Can USA get along with tarriffs on Canadian fossil fuels?

Natural gas fired boiler plant heating WWU buildings. Sun reflecting off the vapor cloud.

A recent speech by Trump said, we don't need Canadian energy, "we can produce our own."

I realize that northern parts of USA get much of our natural gas, for heating, from Canada. How fast can we ween ourselves from Canadian fossil fuel and build heat pumps for heating? I don't think that's what Trump has in mind.

I can elaborate more. Much of the US natural gas production is in different areas than the customers with no currently operating pipelines to connect. Pipelines can not be "built in a day", unlike Rome; as the old story goes. This takes time and patience, if it's a good idea anyway, in the era of climate change. I assume that climate change can't be waved away by a magic wand either.

At WWU, there is lots of talk about converting the system from natural gas to heat pump technology.

I would guess that makes lots of sense as a campus is already used to underground utilities so they should know how to install a system of "Earth to heat pump" technology.

Still it can't be built in one day.

Natural gas burns somewhat cleaner than gasoline that's made from oil. It burns cleaner than coal, but it's still a fossil fuel. Water is it's main "smoke" because it has more "hydrogen" and less "carbon" than other hydrocarbons; like oil.

I do find science interesting.

Advent of heat pumps can lead to increase use more areas using air conditioning.

Map I found from a few places online. Darker areas need more air conditioning.

I'd add that increasing use of heat pumps for heating will increase use of air conditioning in cooler cities such as Seattle and Bellingham as air conditioning is an easy add with heat pump technology.

Heat pumps are good, but they may add their own increase in use of air conditioning beyond the increase due only to climate change.

This can effect estimates as to who is likely to get air conditioning in future years and how much energy savings heat pumps will provide.

Heat pump collection pipes could be installed alongside underground electrical wiring so one would only have to dig once to install both systems.

Some of my thoughts about heat pumps.

Heat pump collection pipes could be installed alongside underground electrical wiring so one would only have to dig once to install both systems. One trench could serve for both the underground wiring and the "ground to heat pump" collection pipes. One could think about heat pump possibilities when installing underground wiring.

Beyond the ground is the idea of heat transfer from moving water; such as seawater in a video I saw about Denmark.

I would guess moving water is even more efficient than the ground since the ground is insulating so heat transfer from the ground is slower. Moving water always brings new warm water to the system for heat transfer.

I think most heat pumps, in homes and small buildings of USA, are air to air systems. These systems bring moving air to the system for heat transfer. Similar to water, it's moving, but during winter, air can be much colder than most bodies of water so the heating is less efficient.

Still air to air systems are less expensive to install than ground pipe, or water based systems so that's why they are more common. Here's one more thought.

As more of Bellingham installs heat pumps, people are likely to opt for air conditioning since it's easy to include with a heat pump system. This might mean more load on the electrical grid, during summer months in Bellingham, as more people will have air conditioning that didn't have it before.

For summer air conditioning, solar is a good fit as during sunny hot days, solar is producing power closer to the times when air conditioning is needed.

I like just contemplating about things in my mind though, admittedly, I'm not an expert at anything.

Could groundwork for district heating also provide ground field for a heat pump system?

Picture of a chilled water plant at WSU, Pullman.

I've got to thinking that district heating and geothermal could go together well. They both use pipes in the ground.

District heating uses the pipes to bring heat, or cooling, from a central plant; like a steam plant, to buildings where the heat is used. Geothermal uses pipes through the ground to collect heat, or cooling, from the ground for buildings.

Can't the two go together?

A district heating network provides a lot of surface area of pipes in the ground between buildings. Couldn't the same tranches, or tunnels, also provide space for the refrigerant pipes of a heat pump system?

I'm not an expert on heat pumps, such as how far the pipes can be from the heat pump compressor, but there could be satellite compressors along the system that would feed hot, or cold water into the heating district distribution pipes.

Below, picture of old cooling tower for a chilled water plant they built at WWU, in Bellingham. It was built to cool some new buildings, but later discontinued. The chiller has been removed and space looks like it's used as a shop connected to WWU steam plant.

Now there are plans to eventually convert WWU's heating system to a heatpump system.

Proposal to ban natural gas heating in Bellingham may be just a gimmick to appease consumer guilt about energy consumption

When someone ask me, on Facebook, what I thought about the proposed ban, (written about in New York Times 01/05/2020. Bellingham made the New York Times). Here's what I wrote.

On first thought, I think the ban is probably not a good idea, but worth discussing. I kind of think the ban on natural gas is a "feel good" thing. A lot of "liberals" like the idea. I consider myself a liberal, but this is grabbing at straws. Trying to do "something" when more effective measures; such as a carbon tax, aren't likely to pass voters.

Problem with a natural gas ban is that much of our electricity comes from natural gas anyway. We really need to cut down consumption, but that is politically more difficult. Electrifying everything doesn't help; especially if much of the electricity comes from natural gas.

Maybe we should ban, or heavily tax, fossil fuel consuming automobiles, but that would never pass the voters either.

A philosophy behind banning natural gas is that electricity is more versatile. If something, like a furnace, runs on natural gas, it has to be that one fuel. Electricity can be sourced from a wide variety of sources, including solar, wind, nuclear (dare I say nuclear) and so forth. This is said to help push us toward things like solar. Also natural gas is said to be problematic due to methane leaks all along the way.

Ideally, an all electric, solar powered world is good, but it isn't easy to get there, given people's greed and unwillingness to consume less if the cost of solar is (at least in the short run) higher. Natural gas is less expensive for the average consumer than baseboard heating and the baseboard heating might still be coming from power generated by natural gas.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, a large percent of our electricity comes from hydroelectric power, but we just don't have enough rivers to supply our growing population and prosperity. As we keep growing, the percent of our power that comes from hydro tends to drop. Natural gas, wind and other green energy sources make up the difference. We still have a moratorium against wind power sites in much of Whatcom County. Worry about bats, birds and the aesthetics of wind turbines. Hydro power has it's problems too. The effect on salmon migration. There are proposals to breach many of our hydroelectric dams.

Advocates for this ban are pushing for heat pump technology. That is more efficient than baseboard heating. Heat pump means "refrigerating the outside," such as ground and roof areas, to transfer the heat inside. It tends to work best in mild climates.

If it gets too cold outside, the heat pump is working too much "uphill," so to speak and many heat pump systems have resistance electric heating as backup. Baseboard is a form of resistance heating. Sometimes they have the resistance coils right inside the heat pump unit to switch on as backup when the heat pump isn't able to keep up with demand.


Washington Square High Rise Apartments.

Interesting to note, the 8 story building, I live in (Washington Square HUD Housing), has a heat pump system, so I hear. It just works for the hot water system. I don't know a lot about it, but I think it provides at least part of our hot water by "refrigerating" the ground around the building and putting the transferred heat into our hot water.

I also hear that heat pump systems are fairly expensive to install. The regular heating, in this building, is from a natural gas boiler that heats water for the radiators in each apartment. The system works well.

Probably the most efficient thing about this building is the fact that 97 apartments are all together in one building with little surface area for heat loss. Not a lot of land is taken for 97 people.

We also have solar panels on the roof. I hear it provides about 10% of the building's electricity. Only 10% because a fairly tall building doesn't have a lot of roof area exposed to the sun versus the number of folks living here.

Of course one could note that by 2040, when this proposed ban would take effect (if they don't push it up to 2035), the world could be a lot different; especially if climate change is as serious as many people think it is.

Cool looking steam rising from power plant

Cool looking because that power plant is not normally used unless it's really cool weather. It's usually used for peak power demand; like when folks turn up the heat. We've had some cool, clear days recently. Frosty with lows around the 20s. Typical of winter.

Orange cloud band of sunset and windows of YMCA near by. Power plant, which is located on Bellingham's waterfront, burns natural gas. It used to be a co-generation plant when Georgia Pacific pulp mill used it's leftover steam. Now, with Georgia Pacific gone, the power plant runs alone; when in use. I think it's been upgraded so more of it's waste steam runs another turbine to generate power, rather than going to the Georgia Pacific that isn't there.

A few proposals are circulating to incorporate this plant into the redeveloped waterfront using leftover heat again. That is, if the waterfront development ever gets going. Woops, I forgot to read the last update in the newspaper on that.

Why steam is still rising from old Bellingham Georgia Pacific site

It's a power plant. See also Future heating district for Bellingham?

Used to be for cogeneration when GP was still going. GP benefited from its waste heat. Now it's just a power plant (burns natural gas), but could play a cogeneration role in future waterfront development.

Steam rises part of the time when plant is in use.

Riding my bike around town snapping images. With energy issues making news, here is the cooling tower and power lines by Encogen power plant in Bellingham. Kind of like "found art." Modern art.

Heating District For Bellingham?

I wonder if anyone is asking these questions? Could hot water, and/or steam from Encogen be used for space heating in the new waterfront development on Bellingham Bay? Is this asset being thought of as a drawing card for locating on the central waterfront?

Update May 4th 2011, Bellingham Herald PSE Power Plant Could Heat WWU.

There is a co-generation plant on Bellingham's waterfront. The Encogen power plant currently operated by Puget Sound Energy.

At times, steam is still visible on Bellingham's central waterfront. It rises from this power plant.

Encogen was built as a co-generation plant; meaning waste heat from generating electric power can be used in nearby facilities.

In this case, the use was Georgia Pacific's pulp and paper mills. GP has closed both pulp mill and paper mills. * Paper mill section closed as of mid December 2007.

Plans are afoot to redevelop GP's old site for other uses including, possibly condominiums, research facilities, other industries. There is even a branch campus for Western Washington University's Huxley College of Environmental Studies in the dreams.

These things, and more, are all in the discussion stage. No one knows the final outcome, but there has been a lot of community dialog so far.

Now, I wonder if the co-generation plant figures into any of these plans? It seems like a great opportunity. Waste heat from the power plant can be used in these other plans. If nothing else, at least for space heating.

This new waterfront neighborhood will just about have to be rebuilt from scratch. A good opportunity to plan around the distribution of steam and / or hot water from co-generation.

There are some historic buildings on the site. Old structures from the pulp mill that may be preserved. Many of them already have steam lines (I would guess) and also one would figure that a lot of utilities will be installed from scratch. Utility tunnels, pipes, wires, what ever. A good opportunity to plan around waste heat distribution.

Many power plants just send their waste heat up into a cooling tower. It isn't practical to use that heat, due to lack of uses near the plant. Also there is the cost of running pipes around for distributing hot water. It can cost a lot to retrofit an existing neighborhood. That's why a new neighborhood provides an opportunity. Bellingham's waterfront may be rebuilt from scratch and it has an existing co-generation facility.

I remember some people talking about piping waste heat from Alcoa Intalco Aluminum to Bellingham. That "pipe dream" was floating around years ago. Laying all that pipe would be expensive. Pragmatic people must have felt it would still be cheaper for houses and businesses in Bellingham to have their own furnaces, rather than piping the waste heat from Intalco.

That was pipe dreaming in years past. Pipe dreaming about the long pipe from Intalco. I love pipe dreaming, but using the existing co-generation plant for our brand new waterfront seems more practical.

I wonder if this hot water is even being discussed as an asset in our waterfront's attempt to lure new uses to the area?