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Submission + - UN backs fossil fuel divestment campaign (theguardian.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: The UN organisation in charge of global climate change negotiations is backing the fast-growing campaign persuading investors to sell off their fossil fuel assets. It said it was lending its “moral authority” to the divestment campaign because it shared the ambition to get a strong deal to tackle global warming at a crunch UN summit in Paris in December.

“We support divestment as it sends a signal to companies, especially coal companies, that the age of ‘burn what you like, when you like’ cannot continue,” said Nick Nuttall, the spokesman for the UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC).

The move is likely to be controversial as the economies of many nations at the negotiating table heavily rely on coal, oil and gas. In 2013, coal-reliant Poland hosted the UNFCCC summit and was castigated for arranging a global coal industry summit alongside. Now, the World Coal Association has criticised the UNFCCC’s decision to back divestment, saying it threatened investment in cleaner coal technologies.

Several analyses have shown that there are more fossil fuels in proven reserves than can be burned if catastrophic global warming is to be avoided, as world leaders have pledged. Divestment campaigners argue that the trillions of dollars companies continue to spend on exploration for even more fossil fuels is a danger to both the climate and investors’ capital.

Comment Imprisonment to death (Score 1) 1081

by mdsolar (#49259389) Attached to: How To Execute People In the 21st Century
Imprisonment to death seems to work for civil courts. It used to be that armies on the march or in battle did not have the facilities to deal with mutiny less drastically so they would have to use summary execution, but these days that is probably not the case. The US executed one soldier for desertion in WWII, and that after a court martial. Still, it is the reason officers have sidearms.

It is worth considering that corporal punishment was also a lack of facilities issue. It is cruel and unusual now because prisons are available. But use of stocks or flogging or maiming are a sign of a society too poor to afford prisons. Justice must be seen to be done, and the punishment must be deserved. When a society is poor, it has to have punishments that still seem proportionate.

Submission + - Cost of 2 new SC reactors up to $11 billion because of construction delays (thestate.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: SCANA Corp. on Thursday filed a petition for a hearing before the S.C. Public Service Commission for it to approve higher costs and later completion dates for two reactors under construction at the V.C. Summer plant.

In the petition, SCE&G, the corporation’s electric utility, said the cost for completing the new nuclear units at the Jenkinsville plant are likely to rise by $1.2 billion from its initial $9.8 billion price tag – to $11 billion. Completion of the Unit 2 reactor will be pushed back three years from 2016 to 2019.

The Unit 3 reactor at the plant north of Columbia is not expected to be finished until June 2020, after an initial projected completion date of 2019, the company said.

Comment Doing the whole thing (Score 1) 262

by mdsolar (#49252449) Attached to: US Wind Power Is Expected To Double In the Next 5 Years
First, I should point out that land area is not an issue for solar. http://www.csmonitor.com/Envir... But when we speak of wind or solar doing the whole job, (about our only choice when the oil, gas, coal and uranium run out) certainly we can see how some energy needs will require fuels. Aviation would be difficult without jet fuel. But synthetic hydrocarbon fuels are already a part of Sachs' Deep Decarbonization Pathways. http://unsdsn.org/what-we-do/d... Calm nights can be handled that way as well.

Comment Re:Things that didn't contribute to reduction in C (Score 2) 283

The pace for nuclear in China seems slow compared to wind and solar. http://www.worldnuclearreport.... and nuclear power seems to be in a rut so probably it's only contribution is not adding more opportunity cost by being moribund. http://www.worldnuclearreport....

Comment Re:Misallocation of resources (Score 3, Insightful) 262

by mdsolar (#49249773) Attached to: US Wind Power Is Expected To Double In the Next 5 Years
Natural gas from gas wells is not just burned off or vented. It is sold. There is flaring from some oil wells that produce natural gas. The linked DoE study aims to lower the cost of wind power well below the cost of natural gas, so your main point seems mistaken. http://energy.gov/sites/prod/f...

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