Unfortunately, due to technical problems, this show did not run this week, but will run Wednesday and Thursday, May 24th and 25th. The KPFT Archive will have repeats of the May 17+18 show.

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AUDIO:

POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; REGISTER TO VOTE; APPLY FOR MAIL-IN BALLOT; League City hosting meeting to update transportation plan; Houston Democratic representative draws criticism from own party for votes on controversial bills; Harris County fires IT director Noriega after he refused training amid sexual harassment allegations; Harris County Youth Diversion Center to assist youth in criminal justice system; Eliminating countywide voting in Texas would make the process harder on voters, cost more money, election leaders say; EPA proposes emissions caps on existing power plants in major climate effort; Biden administration announces nearly $11B for renewable energy in rural communities; Solving The Biggest Problem With Wind Energy; The $1 Million Math Problem Undermining Wind Energy; US assessing potential damage of Patriot missile defense system following Russian attack near Kyiv; Never Give Artificial Intelligence the Nuclear Codes; Long-sought universal flu vaccine: mRNA-based candidate enters clinical trial; 

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1. Make sure you are registered to vote! VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter Information
   1. It’s time to snail-mail (no emails or faxes) in your application for mail-ballots, IF you qualify TEXAS SoS VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT APPLICATION (ALL TEXAS COUNTIES) HarrisVotes.com­ – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
   2. Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com)
   3. Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2022
      1. Austin County Elections
      2. Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
      3. Chambers County (TX) Elections
      4. Colorado County (TX) Elections
      5. Fort Bend County takes you to the proper link
      6. GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
      7. Harris County ((HarrisVotes.com)
      8. LibertyElections (Liberty County, TX)
      9. Montgomery County (TX) Elections
      10. Walker County Elections
      11. Waller County (TX) Elections
      12. Wharton County Elections
   4. For personalized, nonpartisan voter guides and information, Consider visiting Vote.ORG.   Ballotpedia.com and Texas League of Women Voters are also good places to get election info.
   5. If you are denied your right to vote any place at any time at any polling place for any reason, ask for (or demand) a provisional ballot rather than lose your vote.
   6. HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting Centers, HARRIS COUNTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
      1. Fill out a declaration at the polls describing a reasonable impediment to obtaining it, and show a copy or original of one of the following supporting forms of ID:
      2. A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
      3. Current utility bill
      4. Bank statement
      5. Government check
      6. Paycheck
      7. A certified domestic (from a U.S. state or territory) birth certificate or (b) a document confirming birth admissible in a court of law which establishes your identity (which may include a foreign birth document)
      8. You may vote early by-mail if:You are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
         1. Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
         2. Sick or disabled;
         3. 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
         4. Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
         5. Make sure you are registered:
         6. Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
         7. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
         8. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
         9. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
2. BE REGISTERED TO VOTE, and if eligible, REMEMBER TO FILL OUT AND MAIL NEW MAIL-IN BALLOT APPLICATIONS FOR 2023.
   1. Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com)
   2. Just be registered and apply for your mail-in ballot if you may qualify.
   3. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
3. League City hosting meeting to update transportation plan; By Jake Magee | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 9:23 AM May 12, 2023 CDT, Updated 9:23 AM May 12,
   1. League City officials are updating the city’s Master Mobility Plan and holding a public event to gather input.
   2. According to a League City news release, at 6 p.m. May 22 at the Johnnie Arolfo Civic Center, 400 W. Walker St., League City, the public can leave feedback on the plan, which will serve as a framework to guide while officials implement transportation investments within the city long term.
   3. The event will allow residents to form breakout groups to provide input and mention areas of concern. The meeting also will include a presentation from city staff and staff from … the consultant group the city has hired to plan transportation projects. …
   4. Residents wanting to leave feedback outside the meeting can take a brief survey, drop a pin on the city’s interactive map, or contact the city’s engineering department at 281-554-1445 or sims@leaguecitytx.gov.
   5. MIKE: This meeting is to devise the new 5-year transportation plan for League City, including road work, construction an alignment, as well as transportation and safety matters, among other things.
   6. MIKE: You can either attend the meeting, or go to the survey link and email and add your opinions that way.
   7. MIKE: Again, the meeting for League City is May 22 at 6 p.m. in the Johnnie Arolfo Civic Center, 400 W. Walker St., League City.
   8. ANDREW:
4. Houston Democratic representative draws criticism from own party for votes on controversial bills; The backlash comes after Thierry voted in favor of SB 14, which bans gender-affirming care treatment for transgender children. By Gerald Harris | KHOU.COM | Published: 5:27 PM CDT May 16, 2023, Updated: 5:27 PM CDT May 16, 2023
   1. Censured Texas Rep. Shawn Thierry, who represents Houston’s 146th House district, is currently facing criticism from Democrats.
   2. The backlash comes after Thierry voted in favor of SB 14, which bans gender-affirming care treatment for transgender children. Thierry also voted in favor of HB 900, which critics call an attempted attack to erase LGBTQ books and Black stories. 
