“FERC appears to have ignored the track record of top-down state and regional climate policies, which have increased costs and negligibly impacted the environment.”
“Prior to providing a blanket endorsement for state carbon pricing, the commission needs to hear from families, small businesses, and workers who will pay substantially more for electricity.”
Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced that President Trump had replaced then-Chairman Neil Chatterjee with Commissioner James Danly. Media reports suggested that the President’s decision to swap Republican Commissioners – both of whom he had nominated – was driven by dissatisfaction with Chatterjee’s push to accommodate state carbon dioxide (CO2) taxation.
Background
The change followed an unusual move by FERC to host a September 30 Technical Conference on Carbon Pricing in Organized Wholesale Electricity Markets.…
Continue Reading“Consumers decide what is prudent with their appliance purchases, not Washington, DC energy planners.”
The energy-efficiency nannies start with smiles and studies about how consumers fail in their purchase and usage decisions–and end by mandating a lower standard of living for the rest of us.
No, we do not want low-volume showers; we want choice between low-volume and high-volume options. We do not want electric heaters rather than gas heaters–we want the option between both with choices on up-front costs versus back-end efficiencies. We also do not want low-flush toilets. We want what we want without experts-qua-planners involved.
Enter the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), which describes itself as
… Continue Readinga catalyst to advance energy efficiency politics, programs, technologies, investments, and behaviors. We aim to build a vibrant and equitable economy – one that uses energy more productively, reduces costs, protects the environment, and promotes the health, safety, and well-being of everyone.
“The four producing members who started this effort have all shifted their operations away from the production of thermal coal, which is used to generate electricity, and more toward metallurgical coal, which is used to make steel….”
The utility of coal goes beyond generating electricity. The high temperatures need for producing steel, in particular, come from blast furnaces fueled by coked coal. Coking coal, or super coal, comes from a process where regular coal subject to high temperatures in a declining atmosphere becomes a plastic before resolidifying.
Enter a new trade association, the The Metallurgical Coal Producers Association (formerly the Virginia Coal & Energy Alliance), self-described as
… Continue Readinga non-profit organization made up of metallurgical coal producers and those who support our producing members’ operations. Our emphasis is on metallurgical coal, the issues related to it, and the opportunities metallurgical coal brings to our region.