Free Republic

Xcel Energy wants to stop buying electricity from the world’s largest high-concentration solar energy plant, located in the San Luis Valley, and it will pay $41 million to the federal government to do it. The utility company has been purchasing power from the 30-megawatt solar plant in southern Colorado since 2012, when the federally backed project was one of the first of its kind and the largest using the technology anywhere. But parts on the solar farm have been starting to fail and there are no ready replacements — and the project’s owner, Kepco Solar of Alamosa LLC, tells Xcel...

A near power grid outbreak on January 8, 2021 cut Europe’s power grid into a south-eastern and a north-western part for about an hour was described as one of the most critical near-blackout situations since the region’s last major blackout in 2006. A day after, on January 9, 2021, Pakistan and most of its 210 millions inhabitants were plunged into darkness during several hours. This was Pakistan’s second major power breakdown since May 2018, when the country remained without electricity for more than nine hours. A disturbance in the synchronised European high-voltage power grid on Friday, 8 January 2021, resulted...

Today, President Trump is issuing an Executive Order on Promoting Small Modular Reactors for National Defense and Space Exploration, which will further revitalize the United States nuclear energy sector, reinvigorate America’s space exploration program, and produce diverse energy options for national defense needs.The United States has used transportable nuclear reactors for nearly 70 years for functions like propelling aircraft carriers through the sea and enabling submarines to stay underwater for long periods of time. Using small modular reactors for national defense and space exploration will allow the United States to maintain and advance our leadership and dominance across space and...

If you’re looking for an example of green and clean energy policy in action, let’s take a walk around British Columbia’s massive $10-12-billion hydro dam project. Officially described as the “Site C Clean Energy Project” by its developer, B.C. Hydro, the project on the Peace River — some 1,185 kilometres by flying crow north of downtown Vancouver — is unfortunately a little messy and unstable at the moment, so watch your footing, and your wallet. Under foot, according to Premier John Horgan, “there is instability on one of the banks of the river.” Early last year B.C. Hydro identified “structural...

Growing up in Miami, Florida, I knew next to nothing about the energy industry. As long as I could afford to put gas in my car and the lights came on when I needed them, I was happy. I had no clue — like many Americans — how essential energy is to every aspect of our lives. After the manager of a successful land management firm took a chance on a young, ignorant college kid who just needed a job, my eyes were opened to the reality of just how dependent our modern, comfortable lives are on access to energy...

With President-elect Joe Biden about to assume office, he will soon roll out his “clean energy” plan, aimed at reducing America’s dependence on fossil fuels. But such a move will cause ripples beyond America’s borders. It will likely impact key developing countries that have become increasingly reliant on fossil fuel imports from the booming U.S. oil and gas industry. Biden’s Clean Energy PlanIn December 2020, Joe Biden appointed his climate team, which included a person who served under the Obama administration. Among the list of climate nominees and appointees is Gina McCarthy, who spearheaded the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan,...

Steam trains could stop running after plans for a new coal mine were blocked. The Heritage Railway Association has warned that the industry could be jeopardised by Newcastle City Council’s refusal to grant planning permission for a new mine, as supplies of English steam coal are expected to run out early this year. It said the decision had ‘dashed the hopes of Britain’s heritage railways’, which need affordable coal to continue operating.

One of the Biden administration's key pledges is to have a "100 percent clean energy economy" and reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A study released by Princeton researchers last week analyzed several scenarios detailing the herculean efforts required to achieve that goal. A prominent takeaway is the massive amount of land it would take to reimagine energy production and distribution nationally, including figuring out where to site a multitude of new solar arrays and wind turbines and constructing thousands of miles of transmission lines. "The current power grid took 150 years to build," one of the study researchers...

Are wind, solar, and batteries the magical solutions to all our energy needs? Or do they come with too high a price? Mark Mills, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, analyzes the true cost — both economic and environmental — of so-called green energy.

Toyota makes a lot of cars, so many that it’s the world’s largest or second-largest auto manufacturer every year. ... So Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda’s comments at the company’s year-end press conference deserve notice and no little amount of respect. He knows more about cars and their economic ecosystem than just about anyone else on the planet. ... “The more EVs we build, the worse carbon dioxide gets… When politicians are out there saying, ‘Let’s get rid of all cars using gasoline,’ do they understand this?” ... failure to count the cost of what politicians are proposing. More EVs will...

