Posted on 07/02/2014 4:36:24 AM PDT by thackney
New England states are united in proposing that a tariff be imposed on electricity rates throughout the region to fund more natural gas pipelines and increased transmission infrastructure — to reverse electricity costs that are among the highest in the nation.
The proposal is a necessary step because the region has limited gas pipeline capacity despite a demand that has grown from 6 percent in 2000 to 46 percent in 2013, energy experts said at a forum sponsored by The New England Council at St. Anselm's College in Manchester Monday.
At the same time, more and more coal-fired, oil and even nuclear power plants are retiring, which have acted as a more reasonably priced back up during cold New England days when natural gas supplies have been curtailed.
And many of these reasonably priced alternatives emit greenhouse gases and therefore come at an environmental cost, said experts, as New England states seek to reduce carbon emissions.
The end result is a "precarious" situation that has in the last four winters placed New England "on the brink of reliability," said Gordon van Welie, president and CEO of ISO-New England, which oversees the operation of New England's bulk electric power system.
For instance this past winter, electricity prices soared as gas pipelines were operating at capacity but demand was much higher. Van Welie said the wholesale energy market in New England for the months of December, 2013 and January and February, 2014, was about $5 billion — the same value of the entire 12 months of 2012.
It is a situation that energy experts for the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island called untenable — particularly economically.
"New England is losing out" on a natural gas "boom" that is going on elsewhere in the country, said Patrick Woodcock, the director of the Maine Governor's Energy Office.
"We've had companies looking at Maine, and when they sharpened their pencils and looked at the energy costs, they say, 'No thank you. We're going where there's lower energy costs,'" he said.
The six states, at the direction of their governors, have formed the New England Committee on Electricity to come up with solutions. On June 20, the committee proposed that a tariff be imposed to add natural gas pipelines and transmission lines with the goal of increasing power reliability throughout the region.
While they stress this is a preliminary proposal and states are working on a solution, the energy panelists said something has to give in New England.
"We would prefer the magic market-based solution," said Nicholas Ucci of the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, "but that solution has not come forward."
Oh, absolutely. The New England market is economically viable, but for the regulation and environmental litigation.
Yeah,
They want to put the gub mint hand further in to MY POCKET.
But hey, if you look at all the services they provide me?
Oh yeah that’s right, I’m not a fag or an illegal or a put upon woman so I don’t get any of the beggers pie, I just foot the bill.
If we have a winter like last year, they will freeze in the dark or be burnt to a crisp for trying not to.
Screw them, I just don’t friggin care anymore.
And what's worse they ceaslessly work to force expanded government on the rest of us.
No sympathy here for them.
or here. Quinnipeac poll released this morning about who was the worst president since WWII. 0 won, at 33% BUT 8% think he's the BEST president. I'd like to see the geographic breakdown of those who thought he was the best. I'm guessing that the inner city parasites and New Englanders provided the bulk of that 8%.
Where is your solar panel god now?
This is what happens in liberal paradises where people believe that they can live happily ever after in their fantasy world. They will have to learn how to live in the dark. Actions have consequences.
Frankly, I’m beginning to think that the OJ Jury thing wasn’t just a fluke of jury packing and nullification.
I think this country is infested with rabid ideologues who either are just oppressive meddlers, entitlement leeches (both fiscally and ideologically), America-haters bolstered by a massive increase in third/fourth world immigrants, and politicians who just crave raw unaccountable power. This whole country is the OJ jury it seems.
That has become the American way. Add to that you can't build infrastructure when you're giving that money to terrorists to blow up their countries' infrastructures.
The tree-huggers in Maine have managed to kill just about every proposed energy projects that have come forth in the last 50 years. The chickens are now coming home to roost.
Too bad for them but I feel no remorse for them. Drill Baby Drill!!!!
Climate change? A religion where you have to have faith that your sacrifices and those that you impose on your fellow citizens are having an impact on the environment. They sure haven’t been able to link any efforts and the dollars expended to actual results in stopping climate change.
Climate changes. It always has. Why do they not take this into consideration? It’s not logical.
When we first moved to New England in the early 1980's, the Seabrook, NH nuke plant was coming on-line in spite of the numerous lawsuits, environmental impact regs, tree-hugging protesters scaling the fences to protest, which all conspired to bankrupt the energy company.
Union thugs (one union member, at a $50K salary, had so many drunken job-related instances, he was relegated to the tool room where he could do less harm)tree-huggers and enviro-Nutzies shut down a nuke in Connecticut at about the same time along with another on Long Island.
The chickens have indeed roosted.
On the map linked below mouse over the colored points and the LMP is the power price per MW. The different colors reflect different prices and also represent “binding constraints” which are bottlenecks on the grid for reasons like power lines down or transformer problems.
Even though this is MISO, which represents MidUS, you can mouse over various colored points in the eastern US from Canada down to Florida.
https://www.misoenergy.org/LMPContourMap/MISO_All.html
I watched the entire eastern US grid at max capacity many times this winter and as recently as last week. I’ve wondered if shutting down so many coal plants in the east is part of the reason. Many utilities chose to shut down coal plants instead of try and meet the new mercury and NOx control EPA mandates. The average customer doesn’t have a clue what is going on behind the light switch and blames the utilities for rising power prices.
Artificially raise the price of energy and you will kill the economy - no way around it.
MISO real time and predicted wind power; https://www.misoenergy.org/MarketsOperations/RealTimeMarketData/Pages/DayAheadWindForecast.aspx
I pinged everyone on this thread because most people don’t know real time information on the grid is on the web.
“How the PJM Power Grid in the US Skirted Very Close to Blackouts During January’s Polar Vortexes”
Meanwhile, here is the reaction in the Berkshires (massachusetts) to a badly needed natural gas pipeline:
Comments in the paper’s online forums in favor of the pipeline are met with dersiion and deleted. It’s sad.
People in coal states are getting slammed with Obama regulations. People will pay a lot more, we will have brown and blackouts, massive job loss, and these SOBs want the whole country to pay for their leftist BS caused pwoblems?
They can go to hell.
Those reulations hit everybody who is on the grid. Power is a fungible commodity, within the contraints of the distribution network.
Totally agree with your conclusion. The justification for imposing the regulations is hogwash. I wish there was a way to shift all the cost onto those who are advocating and imposing the regulations. Instead, we all suffer on account of their stupidity and malice.
Correct, it is the people and government that create the problems of installing new infrastructure. Pipelines can be buried. Granite can be blasted through. However, what is hard to overcome is NIMBY(Not In My Back Yard).
There is still a sign on the road out to Plum Island, Mass. that says “NO EVACUATION”. It was put up in the 1980’s when the Seabrook, NH nuclear power plant was being proposed. Seabrook is about 10 miles away up the Atlantic coast into NH.
Today, the folks in Coos County NH up on the NH/Quebec border do not want the Northern Pass transmission line to “ruin their view”. They might end up burying part of the transmission line to get it passed.
Meanwhile, out in western Mass. we have idiots that do not want a natural gas pipeline BURRIED on their property, even though the gas company pays you to traverse it.
These are always the first idiots to complain when their power goes out in the next ice storm.
That should be on a bumper sticker.
I should market a new popsicle...the “Frozen Yankee”! it’ll basically be a regular popsicle with the stick put in the opposite end of a normal popsicle so you eat it upside-down!
So they think a tax will keep them warm? It is sad people are that stupid, but since they're yankees I will gleefully make fun of them!
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