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European energy prices might be at record levels, but there is still room for prices to run... Of course, natural gas prices are soaring everywhere—not just in Europe. The U.S. benchmark price for natural gas has nearly doubled over the last year, ... U.S. gas exports are soaring more, hitting all-time records. ... Germany is battling the highest inflation since 2008, thanks to higher energy prices. Typically, demand for natural gas this time of year is still low. Today’s high prices, at a time when demand is typically low, are worrisome for Europe, which is now looking at a difficult...

😬 https://t.co/x4sW6KrQLx— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 7, 2021Biden: “By 2020 [we’re going to] make sure all of our electricity is zero emissions" pic.twitter.com/MkF9MmTY2f— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 7, 2021

The UK fired up an old coal power plant on Monday to meet its electricity needs.Warm, still, autumn weather has meant wind farms have not generated as much power as normal, while soaring prices have made it too costly to rely on gas.As a result, National Grid ESO - which is responsible for balancing the UK's electricity supply - confirmed coal was providing 3% of national power.It said it asked EDF to fire up West Burton A, which had been on standby.On Tuesday, the use of coal returned to 2.2% of the UK's electricity generation.

Solar panels are an increasingly important source of renewable power that will play an essential role in fighting climate change. They are also complex pieces of technology that become big, bulky sheets of electronic waste at the end of their lives—and right now, most of the world doesn’t have a plan for dealing with that. But we’ll need to develop one soon, because the solar e-waste glut is coming. By 2050, the International Renewable Energy Agency projects that up to 78 million metric tons of solar panels will have reached the end of their life, and that the world will...

Update (1302ET): Moments ago, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards spoke with reporters at a press conference. He said following Hurricane Ida, it may take upwards of 30 days to restore power to parts of the state. He said he wasn’t “satisfied” with the timeline to restore power, adding that the situation is very dangerous, and requested that those who evacuated don’t return home.Here’s part of the governor’s press conference where he also went on to say that “many of the life-supporting infrastructure elements are not operating right now.” “If you have already evacuated, do not return here or elsewhere in...

EXCERPT Book Review of Shorting the Grid by Meredith Angwin Shorting or Bloating the Power Grid? 1 out of 5 stars Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2021 With all the plaudits given this book, I’m sorry I must be the one to say that I found it to be full of half-truths and misleading data analysis that is apparently being used by advocates for bloated Capacity Power Grids (such as unions, both political parties and both nuclear and renewable energy interests), hypocritically all in the name of lowering electricity prices for consumers. I will let readers decide...

Climate activists and their allies in the Biden administration have declared war on natural gas. Although it is clean-burning, affordable, and domestically plentiful, these ideologues are targeting natural gas for extinction because of its greenhouse gas emissions. Biden has already imposed heavy-handed regulations like the suspension of natural gas leasing on federal lands and in federal waters, and procedural hurdles like a tougher approval process for new natural gas pipelines. He also supports measures aimed at discouraging or outright preventing home and business owners from choosing natural gas, thus forcing these end-users to rely entirely on electricity. At the local...

The Oroville Reservoir reached a record low level of 195.66 m (641.93 feet) above mean sea level on August 5, 2021, forcing authorities in California to shut down their second-largest hydroelectric plant. This is now the lowest level since the nation's tallest dam was completed in 1967 and the first time the hydroelectric plant was shut down due to lack of water. The old record was 196.59 m (645 feet) set in 1977. The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) State Water Project operations managers have taken the Hyatt Powerplant at Lake Oroville offline due to falling lake levels, California...

Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib is pushing for legislation that would let people who fail to pay their water, electricity or broadband bills off the hook. "Cancel water, electricity and broadband debt," the Squad member tweeted Wednesday morning. "#StopTheShutoffs." She changed her messaging Thursday afternoon – calling for a bailout instead of outright cancellation. "No one should live without water and critical services," she tweeted Thursday. "Congress bailed out the banks in 2008 when it was their own wrongdoing. There should be NO hesitation in bailing out people who, due to no fault of their own, are experiencing the impacts of...

Yesterday’s post made the point that states or countries seeking to march toward 100% “renewable” electricity don’t seem to be able to get past about the 50% mark, no matter how many wind turbines and solar panels they build. The reason is that, in practical operation, due to what is called “intermittency,” no output is available from the solar and wind sources at many times of high demand; therefore, during those times, other sources must supply the juice. This practical problem is presented most starkly in California, where the “renewable” strategy is based almost entirely on solar panels, with only...

The Democrats' Congressional proposals keep getting sillier and sillier. Let's take a look. "Deal" means agreement among radicals. The Greens hijacked Biden's already strained budget. Clean Electricity Standard In an interview with The Hill, Smith, who is crafting the clean electricity standard legislation with Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), said she had expected the standard to be part of the legislation… she’s hoping to see a requirement for 80 percent clean electricity by 2030. “My goal is to get to 100 percent clean electricity as soon as possible. President Biden’s goal is to be doing it by 2035,” she said,...

The abject failure of Califonia’s energy policies is becoming more apparent every day. The Golden State has taken the lead in shutting down reliable coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants and jumping feet first into a grid powered largely by unreliable wind and solar. California is also seeking to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles in the state by 2035, even though this would require Californians to be even more reliant upon an unreliable power grid. An overreliance on wind and solar has resulted in a grid that is so unreliable that the California grid operator,...

Illinois doesn’t try that hard to attract businesses and workers. Its 9.5% corporate tax rate is the fifth highest in the country. Its property taxes are twice as high as those of its neighbors. And unlike most states in the Midwest, it doesn’t have a right-to-work law giving workers the choice not to join a union. Illinois does have one thing going for it: cheap and reliable electricity. The state would lose that too under an 800-page climate bill Democrats in Springfield are contriving to jam through the statehouse. “The proposed energy legislation being circulated will be the largest rate...

President Biden wants to spend tens of billions of dollars on transmission lines to transport renewable electricity across states, which he says will improve grid reliability. His climate model of California is showing the limits and risks of this strategy. California’s Independent System Operator (Caiso) on Friday and Saturday issued emergency alerts urging residents to conserve power during the evenings to avoid rolling blackouts. A wildfire in Oregon threatened transmission lines that import thousands of megawatts of hydropower that are needed when the sun starts to go down. Progressives blamed Texas’s power outage in February on its limited ability to...

Customers across Colorado could see higher electric and natural gas bills if regulators approve proposals by utilities to recover costs from a winter storm that had them scrambling along with many other companies to buy enough fuel to make it through the freezing weather. During its meeting Wednesday, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission will consider the next steps after receiving applications from Xcel Energy-Colorado and Black Hills Energy, which have proposed spreading out the expense for customers over at least a year. The PUC is reviewing how utilities prepared for the weather in February. The frigid weather that gripped the...

A major power outage in Central America cut electricity to some 15 million residents on Wednesday, with the worst impact felt in Honduras and Nicaragua. The two most-affected countries saw power for nearly all residents “practically go down to zero volts,” siad EOR communications head Evelyn Flores. The grid operator said the outage began at 1 p.m. (1900 GMT) but the cause and specific origin of the massive loss of power still being determined. Energy use fell from 8,300 megawatts to just 2,400 megawatts across the region with the exception of Panama and Costa Rica, which were mostly unaffected, EOR...

DENVER — Xcel Energy customers could see higher bills in 2022. The company submitted a proposal to raise rates to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. They say the increase will help fund “next-generation technology investments that expand and strengthen the reliability of the electric grid for customers, advance Colorado’s clean energy policies, and increase capacity to meet growing customer needs and expectations.” Xcel said that since 2019 and through 2022, it will spend for $4 billion on the investments. How much will my bill increase? Residential customers would see their bills increase by an average of $9.46 a month, or...

(The Center Square) - The head of the Arizona Corporate Commission worries that California power officials moving their wattage to the front of the line would export power outages to Arizona and elsewhere. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently decided to allow the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) to prioritize energy flow throughout California over Arizona. This concerns to the chairwoman of the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), Lea Marquez Peterson. CAISO petitioned FERC to make changes to its tariff related to transmission priority through California in response to the extensive blackouts in August 2020. The summer readiness plan approved...

As one of Japan’s most active volcanoes, Sakurajima often dazzles with spectacular displays of volcanic lightning set against an ash-filled sky. But the volcano can also produce much smaller, invisible bursts of electrical activity that mystify and intrigue scientists. Now, an analysis of 97 explosions at Sakurajima from June 2015 is helping to show when eruptions produce visible lightning strokes versus when they produce the mysterious, unseen surges of electrical activity, researchers report in the June 16 Geophysical Research Letters. These invisible bursts, called vent discharges, happen early in eruptions, which could allow scientists to figure out ways to use...

Maybe it’s time to admit that the whole “green” energy push is one big farce Six months after a historic failure in the Texas power grid which collapsed when various “renewable” sources of electricity failed concurrently and dragged down the entire network, California – that liberal utopia powered by renewable power and/or unicorn flatulence – realizes it is about to get Enroned, and has made an urgent request for additional power supplies to avoid blackouts this summer, an extraordinary step after suffering from rolling outages less than a year ago. State energy officials asked the California Independent System Operator, which...