150k downloads, ERCOT sued again, Ramachandran on green colonialism, Blue Jays

Podcast hits 150,000 downloads, ERCOT sued again, Ramachandran on "green colonialism", & Blue Jays 

I love Austin. Lorin and I have lived here for almost 37 years. But January is a miserable time for allergies. This morning, the pollen blowing off of the ashe junipers in our yard and across the draw behind the house was so thick I honestly mistook it for smoke. I thought that perhaps a  house in the neighborhood had caught fire. The result of all the pollen is that I’ve been sneezing my fool head off and reaching for the allergy medicine. But enough about that. This week, I’ve been recording podcasts, writing, and preparing for two presentations that I will give next week. Five items today: 

• Power Hungry Podcast: 150,000 downloads!

• New Forbes: ERCOT’s litigation woes

• Two lectures next week

• Vijaya Ramachandran talks “green colonialism”

• Blue Jays: Not "ho-hum" 

The image of Blue Jays above is from Birds of America by John James Audubon.
 

I have been pleased with the growth of the Power Hungry Podcast. This week, we passed 150,000 downloads and the trends continue to show solid growth. That’s heartening and gratifying. In my three decades in journalism, the best part of my job has always been talking to people, learning about their jobs, and about how they view the world. The podcast has given me a way to talk to, and reach, a whole new set of people and a platform to share those conversations with a broader audience. Tyson Culver and I launched the podcast in June of 2020. Since then, my focus has been pretty simple: I want to talk to interesting people. It’s a simple plan and it seems to be working. If you want to help out, subscribe to the podcast and share it with your friends. 
 

This morning, I posted a piece on Forbes about ERCOT’s growing legal woes. I began:

• Eleven months after the near-meltdown of the Texas electric grid, the state’s grid operator, ERCOT, is facing “dozens” of lawsuits over the disaster. While the outcome of the litigation is uncertain, Texas ratepayers could be forced to pay for any legal judgments against ERCOT, which could total billions of dollars.Those billions will be piled onto the billions of dollars in debt incurred by the state’s utilities during last February’s deadly blizzard. Last year, the Texas Legislature agreed to securitize much of that utility debt. Texas ratepayers will be repaying that debt through surcharges on their monthly bills for years to come. Now back to the litigation. Last week, 131 insurance companies filed a lawsuit in Travis County District Court against ERCOT and about three dozen electricity generators, claiming that they are to blame for the power outage during Winter Storm Uri. 

I concluded:

• It’s worth noting that ERCOT has its own insurance problems. Last year, Cincinnati Insurance Company filed a federal lawsuit asking for a declaratory judgment that would allow it to decline paying damages in personal injury and property damage lawsuits where ERCOT is deemed liable. 

• In short, ERCOT doesn’t have many friends. And as the litigation continues to pile up against the grid operator, billions of dollars are riding on how the courts decide the sovereign immunity issue. As one longtime ERCOT watcher in Austin told me today, “ERCOT doesn’t have any money. It’s a clearinghouse. It takes money from electricity buyers and gives it to generators.” That means if ERCOT is found liable for the February mess, Texans will be forced to pay yet more, either in taxes or higher electricity rates, for one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history. And of course, low- and middle-income Texans will be the biggest losers as their monthly utility bills go up, and up, to pay for the Texas Blackout of 2021. 

Again, here’s a link. 

Vijaya Ramachandran on the "completely immoral" stance of rich countries on hydrocarbon development     

Vijaya Ramachandran, a native of Bangalore, India, has been studying and writing about energy and development for more than three decades. She has three degrees from Harvard University, including a doctorate. In this episode of the Power Hungry Podcast (#87), Vijaya, who is the director for energy and development at The Breakthrough Institute discusses the “rank hypocrisy” and “green colonialism” of the rich countries who have said they will quit financing hydrocarbon projects in the developing world. She also explains why Africa must develop its vast natural gas resources, how coal is “embedded” in India’s economy, and why “If we just address climate change and ignore poverty, that is completely immoral.” One of my favorite segments from the interview is when she said, 

• the argument that’s made, Robert, is that you know, Africans shouldn’t make the mistakes we made. Well, Africans have expanded their production of renewables to a very significant extent. Several countries are majority renewable. They are not asking to produce coal. They’re not asking to produce fossil fuels only. They’re asking very reasonably, to be able to exploit their natural gas reserves of which they have an enormous amount of natural gas to meet the kinds of production needs that cannot be met with renewables. That’s what they’re asking for. It’s an extremely reasonable request. And I think, you know, what the rich countries are doing right now is just really very hypocritical. And they have must be called out for what they’re doing. 

