Free Republic

The electric vehicle honeymoon is over. Don’t expect the marriage itself to last much longer either. The mass conversion from internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEs) to electric vehicles was never more than a Democrat/environmentalist hallucination anyway. It was the most ill-conceived government policy objective in modern history. The transition should have been a non-starter. It’s riddled with numerous deal killers. It’s like having a dozen fatal diseases all at the same time. Any goal as massive as a total conversion from ICE vehicles to EVs requires careful planning and infrastructure preparation. It would necessitate a rapid doubling of electricity generation...

Although Texas' longest-serving governor was, perhaps unsurprisingly, pro-oil and gas during his tenure, he didn't simply nod to those iconic, staple fuels: “You can be proud that Texas produces more energy from wind turbines than all but five countries,” he said.

COVID-19 cases are expected to rise this fall as new variants become more prevalent. And, as unfortunately expected, it’s already triggered demands by some of our more zealous public health enforcers, not to mention some teachers’ unions, to reinstate mitigation measures including mandatory masking. Some researchers are already recommending that when cases go up, people will need to wear masks indoors again. ... None of this incipient hysteria is warranted. The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 is, as expected, continuing to mutate. The EG.5 variant is the most common US strain now, making up an estimated 21% of new infections...

TOKYO -- China is emerging as a dominant player in global wind power generation, with the country's manufacturers supplying nearly 60% of installed capacity worldwide in 2022. The figures, compiled by the Brussels-based Global Wind Energy Council, signal that China is claiming a commanding share in both the wind power and solar panel markets. China's Goldwind, the leader in the domestic market, ranked second in the world market with a 13% share, behind Denmark's Vestas with 14%. Of the top 15 companies worldwide, 10 were Chinese, including fifth-place Envision with a 9% share and sixth-place Mingyang Smart Energy with 7%....

Among the media sources serving as propagandists and cheerleaders for the “green energy transition,” two of the most prominent are the New York Times and Bloomberg News. To get an idea how the “transition” is going, let’s take a look at the latest from those two. From the Times, in this morning’s print edition, we have a feature article that apparently first appeared online a couple of days ago, August 17. The headline is: “The Clean Energy Future Is Arriving Faster Than You Think.” The sub-head continues the excitement: “The United States is pivoting away from fossil fuels and toward...

MADRID (AP) – Spain´s newly elected Parliament voted Thursday by a majority to elect a Socialist candidate as chamber speaker, breathing some life into acting Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez´s aspirations of forming another leftist government. The crucial vote was won by Francina Armengol with 178 votes in the 350-lower house of parliament, against 139 for the main conservative Popular Party´s candidate. It was the first parliamentary vote since inconclusive national elections on July 23 left no group with an easy path to form government. Parties on the left and right have almost an equal number of seats.

A “battery fire” at a rural New York solar farm has triggered warnings from authorities for local residents to avoid the toxic smoke plumes billowing from the site. Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a warning Thursday night for locals to stay away from the site near Lake Ontario. The blaze began around 1 pm at a solar farm in Jefferson County, outside the village of Chaumont, according to WWNY-TV. The village is about 78 miles north of Syracuse and near the Canadian border. Photos and videos aired by the local news station show smoke shooting from a solar panel array...

Regional electricity providers tasked with keeping America’s lights on warned Tuesday that the Biden administration must delay the retirement of fossil fuel power plants to give renewables time to catch up — or else risk major energy shortfalls. They said grid reliability would be jeopardized by quickly transitioning electricity use from coal and natural gas to green alternatives such as wind and solar. The transmission groups, which collectively deliver power from energy sources to tens of millions of homes in dozens of states, told reporters that extreme heat conditions this summer underscore the need to slow the closures of power...

*Proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations for power plant emissions could spur blackouts in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) power grid region and cost stakeholders nearly $250 billion in the coming decades, according to comments filed in response to the rule by the Center of the American Experiment (CAE).*The average annual cost to stakeholders of building enough capacity to stave off the blackouts CAE projects in the MISO region is greater than the average annual benefit the EPA estimates its proposals will bring for the entire country by 2055, according to CAE’s analysis.*“This is the regulatory equivalent of studying...

A recurring question at this blog has been, how do the world’s politicians plan to provide reliable electricity without fossil fuels? Country after country, and state after state, have announced grand plans for what they call “Net Zero” electricity generation, universally accompanied by schemes for massive build-outs of wind and solar generation facilities. But what is the strategy for the calm nights, or for the sometimes long periods at the coldest times of the winter when both wind and sun produce near zero electricity for days or even weeks on end? When pressed, the answer given is generally “batteries” or...

U.S. power plant owners warned the Biden administration on Tuesday that its sweeping plan to slash carbon emissions from the electricity sector is unworkable, relying too heavily on costly technologies that are not yet proven at scale. Top utility trade group the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for revisions of the proposed power plant standards, which hinge on the widespread commercial availability of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and low-emissions green hydrogen, adding the agency's vision was "not legally or technically sound." "Electric companies are not confident that the new technologies EPA has designated...

Canada’s plans to make nuclear power a central part of its decarbonization strategy are taking shape with major announcements around large nuclear builds, small modular reactors and medical isotopes.. Nuclear power accounts for around 15% of Canada’s electricity generation with most capacity in Ontario where some 40% of the population resides. A total of 19 reactors provide around 13.6 gigawatts (GW) across the country, though most are in the provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick, which are 60% and 36% powered by nuclear respectively. ... increasingly vocal support for urgent greenhouse-gas-emission reduction have helped bring the government back to nuclear...

Earlier today I wrote that we live in stupid times.It’s true. In an era defined by apocalyptic warnings about how fossil fuels, agriculture, and breathing will cause the Earth to catch on fire, the one thing that has held the environmental movement together is an abiding faith that generating power with clean, renewable, and carbon-free nuclear energy is a terrible idea.The result has been a ridiculous draught in the commissioning of nuclear reactors. The US has closed nukes but hasn’t commissioned a new reactor in decades.We live in stupid times.Still, somehow this new reactor in Georgia managed to slip through...

The PJM fuel mix is balanced and diversified between different fuel types and we have adequate generation resources to serve the anticipated needs of our system today. However, as we look further out, maintaining an adequate level of generation resources will be essential for PJM’s ability to reliably serve electrical demand through the energy transition. Our recent analysis observed four trends that increase the risk that we may have difficulty maintaining such an adequate level of generation resources with the necessary attributes over time.1: The rate of electricity demand is likely to continue to increase from electrification and increasing deployment...

Energy providers could have the option to switch off home EV charging stations remotely to reduce pressure on Queensland’s electricity grid.The proposal is part of the Australian state’s Queensland Electricity Connection Manual (QECM), which provides a framework for the grid’s operation.Section 8 of the QECM proposes that EV charging equipment may be limited or switched off by operators Ergon Energy and Energex (distributed network service providers or DNSPs) if it has an output of more than 20 amps—a standard domestic single-phase EV charger uses 32 amps.The use of such “demand management” schemes is largely unique to Queensland and is also...

The PJM fuel mix is balanced and diversified between different fuel types and we have adequate generation resources to serve the anticipated needs of our system today. However, as we look further out, maintaining an adequate level of generation resources will be essential for PJM’s ability to reliably serve electrical demand through the energy transition. Our recent analysis observed four trends that increase the risk that we may have difficulty maintaining such an adequate level of generation resources with the necessary attributes over time.1| The rate of electricity demand is likely to continue to increase from electrification and increasing deployment...

Severe thunderstorms struck southern Michigan on Wednesday, uprooting trees, downing branches and power lines and cutting electricity to more than 140,000 customers, utilities and others reported. DTE Energy reported nearly 108,000 customers without power as of 5:40 p.m., and Consumers Energy reported more than 32,000 without service. The National Weather Service reported trees and tree limbs had fallen in the Detroit area, Ann Arbor and other locations across southern Michigan.

The Renaissance was the beginning of a great falling away from Jesus Christ (John 1) and the Christian faith. Apostates did not fall away into nothing but into the ancient Mysteries, Hermeticism, mystical Eastern pantheism and evolution and reincarnation, alchemy, magic and more. Coming out of the Renaissance were many occult and diabolically occult secret societies and alchemical magicians such as Hegel and Karl Marx in performance of the Great Work of fusing opposites. In his own time, Teilhard de Chardin also performed the Great Work.Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was an occult evolutionary scientist, New Age Hindu-style pantheist, occult Hermetic...

Which state will report power shortages first? Those that are caused by the high heat warnings over the next month?

The Daily Signal has been able to get 217 pages from the National Security Administration (NSA) under FOIA. Those pages show the huge effort to “torpedo” the Trump administration before they even took office with an effort to go after Gen. Michael Flynn, the man who would be National Security Advisor for President Donald Trump.Flynn’s conversation with the Russian ambassador in the period between November 2016 and Jan. 2017 was intercepted by intelligence officials for the Obama administration, and then his name was unmasked.The Signal requested the information in March 2021 and didn’t get the documents until June 30, 2023.Some...