The Duke Energy proposed energy plans

On Thursday July 27 the NC Energy Commission will hear citizens (and probably lawyers) in Asheville at 7:00 at the Buncombe County Court House. Duke Energy provides electricity to all of North Carolina...and beyond. There are also around 6 rural cooperative electric providers.

 Before the hearing, some citizens in Progress North Carolina will hold a rally at 5:30 outside the doors.

Duke Energy's Carbon Plan

Our proposed Carolinas Carbon Plan is an important step toward 70% carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050, while providing multiple options that balance affordability and reliability for our customers.   (That's 70% of the 2005 Carbon emissions.)

The Carolinas Carbon Plan at a Glance HERE

• A stakeholder-informed proposal – with more public input to come 
• Two paths, four portfolios – all meet 70% carbon reduction targets and carbon neutrality by 2050 
• An “all-of-the-above” strategy – to maintain reliability for our customers and communities 
• All coal retired by 2035 – enabled by diverse mix of carbon-free and dispatchable resources 
• Limited-cost impacts in next two years – and about 1.9% to 2.7% annually through 2035

The Overview Summary

The Stakeholder Process:

More than 500 individuals representing over 300 organizations from both North Carolina and South Carolina participated in the stakeholder process – their feedback informed the plan presented to the North Carolina Utilities Commission on May 16 for consideration. Plan revisions reflecting their input include:

Adding more solar plus storage options

Doubling the assumed solar interconnection rate

Accelerating offshore wind availability to 2030

So there are 4 portfolios to be decided upon...and I can't find them at this time on the various sites. I know I've read the summaries of these 4 portfolios.

The first of the four gets closest to meeting the legislated demands...with highest cost. 

It's around 2% for consumers...so I don't see many who would have rates raised $90 like I've read in the ad for nuclear reactors to make energy. I'm definitely against nuclear.

I'll share the NC Energy Commission's meeting in Asheville information on July 27, as I have it.

Coal powered plant

I just urged the community at my church to engage in this hearing in Asheville, and I know the Sierra Club is also publicizing it.

We have a chance to be heard, and let the state regulators know what we want!

Getting around places

All great human deeds both consume and transform their doers. Consider an athlete, or a scientist, or an artist, or an independent business creator. In the service of their goals they lay down time and energy and many other choices and pleasures; in return, they become most truly themselves. -Lois McMaster Bujold, author (b. 2 Nov 1949)

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I never heard of a trap as a conveyance but I can look at other vehicles that helped people get from one place to another (mostly on wheels).

Sepia Saturday's suggestion of trap and ponies this week...

A Police Officer gets a coffee and a salutation from passing motorist.

Progressive high school girls learn motor repair skills

Alix Winton in his experimental motor car in 1896.

A mixture of passengers on the mail cart in Ireland 1880

An early ambulance operated by St John. The patient was placed in a coffin-like sidecar and the lid was closed for transport. There were however a couple of hatches.

An early food truck in Washington DC 1919

Henry Ford in 1933, thirty years after his first Model A was shipped, sitting in his then vintage Ford Model A next to a very vintage horse and carriage

via Alamy

1903 - Harley Davidson’s first factory - and speaking of motorcycles...

Filling up an Indian motorcycle - isn't it great they sold Shell and Texaco at the same gas station?

The Kentucky Pack-horse librarian of the WPA brought brochures and books to those who lived in the Appalachian  mountains.

Bristol UK, 1900 and 2020.

I really love then and now photos.

Various thoughts from this week

 

Shared by one of my athletic granddaughters...try to keep up!

Painting: 'Mary Magdalene' by Cassandra Barney

 I must mention that many friends of mine will be celebrating today as the feast day for Mary Magdalen...who was never a prostitute even though Pope Gregory called her one. I won't go into Biblical or Gnostic teachings, because I'm a complete novice. But I do like the story of Jesus' favorite disciple, Mary Magdalen.

So a day without any schedules, just doing whatever came next into my mind to do...and a call came from a friend who had left her truck at a repair place yesterday when I drove her back home. Now she needed to go pick up her pickup (sorry.) And she was very worried that we wouldn't get there in time for their closing, though I didn't remember her saying we needed to be there by any time, just that she said let's get there around 5. So she was not happy that it was already 5 of 5 when we hadn't gotten there yet, and she couldn't reach them by phone. Had they closed early? She kept trying, and finally got through to someone, who said they'd leave the key under the matt. So we arrived, truck key was in place, and my friend was happy (there had been nothing wrong with the truck according to mechanics.)

She invited me to dinner and we went into east Asheville, to a new-to-me Pakistani restaurant, Biryani Express. This (above) is the view out the restaurant windows. It's in a strip mall near Kohl's store. Oh, and we had a deluge of a thunderstorm just as we arrived, so we kind of were baptized when getting out of the car.

That restaurant had a long list of vegetarian dishes...and spices would be ordered as mild, medium or hot. We both chose mild, and mine really was...but my friend's had a bit of a kick to it. There was lamb, beef, shrimp and chicken also. And we forgot to order Nan, though we did remember to have Samosas before the meal.  We were almost though eating when we ordered Nan, and ended up taking some home, as well as another meal of the wonderful food!

These two pots of begonias are by the entrance to the office at Blue Ridge apartments.

And this is the view from that office entrance, looking towards some of the apartment buildings

For Skywatch Friday,

So long Julia

Just a short memorial to a dear friend. When the people at church said they were having a gathering to remember her the day after she died, I thought I might go...but when it came time to get ready I was overcome by coughing fits.

(NOTE: I can't reply to anyone's comments. But I wanted you all to know...Thank you. And I misread when they were having the gathering at church...it's today, right now. But I'm still not going.)

See, Julia also had bronchiectasis, coughing at any time just to be able to breath.

And at the time the gathering was to take place at church, there was a mighty thunderstorm. (though nobody was gathering yesterday after all!)

I figured that Julia's spirit was saying that she's maybe gone in body, but just like a summer storm, she'll be here at times we least expect her, just booming some thunder (which actually is very unlike her.)

Julia was a lady. Always well dressed, and because of her height and thinness, she looked like a model, though in her 70s was believable.

And kind. She offered to help me many times when I was recovering from something or another. She'd gladly drive me places. And I know she helped many other people at church. She had just resigned from a committee that I have just joined. She was continuing to help the Afghan family which has been trying to acclimate to becoming Americans.  Julia always had a smile for everyone, and would speak in her soft voice, slowly but with proper enunciation. I think it was in part due to her problems breathing.

This was her last FaceBook portrait...from over a year ago.

She died suddenly on Tuesday, and nobody knows the cause.

I will definitely look for thunder storms to bring her spirit back to say hello again.

Thank you for all the comments. The problem is with this new ReCaptCha thing google is doing with blogger. It says it's my internet, but it continues and my internet is just fine.

Wordless Wednesday

For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner ... on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. ... That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that. -Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (9 Nov 1934-1996)

So full of amazement and gratitude to see the results from the James Webb Space Telescope.

"Images from the telescope, a project three decades in the making, were released on Tuesday by NASA. The observatory, which launched into orbit in December 2021, is about the size of a tennis court and can take more detailed images from deeper in space than any equipment of its kind."

I note the reflectors are coated in a thin sheet of gold, also.

Carina-Nebula-James-Webb

OK, there were words!

Art in Bloom garden tour, house number 6

Do we need weapons to fight wars? Or do we need wars to create markets for weapons? -Arundhati Roy, author (b. 24 Nov 1961)

 This was the last house on our Garden Tour for 2022!

We had a wonderful parking place right in front of the home!

A very big flower bed!

Interesting old trees.

Monday murals

"It is now highly feasible to take care of everybody on Earth at a higher standard of living than any have ever known. It no longer has to be you or me. Selfishness is unnecessary. War is obsolete.  

"It is a matter of converting the high technology from weaponry to livingry.

 - R. Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path, 1981

Our Black Mountain Center for the Arts building has been given some artistic murals.

The brilliant blue is on the ground floor.

Even going around a corner! I love that feature!

The top floor, where the galleries are, has some butterflies against a possible sky blue.

I didn't stop on that visit to see the middle floor, so will capture it for you sometime in the future!

Linking to Monday Murals

Art in Bloom garden tour, House number 5

 The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been. -Madeleine L'Engle, writer (29 Nov 1918-2007)

Pretty house on Cotton St, across from a garden tour house, but not in the tour

See the frog? For some reason he has a flower on his back.

Lonely little Dahlias.

Exuberant flowers being held in check!

And then you turn a corner of the house to see all this...

This is the winter garden, with many evergreens that stay green all year long.

Bluebirds love this shape of house. Those are tomato plants above the straw. I forgot to ask why they used that mulch for them.

One of the owners (Suzanne I think) gave good descriptions and stories about their garden to Helen.

I was drawn to a cup of water with lime floating in it and a chair to rest...

See the steep slope on the left and the more gradual one on the right. Someone told me when I was halfway down the left slope that I could have used the other one. By my eyes they had both looked equal from standing at the top. Strange.

It took me a very long time to find the fox in the painted door. He's not only hidden, but faded away.

Sharing this post over at Living in Black Mountain also.