"The declaration is the latest sign of shifting sentiment toward nuclear power, which doesn’t produce carbon dioxide emissions, but has often been criticized over the waste it generates, the cost of building plants and potential security issues. Support has gained traction especially as clean back-up for renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The countries will also commit to new technologies, such as small modular reactors."
"Despite roiling the region politically, the war between Israel and Hamas doesn’t threaten supplies directly. That would change if the war were to spread or expand into areas housing the infrastructure—production facilities, tankers and pipelines—that enables the flow of oil and gas. About 21 million barrels of oil pass through the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz daily, along with substantial amounts of liquefied natural gas. Since the U.S. shale revolution, the bulk of those supplies now head to Asian markets."
"A deal is hard to reach because the legitimate climate ambition of a rapid end to burning fossil fuel runs into the equally legitimate reality of fossil dependence. As Mr Cohen observes, 'You can wish fossil fuels away, but they still comprise 80% of world energy supply and are growing.' A new scenario from the IEA, a global forecaster, for achieving net-zero emissions envisions a significant amount of fossil-fuel use even in 2050 (albeit at much lower levels than today), making a mockery of talk of rapid phase-out."
"'What the department put out is really barely a drop in the bucket compared to the level of ambition and the size of the challenge that we see,' said Matthew Mailloux, a policy adviser at the conservative clean energy group ClearPath, in an interview. 'We would certainly hope that DOE, either through [the final rule] or a future rulemaking, would broaden the number and types of technology that are eligible for this more predictable process.'"
"The reason why the CRP is storing less carbon in soil than if the acres were placed randomly has to do with where program acres are concentrated. The Southern Great Plains have a disproportionately high amount of CRP acres, compared to the rest of the country, and the 'coarse-textured soils' in this area store carbon poorly."
The way to unlock the power of society and the private sector is by giving people the freedom to innovate.
"The bottom line: Electrification is not the silver bullet for reducing transportation emissions. Without greatly expanding our electric infrastructure and bolstering our domestic critical mineral supplies, an EV-only approach will do more to harm the environment than it will to help it, at the expense of consumer choice."
"A crew without much technical knowledge can manufacture and assemble the structures’ eight panels and the interior bamboo beams that support them on-site. Lari designed them so that homeowners can easily make repairsand even additions...If a flood is coming, homeowners can dismantle the structure’s bamboo skeleton from its permanent foundation and move it to higher ground. Bigger buildings, such as community centers, stand on stilts several feet high."
"Fervo pumps cold water down an injection well, then over hot rock underground to another well, the production well. The path between is created by fracking, or fracturing the rock. The water heats up to nearly 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius) before returning to the surface. Once there, it transfers its heat to another liquid with a low boiling point, creating steam. The pressure of steam expanding spins a turbine to produce electricity like in a coal or natural gas-fired plant. The geothermal water, now cooled, is put back down the injection well to start the cycle again, in a closed-loop system."
The Nuclear Energy Declaration is a major step in helping countries meet their climate goals and represents the most ambitious international commitment to nuclear energy to date.
