Posted on 01/08/2018 1:36:47 AM PST by caww
Natural gas prices are skyrocketing in the region as the gas demand for both heating and electricity 'exceeds supply'.
Don’t blame the weather for soaring energy prices and possible electricity shortages; blame the left-wing politicians and radical environmentalists for engineering a system certain to fail. ...Instead of promoting an energy policy focused on reliability with a diverse array of power sources for electricity generation, New England adopted a command-and-control energy policy built on feeling good, not reality.
The dependence on natural gas is a problem in New England because radical environmental activists are blocking construction of new natural gas pipelines needed to keep up with the increase in demand. Predictably, the law of supply and demand kicked in, resulting in an explosion of natural gas prices with plummeting temperatures.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
NH bump
Naturally, the policymakers are unhurt.
Not just New England. NYS is nuts, too.
What are they doing to reduce water vapor emissions?
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I began my career in the energy industry when electricity was provided by regulated public utilities with an “obligation to serve.” We built the world’s biggest, most reliable, and lowest cost energy system.
Then the politicians got involved and f*cked everything up as they always do. They bought into Amory Lovins’ nonsense about “negawatts” where he claimed it is cheaper to pay customers to NOT USE your product rather than build new coal mines, railroads, power plants, and transmission and distribution lines properly sized for events like this. The radical environmentalists took over board rooms across the land. Utilities promptly fell in line and built stupid systems that won’t deliver the needed power.
I got so fed up with the politicization and utility execs falling all over themselves to ingratiate themselves to the kooks that I switched industries. It’s hard to work in an industry that rejects reality. The worst part is real lives are on the line. Just look at Germany for examples of people of modest means having to decide between food and winter heat.
In fact China's solar is Potemkin solar. It sits there mostly producing nothing since putting in on their primitive grid would overpower the grid. China's actual solar power production is equal to ours, in third place behind Germany and Japan. The Chinese local communist party officials will install it and look good but aren't stupid enough to try to mandate solar power.
But back to Germany. Their customers pay through nose because they were told it was the right thing to do.
Actions have consequences. You vote Libs in and this is what you get. So the people in New England can pound sand a far as I’m concerned. Maybe they well suffer enough to vote in conservatives to fix the problem.
Like the man said when they closed the Vermont nuclear plant
“let the yankees freeze....... in the dark”
Watch what happens when houses start to blow up because gas went off then came on.
Back in the late 80s I was working on gas storage to help city gate supplies be maintained since the pipeline grid could not meet demand particularly in the north central region of the country. Mined or solution mined storage caverns with high withdrawal rate capacity were the means to assure that surge supplies were available in high demand times and that houses did not go boom. The utilities would pay just about anything for storage to provide for the “obligation to serve”.
The regulated utilities also gold plated a lot of things to raise the basis for their rate base. I looked with envy across the road from the oil company gas plant to the MichWish plant with everything new and clean and neat all because those costs added to the basis their rates and rate of return were calculated on. That was not right either.
Deregulation of electricity in Texas darn sure reduced rates to consumers with no noticeable decrease in service. I wish more states would do the same thing. It would put rural power coops in a bind but they have probably outlived their usefulness and need to be consolidated. My coop, good as it is, charges at least twice as much as I was paying for electricity in Texas. Touchstone energy cooperatives have sort of done that I suppose.
Every time I drive past a snow-covered solar farm or a motionless windmill I have to laugh.
My daughter and I drove all the way across Wyoming the week after Christmas. Windmills all along I-80. Winds were gusting to 60-65 mph (as they always do in Wyoming).
Most windmills were motionless, probably because there was too much wind. The hundreds of gas wells we passed were putting out gas to back up those dead windmills.
The real irony is that New England has huge supplies of natural gas locked up in the Marcellus shale. They refuse to drill it and produce it. I have no sympathy for them. They choose poorly.
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