How\u0092s that? California plans a massive increase in the use of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power\u0097but needs new natural-gas fired power plants as backup. New EPA rules on greenhouse-gas emissions from big emitters\u0097power plants and the like\u0097will now require permits for gas-fired plants. That could actually set back California\u0092s green dreams, the paper reports:<\/p>\n
\nIn a Dec. 24 letter to the EPA, the California Energy Commission, which oversees energy policy in the state, said the EPA’s proposal “will likely retard, rather than facilitate,” reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions from its electricity sector.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Half a world away, Britain is doing its own gymnastics to meet two often irreconcilable goals: Cleaner energy and energy security. The U.K. is racing ahead with ambitious plans for offshore wind power; last Friday\u0092s offshore tender would provide enough clean energy, on paper, to supply one-quarter of British electricity needs.<\/p>\n
But, as in California, all those wind farms require lots of new natural-gas plants to act as backup power. Unlike the U.S., most European countries aren\u0092t awash in natural gas\u0097most import it from Russia, Norway, or North Africa. <\/p>\n
The U.K., in particular, is worried that its drive for cleaner energy, which will require more natural gas at least until wind farms and a new generation of nuclear plants are built, will actually undermine its energy security. <\/a><\/p>\n
With variations, that\u0092s a theme that repeats itself across the Continent (as well as in the U.S), with three energy goals often at odds with each other\u0097cleaner energy, cheaper energy, and energy security. <\/p>\n
Natural gas offers a seemingly easy way to tackle one of those challenges. That doesn\u0092t make it a silver bullet for all of them.<\/p>\n
<\/img><\/a>
\n<\/img><\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Natural gas is often seen as the \u0093bridge fuel\u0094 to a clean-energy future\u0097it\u0092s abundant, reliable, and has about half the emissions of coal. Today, a couple of reminders of just how tricky it can be to really make that gas-powered energy revolution a reality. In California, state regulators are concerned that new emissions rules from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":761,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/761"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}