A town in Texas went “100% renewables” and prices jumped 20%

Georgetown Texas did the Fake Renewables Show and Dance — the one where they “buy” 100% renewables but are connected 24/7 to a grid maintained by the usual non-renewable baseload generators. No doubt they paid for the right number of gigawatt hours of renewables but it’s a mere electrical-accounting trick. They didn’t cut the cord, and they’re not paying for all the hidden costs they would incur if they did.

The real cost of the mythical “100% renewables” does not include a gas fired backup station (which they’re using) — but it does include a huge storage system, transmission lines, and frequency control. They’d need something like 60,000 tons of lithium-ion batteries costing about $2 billion dollars* and maybe a couple of dams too.

ENERGY TRANSITIONS

How 100% renewables backfired on a Texas town

Edward Klump, E&E News reporter

 

 

Electricity from various sources commingles on the main Texas grid, and the city said it’s not claiming that electrons produced in West Texas are the same ones people consume in central Texas. Georgetown’s customers have been paying for all-renewable energy since April 2017, based on a standard in Texas, it said. Still, the city said it incorrectly projected the cost of its energy approach by about $26 million over a few years and used one-time solutions to cope with that.

The city ended its 2018 fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2018, with an electric fund balance of $1.97 million, or $6.84 million less than projected.

The monthly bill for an average home in Georgetown that uses 1,000 kWh per month climbed about 22% to $144.35 in 2019 compared with 2018, according to the city. Much of that jump, though not all of it, is related to a higher power cost adjustment.

The big problem for renewables is that fracked gas is too cheap:

If only those gas engineers hadn’t found a way to extract gas so cost effectively — then everyone would be happy paying more for renewable energy:

Joshua Rhodes, a senior energy analyst at Vibrant Clean Energy LLC in Colorado, said people were trying several years ago to figure out how the fracking revolution would change the price of gas. He said there was an expectation that it would recover.

Instead, gas has remained cheap given massive U.S. production numbers. And power prices have been relatively low in Texas’ main power market, despite some summer spikes.

“They made the best-laid plans that they had at the time,” Rhodes said of Georgetown officials. “But luck wasn’t on their side when it came to the price of natural gas.”

Such terrible luck.

Though the poor residents of Georgetown are still paying less for electricity than most Australians.

 

h/t Climate Depot

*Georgetown population is 50,000 so 3% of South Australia — see Tom Quirk and Paul Miskelly’s estimates.

9.9 out of 10 based on 55 ratings

104 comments to A town in Texas went “100% renewables” and prices jumped 20%

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    The comments reported are what might be expected when talking about political electricity, but the most telling statement comes at the end and concerns us;

    “Though the poor residents of Georgetown are still paying less for electricity than most Australians.”

    The damage done to Australia by our super inflated electricity prices is appalling.

    Industry can’t survive. Locally, many shops throughout our city have become empty.

    The political elite has not served us well.

    KK

    241

    • #
      PeterW

      “Industry can’t survive”.

      The lie is that this only affects rich capitalists.

      No industry means fewer jobs, which means more poor people who cannot afford heating and air-conditioning. It means fewer people with taxable incomes, so the tax base and hence social security cannot pay for them, either.

      It means fewer people can escape the poverty trap by starting their own business and/or taking time away from productive work to gain skills and education.

      50

    • #
      Dennis

      And the noose continues to be tightened with a report in The Australian today that climate change is wealth related, we are responsible because of our spending on meat, travelling, etc.

      The socialism masquerading as environmentalism marches on.

      160

    • #
      PeterS

      The political elite, the bureaucracy and the left leaning MSM are doing a far better job at destroying our once great nation better than any foreign power could ever hope for. Eventually when the pain increases enough the majority of the public will wake up to it but by that time it will too late as the damage will be well and truly done. My suggestion to Morrison is to forget budget surpluses. Spend, spend and spend. We might as well have a good time while it lasts. It would be far better than death by a thousand cuts as is happening now. Start major infrastructure projects, such as dams, coal fired power stations, fix the age care problem, etc.. The stimulus the the economy would be phenomenal. Sure we will go broke down the track but that’s going to happen anyway.

      80

      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        Peter S,

        spending is not the way out of this. That’s the socialist left’s standard Keynesian formula. It’s a sub-optimal strategy. There are much better strategies that work more effectively.

        Reduce the Commonwealth debt by running the budget at a surplus.

        What’s needed is macro and micro reform.

        1. Reduce the tax rate for the bottom third of taxpayers. That will increase the velocity of money flow through the economy and grow GDP. Why? Because that cohort spends a greater proportion of its income (of necessity) than any other. Remember Mv = pq = GDP.

        2. Free up the labour market and rid it of the complexity currently associated with the Fair Work Commission’s bias to the unions.

        3. Overturn the fracking ban in the States and Territories and free up the energy market. The Commonwealth can do this by applying conditions to all Commonwealth payments and subventions to the States. The Territories, on the other hand, are Commonwealth Territories – just tell them.

        4. Reduce the stultifying regulation throughout the economy. Green and red tape is distorting investment decisions. Investors are looking to take their capital elsewhere. Remember, capital is foot-loose. For example,does anybody think that the smelters will stay in Australia when the price of electricity is driving them broke? Will manufacturers? Cutting the green tape will fix that at a cost much lower than your “spending” spree.

        Those four things would be a good start.

        I could go on, but is anybody listening?

        30

    • #
      Screaming Nutbag

      Our power prices were inflated through privatisation.
      The retail margin is triple what it is in the UK.
      We’re being ripped off.

