A Free-Market Energy Blog

‘The $287 Million Pipeline No One Needed’: Deconstructing an Anti-Natural Gas Argument

By -- May 18, 2022

Ed Note: A 65-mile, 400 MMCf/d pipeline approved by FERC and in service since late 2019 has been challenged in court by environmental groups that want to wean St. Louis residents off natural gas to force electrification. With successful court decisions, FERC has issued an emergency order for Spire STL to continue operation rather than shut down.

“The moral of this story? In an increasingly politicized economy, it is easier to get the business through government largess than to earn the business through healthy competition.”

Media bias…. “‘The $287 Million Pipeline No One Needed'” is the title of an article published on April 27, 2022, by Mario Ariza in The Intercept; “an award-winning news organization dedicated to holding the powerful accountable through fearless, adversarial journalism.”

Behind the article was Floodlight News, “a nonprofit climate newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action,” syndicated and picked up by similar “news” web sites.…

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“Negative Electricity Prices and the Production Tax Credit” (2012 warning for Texas went unheeded)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 17, 2022

[Editor note: The current (May) problems of the Texas Grid reflect a socialized wholesale market (ERCOT) in light of the wind/solar cancer that has wounded the ‘reliables.’ Specifically, negative pricing of windpower, a decade-old phenomenon, has ruined margins for natural gas and coal plants, causing premature retirements, decisions against new capacity, and less maintenance.]

History matters to understand the wounded Texas electricity grid of today. There were warnings time and again that the distorted market would have reliability issues, and reliability issues would cause price spikes for the worst of all worlds.

Consider the study Negative Electricity Prices and the Production Tax Credit” by Frank Huntowski, Aaron Patterson, and Michael Schnitzer (The NorthBridge Group: September 10, 2012), which was commissioned by Exelon, whose nuclear-plant margins were badly compromised by wind’s “predatory” pricing.…

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Watchman on ‘Greenwashing’

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 16, 2022

“Back to the greenwash misdirection…. Why not add U.S. DOE secretary Jennifer “Please get your rig count up” Granholm to the list? How about the wind and solar developers who really don’t care about the damage they cause around them? How about the whole biomass industry?”

Paul Watchman is an amiable chap I have gotten to know on social media. Patient and polite, seems open-minded and respectful of opposing views, including mine toward Net Zero.

Watchman has many titles and positions in the climate debate, including Special Legal Adviser at UNEP Principles of Sustainable Development Net Zero Insurance Underwriters Alliance. This Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Glasgow is deep in the intellectual climate vanguard. [1]

“Greenwashing Day”

In a post titled “Greenwashing Day,” Watchman cuts loose on what he sees as a lot of fake greenery in the Net Zero cause.…

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‘Hot’ Climate Models: Soft Criticism from the Mainstream

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 15, 2022
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Bird Migration Day: Dim the Lights … or Turn Off the Turbines?

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 13, 2022
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Vaclav Smil: Antidote to Magical Thinking

By Richard W. Fulmer -- May 12, 2022
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“Gasoline Prices: Still Good News” (a 20-year-old op-ed for today)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 11, 2022
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In Defense of Price ‘Gouging’ (lines, shortages are uneconomic, discriminatory)

By Michael Giberson -- May 10, 2022
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Energy and Environmental Review: May 9, 2022

By -- May 9, 2022
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John Kerry vs. Natural Gas

By -- May 6, 2022
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