By Ted Glick
The
changing of the seasons has definitely been disrupted by global
heating, but it’s still the case, in general, that in the last month of a
season there are a few days that are like the season that’s coming. For
example, in the first few weeks of March there’ll be days where
temperatures are spring-like, for example, and that’s always a good day.
We
who get it on the climate crisis got something like this recently when
it comes to the essential, urgently-needed shift from fossil fuels
(think winter) to renewables (think spring). What happened?
In
the first quarter of 2018, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC), approximately 2% of the new electrical generation
capacity (power plants) came from natural gas, while 94% of it came from
wind and solar (see page 4 here),
This compares to the first quarter of 2017, when approximately 33% came from natural gas, 61% from wind and solar.
Why such a huge change in one year,
Donald Trump’s first full year as President? I’ve looked, and I haven’t
come across anything which explains this unprecedentedly positive
development.
My
educated guess is that it was primarily because FERC was without a
quorum for seven months last year, which meant that no new permits for
interstate gas pipelines or infrastructure were approved.
Since
new gas plants need pipelines to bring them the gas, mainly fracked gas
these days, and if they were not being approved for much of last year,
it makes sense that FERC’s situation is the main reason.
In
addition, I’m sure it’s also due to the nonviolent army of gas pipeline
resisters who are all over the place slowing down, disrupting,
sometimes winning, legally and otherwise, in the scores of battles to
prevent new gas infrastructure from being built. The courts are starting
to make rulings that hurt the gas industry, no question about it.
With
FERC now back to having its usual five commissioners, they’ve been
rubber-stamping gas pipelines and infrastructure, and so we can’t expect
the ratio between new gas power plants and new wind and solar power
plants to be so lopsided going forward. Joe Romm, in a Thinkprogress article
two weeks ago, reported that: “Of the nearly 212,000 MW of new net
generating capacity — additions minus retirements — proposed by March
2021 [according to FERC], renewables comprise almost 147,000 MW, or 69
percent of the total.”
69%
is not 94%, but it’s still an indication of definite trends that are
not going to be reversed. And that 31% non-renewable, new power
generation is what is proposed. I am certain that some of
those proposed plants will either not be built, will have a hard time
getting approval or approval of needed new pipelines, or will be
delayed, because the power of the people in resistance to fossil fuel
infrastructure buildout continues to build.
And that resistance isn’t just in the streets or on land threatened with eminent domain. A few days ago it was reported
that the California Public Utilities Commission is planning on “denying
San Diego Gas & Electric Company and Southern California Gas
Company’s planned $2 billion dirty gas pipeline. The proposed decision concludes that the utilities ‘...
have not shown why it is necessary to build a very costly pipeline to
substantially increase gas pipeline capacity in an era of declining
demand and at a time when the state of California is moving away from
fossil fuels.’”
FERC
continues to be a huge factor, and we as a movement should act
accordingly. There’s an opportunity to do so at the end of June when
there will be a “Crack FERC Open” mobilization June 23-25, initiated by Beyond Extreme Energy and endorsed so far by 32 organizations.
There
are cracks emerging in the formerly-unified-front in support of fossil
fuels at FERC. The five FERC Commissioners, four of them new, voted
unanimously in January to reject DOE Secretary Rick Perry’s push to
further subsidize coal and nukes. They voted, because of a court
decision, to end a substantial tax break for pipeline companies. New
Democratic commissioner Richard Glick has issued several strong dissents
on pipeline permit applications, and there have been other dissents
too. These can greatly help court challenges.
It
doesn’t feel like it most of the time, but we really are winning. Time
is against us, and there’s a lot of human and ecological damage we
aren’t going to be able to prevent, but in the struggle for a just,
democratic, fossil fuel-free world, there is very real hope. Let’s hold
on and keep fighting.
