<div dir="ltr">Paul:<br><br>Puhleese! Haven't you heard the tale about making a line shorter without touching it (only by drawing another line longer)? There is really no point preaching the holiness of biomass over LPG. Yes, LPG is a fossil fuel. But it is also far more versatile, convenient, time-saving, and with reliable supply chains. How much of it costs to whom around the world is contextual. Too many factors to consider, not just that - as you'd have it - every CO2 molecule is a WMD. (Remember Kirk Smith - "If one were going to put carbon in the atmosphere anyway, CO2 is the least harmful of all species from both health and climate points of view.) <br><br>A. First this policy paper. What you attached somehow came through only as an image. It is at
<a href="https://ccapc.org.in/policy-briefs/2019/ujjwala-enhancing-use-sustainably-prayas">https://ccapc.org.in/policy-briefs/2019/ujjwala-enhancing-use-sustainably-prayas</a> and I attach the pdf. <br><br>I don't think much of CEEW or CCAPC but I have a soft corner for Prayas, where the authors of this piece are based. It is basically an appeal to encourage total transition to LPG once "household connection" is established. (In India, the subsidized LPG scheme is treated like an electricity grid connection, though there is really no binding contract between the distributor and the customer as is the case with piped gas or electricity). <br><br>This is Kirk Smith's theology without any basis, and also the propaganda from CCA and before that GACC - the Clean Cooking Commandos who order "THOU SHALT NOT STACK!" <br><br>To me, that is up to the customer. I believe in consumer sovereignty,the right to choose my food, my cook (or wife), and my fuel. Berkeley modeling of pollution and disease is untenable but sustainable poppycock. <br><br>Still, I agree with their proposal 1 - that new customers should not be required to buy cylinder refills at unsubsidized prices before they have paid off their loans for initial "connection". I do not think much of their proposal 2 - increased and graded subsidy according to income class. Just won't work in practice. It is like "lifeline tariff" in electricity, and I have learnt what a nightmare that is. Unlike electricity, an LPG cylinder is transportable and hence tradeable. Their third proposal - about digital transactions - is a technological gimmick; I have no view about it. <br><br>That said, the paper is thoughtful, deserving of further academic research. If you believe, like I do, that "no stacking" is nonsense, then tinkering of subsidy amounts is a political problem, not a policy problem per se. The last I checked, Indian LPG pricing is still somewhat arbitrary; the government decides both the subsidy amounts as well as the level of "market price". (Everybody pays the same "fixed but unsubsidized" price, but "qualifying households" get a deposit to their bank accounts as an explicit "subsidy".) <div><br></div><div>But note some devilish details: <br><br>1. "
9 states are even reporting more
connections than the estimated number of households
in the state (PPAC, 2019a)."<br><br>What does that say? There were "ghost households" before Modi government came and introduced some new scheme that Kirk Smith called a "globally pioneering initiative".<br><br>Yes, sir, this is India. Ghosts get gas. And Berkeley professors see ghosts of the premature dead. <br><br>2. "An average Indian household needs between
7.5 and 9 refills a year . As shown in Figure 2, an average
PMUY household consumed only 3.4 refills in 2017-18.
They use only about 3/5th the amount of LPG as average
rural households, who in turn consume less than the
average urban household."<br><br>I don't know how academics come up with averages or presume to think that an average is a normal or a mandate. India is diverse in both cities and villages, and urbanization typically means access to refrigerator and outsourced cooking. If a cook does not want to use more LPG than it chooses to, let them clamor for more subsidies. State level campaigns have promised induction cookstoves and pressure cookers, and can offer more LPG subsidies. I see no evidence in this research that a mass uprising is around the corner for :"more gas". (EPA is not India.) <br><br>3. "
Additionally, non-clean alternatives
such as agricultural residue and firewood might be
cheaper than subsidised LPG in many parts of the
country. "<br><br>Duh! Everybody knows that. That is an argument for capital subsidies for "modern biomass cooking" and air quality plans, not for more LPG subsidies so they can leak to the non-poor. This is how things were all along as India industrialized and urbanized, just that now Kirk Smith is riding the convenient horse of ambient air pollution and promising the "clean cooking salvation" in the form of aDALYs that he or Ajay might get a cut on. <br><br>4. "
the unsubsidised price of LPG is
high on average with the likely expenditure on LPG in a
month comparable to about 70% of the average monthly
expenditure on food in rural India "<br><br>Sorry, this is inane. Purchased foods basket varies a lot, and tends to be lower in rural areas. Why not subsidize foods, or, as Anil famously argued, on prepared meals for the poor? At least a couple of Indian states - Tami Nadu, Karnataka - have set up inexpensive meal distribution, over and above those for school meals for children. There is no logic that LPG expenditures be 50% or 30% of the food expenditures. The authors are bending over backwards to justify the dream of "clean cooking" - complete and irreversible transition to gas and electricity. This is a pernicious lie of marketable aDALYs by Berkeley cooks. <br><br>Anyway, no point arguing about an academic piece. Their conclusion is unsurprising - "
It should be noted that these ideas may not be
sufficient to address the problem by themselves. As
discussed, more research is required to understand
aspects such as supply-chain infrastructure, distributor
business models and facilitating behavioural change." In short, research pleading for more research, the usual poverty of irrelevant think tanks. <br><br>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>B. Now about your complaints against LPG and Indian government wisdom: <br><br>World LPG and gas reserves are ample to meet the cooking energy demands of a billion households, and their eateries and food processing factories, for a hundred years. <br><br>And no, it is NOT "
