Energy Policy
Fraudulent Fantasy
Jan 23, 2024•
The UN and numerous national governments are promoting the fantasy that the global energy economy can transition to a fossil-fuel-free, all-electric everything energy economy by 2050. In this fantasy, intermittent renewable generation combined with electricity storage provides a reliable energy system at lower energy cost than the predominantly fossil fueled energy system it would replace.
This fantasy is a complete and utter fraud, since those promoting it know that the generation technology they are promoting is intermittent and that the storage that they suggest would be required to overcom
Electricity Prices Are Soaring
Jan 18, 2024
Electricity Prices Are Soaring: It’s Time to Hold the “Energy Transition” Accountable
Rate cases throughout America tell the same story about the high cost of going green
Electricity prices in the United States are skyrocketing, with all-sectors electricity rates reaching new all-time highs in 2022 and 2023, but wind and solar advocates like to pretend that these energy sources are not responsible for the rising electricity costs paid by American families and businesses.
However, recent reports from Regulatory Research Associates (RRA), a division of S&P Global Commodity Insights, evaluating r
Utility Cost Allocation
One of the most contentious issues in utility ratemaking has been the issue of allocation of both capital and operating costs among customer classes. This allocation has been accomplished through monthly service charges, time of day rates, seasonal rates, demand charges and various demand side management approaches.
However, the proposed transition from the current fossil and nuclear based electricity generation system to a system based largely on intermittent renewable generation presents a very different set of cost allocation issues. The current system costs include fuel supply costs and fu
New Report - Green Failure in Europe
Jan 11, 2024
New Report Highlights Green Failure in Europe and Warns America
As one digests Rupert Darwall’s latest report for the RealClear Foundation, the well-known quote from Spanish philosopher George Santayana might ring through the mind: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Anyone looking to combat the activists pushing a ‘net zero’ agenda here in the U.S. would be wise to read Darwall’s piece, entitled “The Folly of Climate Leadership.”
The analysis tells the story of Great Britain heeding the cries for decarbonization, starting when Parliament wrote an 80% decrease in e
Offshore Wind Woes
The year, 2023, was not a good year for the offshore wind industry, which has seemingly been beset by adversity on all sides.
Supply chain disruptions, largely resulting from the COVID pandemic and national efforts to deal with the pandemic, have resulted in material and equipment unavailability and/or delivery delays. Inflation has increased the cost of equipment and the cost of installation. Rising interest rates have increased project financing costs. All of these factors have combined to delay projects and increase the delivered cost of the electricity to be produced by the projects.
Sever
Energy from first principles?
Jan 4, 2024
Thermodynamics of prime movers: energy from first principles?
A highlight of 2023 has been going back to first principles, to study the underpinnings of prime movers in the global energy system. Context matters. There is no energy source to rule them all. However, if you understand the thermodynamics of prime movers, you will inevitably conclude that the world is evolving towards solar, semi-conductors, electro-magnetic motors, lithium batteries and high-grade gas turbines.
Muscle power was the original prime mover in the pre-industrial energy system (chart below). But a typical horse outputs
2024 - The Year Ahead
Altruism dies when it costs.
The promise of the transition from a fossil fuel energy economy to a renewable energy economy was and is lower energy prices and an improved environment. That promise is clearly broken irreparably. Energy prices have increased globally. Electricity prices have increased by the largest percentage in those jurisdictions in which renewable generation has made the greatest penetration. The resulting economic pain has begun erasing the altruism with which global populations approached the energy transition.
The population has been suffering “the death by a thousand cuts
NETZERO is impeding progress
Dec 28, 2023
NETZERO is impeding progress on UN Sustainable Development Goals
“Working in global energy and development, I often hear people say, 'Because of climate, we just can't afford for everyone to live our lifestyles.' That viewpoint is worse than patronizing. It’s a form of racism, and it’s creating a two-tier global energy system, with energy abundance for the rich and tiny solar lamps for Africans.” – Kenyan activist and materials scientist Rose Mutiso
“To deny the developing world access to the very infrastructure that has propelled us forward, all in the name of an uncertain future, is not en
2023 - Year in Review
The Administration war on fossil fuels continues, with reduced lease sales, lease cancellations, new emissions rules for electric powerplants and gasoline and diesel vehicles and electric vehicle mandates.
The Administration has less than half a plan for the “all-electric everything” transition. Plans are in place for fossil powerplant shutdowns and reduced availability of oil and natural gas. However, there are no plans in place for replacement of the dispatchable fossil fueled generating capacity with dispatchable renewable generation or a combination of intermittent renewable generation and
Net-Zero Targets: Sustainable or Obsession
Dec 21, 2023
Net-Zero Targets: Sustainable Future or CO2 Obsession Driven Dead-end?
For over three decades, the reduction of CO2 emission was the primary motivation for promoting the transition from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources. Concerns about the inevitable exhaustion of fossil fuels were considered particularly during energy crises, but these concerns died out quickly as discoveries of new fossil fuel reserves such as the shale revolution in the US that appeared to secure energy supplies.
An under-appreciated paper by Murphy et al. (1) offers very strong arguments that the energy transition
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