      “Australian gas, the soaring cost of which makes up the biggest single component of rising electricity bills, is cheaper in Japan than here.”
      https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/privatisation-has-it-really-been-that-brilliant-just-look-at-electricity-20170621-gwvcyp.html

      24

      • #
        PeterW

        If you think you can do better, then set yourself up as a supplier….. If you can sell it cheaper (without subsidies) then the market will flock to your door.

        10

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    “If only those gas engineers hadn’t found a way to extract gas so cost effectively “

    Quite so.

    “resources are not, they become”

    “Technology as ideas and as the creator of resources is not only correct, it is also liberating.

    It provides a conceptual basis for understanding the fact that the resource base of civilization has expanded, not contracted, with use.”

    https://www.masterresource.org/resourceship/open-ended-resourceship-2012/

    The same people who imagined ‘peak oil’ are the same people who now believe in doomsday global warming …

    Flood of oil is coming, complicating efforts to fight global warming

    “A surge of oil production is coming, whether the world needs it or not.

    The flood of crude will arrive even as concerns about climate change are growing and worldwide oil demand is slowing.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/03/business/energy-environment/oil-supply.html

    That popping sound you might be hearing is the exploding heads of the 11,000 climate zombies.

    30

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Being forced to use renewables reminds being worked over by thugs – they hold still while punching you in the kidneys…..over and over and over…..

    Welcone to the NWO….

    90

    • #
      Screaming Nutbag

      Congratulations, that is without doubt going to be the dumbest things I’ve read on the internet today.

      What is it about people who hate science and their obsession with physical violence?

      25

      • #
        Graeme#4

        Since when did anybody say they hate science?

        10

      • #
        AndyG55

        “What is it about people who hate science and their obsession with physical violence?”

        Your mates in Extinction Rebellion and Antifa, hey nutters. !

        30

      • #
        AndyG55

        “the dumbest things I’ve read on the internet today.”

        Read your own posts sometime. That’ll readjust your opinion of DUMB !!

        20

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    Does beg the question – what is a fair price?

    116

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Whee its set by the market. The market is usually the most efficient price setter.

      Govt will usally mess it up,

      Exhibit A – the govt push to IPCC-driven renewables. A policy bad on zero actual science.

      160

      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        you mean like the market in healthcare in America?
        or do you mean the market for power in Japan?

        In both cases, there were and still are preventable deaths occurring

        Or do you mean the ‘free’ market?

        The free market is a myth, it has never ever worked, it’s just a fairy story put about to shift the blame for excessive pricing.

        15

        • #
          James

          Well I pay $250 per month for my health care in the US. I have what could be described as a non traditional plan, it operates outside the Obamacare health insurance regulations as a health sharing ministry. Last month they paid out 29 million dollars and they has 30 million dollars available to pay. They build reserve funds in case there is an epidemic.

          If I had a government regulated plan I would pay $400 per month and have a $2000 per year deductible (excess). Now what was that about governments having such a wonderful affect in a free market?

          10

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Actually we should call renewables “Trabantism”…so mamed after the awful useless 2 stroke Trabant car which was Soviet “free market” vehicle construction at its “best”.

      Hither to, all renewables shall be compared to a Trabant.

      110

    • #
      AndyG55

      The higher the price, the more those poor dumb “gimme” people you are so “caring” about, suffer.

      40

    • #
      PeterW

      “Fair” is an adequate reward to the provider for their effort, expertise and investment…. Adequate according to THEM.

      Denying people the right to enjoy the results of their input is not fairness, but a form of slavery.

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  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Meanwhile in glorious soviet of irony-and-disconnect-from-reality-land :

    https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-06/australia-could-fall-apart-climate-change-theres-a-way-to-avoid/11673836

    “With abundant low-cost electricity, Australia could grow into a major global producer of minerals needed in the post-carbon world, such as lithium, titanium, vanadium, nickel, cobalt and copper.

    “It could also become the natural supplier of pure silicon, produced from sand or quartz, for which there is fast-increasing global demand

    Ah yes…its called making money and providing jobs from exporting raw materials.

    The low cost of electricty wont be from Soviet-driven renewables, but from coal/gas/nuclear provided electricty. In classic leftist delusional thinking “cheap” means “weve dynamited all the actial useful power statins and goven you a Trabant version of power generation.”

    Tell me again why socialism is a 100% fail every tome?

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    • #
      Screaming Nutbag

      The coal plants are shutting down because the electricity they produce is too expensive.

      If coal plants produced cheap power, their private operators wouldn’t dream of shutting them down.

      Wind power is way cheaper than coal power, and solar power has just dropped down lower than coal power too.

      It’s funny watching all these coalphiles crying salty tears because their dirty black rock has become obsolete.

      222

      • #

        Sorry mate, but you are dead wrong here.

        Solar and wind only produce 30% or less of the time, so lets see how far you get when you switch off all the fossil fuel powered plants. Black pretty quick!!! Where is your “cheap” energy then?

        The RET and forcing of people to take renewables mean that the fossil fuel powered plants are forced to power down which they are not properly set up to do. And thus their efficiency is reduced and costs of power from them have to go up.

        A true cost of power from renewables is if we factor in the back up power and storage necessary for the vast majority of the time they DON’T produce. Then they are far more expensive than coal power.

        There is a direct correlation to power cost and renewable take up.

        140

      • #

        The coal plants are shutting down because the electricity they produce is too expensive.

        Hmm! Really!

        Take just yesterday for example.

        Two large coal fired Units came back on line in the early morning, one in Victoria, and another in NSW. That added an extra 1260MW into the grid.

        Immediately after lunch, as power consumption falls away, as it does every day, The total power supplied by all coal fired power made up 73.5% of all generated power, and that was its highest percentage for the day.

