Fire in San Bruno

My thoughts and prayers are with the 6 dead and hundreds displaced citizens of San Bruno, just a short drive away from my home. I was briefly terrified last night when I first read reports of an explosion in San Bruno, and the ensuing fire, and was soberly comforted when I discovered no friends of mine were seriously affected. 53 homes were destroyed, another 120 damaged, following the 1000-foot fireball. The cause is expected to have been a blown gas main. PG&E provides natural gas service to the city, the "cleanest" of the major fossil fuel sources for electricity.

I doubt many will compare this terrible accident to the Gulf Oil Disaster, but they should. For the most part, our carbon infrastructure doesn't fail on a regular basis (intrinsic side-effects aside, such as carbon emissions, higher cancer and asthma rates, armed conflicts over oil, etc.). But when just one link in the chain fails, it yields disproportionate consequences in environmental and mortal terms (see earlier post on "carbon deaths"). Chalk it up to one more highly visceral reason to decarbonize our energy infrastructure.

Energetics Cliff Notes - Tuesday Edition

• Kate Sheppard summarizes the last few weeks and the Administration's sluggish response to the oil spill.
• Senator Lindsay Graham criticizes the climate bill he had a heavy hand in creating.
• A recent poll shows deteriorating public support for offshore oil drilling.
• According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Western states could get 35% of their power from solar and wind technology within seven years.
• Michael Giberson discusses the smart grid and the advance of civilization.
• Current Cost, the largest global supplier of realtime power meters, is now compatible with Google PowerMeter.
• Jonathan Hiskes asks: In wake of Gulf spill, should this be the summer of energy reform?
• California Gubernatorial Candidate and current Attorney General Jerry Brown is demanding that the federal government not dismantle PACE, a financing program to reduce electricity use.
• Mother Jones calculates how many offshore wind turbines we could buy for the cost of one Deepwater Rig.
• Paul Krugman talks about regulation and comments lightly on bureaucratic responses to environmental disasters.

Energetics Cliff Notes - Tuesday Edition

• The Atlantic provides graphics that depict the frightening scale of the oil slick in the Gulf, courtesy of Google Earth.
• The California Public Utilities Commission has unveiled SASH, a program to help low-income households install solar systems to their rooftops.
• PG&E has acknowledged that thousands of its Smart Meters are providing inaccurate billing information.
• David Zetland at Aguanomics discusses the human right to water (spoiler: he's not a fan).
• The White House is cracking down on the Minerals Management Service, the government agency that was at least partly responsible for the Gulf Spill (industry capture!).
• The New York Times' Room for Debate is always illuminating, and this time they take on the Gulf Spill.
• Krugman lends his voice to the chorus on the Spill.
• Roger Pielke Jr. discusses the modus operandi of climate action in response to a letter from 255 scientists.
• Fred Palmer of Peabody Coal calls burning fossil fuels "the Lord's work."
• The House recently passed Home Star, a $6 billion rebate program for energy efficiency.

Quote of the Day

From Chris Eichler at 350.org:

"BP made $6 billion in profits in the first quarter of this year alone, and yet they didn't spend $500,000 on a safety valve that could have stopped the gusher almost as soon as it happened. Obama's Department of Interior approved the rig without demanding any proof that it would be safe -- BP's disaster preparedness plan was 'Don't have a disaster.'"