—July 30, 2022
—Electrifying the grid is under attack.
CarrZee: This HuffPost story is another example of the extent fossil fuel interests are going to protect their heat-trapping turf in the US.
The story is well done, but lacks the context of global climate negotiations.
US voters are being misled about their ability to stick with climate damaging fuels.
The rest of the world won’t let the US keep taking an unfair share of the global carbon budget.
The US does not exist in a bubble, even though most energy reporting assumes that it does.
Emissions don’t care where they are produced. They immediately trap heat for everyone on earth.
Enough of this head-in-sand mentality.
Natgas workers can retrain. They don’t have a right to ruin everyone on earth’s future.
https://apple.news/AuulbE2n5S_i2RVeRRzqnVg
So the new legislator, who previously worked on energy policy, decided he’d carve out a lane for himself by taking on one of the tougher challenges facing cities and states: slashing the 13% of U.S. emissions that come from heating buildings with fossil fuels and cooking with gas.
Ramel passed legislation requiring state-owned facilities to adopt electric heating, and proposed bills to increase rebates for ratepayers who swap oil or gas heating for electric heat pumps and force gas utilities to come up with public plans to quit fossil fuels. He championed building codes mandating electric heating in new commercial buildings.
Not everyone appreciated his efforts.
“I had some angry gas industry lobbyists come to my office the first year and try to explain things to the new kid,” Ramel, 44, said in a phone interview. “Then I started hearing rumors that the gas industry was reaching out to folks in the district, asking if there was someone who could run against me.”
See link above…
Other highlights:
This is gooooood detail…bad market structure:
The ICC granted the appeals and struck the codes. It then went a step further, revoking governments’ right to vote on all future energy codes, eliminating what little advantage public officials enjoyed over corporations in the process.
And this … Ramel labelled an “activist”:
In audio HuffPost obtained of one of Smith’s automated campaign calls, a self-declared “proud Republican and proud worker” in the district urges his fellow conservatives to back Smith over “activist Alex Ramel.”