Posted on 08/17/2020 2:11:44 AM PDT by karpov
Electricity blackouts are awful at any time, but especially during an extreme heat wave and for reasons that are man-made. That’s what millions in California have been enduring in recent days, and their plight is a warning to the rest of America about the risks of Green New Deal policies.
The California Independent System Operator (Caiso), which manages the state’s power grid, declared a high-level emergency Friday and Saturday evenings and ordered utilities to reduce power usage. California and most of the southwestern U.S. are experiencing a severe heat wave. But other states are managing to keep power flowing. Why can’t California?
California last experienced rolling blackouts in 2001 amid energy market manipulation by speculators. This time the cause is energy market manipulation by anti-fossil fuel politicians. Democrats have mandated that renewables account for 60% of state electricity by 2030, which has forced power providers to invest in renewable energy sources now to meet the deadline. The result is something of a Rube Goldberg physics experiment.
During peak daylight hours, California produces a surplus of solar energy, and power generators may be ordered or paid to cut back their production so the grid isn’t overloaded. On Friday and Saturday Caiso reported about 1,000 mega-watt hours (MWh) were curtailed—enough to power 30,000 homes. This year 1.3 million MWh of power have been curtailed.
But this means supply shortages can occur in the evening when solar energy plunges but demand for power remains high. That’s what happened this weekend. Many natural gas and nuclear plants that can generate power 24/7 have shut down in recent years because they can’t compete with heavily subsidized green energy. A 10-year-old natural gas power plant in California’s Inland Empire is being decommissioned this year—20 to 30 years earlier than its planned lifespan.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Construction of the Watts Bar nuclear plant began back in 1973.
When I was 18 one of my best friends parents owned a rental that we lived in. It was an Adobe home surrounded by huge trees. Loved that house. It was built to take the heat.
When Toyota moved their entire operation out of California to Texas, not one California Government official tried to meet with Toyota. Any other Red State would ave done anything to keep them.
The LA Times actually said “Good Riddance” when Toyota moved out.
I’m well aware of the negative numbers but to think anybody in the business actually released gas or oil at those numbers is foolish. Nobody in their right mind would do that. I just shut down all production for a couple of months as did most of the other producers and the prices came back. The good thing about oil and gas is it ain’t going anywhere unless I let it. If I don’t like the price I’m getting I just shut it in until I find a price I can live with. We don’t have to produce. If gold dropped down to a dollar an ounce you think anybody would sell? Stupidity!
” The Democrats want to force you to act in ways that are counterproductive, such as regulating you in such a way to force you to “sell” it....even if there’s no buyer. “
Well, they could force him to pump it back in the ground and make it stay there—maybe I shouldn’t say that too loud.
That raises the question........ what ever happened to Mad Cow?
He enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame, perhaps 20, and then he was gone
“ Well, they could force him to pump it back in the ground and make it stay there—maybe I shouldn’t say that too loud.”
Oh, they’ve talked about that already.
There is no such a thing as a fossil fuel....
I BELIEVE What you are referring to is a FUTURES CONTRACT.
No producer actually PAID someone to deliver natural gas to them.
We saw West Texas Crude FUTURES Contract prices go Negative in the last day of the May contract. There was no actual place to take delivery of crude oil coming from West Texas. Therefore, they had to pay someone to take their oil. There was an actual British trading firm that took delivery of that oil and was PAID to take it. The owners of those FUTURES contracts could not SELL them to anyone at $.01/barrel. Therefore, the spot price on the NY Merch Exchange went negative.
At the time there were lots of tankers anchored in the Gulf and no refinery had any storage capacity. There was one British trading firm that had purchased storage capacity. They ended up actually getting PAID to purchase their contracts.
The actual producer of the oil had probably sold these contracts months prior. Some speculator bought these contracts because they thought they were TOO cheap. They had to go up in price. They did not. They received a margin call and the MERC auctioned off their contracts most likely.
Electricity distribution charges just doubled in CT due to change to use more non-fossil fuel electricity
Electricity distribution charges just doubled in CT due to change to use more non-fossil fuel electricity
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