        At that same time, for a period of almost two hours, the wholesale cost for electricity in the three States where there is still coal fired power was the cheapest it was for the day.

        Hmm, I wonder why that was.

        Tony.

        170

      • #

        Go for it Screaming N. Which country has more renewables *and* cheaper retail electricity?

        Obviously if wind is cheaper than coal (and there are no hidden costs and subsidies) nations with more wind power will see falls in electricity pricing.

        180

      • #
        David Maddison

        Screaming Nutbag, let the free market decide. Where on this planet are unreliables cheaper than coal, gas, real hydro or nuclear generation?

        Your ignorance is appalling! Are you a Millenial?

        80

      • #

        I dunno. They say Asians are smart, but think of all that Australian coal they buy. Why, they even use Australian coal to manufacture solar panels and turbine parts for export to…Australia! What silly Billies.

        I say that the people who now make all our stuff just have to be wrong or they’d be like us and importing all their stuff. Pretty soon their atmosphere will be black like in those Guardian stock photos and our atmosphere will be clear with birds fluttering among wind towers…just like in those Guardian stock photos!

        And, hey, with such a low CO2 atmosphere there are bound to be green jobs. Oh, not just eco-tourism and, um, stuff like that, but real jobs like fiddling the numbers down for renewables and bombing skep blogs for GeeUp.

        70

      • #
        Geoffrey Williams

        You really a tree a screaming nut . . .
        GeoffW

        40

      • #
        Lance

        If those renewables are so very inexpensive and reliable, then they do NOT need

        subsidies
        back up power
        voltage and frequency support services
        additional transmission lines
        special feed in tariffs

        or any other politically motivated assistance, nor any special treatment.

        By all means, Wind and Solar should bid into the day-ahead power pool markets and guarantee their supplies by firm contract without exception.

        On the day that the renewables crowd can do all these things, I shall eat a raw frog on video and turn over all my assets to a green charity of your choosing.

        Not holding my breath.

        70

  • #

    I lived there in 1983. My father in law, a physicist, warned that the power was really dirty–and this when the nearby dam was brand new. He designed accelerators and I had to listen to the vacuum pulp clicking whenever I worked on fishing tackle or tried to get a computer to work.

    30

  • #
    OldOzzie

    In the meantime

    11,000 Experts Propose Final Solution To Global Warming: Just Kill Billions Of People

    while in The Australian

    Scientists link ‘climate crisis’ to wealthy populations

    Global surface temperatures are not sufficient to measure climate change, which should instead be tracked by a scorecard of population growth, meat consumption, forest loss and the use of air transport, a new declaration by ­scientists says.

    A document signed by 11,000 scientists from 153 countries declared a “climate emergency” and called for major transformations in the way global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems. In an article published in BioScience, the group said “policymakers and the public ­urgently needed access to a set of indicators that convey the effects of human activities on (greenhouse gas) emissions and the consequent impacts on climate, our ­environment, and society”.

    The scientists said the “climate crisis” was “closely linked to ­excessive consumption of the wealthy lifestyle”.

    “The most affluent countries are mainly responsible for the historical greenhouse gas emissions and generally have the greatest per capita emissions,” the article said.

    The scientists said profoundly troubling signs from human ­activities included sustained increases in human and ruminant livestock populations, per-capita meat production, world gross domestic product, global tree-cover loss, fossil fuel consumption, the number of air passengers, and carbon dioxide emissions.

    Encouraging signs include ­decreases in global fertility rates, decelerated forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon, increases in solar and wind power, and institutional fossil fuel divestment.

    Thomas Newsome from University of Sydney, a co-author of the paper, said scientists had a moral obligation to warn ­humanity of any great threat. “From the data we have, it is clear we are facing a climate emer­gency,” Dr Newsome said. He said measuring global ­surface temperatures would continue to ­remain important. However, he said a “broader set” of indicators should be monitored, including energy consumption, fossil-fuel subsidies and annual economic losses to ­extreme weather.

    The scientists welcomed government bodies making climate emergency declarations, schoolchildren going on strike, “ecocide lawsuits” and grassroots citizen movements demanding change.

    “We urge widespread use of vital signs, which will better allow policymakers, the private sector, and the public to understand the magnitude of this crisis,” the ­scientists said.

    University of Melbourne ­climate science lecturer Linden Ashcroft said the summary showed clearly how much had changed in the environment, population and energy sectors in the past 40 years. Dr Ashcroft said the list of signatories to the paper included at least 350 Australian scientists, with more ecologists and medical researchers than ­climate researchers.

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Yup….this has been the Elites plan all along, but they may start global conflict No. 3 ( Nos. 1 and 2 didnt kill enough “unbelievers” )to create plausable deniability on thier behalf.

      The Elite are occult pagan earth worshippers who see death of those who reject thier version of na*ism as ” benevolent”.

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        Steve, I think that you are wrongly rubishing Paganism which was apparently much more advanced than the screened news we have been given to read might suggest.

        01

        • #
          PeterW

          KK…..

          What on earth makes you think that there is only one , coherent, strand of paganism?

          There is nothing in the origins or history of the term that justifies that claim…… or the idea that “sophistication” rules out the sacrifice of unbelievers.

          20

          • #
            Kalm Keith

            I didn’t say or mean to imply or impute that there were not many strands of paganism.

            Why did you make that statement?

            To equate today’s elites with paganism is not being fair to paganism which existed under many names across the ancient world.

            What do you mean by that last paragraph?

            KK

            00

            • #

              Paganism is like atheism, it is a relativistic term coined by those that think they are right.

              21

            • #
              PeterW

              KK….. Your post speaks of paganism in the singular, and applies the criteria “advanced” as though it applies to the whole.

              That’s not a realistic approach to a collective grouping of beliefs that varies as much as the cultures and practices that they produced…… and yes, that includes ritual sacrifice of and mass-murder of “unbelievers”.

              That not every “pagan” holds any one specific belief or follows a particular practice does not invalidate Steve’s comparison.

              00

    • #
      robert rosicka

      That’s a lot of trough feeding wannabes , all vying for a turn at the trough and myth that is CAGW .

      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-06/climate-change-emergency-11000-scientists-sign-petition/11672776

      90

    • #
      robert rosicka

      That’s 11,000 extinction rebellion shills .

      60

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Yes more brainwashing ‘
      From the Australian Brainwashing Corporation
      Our ABC ?
      No
      Long ago Hijacked !

      50

    • #
      Dennis

      And which green group is behind the story?

      https://www.worthygardenclub.com

      30

    • #

      Siri, please ask Alexa what us turkeys will be getting for Christmas. No, I mean Alexa ask Siri…or is it Siri first?…

      Smart, sustainable, modeled living in the technocratic surveillance state. You know you want it. You don’t even have to know it to know it or want it to want it. It’s way ahead of you!

      50

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      This one quote holds a key to understanding what must be done next.

      “Global surface temperatures are not sufficient to measure climate change, which should instead be tracked by a scorecard of population growth, meat consumption, forest loss and the use of air transport, a new declaration by ­scientists says”.

      If we could stop “scientists” from making alarming “new declarations” we would be better off.

      Obviously, there are too many Scientists.

      Redeploy them with axes, shovels, bush saws etc to clear dangerous undergrowth from the long suffering Australian Environment.

      Super useful, and after 10 years they could be put to write a “paper” on it declaring the obvious, that reduction in vegetative overburden reduces fire intensity in proportion to the number of scientists clearing each hectare.

      Fat chance.

      KK

      60

    • #
      Travis T. Jones

      If only the 11.000 climate doomsday zombie scientists saw their doctor for an assisted suicide note, the planet would be saved by now.

      30

  • #

    “They’d need something like 60,000 tons of lithium-ion batteries costing about $2 billion dollars…”

    That does it! This will not stand! Morales is definitely a baby-hating meanie and Bolivia totally needs regime change!

    40

  • #
    PeterS

    I think we can all agree now that the Morrison government is not really interested in honoring his promise to reduce power prices. Typical lying politicians.

    90

  • #
    • #
      Brian

      So true Wazz. The real hypocrisy with the ACT is that they refuse to have any of those ecology damaging, unsightly wind turbines anywhere in the ACT. Even their intermittent and variable solar is primarily outside the border. But surely the Green dominated ACT government would not lie to us about being 100% renewable. They must have special green pass filters on the incoming transmission lines that sort the lovely wiggly green amps from those horrible black fossil fuel ones.

      50

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    Up above, in blog clogger land comes this.

    ” what is a fair price?”

    Actually it’s “fare” which is the acknowledged word to indicate that we understand we have to pay our way in the world.

    The sniveling victimhood indicator, “fair” is used by manipulators and professional victims who want a “share” in what they see as unearned wealth that’s evident in society all around them.
    They know all this because while waiting for the next social security hit they saw it on TV on the Kardashians show.

    KK

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    • #
      PeterS

      All is fair in love and war. Given we have in effect a war situation where the enemy are the social justice warriors who hate traditional Western values and are desperately trying to tear them down, what’s a fair price depends on which side one has taken.

      30

      • #
        PeterW

        Actually, no.

        “Fair” actually has a meaning that we are not at liberty to discard at our convenience, no matter how much the SJWs of this world whine and lie.

        Even that old cliche is obviously wrong. Deceit and betrayal are not “fair” in love, and the Nuremberg trials petty firmly established that I doesn’t work for war, either.

        30

        • #
          PeterS

          I agree if you are talking about absolute fairness. The trouble though is the left are relativists and so anything goes. What they believe is fair is more often than not not fair. Shades of 1984 and doublespeak.

          20

          • #
            OriginalSteve

            When Communists speak of peace, they usually mean the peace of the grave…if you disagree with them.

            The trouble with the hard Left is that it appears to be pretty much morality free -the end justifies the means, whereas most people have a form of moral governor on them where the meansa re controlled.

            This is possibly why the old saying of “you vote yourself into socialism but have to shoot your way out of it” applies?

            30

    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      So many words and so little logic. I asked a simple question, none of you have answered it.

      Some other examples where the market can not be trusted.

      Standing offers for power.
      Standing offers for insurance, health care
      Water entitlements.

      Royal Commissions:
      Aged care
      Banking

      Yet despite solar and wind having a minnows share of the market they are responsible for all the problems?

      Maybe this blog should be renamed “Back when I was young…”

      13

      • #
        PeterW

        The problem is that the market is not free, but corrupted by political meddling.

        The Socialist “solution” is even more government meddling

        10

  • #
    pat

    accidentaly posted this just now in jo’s previous thread.

    sadly, for months, 2GB’s Michael McLaren has obsessed that he is the first & only person in the world who understands that CAGW – if true – is caused by over-population. this morning, he was amazed to find a population piece in The Conversation (he clearly didn’t follow the article to its intended CAGW audience at the upcoming ANZSEE conference):

    AUDIO: 12min06: 6 Nov: 2GB: Michael McLaren Wake Up Australia: No Australian city has a long-term vision for living sustainably
    Michael speaks to Professor Mike Berry, Emeritus Professor at RMIT University, about his co-authored article that claims that no Australian city has a long-term vision for living sustainably…
    https://www.2gb.com/no-australian-city-has-a-long-term-vision-for-living-sustainably/

    5 Nov: TheConversation: No Australian city has a long-term vision for living sustainably. We can’t go on like this
    by Mike Berry, Emeritus Professor, RMIT University
    and Ian Lowe, Emeritus Professor, School of Science, Griffith University
    Disclosure statements
    Mike Berry has received funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, an independent organisation funded by universities and the nine federal, state and territory governments, and the Australian Research Council.
    Ian Lowe was president of the Australian Conservation Foundation from 2004 to 2014. He is now chair of the Wakefield Futures Group.