It was great to talk to Vijaya because she is so passionate about the issues of energy poverty and the need for more energy humanism. Here’s a link. Please share it.

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Two presentations next week  

Last month, I was pleased to hear from my friend, Kansas Senator Mike Thompson, who invited me to speak in front of the Kansas Senate Utilities Committee. That will happen next Wednesday.  The caption for my presentation: “Renewables, Natural Gas, and the Fragilization of the US Electric Grid.” The audio for the hearing will be available by clicking here. The hearing will also be live-streamed on YouTube.
 
I’m also looking forward to the presentation I’m giving next Thursday at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s annual Policy Orientation confab here in Austin. The folks at TPPF asked me to do a 10-minute “Texas TED Talk” on power density. I’ve spent a lot of time this week making slides, re-doing them, and thinking about how to explain one of the most important metrics in physics and do so in just 10 minutes. The caption for my presentation: “The Power of Power Density.” Lots of other people will be speaking at the event, including my friend, Chris Wright, the CEO of Liberty Oilfield Services, as well as my pal, Bonnie Brady, the fiery leader of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.

There’s an interesting connection between Brady and TPPF. Last month, TPPF’s legal team sued the federal government on behalf of LICFA and other commercial fishing groups over the permits granted to the proposed 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind offshore wind project. If you want more on that, here’s my December 27 article from Real Clear Energy on it. In any case, if you are in Austin next Thursday, c’mon down to the TPPF event. My presentation is part of the keynote breakfast, which starts at 8 am. 
 

Blue Jays are not "ho-hum"   

Among the many hundreds of interviews I’ve done in my career one that has stuck in my mind for decades is my telephone interview with Roger Tory Peterson, the father of modern birdwatching. When I spoke to him back in 1991 while I was writing for the Austin Chronicle, I told him that in my experience, birdwatching was been about “perfecting the art of seeing.” He replied, “I think that is the same way with me. I am an artist and I think visually. And it's getting more and more that way. It doesn't have to be a rarity. It's more likely to be something that's fairly common. I am paying much more attention to what some people would call ‘ho hum’ birds.”  
 
I also asked him: “Are you continually fascinated by birds, even birds that you have seen many times?” He replied, “Oh yes, in fact I am getting back into photography. And so an ordinary bird like a Blue Jay, which I think is extremely beautiful, just fascinates me. I am interested in what it does and why it does it.” 
 
That interview came to mind the other day.  Lorin and I were at Barton Springs Pool and a scold of Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata) were making a terrific racket in the tops of several trees on the south side of the pool. They stayed for perhaps five minutes, squawking and answering each other before moving along. (The photo above was taken by Darren Swim in 2007 in Ontario.) 
 
All About Birds says:

• This common, large songbird is familiar to many people, with its perky crest; blue, white, and black plumage; and noisy calls. Blue Jays are known for their intelligence and complex social systems with tight family bonds. Their fondness for acorns is credited with helping spread oak trees after the last glacial period... The pigment in Blue Jay feathers is melanin, which is brown. The blue color is caused by scattering light through modified cells on the surface of the feather barbs. 

Wikipedia says this: 

• The Blue Jay was first described as Pica glandaria cærulea cristata in English naturalist Mark Catesby's 1731 publication of Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahamas. It was later described as Corvus cristatus in Carl Linnaeus' 1758 edition of Systema Naturae...The genus name Cyanocitta derives from the Greek words 'kyaneos' (blue) and the 'kitta' and 'kissa' (chattering bird, jay), and the term 'blue chatterer' refers to the bright blue plumage of the head, nape, back, and tail of the bird. The specific name cristata (crested, tufted) derives from Latin referring to the prominent blue crest of the jay...The blue jay occurs from southern Canada (including the southern areas of provinces from Alberta eastward to Quebec and throughout the Atlantic provinces) and throughout the eastern and central United States south to Florida and northeastern Texas. The western edge of the range stops where the arid pine forest and scrub habitat of the closely related Steller's jay (C. stelleri) begins, generally in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Recently, the range of the blue jay has extended northwestwards so that it is now a rare but regularly seen winter visitor along the northern US and southern Canadian Pacific Coast 

Have a great three-day weekend. 

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