Monthly Archives: March 2018

My new article on the importance of coal for grid resiliency appears today in Lifezette.

Here is the link to the article:

https://www.lifezette.com/polizette/a-modest-proposal-to-help-protect-americas-energy-grid-reliability/

The Houston Chronicle reports that Republican opposition is rising against Energy Secretary Perry’s plans to slash his department’s research budget for energy. During a hearing before the Senate Tuesday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Perry and the Trump administration had gone too far in their bid to cut the federal budget.

https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/GOP-senators-tell-Perry-to-back-off-cuts-to-12767454.php

The Wall Street Journal reports that coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania cut smog-forming emissions by more than half last year, in a rare regulatory effort that has won support from both industry officials and environmentalists.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-pennsylvania-slashed-coal-emissions-without-alienating-industry-1521633601

In relation to my earlier post on the plethora of environmental lawsuits launched by blue states, the Washington Times reports that to consumers and taxpayers, this money grab is nothing short of a massive assault on our pocketbooks. Should these lawsuits succeed even in part, Americans will witness higher prices for energy, food, travel, medicine, and every product that requires petroleum to make, package or ship, which is to say, everything. This will hit the poor, those who the liberals claim to champion, the hardest.

Enjoy reading the entire article here: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/26/how-the-lefts-deranged-climate-change-lawsuits-wil/

The Washington Post carries a piece stating that the power of the Democratic Party is at or near an all-time nadir, despite rumblings of a blue-wave election in November. In Washington, the GOP controls the White House and both chambers of Congress. Across the country, Republicans sit in two-thirds of all governors’ mansions.Democrats, however, are exercising what little clout they possess to fight back against the Trump administration on energy and environmental issues.Through the first 13 months of the Trump administration, state attorneys general from a slew of mostly blue states took at least 80 legal actions against the Trump agenda.

Here is the link to the article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2018/02/28/the-energy-202-02282018-energy202/5a95d22b30fb047655a06996/?utm_term=.84a2c2618b24

Over at Time, the magazine is reporting that U.S. oil and natural gas is on the verge of transforming the world’s energy markets for a second time, further undercutting Saudi Arabia and Russia. The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new forecast his week that growth in U.S. oil production will cover 80% of new global demand for oil in the next three years. U.S. oil production is expected to increase nearly 30% to 17 million barrels a day by 2023 with much of that growth coming from oil produced through fracking in West Texas.

Read the article here: http://time.com/5187074/fracking-energy-oil-natural-gas/

The New York Times carries a piece on meeting of Students for Carbon Dividends at Yale University. The group pulls together millennial-aged conservatives to promote acceptance of climate change and propose conservative solutions. Under a plan the students are proposing, an initial tax of $40 per ton of carbon would be levied at the point where fossil fuels enter the economy, for instance a mine or port. The tax would increase over time.

Here is a link to the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/climate/college-republicans-carbon-tax.html

Utility Dive reports that Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s proposed carbon tax has stalled again, this time because the measure lacked enough votes in the state Senate, where Democrats hold an advantage. Proposed in January, the tax would have been set initially at $20/ton, rising annually by an inflation-adjusted 3.5%. The tax would have brought in more than $3 billion over the next four years, bill supporters estimated. While Inslee and supporters of the tax are confident there will eventually be a cost on carbon, so far the ideas has been met with a lukewarm response in the state. Voters rejected a carbon tax at the polls in 2016.

Here is the link to the entire article:

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/carbon-tax-fails-again-in-washington/518291/

Here’s Tim Pearce’s take on the news that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to transfer some responsibility in regulating coal ash disposal from the federal government to the states.

The proposal could save the coal-fired power plants and utilities between $31 million and $100 million in compliance costs, according to the EPA.

From the Daily Caller: http://dailycaller.com/2018/03/02/scott-pruitt-reconsiders-coal-ash-regulation/

Utility Dive reports that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), grid operator for most of Texas expects to break peak demand records this summer. Though sufficient generation will be on hand, demand response and distributed generation will still play a key role on the hottest days, particularly following the retirement of older, and mostly coal-fired, generation.

Without a capacity market, some generators rely on critical peak pricing spikes to cover their costs.  An unexpected spike in January demand, for instance, sent prices above $2,200/MWh for a brief period. The Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUCT) noted that the coal retirements dented “excess” electricity supply. The PUCT said that with the supply-demand balance this summer tighter than in the recent past, demand reduction man also play a role in tackling demand this summer.

Here is a link to the article:

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ercot-predicts-record-peak-demand-this-summer/518195/

Also at the Daily Caller, Michael Bastasch writes that the “bomb cyclone” slamming the northeastern U.S. has left more than 1.2 million people without power and, so far, been blamed for at least seven deaths. Yet another example of why grid resilience is such a hot topic in energy circles.

Here is a link to the article:

http://dailycaller.com/2018/03/03/bomb-cyclone-7-dead-million-without-power/

Over at the Daily Caller, Michael Bastasch writes that a group of prominent scientists are calling for a global network of advanced weather stations that don’t need to go through controversial data adjustments, and it’s vindication for global warming skeptics.

Here is the link to the full article:

http://dailycaller.com/2018/03/03/scientists-admit-better-thermometers-climate-change/