Posted on 10/16/2023 4:07:07 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Consider Manhattan Contrarian as your go-to source for the latest on New York’s progress toward green energy utopia.
Can you remember all the way back to December 19, 2022? That’s the day that New York’s Climate Action Council officially adopted its “Scoping Plan,” telling us all how we are going to achieve, among other goals, 70% of statewide electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030 and a zero-emissions electricity system by 2040. The biggest part of the grand plan consists of some 9,000 MW (nameplate capacity) of offshore wind turbines to be built by 2035. As of the time of the Scoping Plan, the state claimed that some 4,300 MW out of the 9,000 MW of upcoming offshore wind projects were under “active development.”
On the very day that the Scoping Plan got finalized, I had a post titled “On To The Great Future Of Offshore Wind Power.” That post noted that even of the 4.300 MW of offshore wind supposedly under “active development,” not one turbine was operating, or even under construction. Several developers had made bids that had been accepted by the state, and some of those developers were getting kind of close to applying for permits. My prediction was: “Expect long delays and demands for lots more money before anything gets built.” Boy, can I call these things.
Shall we check back in for the latest information?
Just ten days ago, on October 5, I had an update on offshore wind developments throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England. For New York, the news was that in September essentially all the developers of the New York projects in “active development” had demanded massive price increases, ranging from about 30% at the low end to almost 65% at the high end. The new prices being demanded by the developers would now be between $140-190 per MWh, which would be at least double to more than triple the prices charged by new natural gas plants.
So how did that go over? To its credit, the state Public Service Commission wasted no time in rejecting the price hike demands of the developers. On October 12 the Commission issued its decision on the Petitions of the developers for price relief. Excerpt from the press release:
The New York State Public Service Commission (Commission) today denied petitions filed by a group of offshore wind developers and a state renewable energy trade association seeking billions of dollars in additional funding from consumers for four proposed offshore wind projects and 86 land-based renewable projects. In denying financial relief, the Commission opted to preserve the robust competitive bidding process that provides critically needed renewable energy resources to New York in the fairest and most cost-effective manner that protects consumers.
OK then, what happens next? The New York Times has a write-up here on October 12. The Times quotes the Chair of the PSC, one Rory Christian, as standing up for the sanctity of the public bidding process:
Rory Christian, the chairman of the Public Service Commission, the state’s utility regulator, said that providing relief to the winning bidders would set an untenable precedent. “Taking exception today almost guarantees that we will be asked to do this again in the future,” he said. Mr. Christian added that the state’s ratepayers, who would have borne the cost, could not serve as an “unlimited piggy bank” for companies to tap. “We have a deal,” he said to the developers, calling on them to stand by the terms they agreed to.
Well, Rory, I’ve got news for you: the developers aren’t going to honor the deal. You’re going to have to hold a new auction. And the prices that will be bid will be as high or higher than those just demanded by these developers.
Oh, and then don’t expect any new round of accepted bids to stick either. The developers will come back again and again for new rounds of price increases. What’s to stop them? After all, they have you over a barrel. You have a “Climate Act” and a “Scoping Plan” that basically require you to build out a grid powered by “renewables,” whether that is feasible or not, and then limit your options to mostly offshore wind.
And meanwhile, until the next round of bids is held, we’re back to square one. We have a statutory requirement of 70% of our electricity from “renewables” by 2030, and a “Scoping Plan” that sees that goal being achieved largely through offshore wind turbines. And we have not one single operating offshore wind turbine, nor any under construction, nor, after the recent contract repudiations, any actively moving through the permitting process. At least for now, the whole thing is dead in the water.
The Times quotes a guy named Fred Zalcman, director of the New York Offshore Wind Alliance:
[T]he commission’s decision “puts these projects in serious jeopardy and deals a potentially fatal blow to the progress these projects have made. . . .”
By the way, the prices recently demanded by the offshore wind developers, in the range of $140-190/MWh, do not include anything for the transmission upgrades needed to deliver this power into the grid, nor anything for the storage or back-up needed to transform intermittent wind power into a useful 24/7 resource. The sooner we pull the plug on this whole endeavor, the better. But we are now only in the first phases of the collapse.
And lots of whales are dead in the water too. And all for nothing, so far.
Manhattan Contrarian ping.
Meanwhile Germany has reopened two coal fired power plants.
Plus you have an administration that's causing those prices to increase and will continue to do so until they're thrown out.
Your using the old out dated term ....
Please use the new approved term .... “electric vehicle charging facility”
thank you for your cooperation.
Well Germany may be using coal to power their cars, but CA is using diesel fuel to power their air conditioners ( and keep their electric cars running).
check out “Wind Speed (kts)” over at:
https://digital.mdl.nws.noaa.gov/
Wind is too variable both in speed and location.
Oh come on. Next you are going to say there is no such thing as a unicorn.
Maybe they’d be better off using unicorn farts and rainbow energy waves.
” CA is using diesel fuel “
Wait ... I thought diesel fuel was red..... not green.
Have we changed the color sides again?
Do I live in a green state now?
Are we doing a blue new deal for climate change?
I give up ....
“Consistent with EPA’s traditional approach to establishing pollution standards for power plants under section 111 of the Clean Air Act, the proposed standards are based on technologies such as
carbon capture and sequestration/storage (CCS)
low-GHG hydrogen co-firing”
“Base load affected facilities that follow the CCS pathway must meet a second phase standard based on 90% capture of CO2, using CCS, by 2035”
“Baseload affected facilities that follow the low-GHG hydrogen pathway must meet a second phase standard based on co-firing 30% low-GHG hydrogen by volume by 2032 and a third phase standard based on cofiring 96% by volume low-GHG hydrogen by 2038”
The Republicans had two years in DC (2017,2018) to clean up the US Code so the US people would not get stomped on.
Imagine what your future electric bills are going to look like.
Because what the communists love is rationing.
Bkmk
The Carbon Capture mandates are written by people with no understanding of the laws of thermodynamics.
They have the power and will get those laws repealed by the Legislature.
I think all alternative energy plans must go through a vetting process which includes business cases, costs, risks, mitigation strategies, schedule, finances of companies, partners, and scientific proof which is vetted by experts who do not receive any grants or other payments from the government.
Let the people who will be paying for this see everything.
they are supposed to go through that process, but obviously stuff is just being rubber stamped. There’s just no way any of it makes fiscal or environmental sense.
This is what happens when you vote to repeal the law of gravity.
In essence, this is what the NY lawmakers did. They voted for the impossible. Everyone will pay the price. Not just people in New York, because New York will insist on being bailed out by the Federal government.
As Ayn Rand supposedly said: You can ignore reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of ignoring reality.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
