BGE (Big green energy)
Renewable energy that'll get you buzzing
Hi! There are a bunch of new subscribers this week, so welcome! I’m Jen, and while I like to think I have some serious BGE, this week we’re talking about literal energy — notably electricity and fuel.
Regular FMFPers may recall that on last year’s mega-TL;DR, the first item on the structural change to-do list was “decarbonize electricity and transport ASAP.” And while y’all know I believe in attacking the climate crisis from every direction, doing all the things we can do, this is the mother of all action items. A whopping 84% of global CO2 emissions come from burning fossil fuels, and they’re still where 79% of our energy comes from. As activist Bill McKibben has said, we need to rip the guts out of the fossil fuel system.
And while we’re installing more green energy than ever — in 2019 renewables were 72% of the new projects worldwide — we’re not going nearly fast enough, and because of increasing energy demands, fossil fuel use is still (ack!) climbing. Here’s the 2020 energy mix:
If we want to follow the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommendations for semi-comfortable survival, we need to rapidly decarbonize our energy sources. That will mean electrifying everything that can be electrified (especially things like cars, buses, and home heating) and mobilizing a combination of wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear (though these last two, of course, have drawbacks), with gas as part of the transition and to be phased out ASAP. Understatement of the year: that’s a big job.
It’s a big job but one with big benefits: notably, a liveable planet for our children and grandchildren and countless other species — the ultimate Showcase Showdown prize. It will also save lives in the here and now: 3.6 million people worldwide annually die from air pollution, and for many more — predominantly people of colour — pollution causes asthma, heart problems, and more. There are other benefits too, like creating millions of safe, local jobs and more money in all our pockets.
So it’s big, it’s important, and, I’m happy to report, it’s also not impossible! Saul Griffith, MacArthur Genius Fellow and the founder of Rewiring America, has crunched the numbers and created a blueprint for decarbonizing the United States by 2035 — without any lifestyle sacrifices. We know how to do it, we just need the political will. This, my friends, is a crackable — and delicious — nut.
Let’s look at a few sexy things decarbonization has going for it:
Renewables have widespread political support. According to a 2019–2020 Pew survey, 85% of Americans are pro expanding wind power, and 92% want to see more solar. Outside of the USA, support is often even higher. Most politicians are underestimating how much people (aside from fossil fuel lobbyists) support change.
Electrifying is more efficient. One problem with reducing fossil fuel use is that our energy demands continue to climb. But in his analysis, Griffith argues that if we electrify everything, we’ll only need 40 to 50 percent of the energy we use today, because fossil fuels are as inefficient as a Flintstones car.
Renewable technologies are getting better and cheaper — fast. Unlike fossil fuels, which are always limited by the price of extracting the fuel, renewables work with things that are free — sunlight, wind, tidal energy and geothermal heat, etc. Thus, the big factor in cost is the technology, and right now prices are plummeting and set to fall even more dramatically as learning continues.
(If you want to dig deep on this chart, you can find the full explanation here.) Cheaper matters not just for obvious political reasons, but because it also makes renewable energy more affordable in low- and middle-income countries, allowing huge differences in quality of life. Even in wealthier countries, where many people are feeling the economic squeeze, cheaper energy will mean getting to keep more of our paycheques. In short, “The more renewable energy technologies we deploy, the more their costs will fall. More growth will mean even more growth,” notes Oxford World in Data. An eco win-win if I’ve ever seen one.
A politician’s favourite talking point: jobs! In Canada the clean energy sector already provides 3% of jobs — that’s a greater share than the agriculture and forestry industry or the hotel and restaurant industry (pre-COVID). Griffith’s plan for electrifying America would create 25 million new jobs in the next five years alone. And these jobs aren’t at risk of being off-shored: they need to be in local communities where energy infrastructure is being built. It drives me up the wall when people focus on the fact that coal plants or certain soon-to-be-cancelled pipelines create jobs. Jobs aren’t something that must be extracted from the earth like so many lumps of coal. Other cleaner, safer energy projects could also create jobs without the environmental devastation.
In short: if decarbonization had a dating profile, I’d be swiping right (even if he had some weird topless mirror selfie). So how can we, mere peons, support this energy revolution?
Use less energy.
This is, of course, a drop in a very large bucket, but if there are easy wins, why not take them? We’ve covered this ground before, but if you missed it or want a review, check out last year’s newsletters on saving energy at home and cutting back your time behind the wheel.
Write your reps.
Decarbonizing is a classic top-down problem that needs ambitious action from our political leaders, but thanks to democracy, we the people can have our say. We need to show our elected officials that we’re serious about this avoiding-climate-apocalypse thing and support ambitious action. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, we know that ambitious action is possible and now is the perfect time to bake eco action into the funding pie.