This is enriching the oil companies at the expense of the poor and mis-direction of government funds. " Please avoid the usual canards of the cult of global environmentalists. India is a significant oil and gas producer, on its own and via investments in other countries, and mostly via public sector enterprises. LPG subsidies were traditionally financed like kerosene subsidies - price fixing and bankrupting the oil companies (not quite; public sector companies don't go bankrupt). Now there is a mix of explicit government subsidies to some plus market-based pricing, but the government earns a lot in taxes from oil and gas production in the first place. <br><br>The Indian LPG distribution started perhaps in the 1950s or even earlier, in Mumbai apartment buildings. Nobody in apartments is going to use biomass stoves. Electricity, piped gas, LPG are the only options for cooking at home, supplemented by eating out, take outs, or canned/frozen/refrigerated food products. It matters not a hoot what saviors of the planet say about Indian public finances and the poor. <br><br>There is a story two days ago in FT about how renewables in India are not getting paid - <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ef11eaea-15af-11ea-9ee4-11f260415385?">https://www.ft.com/content/ef11eaea-15af-11ea-9ee4-11f260415385</a>. Coal generators are also in trouble <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Energy/India-electricity-demand-falls-for-4th-month-as-slowdown-deepens">https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Energy/India-electricity-demand-falls-for-4th-month-as-slowdown-deepens</a> . Indian economy is in a critical stagnation right now, and the polity is in a crisis
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/opinion/india-constitution-protests.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/opinion/india-constitution-protests.html</a> <br><br>The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is of course pleased at India's decline and destruction - <a href="https://thebulletin.org/2019/12/good-news-for-climate-change-india-gets-out-of-coal-and-into-renewable-energy/">https://thebulletin.org/2019/12/good-news-for-climate-change-india-gets-out-of-coal-and-into-renewable-energy/</a>. <br><br>Fuel fetishism is infantile or senile. Cooks in India want LPG, gas, and electricity more than they want charcoal-making biomass stoves. That much is evident, though that does not answer the question of how much more or how much less the central government should or could do to get more votes. As Anil has so rightly claimed, the working poor of India do not have the luxury of cooking three meals a day; the proper target of policy should then be outside the households, where unsubsidized LPG could be defeated by reliable, high-performance biomass cookstoves. THAT, I submit, promoters of biomass have not been able to do, and Kirk Smith gets away with claiming that no biomass cookstove is "sufficiently health protective". <br><br>It doesn't mater what Professor Smith says. He can revel in his priesthood and sign off on PhD dissertations of dubious value. <br><br>N<br><div><br></div><div><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><font face="georgia, serif">------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Nikhil Desai</font></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:small">(US +1) 202 568 5831</span><font face="georgia, serif"><br><i>Skype: nikhildesai888</i><br></font><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Dec 29, 2019 at 9:59 AM Anderson, Paul <<a href="mailto:psanders@ilstu.edu">psanders@ilstu.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="MsoNormal">Stovers,<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The attached file could be of interest to many of you.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Please note this very recent document about LPG stoves in India. It reveals the approach and plans of the LPG gas industry regarding LPG stoves for India. The government unfortunately has accepted this approach and provides substantial
funding. But being based on fossil fuel, it can only be a temporary solution (maybe for a decade or two).
<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is enriching the oil companies at the expense of the poor and mis-direction of government funds. We want the poor to have clean cooking. And that is possible with existing Woodgas TLUD technology. Fossil fuels are a business-opportunity
side-track. But ultimately, the Woodgas stoves will replace most of them, especially for the poorest people who are closely tied to wood and dung and biomass fuels.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Paul ( I admit to my bias, which is based on accomplishments of Woodgas technology. )<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Doc / Dr TLUD / Paul S. Anderson, PhD --- Website: <a href="http://www.drtlud.com" target="_blank">
<span style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">www.drtlud.com</span></a><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> Email: <a href="mailto:psanders@ilstu.edu" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">psanders@ilstu.edu</span></a> Skype: paultlud<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> Phone: Office: 309-452-7072 Mobile & WhatsApp: 309-531-4434<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Exec. Dir. of Juntos Energy Solutions NFP <u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> Go to: <a href="http://www.JuntosNFP.org" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">www.JuntosNFP.org</span></a> to support woodgas (TLUD) projects<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> incl. purchase of Woodgas Emission Reduction (WER) carbon credits<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> and please tell you friends about these distinctive service efforts.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Author of “<i>A Capitalist Carol</i>” (free digital copies at
<a href="http://www.capitalism21.org" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">www.capitalism21.org</span></a>)<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> with pages 88 – 94 about solving the world crisis for clean cookstoves.
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