Ed. Note: With the 3rd anniversary of the Great Texas Blackout of February 2021, it is worth remembering the second thoughts that architects of the centrally planned state grid (ISO/ERCOT) had at the time. But have the guilty feelings resulted in a fundamental rethink of government electricity? This post is reprinted from MasterResource (May 20, 2021)
“I have to admit, the ERCOT blackouts have shaken me. The amount of physical damage and human suffering they caused is astounding. Obviously, the ‘market’ failed to provide the service reliability that customers expected and deserved.”
It is tough when your belief system gets rattled by reality. Very few people can handle that well. The best prevention strategy is to keep an open mind, and understand other views about as well as your own.…
Continue Reading“The Kiesling/Giberson (et al.) narrative is a call for more government. MORE wind. MORE solar. MORE Batteries. MORE central planning to correct prior. And rationing from ‘smart meters’ to forgive all that came before. Think Big Brother, the Electricity Road to Serfdom.”
Three years ago this month, a prolonged, extensive cold snap did the unthinkable to Texas’s huge electricity grid. The shared narrative from proponents/apologists of forced energy transformation (‘Energy Transition’, ‘Decarbonization’, ‘Net Zero’, ‘Green New Deal’, ‘Virtual Power Plant’) focused on the failure of natural gas infrastructure as the cause of the debacle, a sort of “market failure” from “an Act of God.” The cancer in the system, intermittent wind and solar ($66 billion worth), was forgiven, and central planning of the state’s grid by Austin politicians, regulators, and administrators was treated as a neutrality.…
Continue ReadingEd. Note: This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete Newsletter for this post can be found here.
Greed Energy Economics:
*** Dispelling the Cult Claim—”Wind and Solar are Lower Cost Generation than Natural Gas”
Two wind facilities share $100± million to turn off
Unreliables (General):
*** Time to retire the term ‘renewable energy’ from serious discussion and energy policy directives
*** The State of Reliability in PJM and Nine Slides from My Testimony in Ohio Explaining Why Costs are Rising and Reliability is Faltering
Wind Energy — Offshore:
Danish Clean Energy Giant Sucking Wind
Study Provides Guidance on Detecting North Atlantic Right Whales in Wind Energy Areas
Wind Energy — Other:
*** Taking the Wind Out of Climate Change (referencing 60± studies)
Industrial Wind Turbines demonstrate their Unreliable and Intermittent Nature Generating 1.8% of their Capacity than jumping to 80.4% only a few days later
Solar Energy:
*** Stealing with Solar: The Great Net-Metering Heist
*** Steal from the Poor, Give to the Rich
Nuclear Energy:
*** After scrapping nuclear reactors, Germany to spend billions on new gas power plants
Fossil Fuel Energy:
*** Coal’s Life-Saving Role Ignored by Climate-Obsessed Media
House delivers blow to Biden’s climate agenda, votes against natural gas moratorium
Biden to Export Ideology Instead of Natural Gas
Climate Cultists at The Guardian: This Time, It’s Evil Propane
Electric Vehicles (EVs):
*** Ford Lost $4.7B On EVs Last Year, Or About $64,731 For Every EV It Sold
Car Dealers Slash Prices Of EVs As Demand Craters
Experts warn electric vehicle weight threatens road safety and infrastructure
Heavier EV’s tearing up the roadways but paying nothing for road maintenance
Miscellaneous Energy News:
*** A landmark Energy Freedom Resolution from the RNC
*** Introducing: AlexAI (energy questions answered by Alex Epstein’s AI)
*** The Deindustrialization of Europe in Five Charts
Congress and courts enable energy and climate fantasy and tyranny
Energy regulator’s exit may flummox Biden’s green plans
Can the government create a green hydrogen fuel industry?…