   3. “There are voices that need to be heard that certainly were not put into formulation when she made her 1st, 2nd and 3rd vote on SB 14 and HB 900, so we really do need her to come out and engage very promptly,” Art Pronin, the president of the Meyerland Area Democrats, said. 
   4. During a Meyerland Area Democrats Club meeting, Lisa Stanton, who has a trans daughter, brought the motion to censure Thierry. 
   5. Despite the pressure from her party, Thierry has put out statements and made a speech on the House floor backing her vote.
   6. “As a thoughtful legislator, mother, woman of faith and child advocate I am making a decision to place the safety and well-being of all young people over the comfort of political expediency,” she said on the Texas House floor. …
   7. Just four Democrats, Reps. Abel Herrero, Tracy King, Harold Dutton and Thierry, voted for the bill.  …
   8. [Representative Thierry tweeted a link to her statement explaining her vote.]
   9. MIKE: My first reflexive reaction was to be critical of this vote, particularly when I see the phrase, “a woman of faith.” For me, that’s not a justification for any vote of a bill into civil law.
   10. MIKE: After wrestling with this topic, I think that I would have voted “No” to this legislation, as in “Do no harm.” Or in this case, maybe it should be, “Do no legal harm.” Legislating an opinion is different from having one.
   11. MIKE: I have many principles that guide my views in life. Among them is equality under the law; that a thing doesn’t have to meet my personal approval to be legal; and that your freedom ends at the tip of my nose.
   12. MIKE: This bill would have passed the Texas House regardless; the Republicans had enough votes on their own. But her vote, among others, made this vote bipartisan, and that’s one of the complaints many of her fellow Democrats have with it. I read Rep. Thierry’s statement on why she voted as she did, and I think it’s both reasoned and heartfelt. Of course, the question to be asked is whether she was correct in her vote, whatever “correct” means.
   13. MIKE: Adults don’t need my approval to do what I consider self-harming things. Minor children are a different issue, both because they’re growing and maturing physically and mentally, and because they’re at the mercy of their parents’ judgment and beliefs in ways that will shape and/or scar them for the rest of their lives.
   14. MIKE: In general, passing laws to protect children is considered a societal good, but that societal good can be highly debatable. Sometimes children need the protection of their parents. Sometimes children need protection from their parents. The law often has trouble making the distinction.
   15. MIKE: Rep. Thierry’s statement explains her understanding of what she learned about gender dysphoria treatment from some research and some European policies on this subject. For what it’s worth, I don’t see what I consider “faith-based” reasoning in her statement.
   16. MIKE: If I were in her place and had to make a decision on a very individual topic like this, I’d look at the science and I’d look at policies that have been tried in other places, but I’d also rely heavily on interviews with trans and gender dysphoric individuals and family member to try to get more insight into a thing I can’t fully grasp.
   17. MIKE: At the end of the day, in the absence of a firm grasp on a topic, voting “no” on a law is the best course because changing law can be almost impossible once enacted.
   18. ANDREW: I think that’s a wise approach, and I too would have voted against this bill. I agree that Rep. Theirry likely thought long and hard about her vote, and probably believed it the right thing to do. But that doesn’t stop her vote from harming people, and whether she was aware of it or not, her reasoning was built on ignorance.
   19. ANDREW: It’s true that we don’t yet know the full effects that puberty blockers have on a person when started at a young age. But what we do know, right now, is that without these gender-affirming treatments — which are completely reversible  — transgender kids are more likely to develop depression and more likely to commit suicide. This is because they are forced to experience changes to their body that do not align with who they are, and they don’t want these changes but cannot stop them. That is a powerlessness that, as Mike said, very few cisgender people (meaning non-transgender people) can even come close to knowing. This bill’s passing means that more children will die by suicide. I don’t think any reasonable person can consider that protecting them. (By the way, sources for my points are available on the blog at thinkwingradio dot com.)
   20. ANDREW: Both of the bills mentioned in this article have the same issue at heart. Children cannot be allowed to access puberty blockers when they want and need them for the same reason they cannot be allowed to read whatever they want in school libraries: because for the sake of the status quo, children must be kept powerless. No matter how powerless an adult is in our society, they can always gain power over a child to make themselves feel bigger. Without that, people might start trying to gain back some of the power that others hold over them, and that makes them harder to abuse and exploit. Denying children their humanity and agency keeps those at the top in power. On some level, every powerful person recognizes this– I believe this is why Rep. Thierry voted for both bills.
   21. ANDREW: Even stepping back from the question of children’s humanity, every vote in favor of a Republican bill in Texas further tightens the Texas Republican Party’s autocratic grip on the people of this state. I’m not saying that’s reason to never vote for a Republican bill, but I am saying that legislators should have a damn good reason before they do. Here, there were none. By voting for this bill, Representatives Hererro, King, Dutton, and Thierry put their own ignorance, prejudice, and ultimately, their own power ahead of the interests of all Texans. That should be remembered when they run for re-election.