“I’m taking into account who works against other members in primaries and who doesn’t,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) reportedly said prior to the vote to award the key committee position to Rep. Kathleen Rice over Ocasio-Cortez. Freshman New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was snubbed Thursday during a private Democrat committee meeting held to decide a key House Energy and Commerce Committee seat, and it wasn’t even a close vote. According to Politico, Ocasio-Cortez lost out to fellow NY Rep. Kathleen Rice in a 46-13 vote, and at points during the run-up to the vote, tensions ran high: Just before the...

With little fanfare and next to no media coverage, an obscure rule change from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) could lead to big changes for America’s electric grid. FASB’s proposed changes to federally recognized accounting standards may enable utilities to hide the upfront cost of tens of billions of dollars in bad renewable energy and battery deals, making these projects appear misleadingly profitable on paper through rosy long-term projections of leasing income. These changes will also grease the wheels for regulated utilities to adopt more risky renewable contracts and saddle their customers with the costs. Ironically, the standards being...

WASHINGTON — Democrats on Friday shot down Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign for a prized seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee — instead appointing fellow New York Rep. Kathleen Rice. The New York congresswomen had been jockeying for the seat and lobbying colleagues behind the scenes, but Rice ultimately won in a vote of 46-13, Politico reported Friday.

SANTA FE — New Mexico congresswoman Deb Haaland has been tapped as President-elect Joe Biden’s interior secretary, according to The Washington Post and other national news outlets. If confirmed, Haaland, 60, would make history as the nation’s first-ever Native American cabinet secretary and would lead an influential federal agency that oversees more than 500 million acres of public lands and tribal issues. Haaland, who is a Laguna Pueblo member and former San Felipe Pueblo tribal administrator, had been touted as a potential Cabinet pick by many fellow House members and Native American groups. As head of the Interior Department, Haaland...

Embrace the flow, says a duo of mechanical engineers at North Carolina State University—the flow of energy, that is. The mantra you might normally hear from your yoga instructor could be an entirely new way of looking at the universe. 🌌The universe is badass. Let's explore it together. The two theorists, Larry Silverberg and Jeffrey Eischen, suggest that fragments of energy, rather than waves or particles, may be the fundamental building blocks of the universe. The bedrock of their theory is the foundational idea that energy is always flowing through space and time. The authors suggest thinking of energy as...

ODESSA, Texas (KOSA) - Innovex Downhole Solutions says it was recently denied an order of jackets by The North Face, a popular outdoor recreation company, because Innovex is an oil and gas business. “I was surprised but not surprised, if that makes sense,” said Innovex CEO Adam Anderson. Innovex is based in Houston and has nearly 100 workers in the Permian Basin. Each year, the company gets a Christmas gift for its employees. This year, it was supposed to be a North Face jacket with an Innovex logo, a company Innovex has ordered gear from in the past. The company...

Donald Trump embraced coal during his 2016 campaign. The crowd at a Charleston rally four years ago broke into wild applause when he told them, “I’m thinking about miners all over this country. We’re gonna put the miners back to work. We’re gonna get those mines opened.” It has not worked out that way. In fact, employment and production are levels are behind where they were when he took office. We will get to the reasons for that in a moment. But first, the Trump administration has tried to lend a helping hand to coal. Taylor Kuykendall, energy and mining...

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday that electricity consumption will double if the world’s car fleets are electrified, increasing the need to expand nuclear, solar, geothermal and wind energy generating sources. Increasing the availability of sustainable energy is a major challenge as cars move from combustion engines to battery-driven electric motors, a shift which will take two decades, Musk said in a talk hosted by Berlin-based publisher Axel Springer. There’s no unicorn energy source or free lunch. Currently, electric cars are primarily powered by coal, natural gas, and nuclear. Those are the sources we use to generate electricity,...

THE HAGUE - A group of environmental organizations backed by thousands of Dutch citizens launched a civil case Tuesday against the energy giant Shell, asking a court to order the multinational to commit to reining in its carbon emissions 45% by the year 2030. Lawyer Roger Cox told a panel of three judges at The Hague Court that Shell’s corporate policy is “at odds” with global climate goals. “The claimants therefore conclude that Royal Dutch Shell’s corporate policy is on collision course with global climate targets,” Cox said as he opened four days of hearings spread over the coming weeks....

WASHINGTON - President-elect Joe Biden’s promise to end U.S. fossil fuel subsidies worth billions of dollars a year for drillers and miners could be hard to keep due to resistance from lawmakers in a narrowly divided Congress, including from within his own party. The challenge reflects just one of the obstacles that Biden will need to overcome as he seeks to usher in sweeping measures to combat climate change and transform the nation’s economy to net-zero emissions within three decades. Biden has said axing fossil fuel subsidies will generate money to help pay for his broader $2 trillion climate plan....