Frost covers a shaded section of Albany’s Dave Clark Riverfront Path on Saturday afternoon.
Wintertime temperatures don’t keep some of us from riding our bikes. We look forward to warming up again indoors when the ride is done. But these days some activists want to deprive Oregon citizens of convenient and affordable heating at home.
In Corvallis and Eugene, and in Oregon state government too, the pressure is on to phase out natural gas over the next few years.
Local climate activists and state government regulators seem to think that we can easily get rid of an affordable heating source and replace it with heat pumps, or maybe electric ceiling heat or something.
Last week Pacific Power sent out electric bills for the period from early November through early December. The bill I’m looking at showed the electricity used was almost twice the amount of the previous period, and this for a house that has a new furnace burning natual gas.
The bill also showed that the average temperature for the period covered by the December billing was 40 degrees Fahrenheit, which was 9 degrees colder than the year before. Evidently here is one case where “climate change” has worked out to be the opposite of “global warming.”
Those of us who have relied on natural gas for wintertime survival for nearly 50 years are mighty glad that NW Natural continues to supply that form of reliable — and so far affordable — energy, especially on cold nights.
Not too long ago, the online version of The Oregonian had a story about a Portland homeowner who had completely converted his house to be “net zero” in greenhouse gas emissions — at a cost of about $50,000.
The story held this up as a great thing. But it acknowledged that if lots of other people — let alone everybody — did the same thing, the electric grid could not handle it.
It wasn’t long ago when natural gas was seen as a solution getting us away from relying on coal to fuel power plants. The talk at the time was all about how much better gas was than coal when you needed to produce a lot of power quickly.
Now, climate fanatics want to end the use of natural gas sooner rather than later. They want to push us toward total reliance on electricity, even though the grid can’t handle it and the cost would be far higher than anybody could afford.
The fanatics won’t admit this. But if they succeed, they will roll us back to a time when winter weather meant more suffering from cold, more illness from wood smoke, and maybe more deaths. (hh)
This will bring the nut jobs out. Informative article.
The sky must be falling.
I’m sorry, Hasso. The indiscriminate nature of your diatribe, which you failed to support with any facts, makes it seem you’ve absorbed too much Twitter and Reddit. Perhaps as a New Year’s resolution, you might consider swearing off the Internet.
Or, “Hartman,” he could be using his real name to state an opinion based on several decades of significant research. More insight than simple name-calling, as one example.
Why is wishing to save the environment fanatical, as your screed proposes. Just asking questions.
It’s called natural gas since it’s created naturally as organic material breaks down in the ground. It’s a never ending process that replenishes itself as it has for countless years.
How do you think all the electricity that will be needed will be generated? How do you think it will be stored when not needed but after it’s been generated? Batteries are highly toxic in production and once depleted and need to “retired”.
Wishing to save the planet should recognize what the rest of the worlds’ people are doing. A recent ADH post says the world-rate of Coal burning is now higher than in any time in history. Imposing restrictions on Oregon dwellers while balance of world burns more coal is counter productive and fanatically stupid
Heat pumps are great technology and Oregon’s power grid is pretty much based on hydroelectricity.
According to the State of Oregon, hydro only accounts for 39% of the power we use. Fossil fuel (coal and natural gas) make up 48% of our power. Wind and nuclear, just over10%. So, it’s “mostly” fossil fuel.
I told you they would come out. Didn’t realize that Hartman would be the only one but maybe some more fanatics can tell us that we’re destroying the environment and it is better for us to be cold and hungry rather than use fossil fuels. Be interesting to know how Hartman heats his abode, whether he rides the bus or rides a bike, etc. Interesting that the kooks always have all the facts and reasonable people with common sense have none.
But the article states that climate activists and state government just want to steer away from fossil fuels. Not that they want people to freeze without heat. The headline of the article is not supported anywhere in the article – agree? We should make an effort to covert to cleaner energy and that doesn’t have to be a political issue – agree?
Hartman is not alone in the battle against the absurdist paranoia that Hering prattles-on about from time to time. Equally important is to stand toe-to-toe with those who would support Hering’s nonsensical gibberish. He unequivocally states that, “if they (they being unnamed “fanatics”) succeed, they will roll us back to a time when winter weather meant more suffering from cold, more illness from wood smoke, and maybe more deaths.” He states this all without providing any proof.