   22. REFERENCE: Are Puberty Blockers Reversible? What You Should Know Before Treatment — HEALTHLINE.COM
   23. REFERENCE: Puberty blockers can be ‘life-saving’ drugs for trans teens, study shows — CNN.COM
5. Harris County fires IT director Noriega after he refused training amid sexual harassment allegations; Jen Rice, Staff writer | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | May 16, 2023, Updated: May 16, 2023 7:09 p.m.
   1. Harris County’s executive director of information technology Rick Noriega was fired Tuesday after county officials said he refused to complete mandatory sexual harassment training. 
   2. A county employee filed a complaint in December 2022, accusing Noriega, who headed the county’s office of Universal Services, of sexual harassment, prompting a human resources department investigation that was completed in April.
   3. Without identifying Noriega by name, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said at a press conference Tuesday he was ordered to complete sexual harassment training both in-person and online within 15 days, but he did not cooperate.
   4. The Office of County Administration confirmed Noriega’s firing later Tuesday.
   5. Hidalgo said former County Administrator David Berry wrote in an April 10 letter to Noriega the office had found “sufficient evidence to support the allegation of sexual harassment” and ordered Noriega complete sexual harassment training. Noriega did not respond. The office sent a follow-up letter on April 26, according to Hidalgo. …
   6. County officials said Noriega was dismissed for not taking the sexual harassment training, not because of the reported incident. …
   7. ANDREW: This is probably the worst thing Noriega could have done in this instance. Having been found to have harassed someone is bad enough, but if he’d taken the training he could have at least argued that he took steps to change his behavior. Now, he can’t even claim that.
   8. ANDREW: This story is probably going to follow him anywhere else he applies to, and it’s going to make it harder for him to get hired, all because of his own actions and refusal to answer for them. It’s a cautionary tale to anyone else in power: refusing to respect others and own your actions just makes things worse for you in the end.
   9. MIKE: Yeah, his choice was pretty dumb and kind of inexplicable. Of course, having been a sexual harasser, his history of choices has already been questionable.
6. Harris County Youth Diversion Center to assist youth in criminal justice system; By Melissa Enaje | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:28 PM May 15, 2023 CDT, Updated 12:15 PM May 16, 2023
   1. Officials with the Harris Center for Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities officially welcomed city leaders and guests to a new Houston center aimed at offering a safe space for youth in crisis who are within the Harris County juvenile probation program.
   2. The Youth Diversion Center, located at 6500 Chimney Rock Road, Cottage 3, Houston, will provide programs for young people between the ages of 13-17 who have engaged in low-level offenses, according to a news release.
   3. Youth in the program might be in need of temporary respite care due to a mental health crisis, in need of psychological and social intervention programs.
   4. Mental health crisis examples include family conflict that cannot be de-escalated.
   5. Referrals to the center will come from Harris County Juvenile Probation Department.
   6. The center also aims to foster community and family reintegration, officials said.
   7. [Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a news release that, “The Youth Diversion Center is another example of our commitment to be smart, not just tough, in the way we tackle crime. …”
   8. MIKE: This sounds like good news to me. I hope that the program proves to be effective, and that it turns into a model for communities helping those who really need it and perhaps have nowhere else to turn.
   9. ANDREW: I agree. Real justice is restorative rather than punitive, and restorative justice requires options that actually help people get out of the situations that lead them to commit crime. I hope this is a genuine and effective effort at providing one such option.
7. Eliminating countywide voting in Texas would make the process harder on voters, cost more money, election leaders say; Currently, more than 80% of Texas voters can vote anywhere in their home county, a model that originated in Lubbock County. If lawmakers approve new legislation, that would change. By Pooja Salhotra | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | May 15, 2023, 5 AM Central
   1. … Last month, the state Senate passed a bill that would eliminate vote centers — polling locations scattered throughout the county that any registered voter can vote at — on Election Day and require residents to vote at an assigned precinct, typically in their neighborhood. Senate Bill 990, authored by Republican Sen. Bob Hall of Edgewood passed along party lines in the Senate and has been referred to the House Elections Committee. …
   2. It is not clear if the bill will gain sufficient support to pass through the lower chamber. A hearing has not been scheduled, and just over two weeks remain in the regular legislative session. The bill’s movement has nonetheless left voting rights advocates and local government officials concerned. They say vote centers are widely popular, and prohibiting them would saddle election offices with logistical and financial burdens. …
   3. Hall’s legislation is just one of dozens of proposals to change the way the state votes that Texas lawmakers are considering this year. During the last legislative session, voting restrictions and changes to election security were condensed into a single omnibus election bill. This year, there have been hundreds of election-related bills filed, and even elections administrators say they are struggling to keep up with them. Texas Voting Rights Lab is currently tracking 221 election-related bills in the state.
   4. Other changes that are still up for debate in the last weeks of the legislative session include reinstating a felony penalty for illegal voting and the creation of election marshalls. …
   5. The program [of county-wide voting] expanded to 90 counties, both rural and urban, which represent about 83% of Texas’ voting population, according to the Texas Civil Rights Project. The [Texas] secretary of state’s office concluded in its most recent report to the Legislature that the program has proven successful in ensuring voters have an increased opportunity to cast a ballot.
