Seattle DJC.com local business news and data - Real Estate djc.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from djc.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The electrification of transportation, heating and other end uses necessary for the United States to meet its decarbonization goals will require the country to double its electricity load by 2050, panelists said Thursday at a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission technical conference. With that additional load will come opportunities, responsibilities and challenges, they said.
The panelists frequently acknowledged the need to consider issues of equity, affordability and environmental justice throughout the energy transition. If we don t address those issues, what are we doing? We re not accomplishing anything, said FERC Chairman Richard Glick.
They also raised cybersecurity concerns. It will be a constant battle to secure the grid, said Carlos Casablanca, managing director of distribution planning and analysis at American Electric Power Service Corp. But he added that AEP does not believe that these risks are brought upon by electrification efforts alone, as these risks alre
Turning Trash to Natural Gas: Utilities Fight for Their Future Amid Climate Change
A giant landfill in Washington state is producing natural gas from decaying trash. The gas industry is promoting such projects to fend off legislative attempts to spur greater electrification of buildings.
Hal Bernton, Seattle Times
March 4, 2021
Each day more than 12 million pounds of garbage is dumped, spread, compacted and finally covered with a layer of dirt at the Klickitat County landfill owned by Republic Services. It sits on a plateau above the Columbia River in southern Washington. Credit: Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times
Related
First
in a series with the Seattle Times on the future of natural gas in homes and businesses.
Residents of 152 cities and towns in the Pacific Northwest are particularly vulnerable to climate-fueled wildfires. Residents of 60 other communities are most susceptible to floods. And people living in 75 towns are most liable to suffer maybe even die because of heat waves.
That s according to a new analysis released Wednesday by news agency InvestigateWest and planning firm Headwaters Economics. It drills down to towns where, for example, sparse tree canopies and older residences make communities more susceptible to heat waves than younger populations in leafier places.
The analysis looks at likely climate disasters and examines factors such as the number of people with disabilities, how many live in poverty, the proportion that rents their home and how many of the vulnerable are Black, Indigenous or people of color.