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Cheap gas is also the primary driver behind flattening carbon emissions in the USA. As we switch from coal (820 gCO₂-eq/kWh) to fracked gas (490 gCO₂-eq/kWh), o
by acidburnNSA 6y ago
Cheap gas is also the primary driver behind flattening carbon emissions in the USA. As we switch from coal (820 gCO₂-eq/kWh) to fracked gas (490 gCO₂-eq/kWh), our carbon emissions could fall by a lot.
But gas is a a climate wolf in climate sheep's clothing. The end destination (490) is wholly incompatible with all the IPCC low-carbon scenarios that actually mitigate climate change. So we're kind of lulled into a false sense of success as we shut down vast quantities of coal (yay) but also actually low carbon nuclear (11 gCO₂-eq/kWh) (boo) and replace it directly with gas.
(And I do mean directly. When Indian Point shut down in NY earlier this year, NY subtracted 1016.1 MW of low-carbon nuclear capacity and added 1016.1 MW of high-carbon fossil gas [1]!)
We need carbon pricing so we actually add market value to things that are actually low carbon. Shutting down nuclear to replace with gas is so backwards.
[1] See "capacity of electric power plants" spreadsheet from here: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data.php https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data.php
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- throw0101a 6y ago> Shutting down nuclear to replace with gas is so backwards. As a now-deleted comment observed, gas wells often mean methane methane leaks as well. Methane is 84x worse than CO2 for global warming: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential There's a growing move towards new (HFO-1234yf [1]) refrigerants (for AC/HVAC) because a lot of the current ones (R-134a, Freon [2]) aren't good for climate change. We went to the current ones to fix the problem of the old ones (R-12 [3]) with the o-zone layer. * [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,3,3,3-Tetrafluoropropene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,3,3,3-Tetrafluoropropene * [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane * [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichlorodifluoromethane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichlorodifluoromethane
- mrfusion 6y agoBut methane is also short lived in the atmosphere. I worry battling methane and co2 at the same time is dividing the efforts.
- aaaxyz 6y agoThe shorter lifetime is taken into account when measuring its global warming potential in CO2 equivalent. In absolute terms, atmospheric methane is responsible for about half as much radiative forcing as CO2, so it's is crucial to battle methane emissions just as much.
- throw0101a 6y agoFrom the GWP article: > Some gases, again like methane, break down over time, and their heat absorption, or GWP, over the next 20 years is a bigger multiple of CO2 than their heat absorption will be over 100 or 500 years. Values of GWP are estimated and updated for each time frame as methods improve.
- gibolt 6y agoThe real problem is we don't know how much methane is leaking or from where. It isn't required to be tracked.
- ghouse 6y ago> Shutting down nuclear to replace with gas is so backwards. This is the highly-regulated free-market at work. Based on price signals (created by incredible market distortion), gas is less expensive than nuclear. Fans of fission should lobby for (modest) carbon taxes and to end the exemption of fracking from the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts. With those two changes, very quickly the tables would turn.
- beached_whale 6y agoWe need international carbon pricing too. Make it fair. Any country not charging the minimum gets that added to import taxes at all participating counties. Increase the price yearly too.