MaxRedline

Cold Ahead

The average heating cost for a U.S. household is forecast to see a double-digit increase this winter, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its October winter fuels outlook (pdf).

Retail energy prices are expected to approach “multiyear highs” due to supply and demand changes following the pandemic, as well as a colder winter ahead.

Forecast cost hikes include propane by 54 percent, heating oil costs by 43 percent, natural gas costs by 30 percent, and electricity costs by 6 percent. Nearly half of all U.S. households use natural gas as the primary source of heating. 

Time to split a few more logs, just in case.

 

Buckled Roads

Different kinds of roads behave very differently under heat. In the US, roads are typically made of one of two materials — asphalt or concrete. “You can’t design for everything. Some things just break your infrastructure.” “It’s just sort of wait for something to break and then fix it when it breaks.”

And that's what happened across the Pacific Northwest - the extreme heat not only buckled roadways; it killed hundreds of people. Many were simply not expecting it to be so hot for so long, and air conditioning is relatively uncommon here. Many who died were at home, with no A/C. Our climate is generally mild, so residences are built more to withstand strong winds and the occasional cold snaps.

“That’s why Phoenix isn’t falling apart — it’s not Armageddon there because it’s hotter.”

The problem is that when some of these roads in Washington state were being designed, using those materials or design techniques would have been overkill — the area doesn’t normally get as hot as Phoenix, so there was no need to build with extreme heat in mind.

 

 

There's A Drought Going On.

As of June 21, there is at least some level of drought in at least one county in 42 of 50 US states. However, exceptional drought is only seen in ten states -- North Dakota, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon and California.

It does seem to have been uncommonly warm and dry here, of late.

 

Welcme To Summer In The Northeastern USA!

There's a fair amount of water, but I don't see anybody in swim-suits.  No bikinis atoll!

 

They Can't Keep The Lights On, But

Here's an idea: let's force everybody in California to drive only electric cars! Worry about the necessary infrastructure later; it'll probably all magically take care of itself. Every day after rush hour, when everybody's charging their cars and trucks, things should get even more interesting.

PG&E posted outage maps Wednesday to reflect locations around California that will see a deliberate power shutoff as early as 6 p.m. Wednesday afternoon with severe fire weather in the forecast. You can also look up your address on the PG&E website to determine if you will lose power.

If you consider about three people live in each household on average, the outage could impact up to 158,000 people.

 

 

So Much For Mann-Made Global Warming

Climate researcher Michael Mann said last week that if President Donald Trump is reelected, it’s “game over for the climate.” It’s the same alarmism we’ve been hearing for decades, all of it empty. But the alarmists won’t stop telling us we’re about to set the sky on fire. Even if NASA has said record cold might be on the way.

The sun, it seems, has been powering down. “We see a cooling trend,” Martin Mlynczak of NASA’s Langley Research Center said two years ago, a remark largely ignored but still relevant. “High above Earth’s surface, near the edge of space, our atmosphere is losing heat energy. If current trends continue, it could soon set a Space Age record for cold.”

For the record, global temperatures dropped from 2016 through late 2019. We don’t know about any unprecedented cooling in the last two years. But maybe the climatistas need to consider that solar activity affects our climate. The Little Ice Age, in which Europe and North America experienced brutally cold winters and mild summers, coincided with the Maunder (solar) Minimum of 1645 to 1720. They don’t want to deny science, do they?

This is unsurprising; of course the sun's activity impacts the climates of the surrounding planets in the solar system - only idiots would claim otherwise.

Remember Obama Promising To Stop Sea Level Rises?

Taking a page from Barry's book...

On Monday, Democratic nominee Joe Biden condemned President Donald Trump as a “climate arsonist,” predicting that if the president wins reelection in November, America will witness more “hellish” events like fires in the West, flooding in the Midwest, and hurricanes on the East Coast. He effectively promised that if he wins, America will suffer from fewer fires, fewer floods, and fewer hurricanes.

“If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is under water?” Biden asked.

You go, Joe!

Preferably, far away.

 

Antarctica 90 Million Years Ago

(CNN)When dinosaurs roamed the Earth 90 million years ago, the planet was much warmer, including Antarctica at the South Pole. But in a surprising twist, researchers have discovered evidence that Antarctica also supported a swampy rainforest at the time, according to a new study. CT scans of the sediment core revealed pristine samples of forest soil, pollen, spores and even root systems so well preserved that they could identify cell structures. The soil included examples of pollen from the first flowering plants found this close to the South Pole.

So the dinosaurs were evidently driving around in cars and trucks, as we've been told that's what causes Global Warming.

 

What Do You Do With A Few Thousand Dead Wind-Turbine Blades?

Well, at present, you cut up these components of "green energy" production and truck them off to landfills.

The huge things can't as yet be effectively recycled, though some work is being done on that front, but for now, it's off to the municipal dump for them. Out of sight, out of mind, as the saying goes.

 

Green Energy In Oregon

There's just one teensy problem: the power grid's maxed out.

Scott Zollinger was well on his way to building a new barn on his property in Marion County and putting enough solar panels on top of it to offset the cost of electricity for his family’s home. The design plans were drafted. The first payment was made on the solar panels. Zollinger had even applied and been approved for about $30,000 in state and federal tax credits on the $59,000 solar project.

Then he got a report from his utility, Portland General Electric, on the impact his project would have on the electric grid. The report was filled with technical terms, but it ultimately concluded that he couldn’t connect his 24.8 kilowatts of solar power to PGE’s system until significant upgrades had been made to the grid.

The report included a bill for the estimated cost of the upgrades: $539,038.

Jordan Sinn, general manager for Earthlight Technologies, often handles customer interactions for the company’s rooftop solar projects, many of which are in the Willamette Valley areas that now apparently have grid capacity issues. “This is becoming a common thing,” he said. “We’re in an awkward position where we don’t know until we submit quite a bit of paperwork with PGE to find this out. It’s been a bit of a black eye for the solar industry.”

Angela Crowley-Koch, executive director of the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association, said grid capacity is a problem across the state — in both PacifiCorp and PGE territories.

All is not lost, however; Scott could still do it by going off-grid - although those lithium batteries that would be required to store his "green energy" are really expensive (and not exactly "green" themselves). And then too, he'd also have to purchase and install an inverter along with a few other essential components. So his $29,000 solar project (after credits) would more than double in cost. But at least he'd have his "green energy", so he could feel good about himself.

And we know how important that is.