1. Do market shifts indicate a nuclear revival?
Westinghouse Deal Latest Signal of a Nuclear Power Revival
By Jennifer Hiller, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 12, 2022
“A deal by Brookfield BBU Renewable Partners and Cameco Corp. to buy nuclear-services firm Westinghouse Electric Co. is the latest sign of revival in the nuclear-power industry after years of decline.
The matchup would create something of a Western nuclear powerhouse, pairing a key nuclear-power service provider with the largest publicly traded uranium company and one of the world’s biggest owners of wind and solar projects. The transaction is a bet that nuclear will play an important role in the energy transition away from fossil fuels. Brookfield and Cameco announced the deal Tuesday, saying the total enterprise value for Westinghouse is roughly $7.88 billion.”
2. Performative ecoextremism rears its ugly head as members of the UK-based group Just Stop Oil throw tomato soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. The irony? It’s an oil painting.
Oil protesters throw soup on Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting
By Ian Youngs, BBC, Oct 14, 2022
“Climate activists have thrown tins of what appears to be tomato soup over a Van Gogh painting of sunflowers at the National Gallery in London.
Footage showed two people in Just Stop Oil T-shirts opening tins and throwing the contents on the masterpiece before gluing their hands to the wall.”
3. How does your state rank on fostering community-led clean energy?
Maria Virginia Olano, Canary Media, October 14, 2022
We are a sucker for fun chart. And this one is fun. Minus the fact that Alaska has an “F” rating.
4. What if healthcare could power itself? A story of how one high-emitting healthcare center is going green.
Inside America’s groundbreaking solar-powered health facility
Pam Strayer, The Guardian, October 14, 2022
“After her 2017 visit [to post-Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico], Fernandez realized the clinic she heads, San Benito Health Foundation in Hollister, California, could also be vulnerable to power failures that could jeopardize patient health. California’s record heatwaves and other factors are increasingly taxing an already strained electrical power grid. Something had to be done, she decided.
Today, the 17,000 sq ft San Benito clinic is nearly 100% solar-powered with the ability to rely entirely on sun-fueled energy for a week, thanks to a $1.7m self-contained micro-grid of solar panels and batteries.”
5. A fact check about UK oil to top it all off (we love a fact check).
Fact check: are the Tories right that British oil and gas is greener?
By Sandra Laville, Environment correspondent, The Guardian, October 13, 2022
The take home:
“Arguably the new oil and gas extraction licences released in the UK mean other countries are now leading the transition to net zero, with Denmark, Ireland and France putting an end to new oil and gas exploration.”
