The climate-change bill that has been moving slowly through the Senate will face a stark political reality when it emerges for committee debate on Tuesday: With Democrats deeply divided on the issue, unless some Republican lawmakers risk the backlash for signing on to the legislation, there is almost no hope for passage.

Like the measure adopted by the House, the legislation favors a cap-and-trade system that would issue permits for greenhouse gas emissions, gradually lower the amount of emissions allowed, and let companies buy and sell permits to meet their needs -- all without adding to the federal deficit, according to projections. But key Republicans are making their opposition clear, even as Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) has enlisted Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) as his most visible GOP ally in gathering support for the bill.

Sen. George V. Voinovich (Ohio), a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee who was initially seen as one of the few Republicans who might consider backing the majority, is helping lead the opposition.

But Georg Kaser, a glaciologist at the Institute for Geography of the University of Innsbruck in Austria, said that the ice measured was only a few hundred years old and that it had come and gone over centuries..

What is more, he suggested that the recent melting had more to do with a decline in moisture levels than with a warming atmosphere.

“Our understanding is that it is due to the slow drying out of ice,” Dr. Kaser said. “It’s about moisture fluctuation.”

But Dr. Thompson emphasized that the melting of ice atop Mount Kilimanjaro was paralleled by retreats in ice fields elsewhere in Africa as well as in South America, Indonesia and the Himalayas.

“It’s when you put those together that the evidence becomes very compelling,” he said.

Cabinet to Meet on Mt. Everest

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal’s cabinet will hold a meeting on Mount Everest to highlight the threat from global warming, which is causing glaciers to melt in the Himalayas, an official said Monday.

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Meanwhile in Antarctica:

from Gus: on the subject of climatic conditions, Antarctica is "the driest continent on earth" as it receives less moisture that the others but having little or no evaporation, it accumulates water as ice. It has been noted that Antarctica is "becoming wetter" with global warming — thus accumulating more ice in the centre while warming, but shedding ice in the form of cold water on the edges due to warming... If you ever possessed a non-defrosting fridge or a kero-fridge, you would know what I mean... Eventually, the engine or the evaporative process (kero-fridge) of the fridge gives up and the inside of the fridge warms up while the accumulating ice becomes "less cold" than it should be...

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That the ice on Mt Killmanjaro evaporates like "dry ice" (solid cold CO2) or melts into water indicates a major weather shift... The great number of such shifts around the world should make us sound the alarms bells... But we're still fiddling-fuddling with the what to do... And we don't want to take the blame because we're too good for that... For the last 150 years we have been tomb-raiding the sequested carbon from former life... The carbon that we burn into CO2 (removing free oxygen in the process) is adding to the green house effect temperature (the green house effect is what saves us from cooking or freezing). We are raising the temperature inside the greenhouse by adding CO2 at an unsustainable rate...

"Howdy, howdy," the driver calls out. He introduces himself as Jimmy Hileman, an oil worker who also farms between shifts out on the rigs. I ask what he makes of the turbines.

"It's beautiful country... and I hate to see the pollution for the eye but it's great for the local economy... and it's great for our clean energy economy. I'm up for it."

Big bucks
The numbers are staggering. This one county, Nolan County, hosts no fewer than 1,400 turbines. Texas has as many as 6,000 overall. Combined output: something like 9,000MW, roughly the output of nine power stations.

At first sight, you might think this couldn't be a clearer example of the United States tackling climate change.

But the Mayor of Sweetwater, Greg Wortham, puts me right on that. Support for wind energy, he explains, is based on the jobs and wealth generated.

A single wind turbine can earn a landowner $10,000 a year. A field of cotton can more than double its revenue if turbines are planted.

It's popular - but whatever you do, don't mention the climate, say Mr Wortham. It's too polarising.

"Carbon footprint, green, climate change - those issues are so charged in the US that really the fact that this produces energy and revenue… and other things we say we're for, there are just certain labels that cause people to form into groups.

"You know, we're against you because you're for this or that."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11837896

Meanwhile:

"Keeping the show on the road" may be all governments can hope for at next week's UN climate talks, the UK admits.