Canadians might have caught the recent announcement from the federal government of its new carbon pricing plan and $15 billion in new climate spending, with hopes to increase the low-carbon economy. This plan isn’t bad, but just like McDonald’s fries, we need it super-sized. Dale Marshall of Environmental Defence Canada notes that if we were committing on the scale of the U.S. and EU, we’d be investing $270 billion. We’re also still spending US$14.3 billion per year in money on the fossil fuel industry, which is more money per unit of GDP than any other OECD country. While as of 2019, 81% of our existing energy mix comes from renewable sources (with lots of nuclear and hydro), if we want to electrify our vehicles, we’ll need a lot more energy yet.
Energy is primarily under provincial jurisdiction, so writing your MPP/MLA is also mightily worthwhile. In Ontario, we’re in the midst of a four-year debacle commonly known as Doug Ford, who does things like spend $231 million to rip up green energy contracts, cancel electric vehicle rebates, and sneak neutering environmental oversight into pandemic budget bills. It doesn’t hurt to write your rep and tell them you <3 green energy and support EV and home retrofit rebates. Though obviously the pandemic is their main concern right now, your reps won’t fight for things they don’t know are constituent priorities. And in the case of Ontario (not to mention Alberta and Saskatchewan), the best thing we can do is in 2022: vote him out.
For my American readers (the few, the mighty), on behalf of the entire planet, thank you for electing a president who has decided to take decarbonization seriously. Lots of energy policy still happens at a state level, so tune in to what’s happening near you.
Offset.
You may have heard of Bullfrog Power, which allows homeowners and businesses to roughly offset their regular energy consumption by funding the injection of an equal amount of green power into the grid. So while your building is still operating on the default energy mix in your state or province, you’re helping fund new developments that otherwise might not be built, and it should lead to more green energy being available. For an apartment like mine, I’d be billed $11.25/month to offset around 0.9 tonnes of CO2/year.
As a person powered by frugality, though, I question the value of being “Bullfrog-powered” at home. (For businesses, it has some marketing value.) If my Bullfrog contributions qualified for a tax credit or could be deducted from my (much higher) energy bill, I’d be all in, but as it is, it feels like paying twice. Also, if I wanted to offset 1 tonne of CO2, I could do it through the very reputable Gold Standard, for prices starting at US$10 per tonne. Now, those Gold Standard projects might be less likely to succeed than the ones in Bullfrog’s portfolio, but are they over ten times less likely? I doubt it. Another option, especially for BC folks, is to participate in the community carbon marketplace, which supports local projects.
Bullfrog does have some collective might, and it has the benefit of being easy and automatic — lots of people do it, and it might be right for you. But there might be cheaper ways to achieve the same goals.
Invest in renewables.
We’ve already established that renewables stand to be profitable. So you could pay to help develop them (see: offsets), or you could get paid. Now, of course aren’t any sure things when it comes to investments, and you should always do diligent research, but buying green energy bonds are fairly low risk because they often have provincial agreements to buy energy for a set number of years. So, for example, I own some five-year SolarShare bonds, which earn 4% interest annually and support green energy infrastructure. CoPower in B.C. has a similar deal.
Wins of the Week
This week, a celebratory boogie for:
Margo, who invested in a local farm and flower CSA for the year. This is a great time to support a local farm and provide them with some much needed money at a time when they’re buying supplies but have little to no incoming income.
Tiffany, who writes, “We moved house over Dec. Knowing it’s easy to create a lot of garbage and buy new things we ‘need’ for the space, we committed to buying secondhand or joining online buy-nothing and trading groups (Bunz and Palz Ottawa) to get these items. As a newbie to these groups, it’s been far, far easier than expected to get about 85% of practical things we needed.”
Holly, who is using up her food scraps and sad produce by making her own dog food. She says, “I just cook up some meat or fish that’s on sale with lots of veggies and a starch like potatoes, rice or quinoa. Dee looks amazing — Jeff and I joke that she has a rockin’ bod — but I was thrilled to discover that I waste almost no food since doing it. Any veggies that are about to go bad go in. Made too much rice with dinner? In. Overall it’s probably almost as cheap as the kibble/canned food we were feeding her before, she’s clearly way more healthy, and my Great Depression–surviving ancestors aren’t looking down on me with disdain. Highly recommended.”
It’s raining wins over at our Facebook group, and I’m finding it a very uplifting place to be. Right now meal plans are flying, recipes are being shared, and wins and resources abound. It’s a nice little positive pocket in Zuck’s empire and has been adding much joy to my days. You can still join us!
If you missed my last newsy about the new FMFP agenda, be sure to check it out. Next month we’ll be tackling a new theme and reviewing some of our most effective eco-interventions.
Until then!
Jen
P.S. You may have heard that Biden’s planning to cancel Keystone XL on day one in office. Trudeau seems to think investing in massive new pipeline infrastructure is compatible with our climate goals (cute!), and if you’d like to tell him to get real and back down, 350.org has a quick letter you can send. It’ll take all of ten seconds.
Five Minutes for Planet is written by me, Jen Knoch, and edited by Crissy Calhoun. Opening photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash.