2021 was supposed to be the year of progress and a final close to the disasterous Plant Vogtle #3 and #4. But it was anything but with early 2022 looking like things have retrogressed.
… Continue ReadingEarly in 2021, crews at Georgia Power’s nuclear expansion site at Plant Vogtle were struggling to find all the leaks in a pool built to hold spent, highly radioactive fuel. They added air pressure under the floor of the water-filled pool, hoping air bubbles would pinpoint flawed welds. It didn’t work. So an engineer doubled the air pressure.
The result: The pool’s steel floor plates were damaged, rendering them unusable. New ones had to be manufactured. The fixes and rechecks of the pool have taken nearly a year and cost millions of dollars. It’s been that kind of a year at Plant Vogtle.
The Enron story has more twists and turns that a spy thriller. The company’s rise and fall was the corporate novel that Ayn Rand did not write–or need to write in retrospect.
Let history know that just-convicted Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of defunct Theranos, is the daughter of a former Enron vice president, Christian Holmes, who peddled an environmental services product that never got off the ground.
Father and daughter … Enron and Theranos … imaging over reality. Whatever the level of connection, of causality, it happened. It is a footnote to history.
Elizabeth Holmes’s fraud was exposed by John Carreyrou reporter for the Wall Street Journal, who went on to author Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. Regarding father Chris’s venture at Enron, I reprint my description from Enron Ascending: The Forgotten Years (2018).…
Continue ReadingEd. note: This fortnightly Master Resource post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, published every other week by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete MBN for this post can be found here.
Of special interest in this issue is Vijay Jayaraj’s report on Asia’s exciting nuclear-energy future, here.
Greed Energy Economics:
Green energy firms the biggest corporate welfare recipients ever
Thank you Senator Manchin — as he Says No on Build Back Better Green New Deal
Here’s how much energy prices rose in 2021
Europeans Face a $395 Billion Hike in Energy Bills Next Year
NYS Playing a Climate Shell Game with NY Ratepayers
Wind Energy — Offshore:
Texas Public Policy Foundation brings fishermen’s lawsuit against Vineyard Wind
Vineyard Wind Harpooned By New Federal Lawsuit
Offshore wind developer tries to calm worries
Oswego County Legislature (NY) formally opposes wind turbines in Lake Ontario
Wind Energy — Other:
Which Country Or U.S.…