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.
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.
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/
Greentech Media reports research shows that batteries aren’t necessarily helping to decarbonize the grid. In many cases, according to a team from the Rochester Institute of Technology, batteries are making it more carbon intensive. The team found batteries installed on the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) grid led to a net increase in carbon emissions, by increasing coal consumption.
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/batteries-could-boost-coal-consumption#gs.8J1FE8Q
The Huntington Herald Dispatch carries a piece by W.D. Blackburn, who has worked extensively in the U.S. and international coal industry and currently heads an energy consulting firm, BLACKACRELLC, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. Blackburn argues that expanding coal exports is the key to keeping coal mines open and Appalachia’s economy strong. Read the entire piece here:
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Erin Ailworth and Jon Kamp write that the region is struggling to meet electricity needs and ambitious green power goals. New England’s electricity prices are already 56% above the national average. Here is the link to the article (behind the Journal’s subscription paywall):
https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-england-has-a-power-problem-1519390800
Check out my new article in The Hill!
Over at Powerline, Paul Mirengoff writes that–shocker of shockers–countries aren’t keeping their promises to comply with the Paris Climate Accord! Turns out that countries with growing economies will use coal plants, not wind and other trendy sources, to meet electricity demand.
Read the entire post here: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/02/shocker-many-nations-are-breaking-paris-accord-promises.php
We are very blessed here in the United States to have the most reliable and affordable power in the world. A look at what is happening in Puerto Rico shows just how blessed we really are. Utility Dive reports Puerto Rico is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria, which destroyed the island’s electric grid last year. It has been five months since the storm struck, but almost a quarter of the island’s residents remain without power.
Read the entire piece here: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/update-federal-judge-approves-300m-loan-to-puerto-ricos-utility/517312/
The Kansas City Star carries a piece written by Bruce Watzman in which he discusses why reliable energy production is too important to risk. He urges the EPA to consider consumer costs and reliability of our electrical grid as it looks at alternatives to the Clean Power Plan.
http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/guest-commentary/article200651094.html
At the Duluth News Tribune, David Rothbard and Craig Rucker write that “in addition to hurting the economies of industrialized nations, such massive limitations [reductions in natural gas and coal to lower carbon-dioxide emissions] would forfeit the lives of millions of people in the developing world.” Read the entire piece here:
Over at Powerline, Scott Johnson writes about the problem of the administrative state. Unelected bureaucrats, accountable to no one, have almost unlimited power over Americans.This cannot be what our founding fathers envisioned when they talked about government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Read Scott’s entire post here:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/02/adventures-in-administrative-law-4.php
The Washington Post carries a piece on the Trump administration’s initiative to take steps toward bringing carbon-capture-and-storage technology, often called “clean coal,” into mainstream use. The article states that “the White House has managed to do more work on carbon capture in one week than it fit into all of 2017.” Here is the link to the full article: