Author Archives: curryja

by Planning Engineer (Russell Schussler)

Reflecting on the U.S. response to the covid pandemic, Dr. Fauci provides some important insights on managing complex risks – with relevance to climate change and the electric grid transition.

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by Planning Engineer (Russell Schussler)

There are many reasons why grid experts within the electric utility industry have not spoken out when unrealistic “green” goals were being developed and promoted over the last 20 years or so. A more open debate during this period might have helped provide a  more realistic foundation for future development.  This posting describes some reasons as to why at the corporate level electric utilities did not speak out more in defense of grid reliability.  Collectively these factors tended to eliminate grid experts from playing any role in the development of policies impacting the grid.

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by David Young

Much has changed in science since the pandemic and much of it is change for the worse. The pandemic has highlighted the loss of credibility of the public health establishment and the often toxic nature of current public discourse. John Ioannidis stands out as perhaps the best example of a fine scientist who was smeared and denigrated mercilessly both online and in the literature. There was also a flood of fraudulent papers and badly flawed studies. This made claims that we should follow the “The Science” almost laughable, given the extremely poor quality of much of the science. The use of coercion was inexcusable when there was no rigorous basis for it.

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by Ross McKitrick

I  recently published an op-ed in the Financial Post describing the findings of the new JGR paper by NOAA’s Zou et al. NOAA’s STAR series of the MSU satellite-based tropospheric temperatures used to show more warming than UAH or RSS in the mid-troposphere. Zhou et al. recently rebuilt their dataset and now STAR has a slightly lower trend than UAH. This is a big deal because it adds to the evidence that GCMs are warming too much compared to observations, which suggests problems with their climate sensitivity (ECS) values.

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by Planning Engineer  (Russ Schussler)

“Green” ideas and their proponents can create problems.  Like the antagonist in Terminator 2, green arguments and proponents don’t go down easily.  With serious challenges, they retreat, hibernate sometimes, morph, transform and come back.  It’s hard to argue with many “green” energy ideas.  They are often huge in scope but severely limited in details.  Focusing on a couple key factors and ignoring  or leaving so much to be worked out later.  Painfully naïve or unaware of so many factors associated with the provision of energy, feedback and often even human behavior.   They see the flaws in current efforts, but are blind to the drawbacks which will necessarily emerge from their proposals.  The offer conjectures with a lot of dots to still be connected. They speak of things that may be possible, without any handle on the probabilities.

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by Frank Bosse

Probably not, in spite of the recent headlines.

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By Planning Engineer  (Russ Schussler)

Do we care more about keeping CO₂ emissions lower in just the western world, or do we want to reduce emissions worldwide?

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by Judith Curry

I have a new op-ed published in The Australian,  here is the complete text.

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by Judith Curry

Last week’s Hearing was a sad example of what passes for debate and deliberations by the U.S. Senate.  In any event, it provides an interesting case study of why the U.S. cannot bridge the partisan divide and figure out how to deal sensibly with the climate change issue.

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by Joachim Dengler and John Reid

A new way of looking at the the atmospheric carbon budget.

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by Judith Curry

The Hearing on “Risky Business: How Climate Change is Changing Insurance Markets” starts at 10 a.m.

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by Judith Curry

On March 22, I will be testifying before the Senate Budget Committee on the topic “Risky Business: How Climate Change is Changing Insurance Markets.”

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by Chris Morris and Planning Engineer (Russ Schussler)

Technically, what are wind and solar doing to South Australia’s grid?  And why is South Australia’s electricity so expensive?

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by Judith Curry

A preview of the contents of my forthcoming book Climate Uncertainty and Risk. Plus an update on the publication process and availability of the paperbook version for pre-orders.

by Planning Engineer (Russ Schussler) and Chris Morris

Many are looking towards Australia and seeing bold, innovative steps to increase the penetration levels of wind and solar resources. A grid revolution around the corner? Or just the madness of crowds?  This post discusses what we can discern from their efforts so far.

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By Michael J. Kelly

I imagine that I have been appointed the first CEO of a new agency set up by the Federal Government of the United States of America with the explicit goal of actually delivering a Net Zero CO2 Emissions Economy by 2050. My first task is to scope the project and to estimate the assets required to succeed. This is the result of that exercise, and includes a discussion of some consequences that flow from the scale and timescale for meeting the target.

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by Chris Morris & Planning Engineer (Russ Schussler)

What they are doing and what issues are occurring

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by David M. Barnett

Synopsis of  Global Warming as a System Response Theory Problem

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by Judith Curry

A 20 minute presentation on Climate & Uncertainty and Risk (including some content from my forthcoming book)

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by Frank Bosse and Nic Lewis

Not really.

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by Roger Caiazza

However noble the concept of eliminating any risks from any source of pollution, if it is construed to mean that anything that might be contributing to bad health must be prohibited, then there will be massive consequences.

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by Russell Schussler and Roger Caiazza

This good enough plan may get you to net zero before the more ambitious ones.  It is likely to have less carbon emissions than the more aggressive plans over time.  It certainly will be more reliable and affordable.

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by Judith Curry

My interview on the Jordan B Peterson podcast is now available.

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by Planning Engineer (Russell Schussler)

Renewable energy has an equity problem.  Energy policies that force consumers to incur huge costs to meet larger public aims become a hidden form of taxation.  Energy bills eat up much larger proportions of income for those at the lower end of the economic scale.

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by Judith Curry

Framework for a robust transition of our energy systems.

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