    This article is part of a series on rebalancing the human–nature interactions that are central to the study and practice of ecological economics, which is the focus of the 2019 ANZSEE Conference in Melbourne later this month.

    More complex policies like finding ways of diverting population growth to non-metropolitan regions will take careful thought and experimentation. This might include ***relocating government agencies to provincial cities…
    http://theconversation.com/no-australian-city-has-a-long-term-vision-for-living-sustainably-we-cant-go-on-like-this-123916

    ***start with theirABC.

    ANZSEE: PROGRAM
    Our great set of keynote speakers and panels spans some black humour from the inimitable Rod Quantockat our vegetarian conference dinner to a panel on the School Strike for Climate (SS4C) movement, with student protesters Harriet O’Shae Carre and Kaity Thompson, led by climate campaigner David Spratt…READ ON
    https://anzsee.org.au/2019-anzsee-conference/program-news/

    ANZSEE (The Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics): 2019 ANZSEE Conference
    24–26 November 2019, RMIT University, Melbourne
    2 COMMENTS:
    Amartya Pani: If my abstract will select, then any travel Grant available as a early carrier research scholar from India?
    REPLY: ANZSEE: Thank you for your interest. No travel grant will be available as this conference is run with a shoe string budget.
    https://anzsee.org.au/2019-anzsee-conference/

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    • #
      pat

      ANZSEE lists Boyd Blackwell as President:

      LinkedIn: Dr Boyd Blackwell, Research Economist, Evaluation and Analysis at NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, Armidale, New South Wales
      I am an applied economist interested in broadening the ‘eye glass’ to include social and environmental objectives. I have worked across public, private and university sectors and hold a PhD in Economics from the University of Queensland…
      True to this philosophy, in addition to my research interests in rural, regional and remote economies, I am currently President of the Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics during the delivery of two biennial conferences in Adelaide 2017 and Armidale 2015…

      Experience
      Research Economist, Evaluation and Analysis
      NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
      Jul 2019 – Present

      Principal
      AquaEquis Economic Consulting
      Sep 2008 – Present

      Honorary Associate, Adjunct Researcher
      University of Tasmania
      Jan 2011 – Present

      Senior Research Officer
      The Australian National University
      Dec 2018 – Jun 2019

      Various roles: Acting Manager, Senior Project Officer, Senior Policy Officer, Ecological Economist
      Queensland Government
      Oct 2001 – Dec 2005

      Assistant Lecturer, Tutorial Fellow, Tutorial Assistant
      The University of Queensland
      1995 – 2001
      ETC ETC
      https://au.linkedin.com/in/dr-boyd-blackwell-8a372b38

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  • #

    In the body of the text above, it says this:

    Though the poor residents of Georgetown are still paying less for electricity than most Australians.

    Well, in actual fact, those residents (while even paying a higher price than others in Texas) are paying less than nearly EVERY Australian.

    I want you to look at these two pages

    This first one at this link shows the average price per unit of electricity (cents per KWH) for the U.S. for each of the three main sectors of power consumption. over the years, and then the Months of the most recent two years and then this year.

    The average cost per KWH in the Residential Sector is 13 cents per KWH. Even taking into account the exchange rate, that’s still way cheaper than what we pay here in Oz.

    This second one at this link shows the breakdown by State, and note that Texas pays 11.8 cents per KWH, and with the adjustment for that exchange rate that’s 17 cents per KWH, cheaper than anywhere in Australia with any retailer.

    Also note when you check your bill that there is a cost per KWH, in my case 25.5 cents per KWH. Now also note that there is an added cost there indicated as a Supply Charge. That’s a dollar a day, or extrapolated, the equivalent of an extra 5 cents per KWH. So that takes the total out to around 30 cents per KWH. Okay you say, that supply charge is pretty much standard. Well, maybe, but I used to keep all those electricity bills, and I had them going back 20 or more years and when checking back, that supply charge was a standard $2.80 back then, and is now (for the same 90 day billing period, $89) so don’t tell me it’s an inflationary rise. It’s a way of adding to the cost without looking like it’s an addition to the unit cost.

    Either way, there’s not a State in Mainland U.S. which pays more for electricity than we do here in Australia. Keep in mind those States which pay the most in the U.S. those in the North East, they are all net importers for all their electricity, as they have no power plants in their States, and that’s why it costs them more, but even then, they are cheaper than here in Australia.

    Tony.

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    OriginalSteve

    Hey…the Finns have plenty of ( ahem ) horsepower…..

    Reckon the Texans might have a few horses too.

    Ay my daughters riding school, they literally have small mountains of this stuff after muckin out. Each stable produces at least one wheel barrow per day of waste …might as well either biomass digest it, or let it dry and burn it to make power.

    https://helsinkihorseshow.fi/en/natural-horse-power-provides-heat-and-electricity-to-helsinki-2/

    “FEI Press Release

    “For the fifth year in a row all electricity used at the Helsinki International Horse Show, which hosted yesterday’s Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping qualifier, was generated entirely from horse manure. Over 150 megawatt hours of energy was created from the 100 tons of manure collected from competing horses during the four-day event in the Finnish capital.

    “The manure-to-energy system developed by Fortum, an international company specialising in electricity generation, heat production and waste recycling, met all the equestrian event’s electricity needs, including lighting, scoreboards and cell phone charging stations. The surplus energy that was generated went back into the national grid to heat homes in the Helsinki area.

    …………….

    “”The manure-to-energy system has also provided a way of dealing with the waste disposal issue for stables in a country with stringent controls on the use of horse manure as a fertiliser and the disposal of manure in landfill sites.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Biomass like other “renewables” are not free. Nutrients are removed from the soil which must then be replaced by some other method, probably with energy-intensive to manufacture fertiliser.

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      • #

        Sort of solves the ABC Gold Walkely program about the horsies going off to the knackery problem, eh!

        Just send the horsies off to their own little power plant.

        They could perhaps use that generated power to run the tiniest fraction to supply the power for the ABC, perhaps one of the largest consumers in the Country, and you don’t see them cutting back like they exhort us to, eh!

        Tony.

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        • #
          Kalm Keith

          Great idea Tony.

          Get ABC on fully renewables and locate the plant on site.

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          • #

            The ABC has more journalists overseas than all the other networks combined and doubled, all paid by the taxpayer. Some flit around their base their whole damned continent in fact on a daily basis, and you can bet they fly for that, and it isn’t in the cheap seats, and stay in the best accommodation. Other Networks take their feed from affiliate stations.

            How many U.S. correspondents does the ABC need?

            And seriously, just how much crap is there on the ABC. No other station would take 80% of the pap on the ABC.

            Their news programs, during the news mind you, have pumped up ads for programs later that evening passed off as news stories.

            And note now how they have adopted the ‘new’ stylebook language for climate change.

            And please don’t even begin to try and find out what some of their talking heads are paid. Imagine asking what they get and some of them only work half an hour a night for four days a week, and even then it’s just intros and outros. I guess the extra is for being able to give the right facial expression at the right time, or feign disgust when needed, or interrupt (some) politicians at every occasion, and let others say whatever they want.

            Tony.

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            • #

              The ABC has more journalists overseas than all the other networks

              I know your intent was to mean foreign correspondents but as for just plain journalists it is incorrect given that the 9-fairfax group has newspapers in NZ which employ more “overseas”.

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            • #
              OriginalSteve

              And i suspect dachas on the yarra too…..

              Life is good in the Politburo

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        And biomass is not even clean when compared to the ultimate.

        Mature, condensed, purified biomass is far better than the current fad of Instant Biomass.

        The only issue with the use of matured biomass is the name ; Coal. For some reason it has been slimed.

        Coal, or UB, is unbeatable for its purity, ease of handling, lack of polluting ingredients and functionality.

        Let’s all get behind UB, Ultimate Biomass! for a cleaner world.

        KK

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    • #
      Binny Pegler

      I know a bit about horses – It’d be cheaper to power their generator with dollar bills 🙂
      But seriously the energy needed to produce the horse feed, that created that 100 tons of manure would be well in excess of 150 megawatts

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  • #
    David Maddison

    There’s no way the true cost of unreliables is only 20% more than proper power generation.

    The true cost should only be interpreted in terms of a 100% unreliable based system, disconnected from the existing grid.

    To make a system with wind and solar unreliables plus massive storage for at least ten days of power with no wind in winter (hence little sun) would probably cost at least five times per household as a conventional grid connected system and probably much more. I am assuming free market conditions.

    I am sick of advocates of unreliables quoting a certain cost which is ALWAYS secretly based on reliability due to backup from reliables.

    Honest comparisons must be based on 100% reliables or 100% unreliables.

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  • #
    pat

    more on ANZSEE:

    5 Nov: TheConversation: What is ‘ecological economics’ and why do we need to talk about it?
    by Anitra Nelson, Associate Professor, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
    and Brian Coffey, Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University, RMIT University
    This article is part of a series on rebalancing the human–nature interactions that are central to the study and practice of ecological economics, which is the focus of the 2019 ANZSEE Conference in Melbourne later this month.

    As environmental crises and the urgency to create ecological sustainability escalate, so does the importance of ecological economics. This applied, solutions-based field of studies is concerned with sustainability and development, rather than efficiency and growth. Also, given that cities account for 70-80% of global economic activity and associated resource use, emissions and waste, they are central to finding solutions to the challenge of sustainability…

    Ecological economists also consider global issues such as carbon emissions, deforestation, overfishing and species extinctions…
    You’re probably familiar with some core concepts of ecological economics. These include “steady-state economies”, “carrying capacity”, “ecological footprints” and “environmental justice”…

    Presenters to the ANZSEE conference of course include ecologists and economists. But there are also social and physical scientists, sociologists, philosophers, historians, planners and sustainability experts…
    Contributors will also talk about just transitions, commoning, the genuine progress indicator (GPI), School Strike for Climate (SS4C), resilience, decarbonisation and ethical investment…READ ALL
    https://theconversation.com/what-is-ecological-economics-and-why-do-we-need-to-talk-about-it-123915

    the ANZSEE program, which appears to be organised by Govt insiders – see comment #12 – says it will include:

    “a panel on the School Strike for Climate (SS4C) movement, with student protesters ***Harriet O’Shae Carre and ***Kaity Thompson, led by climate campaigner ***David Spratt”

    VIDEO: 4min33sec: 24 Sept: ABC 7.30 Report: Australian climate striker, 15, takes fight to New York
    Harriet O’Shea Carre, 15, is one of the founding members of the School Strike For Climate (SS4C) movement in Australia. Ms O’Shea Carre has just taken her fight all the way to New York City, where she was invited to attend the United Nations Youth Climate Summit.
    TRANSCRIPT:
    LEIGH SALES: Harriet O’Shea Carre helped start the Australian strikes last year. She was inspired by Swedish teenager, Greta Thunberg…

    HARRIET O’SHEA CARRE: My name is Harriet O’Shea Carre, I’m 15 years old, I live in ***Castlemaine, and I started the School Strike 4 Climate Action movement in Australia.
    We’re at a point in time where it’s an emergency and we’re not seeing any action from our leaders.
    We decided to go on strike because at the moment there’s like, there’s so much science and evidence around, you know, what’s happening to our climate at the moment and it’s really just been ignored…

    ***DAVID CARRE, FATHER: It is nerve-wracking watching her take on the world but she’s courageous, really willing to speak out and just take action…

    SCOTT MORRISON, PRIME MINISTER (November, 2018): And what we want is more learning in schools and less activism in schools.

    DAVID CARRE: To be so dismiss(sic) of them, and to suggest that they’re trying to get away with wagging school, and that, is just quite offensive…
    DAVID CARRE: Her mother and I are going to go down to the train station and go down to Melbourne for the big strike and join with all the youngsters that are here in Australia, striking while Harriet’s preparing for the big strike over there.
    So we’re really looking forward to hopefully a great big turn-out across the country and across the world…
    https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/australian-climate-striker,-15,-takes-fight-to-new/11542846

    the father David (who appears from 1min44sec in) appears to be the same man pictured at this LinkedIn!

    LinkedIn: David Carre, Director at Tamar Hydro Pty Ltd, Ballarat
    Apr 2015 – Present
    Design, manufacture, and service of hydroelectric power stations…

    Engineer / Managing Director
    Electrologix Pty Ltd
    Apr 2010 – Present
    ***Castlemaine
    Consulting electrical engineer for industrial controls, automation, machine & functional safety, information & communications technology (ICT), SCADA, telemetry, lighting design.
    Industry sectors: mining, food & bev, manufacturing, water & wastewater, renewable energy…

    Electrical Engineer
    NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
    Aug 1985 – Jul 1988

    Electrical Engineer – Cooperative Education Program
    NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
    Aug 1982 – Sep 1984

    Education includes: Monash, Penn State
    https://au.linkedin.com/in/david-carre-09a89035

    more to come.

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    • #
      pat

      StopAdani t-shirts…climate election…next Govt must declare a climate emergency; Kevin Andrews won the seat. features ANZSEE participant, Kaity Thompson and ABC Q&A sensation(?), Marco Bellemo:

      VIDEO: 10min25sec: 24 Apr: Facebook: Jagajaga Youth 4 Climate is with StellaforMenzies and Warrandytecan.
      ***Kaity Thompson, representing JY4C, and Marco Bellemo, from various youth climate organisations (both school strikers), speaking about the urgency of strong climate action at the Menzies Candidate Forum two days ago! “If [politicians] do not take strong climate action, [they] will be complicit in depriving our generation, and those still to come, of a safe future.” – Kaity
      Kevin Andrews #ClimateElection #MenziesVotes
      https://www.facebook.com/jagajagayouth4climate/posts/kaity-thompson-representing-jy4c-and-marco-bellemo-from-various-youth-climate-or/316177679072491/

      3 Dec 2018: ABC Q&A: Kids Strike
      MARCO BELLEMO asked: I am greatly concerned about my future and the future of children all around the world who will suffer the consequences of climate change more than anyone else. A few days ago, thousands of students around Australia like me went on strike from school to demand that the government acts on climate change. When will the Government start to care about my future and children around the world, by acting on climate change and create a strong climate policy?…
      TRANSCRIPT:
      HAMISH MACDONALD, ABC: So, when you hear Amanda Vanstone saying that both major parties do care about young people, do you believe that?
      MARCO BELLEMO: I don’t believe that because I see the Liberal Party still wanting to build new coal when we should clearly be transitioning to renewable energy to help save lives. Like, climate change is killing people. Itfs causing so much natural disasters. We need to transition. And if youfre supporting the fossil fuel industry, then you donft truly care about the future generations…ETC
      https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/kids-strike/10644806

      4 Dec 2018: SMH: ‘I don’t believe that’: how a 17-year-old student stole the show on Q&A
      By Neil McMahon
      We met Marco Bellemo, who asked a question about climate change, in the wake of last Friday’s nationwide student strike that clogged Australian cities and towns in a youthful call to arms in defence of their own future…
      Billy Bragg closed the show with his 2017 song with a climate-change theme, King Tide and the Sunny Day Flood.
      He opened it with this: “I want to dedicate this to Marco and his mates.”…
      https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/i-don-t-believe-that-how-a-17-year-old-student-stole-the-show-on-q-and-a-20181204-p50jzg.html

      ‘You don’t care about my future’: Baby-faced student, 17, who organised chaotic school walk-outs over climate change slams politicians for failing to take action
      •Teenage school student has slammed politicians for climate change inaction
      •Marco Bellemo, from Melbourne, appeared on the ABC’s Q&A program Monday
      Daily Mail – 4 Dec 2018 by Bryant Hevesi
      A teenager has launched a scathing attack on politicians for failing to act on climate change…
      ‘I see the Liberal Party still wanting to build new coal when we should clearly be transitioning to renewable energy to help save lives,’ he said.
      ‘Climate change is killing people. It’s causing so much natural disasters.’
      Marco was applauded on social media for his comments on climate change.
      ‘The hero we need right now,’ comedian and television host Dan IIic tweeted.
      ‘Young bloke is a legend. Fight for your right for a clean environment,’ another tweeted, while other comments included ‘Marco for PM. It appears he put more thought into this question than the Libs’…

