Washington Post (April 7)
Numerous conflicts are “pitting the environment against, well, the environment. Solar plants and wind farms, transmission lines and carbon-capture projects face opposition from conservationists and other environmental groups asking courts to stop new infrastructure from encroaching on wetlands, forests and other ecosystems.” Trade-offs like these “generally lean against developers,” but they were “written in an era before those developers included promoters of the green power that humanity needs to stave off climate change.” Things need fixing. We should not “let environmentalism sabotage green energy.”
Tags: Carbon capture, Climate change, Conservationists, Ecosystems, Environmentalism, Forests, Green power, Opposition, Solar, Trade-offs, Transmission lines, Wetlands, Wind
Wall Street Journal (August 18)
“A fraying electric grid is a nationwide problem,” with estimates suggesting over $700 billion “will need to be spent to replace aging transmission lines and maintain grid reliability” as 60% of “U.S. distribution lines have surpassed their 50-year life expectancy” and the “average age of large power transformers is 40 years, twice their planned life span.” Meanwhile, “grid upgrades to achieve the net-zero promised land” are estimated to “cost another $2.5 trillion by 2050.”
Tags: $2.5 trillion, 2050, Aging, Electric grid, Fraying, Grid reliability, Life expectancy, Nationwide problem, Net-zero, Power transformers, Transmission lines, U.S., Upgrades
