The first great requisite of motive power is, that it shall be wholly at our command, to be exerted when, and where, and in what degree we desire. The wind, for instance, as a direct motive power, is wholly inapplicable to a system of machine labour, for during a calm season the whole business of the country would be thrown out of gear.

– W. S. Jevons, The Coal Question (London: Macmillan, 1865), p. 122.

If only the legion of energy experts and specialists in the colleges and universities, U.S. Department of Energy labs, and environmentalist organizations understood William Stanley Jevons of the 19th century and Vaclav Smil today. If so, they would understand why:

• Renewable energy is failing at times of peak demand (see the Duck Curve post this week).

It is high time that real environmentalists stand up. Government subsidies and business cronyism to despoil pristine nature is surely a call-to-arms about the limits to growth.

Al Gore? Bill McKibben? Where are you? Do you want another data point for a sequel to Michael Moore’s Planet of the Humans?

As it is, a group of Ohio Representatives and Senators is showing their environmental bona fides–and respect for electricity ratepayers– regarding the Icebreaker Wind Turbine Project (aka Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation, or LEEDCo).

Refresher: LEEDCo is a six-turbine, 20.7 MW offshore wind demonstration project eight miles from downtown Cleveland in Lake Erie. The first freshwater offshore wind project in North America, the project has received huge subsidies from the US Department of Energy in addition to the federal Production Tax Credit.…

“Exacerbating the crisis is the new green energy grid because the peak hours for electricity use are from 6:30 pm to 10 pm when solar and wind are the least available. This is called the Duck Curve because the time demand energy use profile looks like the silhouette of a duck.”

The wave of power outages in California during the heat wave of 2020 are mostly in the PG&E power grid area where 21 local green energy-buying cooperatives (called Community Choice Aggregators – see map here) are buying green power and green jobs for their communities. These co-ops buy power for 10 million customers in 170 cities and counties and their goal is 100 percent green power by the 2030’s.  

California depends on 25 percent imported power, mainly hydropower, from other states.…

“With votes at stake that would seem to be at the expense of Biden/Harris (or Harris/Biden), the media does not want to give West a break.”

Yes, as announced July 4th, ‘billionaire rapper’ Kanye West is in the mix for voters come the November presidential election, website and all. Of the 14 targeted states for ballot access, Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah and Vermont are in, Illinois and New Jersey out, and Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana, Ohio and West Virginia undecided.

The Democrat Party does not like West’s entry, hoping to consolidate the Black vote for Biden/Harris. The Republican Party is rumored to be helping his ‘spoiler‘ quest in the 2020 election.

What does West say about energy? And how is the Press treating him?

Environment/Energy Plank

Here is Kanye’s environmental and energy platform in its entirety:

7.…