Drought – and water needs of power plants
October 26th, 2022
Seeing so many drought posts, photos of the Mississippi River at such low levels, looking at the Elephant Butte reservoir and the Rio Grande, drought affecting bird migration through California, essentially drought throughout much of U.S., particularly east of the Mississippi:
… and as I was deleting files, cleaning up computer as I clean up hard copy boxes and boxes of old files (i.e., the Mesaba Project, glad to be putting that one away), I found a report on water needs of power plants, it’s old, but I’d guess relevant, eh?
Here’s the 2011 update:
2011 Update: Estimating Freshwater Needs to Meet Future Thermoelectric Generation Requirements
Interesting that a search doesn’t turn up anything newer!!! Another from 2011:
A Review of Operational Water Consumption and Withdrawal Factors for Electricity Generating Technologies
There is this, so July 2022, must need other search terms???
NETL Co-Develops New Model for Sustainable Freshwater Use by Power Plants
When boats are having a hard time getting around on the Mississippi River, what does this mean for all the power plants dependent on the Mississippi for their water supply? Even our lovely garbage burner here on the river, not to mention Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant!
? Affordable Clean Energy Rule?
September 1st, 2018
tRump’s “Affordable Clean Energy Rule” would be quite the legacy (though he leaves so many, how to choose).
Here are the fact sheets from that page:
Fact Sheets (these are links below!):
- Overview of the proposed ACE rule
- CO2 emissions trends
- Costs and benefits
- Legal overview
- Permitting improvements under New Source Review program
- Side-by-side comparison of ACE and CPP
And the proposed rule as published in the Federal Register yesterday:
Affordable Clean Energy Rule-Federal Register-8-31-2018-18755
It’s 68 pages long, and intense.
Comments due October 30 — how to comment? From their site:
Online: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and follow the instructions for submitting comments to EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0355.
Email: Comments may be sent to a-and-r-Docket@epa.gov. Include Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0355 in the subject line of the message.
Mail: Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), Mail Code 28221T, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0355, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20460.
Fax: Fax your comments to: (202) 566-9744. Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0355.
Hand/Courier Delivery: EPA Docket Center, Room 3334, EPA WJC West Building, 1301 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0355. Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket’s normal hours of operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of boxed information.
Final Draft – Climate Science Special Report
August 8th, 2017
Here it is, REAL NEWS. This is the Final (5th Order) Climate Science Special Report from the U.S. Global Change Research Program:
Final-Draft-of-the-Climate-Science-Special-Report
Bottom line? First, note that this is an extensively authored and peer reviewed report, with multiple editors, and coordinating, lead, and contributing authors, and review of peer reviewed articles and journals. They take great care in explaining “confidence levels,” pps. 6-10, an issue that Power Line Task Force brought before the PUC and Appellate Court over a decade ago regarding EMF:
The purpose?
OK, back to the bottom line — the key findings, p. 38-39:
Now, read it, the Executive Summary at least:
Tick season in full swing!
March 19th, 2016
Today, Alan was scratching Little Sadie’s neck, and found a lump. We corralled her, dumped her over, and did an inspection, and it was a slightly engorged tick. Got all of it out rather easily.
But isn’t this a bit early? YES!! Another climate change impact. Turns out the tick season here usually starts in May. Not long ago, it was June 13:
Tick season starts full throttle in Minnesota
All of you with dogs, time to start fighting those ticks, starting with a head to tail inspection, right NOW!
And another MPCA listening session
March 10th, 2016
And last night in Rochester, more of the MPCA “Clean Power Plan” listening sessions. This one was less well attended that Monday’s in Minneapolis, but packed into a much smaller, almost claustrophobic sized room. Many concerns were raised, in large part because the “Clean Power Plan” remains a mystery — there is no MPCA plan for us to check out and comment on, and the federal Supreme Court put the EPA’s plan on hold.
The MPCA has been meeting with “stakeholders” which is primarily utilities, with a few energy wonks also attending — see this link, and scroll down for meetings and materials:
A turnout of this size, both last night and the night before, means that yes, people are interested and concerned, and I hope everyone stays in the loop and participates.