A big win for nuclear in Michigan, Piñon talks Cuba, Buteo lineatus

New piece in The Hill on Holtec's plan to save Palisades, Jorge Piñon talks about Cuba and Latin America, & a Red-shouldered Hawk on Barton Creek

I was in Chicago last week. This week, I was in San Antonio for another speech, this one was to the GPA Midstream Association. It was a big crowd, with perhaps 700 people there for the lunch event. There was much to talk about given the ongoing energy crisis in Europe, a crisis that was entirely self-inflicted. As you may have heard, European leaders are imposing price caps on energy, and the German government is poised to nationalize that country’s gas suppliers. I will be writing more about that next week.

I’ve also been talking about the European situation in the “about a minute” videos that I’ve been posting on Tik Tok, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Making short videos has been a fun new challenge and they are giving me a chance to reach a new (and younger) audience. I now have more followers on Tik Tok than I do on YouTube. Okay, enough for now. We have been shooting another interview for my new documentary today here in Austin, so I will cut to the chase. Three items today: 

• The Hill: Big win for nuclear in Michigan

• Jorge Piñon on the energy crisis in Cuba

• An up-close look at a Red-shouldered Hawk

I took the photo of the Red-shouldered Hawk above with my camera phone on September 14, 2022, on Barton Creek. 

On Tuesday, The Hill published my piece on the move to save the Palisades plant in Michigan. I began: 

• After years of grim forecasts and premature reactor closures, the domestic nuclear energy sector is suddenly enjoying a winning streak. Last week, Camden, N.J.-based Holtec International announced that it plans to reopen the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, which was prematurely shuttered on May 20. Holtec wants to use some of the $6 billion appropriated in last year’s infrastructure bill to support the continued operation of existing nuclear reactors. The company’s move was endorsed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who released a statement saying that she had sent a letter to the Department of Energy to support Holtec’s application for “a federal grant under the Civil Nuclear Credit Program” to save Palisades and thus protect “600 high-paying jobs at the plant and 1,100 additional jobs throughout the community.”... Thus, over the past 12 months, four nuclear plants that were slated for permanent closure have been rescued from the wrecking ball.

I concluded:

• Finally, saving Palisades would be a big win for the Biden administration. To be clear, I’ve been a vocal critic of the energy and climate policies being promoted by President Biden and his appointees. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has repeatedly stumbled when it comes to basic facts about the industry. But she’s also the former governor of Michigan. If she, Whitmer, and the Biden administration save Palisades, and do so right after Diablo, Byron, and Dresden were saved, it would give them some solid wins that they could use while campaigning before the November midterm elections. A win is a win, and Biden needs all the wins he can get.

• Regardless of your politics, the move to rescue Palisades is a most-excellent development.

Again, here’s a link. 
 

I used this new slide during my speech in San Antonio on Monday

Subscribe to this "news" letter. Click here

Jorge Piñon on electricity shortages in Cuba and energy policy in Latin America    

Jorge Piñon spent 32 years working in the oil and gas sector and is now a senior research fellow at The University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute. In this episode, Piñon, who spent much of his career working in Latin America and Spain, talks about Cuba’s energy crisis, the devastation of Venezuela’s economy by the Chavistas, geothermal, South America’s dependence on hydropower, and how the U.S. became “the de facto refiner for Latin America.” The interview had many interesting moments but listen in particular, to Jorge’s recounting of the failed tomato harvest in Cuba. It starts at about 20:40 in the episode. The U.S. doesn’t pay much attention to Cuba. But the country’s ongoing energy crisis has spurred yet another surge in Cubanos seeking to leave the country. (This episode was recorded on September 1, 2022.)

The audio and transcript of the podcast are on my website. And as always, it’s on YouTube. While you’re on YouTube, be sure to subscribe.  
 

Subscribe to this "news" letter. Click here

Up-close Hawk watching on Barton Creek  

I have seen Red-shouldered Hawks (Buteo lineatus) many times. They often come through our yard hunting for White-winged Doves. And judging from the feathers left behind on the ground, the Hawks have had some success at doing so. (The image of the Red-shouldered Hawk just above is a detail from Audubon’s Birds of America.) We’ve also seen them many times splashing around in our birdbaths. I never get tired of looking at them because they are so beautiful and fierce looking. On Wednesday, while walking on Barton Creek, a Red-shouldered flew along the trail in front of us. Lorin and I had our binoculars on this hike and so we were able to see it quite well. The bird was not alarmed by us and it kept perching on spots on the trail just ahead as we walked. At one point, we were within a distance of maybe eight feet. I snapped about a dozen photos of the Hawk as we got as close as we could without spooking it. 
 
As I said, I’ve seen the species many times, and I have written about it in this “news” letter, but I wasn’t prepared for the splendor of the feather pattern on the bird’s back. It blended in almost perfectly with the texture and color of the live oak tree where it was perching.  We watched it for a long while, maybe two minutes, ignoring the mosquitoes that were chewing on us. It was a fun event and a reminder that birds don’t have to be rare to be captivating. They are as Roger Tory Peterson said, “vivid expressions of life.” And birds of prey are particularly vivid. 
 
Here’s what Audubon says about the Red-shouldered Hawk:

• Usually hunts by watching from a perch, either within forest or in open, swooping down when it locates prey. Sometimes flies very low in open areas, taking creatures by surprise. May use hearing as well as sight to locate prey. 

• Diet includes small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds. Diet varies with region and season. Main items often mammals such as voles and chipmunks, at other times frogs and toads; may eat many crayfish in some areas. Also eats snakes, small birds, mice, large insects, occasionally fish, rarely carrion...In courtship, male displays by flying upward, calling, then diving steeply. Pairs may soar together in circles, calling, high over nesting territory. Nest site is usually in deciduous tree, sometimes in conifer, located in fork of main trunk or at base of branches against trunk, usually 35-65' above ground. Nest (built by both sexes) is platform of sticks and other material, lined with bark, moss, and sprigs of green vegetation. Nest may be reused for more than one season.”

Have a good weekend. 

Want to help?  

1. Share this email to your friends and colleagues. Or have them email me so I can add them to my distribution list.
2. Subscribe to the Power Hungry Podcast.
3. Rent or buy Juice on iTunes or Amazon Prime.
4. Buy A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations and give it a positive review.
5. Follow me and Juice on Twitter.
6. Need a speaker for your conference, class, or webinar? Ping me!

Watch Juice

If you haven't seen our documentary yet, there's still time. Juice: How Electricity Explains the World, is on most of the major streaming outlets, including Roku Channel. Or if you have a prime membership, you can watch it on Amazon Prime.