Energy and Climate Secretary Chris Huhne said there was no chance of getting a legally binding deal at the summit in Cancun, Mexico.

The aim, he said, should be to get "within shouting distance".

Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released data showing that greenhouse gas levels continued their rise through 2009.

It follows publication of a scientific paper at the weekend suggesting that without new constraints, global carbon emissions will re-commence rising at 2-3% per year, following a brief lull caused by the recession.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11834518

see toon at top...

Texas is known for fiercely promoting its oil and gas industries, but it’s also the No. 2 renewable energy producer in the U.S. after California. In fact, more than a quarter of all the wind power produced in the United States in 2021 was generated in Texas.

These projects benefit from a lucrative state tax incentive program called Chapter 313. That incentive program expires on Dec. 31, 2022, and the rush of applications for wind and solar energy projects to secure incentives before the deadline is providing a rare window into a notoriously opaque industry.

By reviewing the applications and ownership documents, we were able to track who actually builds and owns a large portion of the nation’s renewable energy, when and how those assets change hands, and who ultimately benefits from the tax incentives.

The results might surprise you. The majority of utility-scale solar and wind energy projects in Texas aren’t owned by companies focused on renewable energy – they’re owned by energy companies or utilities that are better known for fossil fuels, including some that have aggressively opposed renewable energy and climate policies in other states and nationally.

The policy implications of these findings are complex. While these subsidies might lead some energy companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, they also can allow energy companies to continue polluting from existing fossil fuel assets while collecting the subsidy benefits.

Companies Can Save Billions

Chapter 313 limits how much companies have to pay in property taxes for schools if those companies build infrastructure and agree to create jobs. The Texas Legislature passed it in 2001 when a number of large companies, including Intel and Boeing, were considering Texas for an investment location.

Companies using this program can save billions of dollars in local property taxes. However, investigations have revealed high costs per job and minimal requirements for companies. The state’s school funding system also suffered.

The program wasn’t renewed, but companies that applied for the incentive by Aug. 1, 2022, could grandfather in their investments for 10 years of tax benefits. That led to the rush of applications, including for wind and solar projects.

Who’s Proposing Renewable Energy Projects?

We reviewed 191 wind and solar project applications filed in 2022. If built, these projects would almost double the number of renewable energy projects in Texas.

It is notoriously difficult to track the owners of renewable energy projects in the U.S., because most are structured as limited liability companies, or LLCs. However, the application for Texas incentives requires not only information on the owner, but also a signature of an individual representative of the owners. That provides a glimpse into the impact that subsidies can have and who benefits.

We found that just over a third – 69 out of 191 proposed projects – are owned by renewable energy companies, such as Danish company Ørsted and Recurrent Energy, owned by Canadian Solar.

Over half the proposals – 101 – were submitted by energy companies known more for oil and gas, or utilities with fossil fuel assets. This includes the renewable energy subsidiaries of oil supermajors such as Total and BP, and utility owners including EDF, AES and Engie, all of which are major global players.

Some project applications came from investment groups such as DeShaw Group, Cardinal Investment Group and Horus Capital. Apex Clean Energy, a renewable energy subsidiary of the major investment manager Ares Management, frequently showed up in applications.

New Owners Take Over

The proposed projects provide a snapshot of the renewable energy projects’ developers – but what happens after these projects are built?

To figure that out, we also looked at all renewable energy projects completed in 2020 and 2021 that participated in the Chapter 313 incentive program.

To our surprise, almost half of the projects built in 2020 or 2021 had changed hands by 2022. Some were due to company acquisitions. Many other projects were sold.

This changed the composition of owners. While renewable energy companies owned roughly half the projects at the application stage, by 2022, two-thirds of the projects were owned by utilities and energy companies with fossil fuel assets.

The original developers may have benefited from the first year or so of the tax break, but the new owners are poised to reap the majority of the remaining years of the 10-year property tax incentive.

READ MORE:

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/08/11/the-renewables-rush-in-texas/

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