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Natural Resources Defense Council Joins AGA to Promote ‘Full-Fuel-Cycle’ Measurements for Appliances
The esteemed Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), known in Washington and around the country as the most effective environmental action organization, has banded together with AGA for an important cause- to improve the way the “carbon footprints” of our appliances are measured.
The two groups released a joint statement today urging Congress to heed the recommendations of a National Academies study, released in May, which concludes that a “full-fuel-cycle” measurement for appliances will give consumers the most scientifically accurate information about the energy consumption of their purchases.
Currently, the Department of Energy measures efficiency at the “site source” of an appliance – for example, the burner tip on your stovetop. But that type of measurement doesn’t take into account the amount of energy lost along the way in the production, generation, and distribution of the fuel, i.e., the full-fuel-cycle.
So it’s fair to say that right now, consumers are only getting part of the energy efficiency equation when they purchase an appliance, and the National Academies, AGA and now NRDC have set out to help customers see the true size of their carbon footprint.
Explaining dispatch in relation to energy
How simple would it be to use electricity from renewable resources rather than coal or nuclear? The answer may lie partly in the dispatch characteristics of the generating facilities. Because electricity cannot be economically stored on a system-wide basis, electricity supply must match demand at all times during the day. So, when demand is low much of the electric generating capacity on the system is turned off. As demand increases throughout the day, capacity is added to meet the demand. In general, electric plants can be categorized by when they are turned on or “dispatched” to meet demand. Some plants are baseload, i.e, they run all of the time – 24/7; some plants are intermediate, i.e., they run mostly during the day during significant demand hours; and some plants are peaking, i.e., they run only in the hours when they are needed the most. The order in which generating plants are dispatched is largely a function of price – cheapest first.
However, the ability of a plant to turn on and turn off in response to changes in electricity demand can vary with the fuel used to generate the electricity. For example, nuclear power plants take a long time to turn on and provide electricity to the grid, and the use of nuclear fuel is highly regulated. Consequently, once a nuclear unit is on, it generally stays on until it has to be refueled or be brought down for maintenance. So, nuclear plants are almost exclusively baseload plants. Coal plants also have long ramp up times. They are generally baseload or intermediate plants. On the other hand, natural gas-fired generators have fairly short ramp up times and are often used as peaking plants.
Based on these dispatch characteristics, I doubt that renewable resources would end up displacing nuclear generation – not necessarily an undesirable outcome from a carbon standpoint. However, intermittent renewable resources such as wind or solar may have a hard time displacing coal-fired generation unless they can show themselves to be good baseload or intermediate resources. It may be the case that renewables will displace gas-fired generation because gas plants can more easily turn on and off in response to changes in the amount of electricity capable of being generated from wind or solar – a potentially undesirable outcome from a carbon standpoint.
House Begins Series of OCS Hearings
The House Committee on Natural Resources began a series of oversight hearings designed to look at our current offshore drilling policy, and to determine where we may need to go next. This first hearing featured a panel of witnesses from environmental groups. Two additional hearings scheduled for later this month will feature witnesses from state governments and the oil and gas production industry.
Opening the hearing yesterday, Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-WV) told the environmentalists “I understand your desire to see the (oil and gas leasing) moratoria reinstated. However, we may be in a situation where the ship has already sailed.” Although he derided chants made at last year’s Republican National Convention to “drill, baby, drill,” Rahall stated that “the political reality may be that the moratoria, as we knew it, will not be reimposed.”
This did not sit well with the day’s two star witnesses, actor Ted Danson, a board member of conservationist group Oceana, and Philippe Cousteau, a board member of the Ocean Conservancy and grandson of famed ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau. They repeatedly spoke in opposition to ALL offshore oil and gas development, not just drilling in new areas, on the grounds that the products produced were fossil fuels that, when consumed, would increase the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is absorbed by the earth’s oceans, which then become more acidic, resulting in the death of all life in the sea. What? I don’t know about you but this seems like it may be more science fiction than scientific. They were fine with the development of alternative energy on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), such as wind and harnessing tides and currents, so long as no environmental damage is done.
What do you think about all this? I think that with OPEC meeting next month to decide on steps to take to increase the price of oil, our country must aggressively develop all sources of energy, renewable, alternative and conventional. And this most emphatically means more exploration and production of clean natural gas from as much of the federal OCS as possible.
True Blue Natural Gas Blog from the American Gas Association (AGA)- Diversification of natural gas supply is an essential consumer protection
- From Austin to Boston in a natural gas vehicle
- Natural gas, how about zero carbon emissions
- The real natural gas message in a climate crunch
- Let’s work together to protect our seniors
- Natural Gas Market Indicators
- Coming Down To Earth on a ‘Clean Energy’ Standard?
- The convenience of the natural gas fireplace
- Coming Down To Earth, A Winning Strategy For Renewables
- Energy Secretary Chu Identifies Natural Gas as Key to a Low-Carbon Future
