Hydrogen, the “Holy Grail” of energy for some who follow energy policy and politics, is a futile endeavor, and the Biden administration’s “green” hydrogen push is “a multi-billion dollar boondoggle,” according to a new analysis from the conservative Manhattan Institute. Hydrogen, writes economist Jonathan Lesser, “green or otherwise, is not a useful energy resource because… More Manhattan Institute on the hydrogen “boondoggle”

Holtec dodges N.J. criminal charges New Jersey-based Holtec International last Tuesday (Jan. 30)  agreed to pay its home state a $5 million fine in order to avoid criminal prosecution for falsifying documents related to a 2018 state-awarded tax break program. The development in New Jersey could scuttle widespread rumors, most likely spread by Holtec, that… More Nuclear Gatherings: Palisades, Vogtle 4, Hinkley Point, France

A federal judge in Oklahoma late last year (Dec. 20) ordered removal of a large wind farm that violates both federal mineral rights and Osage tribal land. The case, United States v. Osage Wind, LLC, has been in litigation for  more than a decade. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves, sitting in the U.S District Court for the… More Federal judge kills Okla. wind farm on Osage Nation land

The never-ending tale of the Hanford, Wash., nuke waste cleanup waste, fraud, and abuse returns, time after time. It’s the longest-running saga of the cascading failure of the U.S. government to deal with the wastes, past and present, from its nuclear weapons program. Last Wednesday (Jan. 24), the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of… More Hanford nuke waste Groundhog Day

“We do have the opportunity to be the first generation that builds a sustainable world,” says 30-year-old Scottish data scientist Hannah Ritchie at the University of Oxford. “Let’s take it.” Ritchie has become a leading figure in a group of scientists and analysts who are pushing back at the currently dominant apocalyptic warnings about a… More The case for climate optimism

For close to 50 years, energy futurists have touted solar energy straight from the source: space-based, sun-focused solar panels beaming electricity back to earth. Why try to replicate the enormous temperatures that power the fusion reactor that is our home star? How about fusion without the incredibly difficult terrestrial engineering challenges and no greenhouse gas… More NASA pessimistic about space-based solar power

Is the Biden administration’s priority on reducing methane emissions from oil and gas operations a wise move or a distraction from the more important goal of controlling carbon dioxide emissions? It’s not an easy question, despite a lot of buzz around methane reductions, claiming that action harvests (here’s the cliché) “low-hanging fruit.” Touting the program,… More Methane reductions: smart or a policy diversion?

This is a variation of a column that I have been writing yearly for decades. I write to remind readers that skepticism has been a driving factor in my over 50 years in journalism, including small and large city dailies, the Associated Press, Congressional Quarterly, Energy Daily, Electricity Daily, POWER magazine, and The Quad Report.… More Skepticism is a virtue

The Biden administration is proposing to set aside some 22 million acres of federal land in 11 western states for solar electric generation. The administration move would update its 2012 Western Solar Plan. It adds 5.4 million acres in five states — Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington state, and Wyoming – to the 16.6 million acres… More BLM ups its ambitious plan for solar on public land

The vulnerable Texas electric grid has survived Winter Storm Heather, which brought frigid weather to the Lone Star State and snow and equally frigid temperatures to the East and Middle Atlantic states. Texans, who have become familiar with cold winter weather and searing summer heat bringing statewide blackouts, responded to pleas from the high-voltage transmission… More Texas unharmed by Winter Storm Heather