He states this as he is seemingly under the impression (incorrectly most likely) that there will never be…can never be a substitute for natural gas. The same was once said about coal and we all know which way that discussion went. I fully expect that soon Hering will come out against nuclear fusion because the sole “pollutant” fusion power creates is water, and we simply will not, in his estimation, have room for more water.
So yes, Hartman stands against baseless, flatulent demagoguery and fact-free silliness such as this piece by the once well-respected editor of the local rag.
The sky is not falling. The planet continues to turn and progress continues to be made. Get on board or get out of the way.
“The sky is not falling.”
True, but the rampant & rabid hyberbole and rhetoric is…
This is the thread that won me over…., I’ve always wanted to become a troll of trolls, glee….
I’ll need a dictionary by my side, this battleground is ripe with qualified de-ba- tuers….
…..
Thesaurus
Come on, Hasso, the sheeple shouldn’t worry.
Trust that government will force greedy rich folks to pay for the new appliances and the needed grid upgrades to ensure “net zero” living.
Trust that an all-electric future won’t cost the common man a single red cent.
Trust that the supreme leaders know what they’re doing and they’re here to help.
Feel happy that we’re on the yellow-brick, build back better road to a post-capitalist, electrified future.
And if government fails to deliver, don’t whine about it on a blog. Take bold action like throwing more tomato soup on Vincent van Gogh paintings.
There is a truck load of irony in the comment “this will bring out the nut jobs”
Hydroelectric yes it’s great but what hpppens when they take all the dams out. And the wind turbines affect the bird migration. And the solar power battery storage is created by mining lithium and gets stopped by another group that doesn’t want that kind of mining in Oregon. Come on people at this time let’s choose the least global warming method. Maybe some of all but get your common sense out and take a look at all that we need to survive. And not just what this or that group seems as necessary for their point of view
Out of curiosity, I decided to gather some data. According to Oregon State University in Corvallis, which has been recording temps since 1892, for the month of December, the average temp hasn’t varied at all for the past 130 years. This is in spite of the atmospheric CO2 content rising from 294.5 ppm to 417.31 ppm today. Pardon me if I’m convinced that the whole “climate change” narrative is nothing more than a ploy to line the pockets of green energy investors.
Put a link to the data. You believe Corvallis’ average temp has not changed for Dec for the last 130 years but you’re only looking at one area and in a small time frame. Here’s the data for PDX for the last ~80 years. Definite change like many other places.
There is no way that PDX data is accurate as going from farmland to city destroys historical data. For instance I live in the country 13 miles from Albany and it is always warmer in Albany whereas Corvallis comes from Hyslop or something like that which is out of the city. Anybody who has walked on asphalt versus grass will realize that city data is always going to be higher and bare land is cooler.
Check out this Oregon.gov link – see that the mix changes but not by much. Making blanket statements about the grid without data is not acceptable. Unfortunately the site only has up to 2020 – maybe we should put some money into upgrading the IT network to reflect current figures. Thank you Hasso for publishing this article – it encouraged me to look at the Oregon site – we personally have natural gas and love it … https://www.oregon.gov/energy/energy-oregon/Pages/Electricity-Mix-in-Oregon.aspx
Fossil fuels are what built, and maintains civilization. Co2 levels need to be increased to optimize lush vegitation greenery, which in turn produce Oxygen. Increased Co2 levels will not elevate climate temperatures. Co2 has little reflective properties. Anyway, if the US were to achieve net 0 carbon emissions, what would be the point? Foreign nations throughout the world are erecting coal fired power plants (with no scrubbers) at a rate of more than 1 each week far negating any US reduction.
“Lush vegetation greenery”? Well, you can count out Albany. The council is working their hardest trying to build and pave over all those areas.
Interesting article …and comments. Where I live with temps close to zero,,, we are glad for whatever heat we have…. mostly natural gas and electric. Many have wood stoves also. Not many bicycles on the bike routes I notice. Hope those with solar are ok also as not much sun out lately.
My house is heated with electric heat. My power bill this month is $437. And we have to wear sweaters to keep warm. I wish I had natural gas!
Terrible article title.
I guess it was meant to just cause people to take sides ,call each other names and prove no one has a solution to anything instead of have a reasonable discussion.
Next time I’ll just skip reading.
Enjoy the holidays and keep warm ya
‘ll : -)
Too many generalizations. For Eugene it does make sense to phase out their natural gas for new construction. https://www.eweb.org/about-us/power-supply Coal 2% & Natural Gas 1%; this is quite different than Oregon as a whole Coal 26% & Natural Gas 21%. Also Coal has almost twice the pollution as natural gas for the the BTU. https://group.met.com/en/mind-the-fyouture/mindthefyouture/natural-gas-vs-coal
Hartman won’t like it that you’re trying to make sense. It’s all or nothing apparently.
Wow, Eugene really went out on a limb to ban natural gas for new construction.
Less than 1% of the city’s power comes from natural gas.
Their ban will increase Eugene’s dependence on hydro (currently 77%).
Eugene’s addiction to hydro murders millions of salmon and steelhead each year.
I don’t know how Eugene residents live with themselves knowing their addiction causes this genocide.
Supposedly their dam designs allow Salmon to swim past to their spawning areas upstream. https://www.eweb.org/about-us/power-supply/mckenzie-river-hydro-projects/carmen-smith-hydropower-project Not sure how effective they are.
Hydropower is not green. The science is settled.
The only winners from dammed up rivers are greedy corporations and utilities who value profit over the public good.
https://waterkeeper.org/news/hydropower-is-not-clean-energy/#:~:text=First%2C%20the%20building%20of%20massive,microbes%20feed%20on%20decaying%20algae.
No energy source is truly green. Had expected more people to be upset over the oil companies record profits and sky high gas prices. At least the public utilities have to justify their rate increase.
Eugene getting 77% of it’s power shows the political pull of Eweb and the other municipal utilities as I doubt Albany gets 5% of it’s power from hydropower and the Eugene residents would remove every dam in Oregon if they could. I also looked at the state site and am curious where the 3.7% of power from nuclear comes from.
I think the point of the article is that our energy policy in Oregon is not functional or executable. Just a bunch of people cherry picking nice environmental ideas to curry votes from people who pay attention for about 7 seconds.
Let’s see now…I can believe all those scientists with their multiple Ivy League degrees and decades working in the field, or I can believe a guy with a lame major called journalism from the stellar Cal State-Northridge.
Gee, that’s a toughie.
Why did Governor Kulongoski fire George Taylor as state climatologist and replace him with global warming fanatic? And the answer is: old George just reported the facts that there was no global warming in Oregon.
Thanks Al: I’m hoping you are using your real name, rather than some nitwit title such as “LinnCountyDude” to hide your identity. Apparently pea-nuts thinks that “Ivy League degrees” are more important that George Taylor’s factual reports. That’s why people use pseudonyms. And why people call them trolls. George Taylor was probably the best and certainly most helpful member of my PhD committee at OSU and dealt with facts rather than anonymous dumbo potshots. And that’s why he was fired — actual research, facts, and logical opinions vs. lucrative politics.
Al Nyman shall NOT have the first and last word here!
The foremost worrisome part of Nat Gas is not impact of global climate change deniers.
It is the cancer causing elements when you have a nat gas stove. Everytime you turn it on you inhale benzene and other cancer causing elements.
Stew on that fact! Cheers!
The “fact” is that you are spewing nonsense and hiding behind a pseudonym. Your opinion is worthless as the most obvious result.
Well last word to you, Bobby!
But look it up. Benzene. Cheers
And how much benzene in natural gas compared to the amount in our gasoline. If you use either you are a hypocrite. And how about that electricity generated through natural gas? Do you prefer coal fired power power plants vs NG fired ones. Don’t respond. It’s meaningless if it comes from you.
ok ok … Who cooks with gasoline?
You SIR are the king of apples to oranges debating.
That’s a shame!
The next thing the “government” will try do is put an expiration date on gas stations selling gas and try to turn them into charging stations only.
They did: no new internal combustion driven cars by 2035(30?).
Next step: no I.C. driven cars on the road at all by 2045.
Therefore, no need for gas stations.
It’s mainly ongoing & incessant caterwauling redux…
https://democratherald.com/corvallis/news/local/state-and-regional/what-oregons-switch-to-evs-and-hybrid-vehicles-really-means/article_c6a05052-8158-11ed-8e9f-7b69f9e2baf8.html
Wow, it’s troubling reading a lot of misinformed folks comments including the article’s author. Reliable sources are absolute key to getting factual information. OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences is one nearby reliable resource. https://today.oregonstate.edu/climate-change-experts
Change is difficult for everyone but it is inevitable and in certain circumstances absolutely necessary.
Weather is not the same as climate.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-says-2022-fifth-warmest-year-on-record-warming-trend-continues
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/global-climate-202212