   6. During floor debate last month, Hall framed the bill as necessary to ensure accurate vote counts and to prevent people from voting twice — however, he offered no evidence that countywide polling leads to inaccurate counts.
   7. When pressed by Democrats, Hall pointed to Harris County, where there were paper ballot shortages, malfunctioning voting machines and long lines at some polling places. Those problems have not been tied to countywide polling.
   8. “We think there’s just a fundamental misunderstanding of how successful the program has been,” said Chris Davis, elections administrator for Williamson County and a legislative chair of the Texas Association of Elections Administrators. “Vote centers just work.”
   9. Neither Hall nor state Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, who introduced a similar bill in the House, responded to The Texas Tribune’s requests for comment. …
   10. MIKE: Before I qualified for mail-in voting, I found county-wide voting centers to be incredibly convenient. It’s better still when you consider how hard it can be for some folks to find their correct precinct, let alone get to it. Many folks find that they work or commute more conveniently to county voting centers than their precinct polling place, and that’s what this legislation is all about: Making voting harder. That sums up pretty much all Republican-sponsored voting-related legislation this century; making voting harder for constituencies less likely to vote Republican.
   11. MIKE: There are some US Constitutional Amendments we need. The Equal Rights Amendment is one. A modification of the 2^nd Amendment allowing more gun regulation is another. And if we can’t enforce the 14^th Amendment’s “equality before the law” clause in relation to voting, then maybe we need one for that, too.
   12. MIKE: I guess I can dream.
   13. ANDREW: I‘d agree with you on the first proposal and the last one. Unfortunately, Texas Republicans stand in the way of both. Hopefully, Democrats, independents, and third parties in enough other states can all get behind an effort to make those amendments happen.
8. EPA proposes emissions caps on existing power plants in major climate effort; If finalized, the proposed rules would mark the first time the federal government has restricted carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. By Rose Horowitch | NBCNEWS.COM | May 11, 2023, 10:50 AM CDT
   1. The Biden administration on Thursday proposed new carbon pollution standards to restrict greenhouse gas emissions released by fossil fuel-fired power plants — an effort that, if enforced, would significantly further President Joe Biden’s ambitious climate agenda.
   2. Under the rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, nearly all of the United States’ coal and large gas plants would have to reduce or capture almost all — 90% — of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2038 or be forced to retire.
   3. The EPA estimated that its proposal would avoid up to 617 million metric tons of carbon dioxide through 2042, equivalent to reducing the annual emissions of roughly half the cars in the U.S. The rules would prevent 300,000 asthma attacks as well as 1,300 annual premature deaths in 2030, the EPA said.
   4. “By proposing new standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants, EPA is delivering on its mission to reduce harmful pollution that threatens people’s health and wellbeing,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.
   5. “EPA’s proposal relies on proven, readily available technologies to limit carbon pollution and seizes the momentum already underway in the power sector to move toward a cleaner future,” Regan said, adding that these policies would cut “climate pollution and other harmful pollutants, protecting people’s health, and driving American innovation.”
   6. If finalized, the proposed regulation would mark the first time the federal government has restricted carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, which generate about 25% of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution, second only to the transportation sector.
   7. Coal currently provides about 20% of U.S. electricity, down from about 45% in 2010. Natural gas provides about 40% of U.S. electricity.
   8. Industry groups have aggressively opposed the proposals. The National Mining Association slammed the rules as “unlawful showmanship,” arguing that they would make it harder for companies to operate given the realities of existing technology. …
   9. Other experts and climate activists, however, indicated that existing climate technology may limit the industry’s ability to meet the thresholds set in the rules. …
   10. Ahead of the proposal’s unveiling on Wednesday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, condemned the EPA for what he called its determination to advance the administration’s “radical climate agenda.”
   11. Manchin said he will oppose all EPA nominees “until they halt their government overreach,” adding that the administration has “made it clear they are hellbent on doing everything in their power to regulate coal and gas-fueled power plants out of existence, no matter the cost to energy security and reliability.”
   12. The EPA will take feedback on the proposals for 60 days and hold a virtual public hearing to consider implementation. …
   13. Biden has vowed to take action on the most ambitious environmental justice agenda in U.S. history and has pushed to position the nation as a global leader in combating climate change. …
   14. ANDREW: I think some of the comments we haven’t read from the article give a more balanced view. A representative from the Sierra Club, for example, argues that renewable energy is actually cheaper than coal. And one from Climate Cabinet Action is quoted as saying that the proposal is “positive”, but that carbon capture technology hasn’t been proven to the degree necessary to ensure that these targets are realistic. I agree with both of these views.
   15. ANDREW: I believe that any electricity price increases will ultimately trace back to corporations trying to pump up profit margins rather than this policy. I like that these targets are so ambitious, but I agree that carbon capture is not likely to do very much of anything to achieve them. 
   16. ANDREW: Reduction of emissions will do the overwhelming amount of the work here, and the difficulty is going to be finding a way to reduce emissions to that degree without resulting in a power generation shortage. I think power companies will have to redirect a lot of their spending plans toward building new renewable generation plants to shift demand onto in order to be able to meet these targets, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In order to get centrists like Joe Manchin on board, though, a lot of that renewables spending is going to have to be directed to coal states. Getting companies to do that could be the biggest challenge ahead for the federal government.
