Weather disasters are the journalistic equivalent of potato chips. Betcha can’t eat one. Extreme weather has it all for the news business. Great images, heart-wrenching human stories, lots of blame to spread. And for climate evangelists, it’s self-evident evidence, meaning evidence to oneself. But for those who value data over image or ideology, 2023 doesn’t… More 2023’s climate: It was a meh year for the U.S.
As winter approaches, vulnerable Texas dithers and grumbles. Weather resilience is important in the Lone Star State, where intense summer heat and deep winter freezes have often crippled the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state-wide, autarkic electric grid. Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 caused many of dollars in economic damage and over… More Is Texas Ready for Winter?
Texas and Maine voters tomorrow (Nov. 7) face contested energy-related ballot initiatives with billion dollar price tags. In Texas, Proposition 7 would amend the state constitution to create a $10 billion Texas Energy Fund, administered by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, to build and refurbish gas-fired electric generating plants, a response to the state’s… More Texas, Maine Face Billion Dollar Ballots Tuesday
Despite the vilification and the billions of dollars being spent on alternative supplies of energy, fossil fuels are far from vanquished. Oil and gas are doing well in the U.S., and coal is holding its own. This morning (Oct. 20), Chevron announced it is buying Hess Corp. in an all-stock deal worth $53 billion ($171/share).… More Fossil Fuels Flexing Muscles as Chevron Buys Hess
The Biden administration and 25 state governors who make up the U.S. Climate Alliance last week (Sept. 21) announced a goal to increase the number of heat pumps in American homes by 2030 from 4.7 million to 20 million. The nearly five-fold increase would be driven by a 30% federal tax credit, up to $2,000,… More White House, Govs Pumping Heat Pumps
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (is that an oxymoron?) doesn’t just have a problem with unreliable and unpredictable gas-fired generating plants. It has a serious high-voltage north-south transmission bottleneck. ERCOT told the Public Utilities Commission of Texas last week (Sept. 13) in an 11-page report that it came near to ordering rolling blackouts on… More Texas Electric Mess Gets Messier
The Environmental Protection Agency is getting deluged with applications from companies, predominantly located in oil and gas states such as Louisiana and Texas, seeking to capture and store carbon dioxide underground. The Biden administration is betting that carbon capture and sequestration will make a major contribution to reducing atmospheric CO2, a primary greenhouse gas. By… More CO2 Storage: None if by Land, Some if by Sea?
Predictable extreme Texas weather – this time heat, not cold – has again embarrassed the Lone Star State’s fossil fuel braggarts and humbled the state’s go-it-alone electric grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), once again rescued by allegedly unreliable renewables. Fortunately, the state was able to avoid rolling blackouts. The Houston Chronicle reported… More ERCOT Again Abandoned by Fossil Fuels
In what could be its most significant action in the last 20 years, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last Thursday (July 27) ordered a revolution in how new electric generation and storage can apply to get onto the transmission grid. The new approach to streamline grid interconnection — Order 2023 – (order nomenclature at FERC… More FERC Revolutionizes Grid Interconnection Process
Wind and Sun Top Coal For the first five months of 2023, according to unreleased federal data obtained by E&E News and reported by Scientific American, solar and wind generated more U.S. electricity than coal. The data from the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration, which will be officially released later, showed that wind and… More Coal Patrol: Wind, Sun Top Coal, Utah Challenges EPA, Peabody Restarts Mine, Wyo. Wants Leasing