... buying more expensive clean electricity and offsetting GHGs with CDR.

Lower profit margin activities don't have that luxury. Even though personally I value a warm home far above a generated desktop background or whatever, society does not (yikes) and heat will be harder to decarbonize

I don't disagree with your general analysis here. We are fucked, already happening and getting worse.

I do think AI will be net zero faster than, say, heating or fertilizer production. Microsoft is willing to invest in things like nuclear power and CDR, and has the unit economics to support...

The other thing I think a lot about is that electricity has many more valuable uses than heat. People will pay more for a kwh to run a data center than heat their house. Electrification is not as simple to decarbonize heating as one might hope with electricity prices going up & ff prices going down.

Yes, total energy mix, which is really what we are talking about when we're talking about heat in most contexts. So in Norway (unlike New York), running a heat pump is actually fully decarbonized, which is cool. But heat pumps can't do everything, and other forms of energy are used for heat too.

Definitely not disputing that! As you can see from my own set up in New York, I am a big believer in heat pumps as a major part of the energy mix along side responsible wood use. So is Norway! Here is Norways energy mix, pulled from 2021 report. To me, wood is better than the coal etc on there

These catalog stats are never as good in the field as advertised. All depends on humidity, where they are in the maintainace cycle, how fast the weather changes, etc. In my context having wood heat is a necessity to augment heat pumps, or else use propane or fuel oil.

Norway is actually a leading example of using wood stoves to heat in the winter! They have a strategic forestry plan at the national level, and ready access to efficient wood stoves. Famous example of how a society can use wood fuel well, imho. Great book about it

I have the max allowed size solar grid for residential home, batteries, mini splits and heat pump hot water. I still need grid electricity to use them during the winter (not decarbonized), and when it's below 30F outside, the house is below 50F inside without the wood stove.

What is your favorite way, climate wise, of heating homes in the winter? Heat pumps are fine, I love mine, but they don't work well in truly cold weather, and require full grid decarbonization to be as carbon neutral as responsibly managed wood.

The alternative heating methods in most homes where I live are propane and fuel oil. Wood burning is far more renewable, requires less transportation, and is usually available for free if you're willing to plan ahead and sweat for it.

I can agree with that! Context is very important. Where I live in upstate New York, trees fall down naturally and population density is pretty low. Up here, it is the most carbon neutral way of heating available.

There are bad ways to get wood, and clear cutting without replanting is one of them! But I live in the woods and trees fall down naturally, then I cut them into firewood, let them dry for 12 - 15 months, and burn them in my high efficiency stove.

Gotcha. Well thanks for the education on this, and your work! Happy to be following you on here now. Go team!

Gotcha, and it is totally up to the governor to make the "plan" into a plan?

Does seem like an obviously important place to apply public pressure and get good results!

Sorry I think I have a bunch of remedial questions about the NY law!

The 2050 net zero requirement, is that for everyone in the state? Or just certain sectors? Govt only?

And is the only funding source for capital improvements the taxes from the cap and trade scheme? Thanks!!

Thanks for this thread, I didn't realize this was a live issue right now! Question: does CDR / "net zero" factor into the NY convo at all? Or just caps? Thanks!

Wood is a way better renewable alternative to gas and fuel oil. Getting a good stove and seasoning wood so it burns cleanly is important. But wood fire from responsible forestry is climate good. Rather all that dead wood stays in the forest and burns there?

A billionaire's "goodness" is directly proportional to their efforts to destroy their own class position, imho. Not talking about charity; talking about class tratorship. Engles was a moral (inflation adjusted) billionare, perhaps.