   17. MIKE: From my reading, carbon capture is a real technology that works. The question is whether it’s economically feasible at its current level of development to meet the goals being laid out. And of course, there’s also the question of cost-effectiveness and how it will impact the price of electricity to consumers.
   18. MIKE: I disagree with Manchin’s positions on energy and I’m suspicious of his motives, but there’s no question that carbon-dependent communities won’t be won over to renewable, carbon-free energy until there’s something in it for them. These folks need food and shelter and jobs to pay for them. Helping these communities to build carbon-free economies that can support them and their families is how to gain their support, but there is always an older generation of workers that will find any job transition very hard, and those folks represent a lot of voters.
9. Biden administration announces nearly $11B for renewable energy in rural communities; By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS via NPR.COM | May 16, 2023, 4:07 PM ET
   1. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a nearly $11 billion investment on Tuesday to help bring affordable clean energy to rural communities throughout the country.
   2. Rural electric cooperatives, renewable energy companies and electric utilities will be able to apply for funding through two programs, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said during a media briefing on Monday.
   3. Vilsack said it was the largest single federal investment in rural electrification since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act in 1936 as part of the New Deal. …
   4. The Empowering Rural America program will make $9.7 billion available for rural electric cooperatives to create renewable energy, zero-emission and carbon capture systems. …
   5. The Powering Affordable Clean Energy program will make $1 billion available in partially-forgivable loans for renewable energy companies and electric utilities to help finance renewable energy projects such as large-scale solar, wind and geothermal projects.
   6. The Department of Agriculture said in a press release that the goal of this program is provide affordable clean energy to vulnerable, disadvantaged and Indigenous communities. But there is tension between building a clean energy infrastructure for all and mining the materials needed for that infrastructure.
   7. For example, conservationists and Indigenous communities in Nevada have sued to block the opening of the largest mine planned in the U.S. for extraction of lithium used in electric vehicle batteries.
   8. When asked about tribal concerns about mineral extraction at Monday’s briefing, Vilsack said there would be a “significant tribal consultation” for mining projects on land his agency controls. But when pressed about what would happen if an Indigenous community said no to a mining project, he declined to answer the question, calling it hypothetical.
   9. Rural electric cooperatives can apply for grants, loans and loan modifications through the Empowering Rural America program between July 31 and Aug. 31. The application period for the Powering Affordable Clean Energy program is June 30 — Sept. 29.
   10. Experts told The Associated Press that these programs could have a significant impact for rural America. “The ERA Program has the potential to help rural electric co-ops and municipal co-ops move the needle toward a cleaner, less carbon-intensive electricity mix,” said Felix Mormann, a professor of law at Texas A&M University who specializes in energy law and policy.
   11. The programs will have relatively less impact on electricity growth in rural communities than the Rural Electrification Act during the New Deal, said Carl Kitchens, an associate professor of economics at Florida State University.
   12. “When enacted in the 1930s, only 10 percent of farms had electric power; by 1950, it had risen to over 90 percent,” Kitchens said. “Today, electricity is nearly universal except for a few small pockets and portions of reservation land.”
   13. Funding for the new programs comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, which has generated hundreds of billions of dollars for renewable energy transition and environmental cleanup.
   14. In February, the Biden administration announced details on how states and nonprofits could apply for $27 billion in funding from a ” green bank.” The next month, officials announced $2 billion to create the Rural Energy for America Program. …
   15. MIKE: I’m all for renewable energy, whether it’s wind, solar, tidal, or whatever works. And as it’s further built and developed, it will get better. Cheaper, and more efficient. But as we discussed last week regarding a different story, the problem is what to do when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow?
   16. MIKE: Advocates of carbon-based energy use this argument for continuing to build and maintain what’s called “dispatchable generation”. That us to say, power that can be turned on with a switch whenever it’s needed.
   17. MIKE: I have solar at my house. There are days I get as much as 75-80% of my power from solar and batteries. Other days, it can be as little as 5-10%. On average, it’s about half, but I don’t live “on average”. That’s why we need a more integrated energy grid and more development of what might be called “dispatchable storage”.
   18. MIKE: It’s worth recalling that hydropower was once considered an cheap, dependable, virtually endless source of power. We’re learning that’s not true, and that what we need are many different options. Many kinds of renewable (of which hydro is one), and many different kinds of “dispatchable storage” are probably the ultimate answer for the foreseeable future.
   19. ANDREW: The question of materials is also a good one, in terms of both environmental and social impacts of extraction and manufacturing.
   20. ANDREW: I don’t claim to have the answers, but committing to not trying to force extraction projects onto communities that don’t want them would be a step in the right direction.
   21. ANDREW: The US could also take the opportunity to build bridges geopolitically and purchase lithium and other materials necessary for this “renewables rush” from nations that the US has had cooler relations with recently, assuming those nations are selling the resources in a way that’s fair to their own people. We discussed the future plans for Chile to sell their lithium on a previous show, and though that plan is still a little ways off, that’s the kind of policy I’d like to see the US engage with.
