The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Boosting The Power Grid Via The American Jobs Plan…An Essential Transformation Towards A Green Future
Dear Diary. Today’s main topic is a no brainer. If our civilization is to remain in tact everything must run off of electricity powered by renewables, including, of course, all transportation. Our rikety power grid across the United States is currently sufficient to power devices mostly located inside homes, but a lot more stress will be put on systems once we start to charge cars in mass. Team Biden and the Democrats have planned well to bolster and improve the electric grid, but implement plans will obviously cost a lot of money.
Just where to start? This Hill article will answer that question:
Biden administration announces $8.25B in loans to boost power grid
BY RACHEL FRAZIN AND ZACK BUDRYK – 04/27/21 04:41 PM EDT
© Getty
The Biden administration is taking several actions to boost the power grid, it announced Tuesday, including up to $8.25 billion in new Energy Department loans.
Through the department’s Western Area Power Administration Transmission Infrastructure Program, $3.25 billion will be available for supporting electricity transmission projects that will bolster renewable energy in the West.
And the department will loan up to an additional $5 billion toward “innovative” projects and ones that are owned by tribal nations or Alaska Native Corporations. These include a type of bulk transmission system called high-voltage direct current, as well as those that connect to offshore wind or are situated along rail and highways.
“This is a down payment on our efforts to modernize our transmission nationwide—but we need the American Jobs Plan to complete them,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. “These investments will make our power system more resilient against threats and more reliable as we increase our clean energy capacity, creating thousands of jobs in the process.”
Separately, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced his department will issue guidance to states on hosting transmission lines, part of a broader effort to use highway rights-of-way toward developing nuclear energy.
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“Our new guidance will help states use their rights-of-way to expand clean energy, lower costs, and create good-paying jobs in their communities,” Buttigieg said in a statement. “Today’s actions can provide a model for our private partners, like railroads, to do the same.”
The announcement comes after extreme winter weather in Texas knocked out the Lone Star State’s self-contained electrical grid, causing blackouts that left millions without power. Those blackouts have prompted debate about what the federal government’s involvement should be in regional grid operations, as well as concerns about grids’ vulnerability to extreme weather or cyberattacks.
“After the Texas transmission debacle this winter, no one can doubt the need to invest in our electric grid,” White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy said in a statement. “The steps that the Departments of Energy and Transportation are taking today, when combined with the grid investments outlined in the American Jobs Plan, will turbocharge the building of major new electricity transmission lines that will generate new jobs and power our economy for years to come.”
Related:
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Here are sone “ET’s” reported from Thursday:
Here is more climate and weather news from Thursday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)
Now here are some of today’s articles and notes on the horrid COVID-19 pandemic:
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Guy Walton “The Climate Guy”