electrical power plant proposal uses "green" technology.The EPA permit process takes years and years & massive amounts of money to get the final approval from the EPA regulators,if ever!
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Cosmic Rays and Climate Change by Mark Heley
Dmitriev is not the only scientist who thinks this influx of cosmic rays has a major part to play in the recent increases in global temperature. Henrik Svensmark is the head of Center for Sun-Climate Research at the Danish Space Research Institute. In his book “The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change”, he suggests that when cosmic radiation, especially protons, hit Earth's atmosphere, the reaction they cause has the effect of creating clouds. The more cosmic rays there are the greater the cloud cover.
A shutdown in solar activity and a decrease in the magnetic field of the sun leave our planet more open to the influx of plasmic energy from outside the solar system. This then leads to an increase in cloud cover and the kind of climate change we are now seeing. Svensmark predicts we could be about to enter a new Maunder minimum–like period and that global temperatures are about to rapidly cool.
Dr. Nir Shaviv, an astrophysicist, ...
Cosmic Rays and Climate Change by Mark Heley
Dmitriev is not the only scientist who thinks this influx of cosmic rays has a major part to play in the recent increases in global temperature. Henrik Svensmark is the head of Center for Sun-Climate Research at the Danish Space Research Institute. In his book “The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change”, he suggests that when cosmic radiation, especially protons, hit Earth's atmosphere, the reaction they cause has the effect of creating clouds. The more cosmic rays there are the greater the cloud cover.
A shutdown in solar activity and a decrease in the magnetic field of the sun leave our planet more open to the influx of plasmic energy from outside the solar system. This then leads to an increase in cloud cover and the kind of climate change we are now seeing. Svensmark predicts we could be about to enter a new Maunder minimum–like period and that global temperatures are about to rapidly cool.
Dr. Nir Shaviv, an astrophysicist, also thinks cosmic rays affect our planet's climate. By reconstructing the temperature on Earth over the past 500 million years, Shaviv thinks he has found that changes in the amount of cosmic rays are responsible for more than two-thirds of Earth's temperature changes, making it the most important driver of climate change over long periods of time.
Shaviv hypothesizes that the sun's passage through the spiral arms of the Milky Way appears to have been the cause behind the major Ice Ages over the past billion years. He has correlated variations in the cosmic-ray flux to the solar system's orbit around the center of the galaxy and through its spiral arms. In the more crowded spiral arms, like the Orion arm, which our Sun is currently in, there is a higher density of cosmic rays. Shaviv agrees with Svensmark that the result of this increase is that Earth becomes cooler.
Both Svensmark and Shaviv are considered climate skeptics who dispute the extent to which the creation of greenhouse gases is contributing to the current climate change. The year 2012 is significant in the context of research into cosmic rays because:
• It coincides with the next predicted solar sunspot maximum, and recently discovered breaches in Earth's magnetosphere make us more vulnerable to solar-flare events. (Science that inspired the movie; "The Core".)
• The effects of increased cosmic dust and radiation entering the solar system will be likely to accelerate by 2012.
• According to these scientists, whether the planet cools or heats up depends on the balance of solar activity and cosmic radiation.
• The study of meteorites that have hit Earth during its passage through the arms of the Milky Way have shown up to 10 percent more cosmic-ray damage than those that sustained damage elsewhere. Shaviv believes that kind of cosmic-ray variation could alter global temperatures by as much as 15 percent. This would be sufficient to turn the Ice Ages on or off.
And going back to Genesis 3:17; "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; "
Note here, "thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife,"
Here I believe that Eve was taught by Adam as she was not there yet when the commandment was given. It should be noted that Eve was created after the Animals (Genesis 2:20-21). Thus, I think that Adam taught her what he had been taugh by God. My reasoning is that if God had told her, then the blame would have been Hers, for directly disobeying God, but God accused Adam of listening to his wife. In other words, Adam knew the truth from God, but Eve knew it from Adam, therefore, Adam could have saved his wife from her mistake, but there is another part here. Many people look at the first chapter and what God stated there; “Be fruitful, and multiply.”
However, according to scripture, the last word said by God to ...
And going back to Genesis 3:17; "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; "
Note here, "thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife,"
Here I believe that Eve was taught by Adam as she was not there yet when the commandment was given. It should be noted that Eve was created after the Animals (Genesis 2:20-21). Thus, I think that Adam taught her what he had been taugh by God. My reasoning is that if God had told her, then the blame would have been Hers, for directly disobeying God, but God accused Adam of listening to his wife. In other words, Adam knew the truth from God, but Eve knew it from Adam, therefore, Adam could have saved his wife from her mistake, but there is another part here. Many people look at the first chapter and what God stated there; “Be fruitful, and multiply.”
However, according to scripture, the last word said by God to them both was in Genesis 1:29 “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” Note here that the commandment is not mentioned. Genesis 2:16-17 is where Adam is told, before Eve was created.
But the plot thickens; God said, “Be fruitful, and multiply.” However, in Genesis 3:16 we find; Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”
Notice anything here? Children are the result of SIN; “in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;” and one more startling clue found in 1 Timothy 2:15; “Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing,”
Hummmm…… Saved in Childbearing. This is New Testaent teaching, thus Jesus did not lift the punishments. Men must still work, and women must still bear children. There can be no saved Christians in those that support abortions.
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