10. Solving The Biggest Problem With Wind Energy; By Brian Westenhaus | OILPRICE.COM | May 06, 2023, 2:00 PM CDT
    1. Danish researchers at Aarhus University have developed a chemical process that can disassemble the epoxy composite of wind turbine blades – and simultaneously extract intact glass fibers as well as one of the epoxy resin’s original building blocks in a high-quality. The recovered materials could potentially be used in the production of new blades.
    2. The research paper has been published in the leading scientific journal Nature, and Aarhus University, together with the Danish Technological Institute, has filed a patent application for the process.
    3. The new chemical process is not limited to wind turbine blades but works on many different so-called fiber-reinforced epoxy composites, including some materials that are reinforced with especially costly carbon fibers.
    4. Thus, the process can contribute to establishing a potential circular economy in the wind turbine, aerospace, automotive and space industries, where these reinforced composites, due to their lightweight and long durability, are used for load-bearing structures.
    5. [T]he durability of the blades poses an environmental challenge. Wind turbine blades mostly end up at waste landfills when they are decommissioned, because they are extremely difficult to break down.
    6. If no solution is found, we will have accumulated 43 million metric tons of wind turbine blade waste globally by 2050.
    7. The newly discovered process is a proof-of-concept of a recycling strategy that can be applied to the vast majority of both existing wind turbine blades and those presently in production, as well as other epoxy-based materials. …
    8. MIKE: In the context of an earlier story, this title may be ironic. Recycling wind turbine blades may be only one of the most important problems to solve in wind energy, but it’s up there.
    9. MIKE: The physical limits and costs of landfills and the urgency of recycling are fast becoming barriers to sustainability, health, and economic growth. We’re seeing this in chemical waste, industrial waste, construction waste, household waste … Just waste in general.
    10. MIKE: More efficient use of scarce raw materials and the ability to recycle old products into new raw materials for new products are becoming among our most urgent needs. From my readings, it’s often not a matter of whether it’s possible, but whether it can be scaled up in a way that’s still economically feasible. And then there’s the question of when economic feasibility gives way to sheer necessity.
    11. MIKE: Consider this problem in military terms. It’s not that cost is no object in military hardware, but cost is also looked at in terms of resources, capability, and necessity. A fighter jet doesn’t have to be as fuel-efficient as a passenger jet. It has different criteria for cost-effectiveness, but cost and fuel efficiency still matter. When it comes to renewable energy like hard-to-recycle wind turbine blades, solar cells and batteries, we may reach that point in terms of energy production, waste recycling, and cost vs. necessity. Recycling may not be as cheap as we would like, but just the ability to do it for a modest increase in cost may at some point have to be sufficient.
    12. ANDREW: I agree entirely, and I think that’s a very novel way to frame it. In many ways, global warming is as much or more of a threat to the US than any geopolitical adversary. Using that logic to think about how willing we are to use resources on renewable energy and recycling is something I can’t recall seeing before.
11. The $1 Million Math Problem Undermining Wind Energy; By Haley Zaremba | OILPRICE.COM | May 05, 2023, 2:00 PM CDT
    1. You can win a million dollars for finding a solution to reliably [predicting] how air currents, breeze, and turbulence interact in a mathematical model of fluid dynamics. The $1 million Millennium Prize is offered for solving equations like the Navier–Stokes Equation, first formulated in the 19th century, but never solved. The prize is so substantial not only because a thorough understanding of the remarkable complexities of fluid dynamics has remained far out of reach for mathematicians, but also because of the major implications that such a model would have on atmospherically-reliant technologies such as wind power. 
    2. In its simplest form, wind power works like this: the wind blows, a turbine spins, a generator is rotated, and energy is thereby produced. But the reality is much more complicated. Turbulence messes up all of those straightforward understandings of wind + turbine = energy. Not only can it decrease the amount of power produced on any given day, but the wind that blows through a group of turbines can even strip away energy from the wind farm, all depending on the unpredictable element of turbulence.
    3. [O]ur relatively rudimentary understanding of fluid dynamics poses a major challenge to the efficacy and efficiency of wind power production. The better we can understand and account for the intricacies of wind and weather, the better we can design wind turbines and wind farms. When a recent study published in the scientific journal Physics applied more complicated atmospheric conditions (such as reduced wind at high altitudes) to their model than the more simplistic ones that are typically used, researchers found that the power output of some turbines dropped by as much as 30%. …
    4. Improving the efficiency of wind farms could be a key step toward meeting global climate goals. The globally recognized “Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario” includes the benchmark of approximately 7900 TWh of wind electricity generation worldwide in 2030. To get on track with this Scenario, according to the International Energy Agency, the world would have to increase average … wind power capacity additions to almost 250 GW per year, a more than two-fold increase of the previous record for annual addition. …
    5. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the need for rapid, massive-scale addition of renewable energy is at loggerheads with other global development needs, such as increasing demand on land for agriculture. In fact, land use competition and disagreements have already been a major roadblock for clean energy development in the United States. …
    6. Increasing the efficacy of the turbines through better atmospheric modeling could therefore be a win-win for energy production and efficient land use.
