EPA’s Methane Rule: All Burden for No Climate Benefit
By Steve Everley -- March 11, 2016Between 2025 and 2100, EPA’s methane rule would result in a global average temperature reduction of just 0.004 degrees Celsius, four one-thousandths of one degree. Methane emissions ten times larger than what EPA data suggests would still not affect global temperature measurably.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed new rules targeting methane and other emissions from the oil and natural gas industry. The EPA claims these rules are necessary to “combat climate change,” but public data show that the climate impact of reducing methane would be practically non-existent: 0.004 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
Methane emissions from all industries in the United States only constitute about 10 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, which incorporates methane’s relatively high warming potential. According to the EPA and the U.N.…
Continue Reading“Grid-Enabled” Water Heating: “Deep Decarbonization” as Crony Environmentalism (Part II)
By Mark Krebs -- March 10, 2016[Editor note: An under-the-radar energy intervention is to force fossil-fuel fired water heating to go electric “regardless of adverse economic impacts,” as Mark Krebs explains in this post and Part I yesterday.]
Why should electricity monopolize energy if gas-fired alternatives are more economical as determined by self-interested consumers?
If the objective is low carbon water heaters, there are more direct means of doing so. The following graphics compare the full fuel-cycle efficiencies of traditional gas water heater to electric water heaters:
Gas Storage Water Heater Site and Source Energy Efficiency
Electric Resistance Storage Water Heater Site and Source Energy Efficiency
Note: The previous two graphs are used with permission form the Gas Technology Institute
The electric utility industry prefers a site-based energy efficiency metric because it can indicates that switching to an electric resistance water heater from a gas water heater can “save” over 30% more energy. …
Continue Reading“Grid-Enabled” Water Heating: “Deep Decarbonization” as Crony Environmentalism (Part I)
By Mark Krebs -- March 9, 2016[Editor note: An under-the-radar federal energy intervention is to force fossil-fueled water heating to go electric “regardless of adverse economic impacts,” as Mark Krebs explains in this post and Part II tomorrow.]
In March of 2015, MasterResource.org published my article, Giving (tax) Credit Where Credit Isn’t Due: “Geothermal” Heat Pumps (and beyond) where I asked: “So what’s next, calling toaster ovens and electric resistance water heaters renewable?”
Apparently, the answer is electric resistance water heaters since they are now being depicted (unwittingly or otherwise) as “batteries” for thermally storing “clean” electric energy. But toasters may not be far behind. The following article is about the latest rash of “crony environmentalism” under the guise of “deep decarbonization” through increased electrification of everything possible; regardless of adverse economic impacts.
Introduction & Background
For better or worse, Congress has delegated broad authority to the Department of Energy (DOE) to mandate minimum energy efficiency standards for most major (and many minor) residential and commercial energy consuming products.…
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