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A ‘Wedge’ of Saltwater Is Making Its Way Up the Mississippi

New Orleans’ drinking water is under threat.

New Orleans.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

For much of its history, the Mississippi River has been a churning mass of water, the collected output of a watershed that stretches across 32 American states and two Canadian provinces. Its power is unquestionable; when the Mississippi meets the Gulf of Mexico, the sheer force of the river keeps the saltwater of the Gulf from making its way upstream.

Except for right now. Drought in the central U.S. has made the Mississippi drop to near-record lows, and the Gulf of Mexico is encroaching upwards. A “wedge” of saltwater at the bottom of the river has been making its way upstream, threatening to inundate drinking water plants in and around New Orleans (CNN has a good graphic that shows what the wedge looks like). This is a big problem: As Colbi Edmonds reports in The New York Times, water treatment plants aren’t designed to handle water with high salinity levels, which can corrode pipes.

Governor Jon Bel Edwards of Louisiana has requested a federal emergency declaration, and Mayor LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans has already signed a city-level emergency declaration. The Army Corps of Engineers, meanwhile, is hard at work trying to raise an underwater sill it had built in the river back in July to protect against the saltwater; officials say they want to make the sill 25 feet higher, though even that will only serve to buy about 10 or 15 days rather than stop the saltwater altogether. The only thing that can really stop the saltwater is rain, and none is forecasted for the near future.

This isn’t the first time saltwater has made its way upriver (it also happened in 1988), but this is the second year in a row where drought has made the river’s water levels drop so dramatically. In 1988, the saltwater intrusion was solved with an unexpected burst of water on the river; this time around, officials think the problem could last until January. And if the drought continues into next year, it’s likely they’ll be facing the same problem then.

In the meantime, the Corps is also organizing barges to transport drinking water to New Orleans and the other communities that stand to be affected. In a press conference on Friday, Governor Edwards urged people not to stock up on drinking water; a representative of the Army Corps told CNN that it “fully anticipates the capability to meet the need of up to 36 million gallons per day that could be required.”

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Sparks

The Country’s Largest Power Markets Are Getting More Gas

Three companies are joining forces to add at least a gigawatt of new generation by 2029. The question is whether they can actually do it.

Natural gas pipelines.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Two of the biggest electricity markets in the country — the 13-state PJM Interconnection, which spans the Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest, and ERCOT, which covers nearly all of Texas — want more natural gas. Both are projecting immense increases in electricity demand thanks to data centers and electrification. And both have had bouts of market weirdness and dysfunction, with ERCOT experiencing spiky prices and even blackouts during extreme weather and PJM making enormous payouts largely to gas and coal operators to lock in their “capacity,” i.e. their ability to provide power when most needed.

Now a trio of companies, including the independent power producer NRG, the turbine manufacturer GE Vernova, and a subsidiary of the construction firm Kiewit Corporation, are teaming up with a plan to bring gas-powered plants to PJM and ERCOT, the companies announced today.

The three companies said that the new joint venture “will work to advance four projects totaling over 5 gigawatts” of natural gas combined cycle plants to the two power markets, with over a gigawatt coming by 2029. The companies said that they could eventually build 10 to 15 gigawatts “and expand to other areas across the U.S.”

So far, PJM and Texas’ call for new gas has been more widely heard than answered. The power producer Calpine said last year that it would look into developing more gas in PJM, but actual investment announcements have been scarce, although at least one gas plant scheduled to close has said it would stay open.

So far, across the country, planned new additions to the grid are still overwhelmingly solar and battery storage, according to the Energy Information Administration, whose data shows some 63 gigawatts of planned capacity scheduled to be added this year, with more than half being solar and over 80% being storage.

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Sparks

An Emergency Trump-Coded Appeal to Save the Hydrogen Tax Credit

Featuring China, fossil fuels, and data centers.

The Capitol.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

As Republicans in Congress go hunting for ways to slash spending to carry out President Trump’s agenda, more than 100 energy businesses, trade groups, and advocacy organizations sent a letter to key House and Senate leaders on Tuesday requesting that one particular line item be spared: the hydrogen tax credit.

The tax credit “will serve as a catalyst to propel the United States to global energy dominance,” the letter argues, “while advancing American competitiveness in energy technologies that our adversaries are actively pursuing.” The Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association organized the letter, which features signatures from the American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Clean Energy Buyers Association, and numerous hydrogen, industrial gas, and chemical companies, among many others. Three out of the seven regional clean hydrogen hubs — the Mid-Atlantic, Heartland, and Pacific Northwest hubs — are also listed.

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Sparks

Why Your Car Insurance Bill Is Making Renewables More Expensive

Core inflation is up, meaning that interest rates are unlikely to go down anytime soon.

Wind turbines being built.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The Fed on Wednesday issued a report showing substantial increases in the price of eggs, used cars, and auto insurance — data that could spell bad news for the renewables economy.

Though some of those factors had already been widely reported on, the overall rise in prices exceeded analysts’ expectations. With overall inflation still elevated — reaching an annual rate of 3%, while “core” inflation, stripping out food and energy, rose to 3.3%, after an unexpectedly sharp 0.4% jump in January alone — any prospect of substantial interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve has dwindled even further.

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