    7. MIKE: I once wrote an article called, “It’s always something.” In one scenario, “upwind” turbines steal energy from “downwind” turbines. Think of yacht races, where one yacht will try to steal the wind from another downwind yacht. Maybe this would average out, maybe not.
    8. MIKE: In another scenario, using the energy from wind in one place may deprive other areas of cooling by slowing wind down, creating new heat islands. This could affect the crop yield of some farms, or increase energy used for cooling at some downwind point.
    9. MIKE: The Earth has a total energy budget. Most of it comes in one way or another from what’s called “insolation”; that’s the energy captured by Earth from the Sun. That energy drives weather cycles, wind and ocean currents, grows plants, etc. And it’s a lot, but it’s still finite. And what humans have learned over the millennia is that what seems endless is still on some level finite.
    10. MIKES: Humans impact things. Using solar farms uses land that may not then be used for other things. Using ocean currents for power diverts energy from coastal flora and fauna, changing things like fertility and food supplies or nesting environments.
    11. ANDREW: Is that energy budget concept sourced in the article you wrote? I can’t say I’ve heard it before. I’m not inclined to discard it immediately, but I’ve had enough conversations with climate denialists to learn to ask for sources and evaluate them myself.
    12. ANDREW: As for the article, I certainly hope we answer this question, sooner rather than later. I recently learned that we do actually know how bees fly now, which was considered one of the great unsolvable scientific mysteries for a long time, so I think there’s reason to hope.
    13. REFERENCE: Wind Turbines: “It’s always something.” — THINKWINGRADIO.COM
    14. REFERENCE: Scientists Finally Figure Out How Bees Fly — LIVESCIENCE.COM
12. US assessing potential damage of Patriot missile defense system following Russian attack near Kyiv; By Natasha Bertrand and Oren Liebermann | CNN.COM | Updated 2:15 PM EDT, Tue May 16, 2023
    1. A US-made Patriot air defense system was likely damaged, but not destroyed, as the result of a Russian missile barrage in and around Kyiv early Tuesday morning local time, a US official tells CNN.
    2. The US is still assessing to what degree the system was damaged, the official said. That will determine whether the system needs to be pulled back entirely or simply repaired on the spot by Ukrainians forces.
    3. Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday in a post on Telegram that “a high-precision strike by the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system in the city of Kyiv hit a US-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system.” …
    4. The Patriot has a powerful radar to detect incoming targets at long range, making it a potent air defense platform capable of intercepting ballistic missiles and more. But the radar emission necessary to spot threats at a distance also makes it possible for the enemy to detect the Patriot battery and figure out its location.
    5. US officials believe the Russian military has been able to pick up on signals that are emitted from the Patriot, allowing them to target the system using the hypersonic missile, known as the Kinzhal or Killjoy. And unlike some shorter-range air defenses provided to Ukraine that are mobile and harder to target, the large Patriot battery is a larger and more stationary system, making it possible for the Russian forces to zero in on the location over time.
    6. MIKE: I part of what’s interesting in this story is that the difficulty of moving a Patriot battery with the amount of radar energy it generates makes it somewhat vulnerable to a sophisticated enemy. Up till now, Patriot batteries haven’t been used against what is called a “peer competitor”, so I’m sure that the US military is using this as a significant learning opportunity.
    7. ANDREW: This raises perhaps another reason to try and be cooperative and genial on the world stage: to avoid sparking more peer conflicts that expose flaws in all the world’s expensive military equipment. A point that every nation should take note of, I would think.
13. Never Give Artificial Intelligence the Nuclear Codes; The temptation to automate command and control will be great. The danger is greater. By Ross Andersen | THEATLANTIC.COM | May 2, 2023, 7 AM ET
    1. No technology since the atomic bomb has inspired the apocalyptic imagination like artificial intelligence. Ever since ChatGPT began exhibiting glints of logical reasoning in November, the internet has been awash in doomsday scenarios. Many are self-consciously fanciful—they’re meant to jar us into envisioning how badly things could go wrong if an emerging intelligence comes to understand the world, and its own goals, even a little differently from how its human creators do. One scenario, however, requires less imagination, because the first steps toward it are arguably already being taken—the gradual integration of AI into the most destructive technologies we possess today.
    2. The world’s major military powers have begun a race to wire AI into warfare. For the moment, that mostly means giving algorithms control over individual weapons or drone swarms. No one is inviting AI to formulate grand strategy, or join a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But the same seductive logic that accelerated the nuclear arms race could, over a period of years, propel AI up the chain of command. How fast depends, in part, on how fast the technology advances, and it appears to be advancing quickly. How far depends on our foresight as humans, and on our ability to act with collective restraint.
