Michael Rosenthal

(10/2018) The issue of energy sources in America continues onward with new developments on a daily basis. Previous articles of Real Science have discussed various aspect of the issue, including our local sources. Let’s start by looking at our energy sources as supplied to us by Potomac Edison. The data below is for the period January 1 through December 31, 2017.

The total of renewable energy is only 4.96 %! Included in this number is captured methane gas (0.33%), hydroelectric (1.13%), solar (0.18 %), solid waste (0.47%), wind (2.63%), and wood and other biomass (0.22%). The largest source of our energy is nuclear at 35.93%, followed by coal at 32.22% and gas at 26.71 %. Finishing out to 100% is Non-Renewable Fuel Cells at 0.03%, and oil at 0.16%.

Not surprisingly, air emissions produce a good deal of carbon dioxide, the combustion product of carbon (remember, I’m a chemist!) at 948.43 pounds emitted per megawatt-hour of electricity produced. Carbon Dioxide is a major contributor to climate change. Only small amounts of sulfur dioxide (0.79 pounds per megawatt-hour) and nitrogen oxides (0.66% pounds per megawatt-hour) are produced here. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides form acid rain, and nitrogen oxides also react to form ground level ozone, a component of smog.

As I’ve previously expressed and discussed, the best sources of energy for the environment are nuclear power, wind, hydroelectric, and solar.

Our current national government has been trying hard to rebuild and stabilize the coal industry. Burning coal is very bad for the environment, and coal mining is very dangerous to miners’ health. The current federal proposal would empower individual states to establish emission standards for coal-fired plants rather than speeding their retirement. This plan would cause 12 times as much increase in released carbon dioxide into the air. The previous administration had a plan to drastically cut the use of coal, and they had a plan in place that would thus reduce emissions by much larger numbers, looking to eventually phase out the use of coal in producing electricity in America entirely.

I certainly sympathize with the plight of coal miners, both from health impact and from declining job opportunity. However, we now have much better and safer ways to produce electricity, and I strongly believe we should be phasing out the use of coal to produce power. I feel it would be much better to find new creative ways to bolster the economy and find jobs in the states where coal mining once prospered.

The way laws are written in the United States offer individual states a great deal of flexibility in developing policy. Just as West Virginia wishes to keep coal mining alive, California is developing an individualistic energy policy that differs greatly from most of the other states.

The State Legislature in California has approved a bill mandating that by 2045, all of the state’s electricity will come from renewable resources such as wind, solar, and hydropower. The original California bill called for 50% renewable by 2030. California’s broader effort is to cut emissions from all sources by 40 percent from 1990 to 2030.

A Global Climate Action Summit of some 4,000 climate advocates, foreign dignitaries, investors, and state and local officials, has been held in San Francisco from September 12-14, co-hosted by California governor Jerry Brown and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, with Al Gore and John Kerry participating. The focus was on speeches and seminars on the roles that technology, municipalities, states, and businesses can play to combat climate change through new and tougher state and local regulations, particularly to combat methane leaks. The message from the conference was for states and communities to take action to combat climate change. America’s emissions account for about one-fifth of the world’s total carbon emissions, second only to carbon pollution from China. Details of the conference can be accessed on the website: www.globalclimateactionsummit.org.

The international commitment of reducing carbon emissions was the Paris Accord, a world wide agreement struck in Paris in December 2015. President Trump announced his decision to withdraw the United States from that agreement on June 1, 2017. Within days of that announcement, more than 1200 governors, mayors, and business persons committed to honoring the terms of the Paris Accord. They asserted that the results of the Paris Accord offered the best opportunity for American citizens, industry, and workers, and the San Francisco Summit offered further development of this direction.

Though California leads in this effort, it is not the only state taking this stance. Massachusetts is also making a plan of its own. But California is special! It has a long record of leading the country on environmental protection with a bipartisan participation. In 2006 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a landmark bill designed to reduce carbon dioxide emission from various sources, while the federal government was taking no action on the issue.

The California law was broad-based, affecting businesses and consumers by requiring cleaner cars, energy-efficient buildings, and alternative fuels. Four years later, in 2010, Governor Schwarzenegger beat back a coalition of business leaders who tried to neuter that law via a ballot initiative.

The current administration announced a rollback in August of a part of the fuel efficiency standards for automobiles, stripping California of its historic right, conferred by federal clean air laws, to set its own clean air quality standards. These standards, which have been adopted by 13 other states besides California, promised consumers an increase in cleaner air through more efficient cars. If you’ve ever driven in Los Angeles, you know how many cars there are there spewing gasoline combustion fumes.

California has been having staggering climate change impact. Its wildfires have set a new record for their intensity, scope, and destruction. It is expected more wildfires are to come, and rising oceans are also a serious threat to the California shoreline. These and other events all can be reliably related to climate change through carbon dioxide emission.

There are those who deny that climate change exists. But virtually all scientists agree that we are in a very serious situation that will only get worse without action. Governor Brown recently stated, "In California, facts and science still matter." "These findings are profoundly serious and will continue to guide us as we confront the apocalyptic threat of irreversible climate change."

Michael is former chemistry professor at Mount. St. Marys

Read other articles by Michael Rosenthal