      NO 3 FOR ANZSEE:

      Wikipedia: Climate Code Red (Authors: ***David Spratt, Philip Sutton)
      Climate Code Red: The Case for Emergency Action is a 2008 book which presents scientific evidence that the global warming crisis is worse than official reports and national governments have so far indicated. The book argues that we are facing a “sustainability emergency” that requires a clear break from business-as-usual politics. The authors explain that emergency action to address climate change is not so much a radical idea as an indispensable course we must embark upon.[1] Climate Code Red draws heavily on the work of a large number of climate scientists, including James E. Hansen…
      Co-author David Spratt is a Melbourne businessman, climate-policy analyst, and co-founder of the Carbon Equity network, and director of the Breakthrough – National Centre for Climate Restoration.[4] Co-author Philip Sutton is convener of the Greenleap Strategic Institute and Assistant Convenor of the Climate Emergency Network.
      The book was launched by the Governor of Victoria, Professor David de Kretser in Parliament House in Melbourne, Victoria, on July 17, 2008.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_Code_Red

      3 Aug: Guardian: Australia’s climate stance is inflicting criminal damage on humanity
      The government opts for conflict rather than change, while suppressing details on the implications of its climate inaction
      by Ian Dunlop and David Spratt
      The neoliberal market economy, with its unregulated consumption and rapacious short-term outlook, is destroying modern civilisation…
      The result is Brexit, Trump’s Mexican wall, escalating Middle East tension, the US-China trade standoff, a global arms and space race, Amazon deforestation and much more…

      In May, we published a short paper that included a simple 3C global warming scenario for 2050, outlining the hard-nosed practical impact of climate change, as opposed to more theoretical scientific and business risk disclosure situations. This information was not new, but prompted extensive global discussion: some considered the situation entirely credible, others felt it too extreme…

      In response, we recently published a follow-up analysis: “The Third Degree: Evidence and implications for Australia of climate-related security risk”, detailing the basis for our assumptions on issues such as chronic water shortages, coastal inundation, mass migration and extreme heat – plus an in-depth global 3C scenario originally published by US national security experts in 2007…

      Australia’s climate stance is totally untenable in geopolitical terms, nothing less than a crime against humanity, as Pacific countries continually point out…
      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/03/australias-climate-stance-is-inflicting-criminal-damage-on-humanity

      Nov 2019: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Vol 75 Issue 6
      Apocalypse Soon? How civilisation might end – and how to make sure it doesn’t
      Featres:
      Stories of technological threat—and hope
      By John Mecklin | Climate Change, Disruptive Technologies, Doomsday Clock, Nuclear Weapons
      Why we’re publishing an issue full of Doomsday descriptions.

      Former Defense Secretary William Perry: Why we must describe doomsday to keep it from happening…

      Revisiting the climate collapse: The view from Nuuk in the year 2070
      By David Spratt.
      How poorly-mitigated fossil fuel use over the next 50 years would cause massive disruption of human societies…
      https://thebulletin.org/issue/bulletin-of-the-atomic-scientists-volume-75-issue-6/

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    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Brilliant, and he has nothing to gain personally from this.

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    • #
      Serp

      David Carre appears to be a disciple of Michael Mann judging by what is on his CV.

      20

  • #
    pat

    5 Nov: Sky UK: Bristol bans diesel cars from 2021 in bid to improve air quality
    All privately owned diesel vehicles will be barred from entering the proposed city centre clean air zone for eight hours a day.
    Bristol is set to become the first UK city to ban diesel cars in a bid to improve air quality.
    Mayor Marvin Rees saying they had a “moral, ecological and legal duty” to cut pollution after the measure was approved by the city council on Tuesday evening.

    Under the plans, all privately owned diesel vehicles will be barred from entering a clean air zone in the city centre every day between 7am and 3pm by March 2021.
    The proposals are subject to government approval and consultation with local residents and businesses.

    Mr Rees told the council: “We have a moral, we have an ecological and we have a legal duty to clean up the air we breathe.”…
    A car scrappage scheme has also been proposed in a bid to encourage road users to switch to less damaging alternatives.

    Diesel-powered commercial vehicles like buses, taxis and heavy goods vehicles will also face restrictions but efforts will be made to minimise disruption.
    Labour cabinet member for housing Paul Smith referred to a recent Bristol-wide study which found that “at least 300 people a year are dying because of air pollution”…

    Mr Rees said: “A city is like a big Rubik’s Cube – you move one thing, other things come out of kilter. That’s why we take the time to think about it and begin to take action.”…

    Conservative councillor Claire Hiscott said people on low incomes could be affected as “if you need to get to the hospital and you have a diesel vehicle you will face a hefty fine if you cross that zone in an emergency.”
    Critics complained about the decision, one voicing concerns about the impact on businesses, another arguing the move should be delayed to allow new owners of diesels to change…
    https://news.sky.com/story/bristol-bans-diesel-cars-from-2021-in-bid-to-improve-air-quality-11855120

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  • #
    Penguinite

    So this is the real reason why Dan the Man Andrews has stopped Gas exploration in Victoria! So cheap it underscores the high cost of renewables! The truth will out, eventually

    20

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      It will take the deaths of innocents via things like loss of power to hospitals or nursing homes,before Comrade Andews is removed….

      Sad that ignorance requires such a shunt to to remove it…

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    • #
      Serp

      It’s criminal of the green fanatic Andrews to prohibit gas exploration in the Gippsland Basin given that there are locations where it is freely venting to the atmosphere and can be lit.

      30

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      🙂 🙂 🙂

      10