    3. Jacquelyn Schneider, the director of the Wargaming and Crisis Simulation Initiative at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, recently [discussed] a game she devised in 2018. It models a fast-unfolding nuclear conflict and has been played 115 times by the kinds of people whose responses are of supreme interest: former heads of state, foreign ministers, senior NATO officers. …
    4. It goes something like this: The U.S. president and his Cabinet have just been hustled into the basement of the West Wing to receive a dire briefing. A territorial conflict has turned hot, and the enemy is mulling a nuclear first strike against the United States. The atmosphere in the Situation Room is charged. The hawks advise immediate preparations for a retaliatory strike, but the Cabinet soon learns of a disturbing wrinkle. The enemy has developed a new cyberweapon, and fresh intelligence suggests that it can penetrate the communication system that connects the president to his nuclear forces. Any launch commands that he sends may not reach the officers responsible for carrying them out.
    5. There are no good options in this scenario. Some players delegate launch authority to officers at missile sites, who must make their own judgments about whether a nuclear counterstrike is warranted—a scary proposition. But Schneider [said] she was most unsettled by a different strategy, pursued with surprising regularity. In many games, she said, players who feared a total breakdown of command and control wanted to automate their nuclear launch capability completely. They advocated the empowerment of algorithms to determine when a nuclear counterstrike was appropriate. AI alone would decide whether to enter into a nuclear exchange.
    6. Bottom of Form
    7. Schneider’s game is, by design, short and stressful. Players’ automation directives were not typically spelled out with an engineer’s precision — how exactly would this be done? Could any automated system even be put in place before the culmination of the crisis? — but the impulse is telling nonetheless. “There is a wishful thinking about this technology,” Schneider said, “and my concern is that there will be this desire to use AI to decrease uncertainty by [leaders] who don’t understand the uncertainty of the algorithms themselves.” …
    8. MIKE: There are other, much scarier scenarios discussed in this story, some of which are closer to being tangibly real. And the danger here is closer to the scenario I recently posited about AI: It doesn’t have to become sentient to be extremely dangerous. It just has to “think” it’s following what it’s been taught to do in a digital sort of way.
    9. MIKE: I hate to bring up Star Trek in a discussion like this, but it’s a good analog. In the 1968 episode “The Ultimate Computer”, an intelligent machine is being tested to operate a starship with little or no human intervention. In what is supposed to be a mock engagement, it begins actually attacking Federation starships. It can’t tell the difference between a wargame and actual war. And humans can’t compete with it and have lost control of it.
    10. MIKE: If you’re familiar with the episode, this analogy is not perfect, but it’s applicable. Artificial intelligence is incredibly powerful as expert systems with fuzzy logic, and it will change the world over the next 10 years or so. But will we be able to keep it on a leash when we don’t even entirely understand what is going on inside it?
    11. ANDREW: The Ultimate Computer is maybe not a perfect allegory for the scenario in the article, but I’d say it matches my comments from a previous discussion on this topic pretty well. One of my biggest concerns with militarized AI is the potential for bugs and development oversights. In this Star Trek episode, the Computer couldn’t distinguish between a war game and actual war– a development oversight for sure, whether they forgot to teach it the difference or it could never understand. Something like this will happen with any military AI system. It may not be as severe as in Star Trek, and the public may never even hear about it, but its immediate impact won’t matter– its potential will.
    12. REFERENCE: Star Trek: The Original Series — The Ultimate Computer – COM
        1. Spock: The ship reacted more rapidly than human control could have maneuvered her. Tactics, deployment of weapons, all indicate an immense sophistication in computer control.
14. Long-sought universal flu vaccine: mRNA-based candidate enters clinical trial; The phase I trial will test safety and efficacy in a small number of people. Beth Mole | ARSTECHNICA.COM | 5/16/2023, 6:26 PM
    1. An mRNA-based flu vaccine designed to offer long-lasting protection against a broad range of influenza viruses is now in a phase I clinical trial, the National Institutes of Health announced this week.
    2. The trial brings the remarkable success of the mRNA vaccine platform to the long-standing efforts to develop a universal flu vaccine. Currently, health systems around the globe battle the seasonal scourge with shots that have to be reformulated each year to match circulating strains. This reformulation happens months before typical transmission, providing manufacturers time to produce doses at scale but also giving the strain circulation chances to shift unexpectedly. If the year’s shot is a poor match for the strains that circulate in a given season, efficacy against infection can be abysmal. Still, even when the shot is well-matched, people will need another shot next year.
    3. “A universal influenza vaccine would be a major public health achievement and could eliminate the need for both annual development of seasonal influenza vaccines, as well as the need for patients to get a flu shot each year,” Hugh Auchincloss, acting director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a news release. “Moreover, some strains of influenza virus have significant pandemic potential. A universal flu vaccine could serve as an important line of defense against the spread of a future flu pandemic.” …
    4. MIKE: As this article is from Ars Technica, it goes into somewhat more detail about how this vaccine might work, but I think the essence of this story is that such a thing might not only be possible, but be within reach.
    5. MIKE: mRNA vaccines hold great potential for fighting contagious diseases. It’s ironic that at a time when we are struggling to stay ahead of bacterial immunity, we might be making great strides against viruses.
    6. ANDREW:

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