Article Archive

After years of grim forecasts and premature reactor closures, the domestic nuclear energy sector is suddenly enjoying a winning streak.

Sometimes facts and rationality win. Early this morning, California legislators passed a bill that will keep California’s last operating nuclear power plant, the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, open and operating until 2030.

Two days ago in these pages, I estimated the utility debt related to Winter Storm Uri that will have to be repaid by Texas ratepayers may total $10.1 billion. Shortly after that piece appeared, I was alerted to an August 16 report commissioned by NRG Energy, a Houston-based independent power producer, titled “Beyond Texas: Evaluating Customer Exposure to Energy Prices Spikes, A Case Study of Winter Storm Uri, February 2021.”

Texas ratepayers are on the hook for at least $10.1 billion in debt that was incurred during the deadly February 2021 storm and they will be paying off much of that debt for the next 30 years.

It appears the reconciliation bill that includes some $370 billion in energy-related spending is going to become law. The measure includes a panoply of tax credits for alternative energy technologies, including incentives for electric vehicles, hydrogen, energy storage, and of course, billions of dollars in tax credits for wind and solar energy.

On Thursday, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema signaled her support for the reconciliation bill now pending in Congress. By consenting, Sinema likely paved the way for a legislative package that one media outlet dubbed “the biggest and most consequential climate change bill ever passed by Congress.”

Never doubt the power of The Swamp. That’s the apparent lesson to be learned from Senator Joe Manchin’s reversal on the energy-related provisions of the pending reconciliation bill. Last month, Manchin derailed the measure which included some $300 billion in energy-related provisions.

It’s been stupidly hot here in Texas lately and as you’ve likely heard, the state’s power grid is straining to meet record-high electricity demand.

In Madison County, Iowa, the power of the people has prevailed over the money and political influence of Big Wind.

California continues to implement policies on energy, housing, and transportation that are anti-poor and anti-working class.

Last week, BP released its annual Statistical Review of World Energy and the report shows, yet again, that electricity is the world’s most important and fastest-growing form of energy.

The backlash against the encroachment of wind and solar projects continues. On June 23, the Butler County (Ohio) Board of Commissioners adopted a measure that designates a “restricted area” that prohibits “the construction of an economically significant wind farm, a large wind farm, and/or a large solar facility.” The measure, which passed unanimously, covers all unincorporated areas within a dozen townships in the county.

The global energy crisis has resulted in a spasm of energy realism and plain talk. Last week, Vaclav Bartuška, the Czech Ambassador-at-Large for energy security, told a group of reporters that “If there is a gas cut out this winter, we will burn anything we can to keep our people warm and to make electricity.”

Five years ago, K. Darlene Park, a homeowner and anti-wind activist in Frostburg, Maryland, explained to me why she and so many other rural Americans are fighting the encroachment of large wind and solar projects. “We feel this renewable energy push is an attack on rural America,” she said.