A week after FERC commissioners warned about a looming “catastrophic reliability failure,” the EPA issued rules that could devastate the Mother Network.
At some point in the near future, if the delusional left/green bureaucrats fail to reengage with physical reality, industry will have no choice but to ignore their dictates. The enemy of the US people is the US government.
The whole issue is an interesting exercise in communism when you implore government to control land use. If your buying small property in rural areas, stay away from the big transmission lines. The farther away from those you are, the less likely you are to ever be approached. Texas is planning on building 20 new natural gas power plants near big cities. Ratepayers will pick up the 18 billion dollar price tag for construction. People in the suburb living in half million dollar homes will enjoy having these built by their homes belching smoke and methane, instead of having clean energy projects in the rural areas that support landowners, schools, and communities.
The role of coal in US electricity has declined significantly in the recent past.
As presented in the piece, carbon capture and storage has a flat trajectory at zero.
Nuclear is also flat.
Gas has increased, as have wind and solar.
Why?
Low gas prices have helped the decline of coal, I don't see a future of continually low gas prices.
Renewable have declined in cost, and there are incentives from governments. These have increase increased renewables, and both of these are likely to continue.
I don't think a 90% decline in fossil fuel usage necessarily means 90% of plants close. Capacity factors can change also.
Any change in the makeup of the grid creates costs and risks during the period of transition.
Climate change itself puts stress on the grid also, on both the demand and supply side.
The key to cashing in on the subsidies available to renewable generators is to be old enough to take the money, run, and die before you fall victim to the grid collapse.
Hello Mr. Smith, I have read that book published in 2020, thanks. What I am trying to do is give credit to Commissioner James Danley and his recent statements. They are entirely in-line with my analysis of the ERCOT grid and the lessons learned in the 2021 Uri storm. When commissioner Willie Phillips (a Democrat) was confirmed by the Senate in late 2021 as new FERC commissioner, commentary at the time was that the new 3-2 Democrat majority might swing policies towards a more radical green direction and ignore reliability needs. However, in my view Commissioner Danley's recent statements indicate that FERC has not gone off of rails in terms of their fundamental charter of protecting grid reliability. I think it is important that we give credit where credit is due, regardless of political affiliation.
Good article. Refreshing to hear honesty from a bureacracy. It is something every leader of utilities should have been saying to their regulators and politicians for the last two decades but are to cowardly to push back.
Didn’t the Supreme Court just rule that the EPA can’t set CO2 emission limits? Seems like this is just a way to signal to the NGO complex and create more lawsuits.
Thankfully reality bats last. Your voice is going to be really important on this over the next few years Robert!
Not getting enough pipeline permits? The TRC passes them out like candy. That’s false. We are having two highly volatile exporting LNG pipeline projects built across our ranch now at the same time and we already have three. Private companies are in a big hurry to get natural gas to the coast to export. They are a big bunch of bullies. The billion dollar companies only care about building export terminals and taking Ag land using eminent domain so they can make more billions. They don’t care if anyone has oil or natural gas in the US. We no longer support oil and natural gas after the destruction they have done. We will no longer lease our minerals. We will lease for wind or solar.
Thank you for a great article. From the comments below, it is good to see that others are also seeing the true consequences of the push towards massive construction and reliance on non-renewable solar and wind. I live in the MidWestern USA, and here is another poorly reported negative impact of utility scale solar -- we are losing our ability to grow and provide food for our Nation at an alarming rate. At present, over 8,000 acres of prime farmland in my county are leased for utility-scale solar development. The leases take the land out of production for between 3-4 decades, and will likely destroy the soil so that future agricultural production will be impossible. Solar developers are preferentially targeting prime farmland for utility solar construction. The Biden Admin target is to construct solar on millions of acres. No one seems to be paying attention to the future impact on our ability to feed our Nation and the world. So when we are counting on non-reliable wind and solar to power our homes and businesses, not only will we be sitting around in the dark a lot, but we may also be hungry. Citizens have to organize and make their voices heard --STOP THE NON-RENEWABLES MADNESS!
It is encouraging to see that at least one federal department (FERC) that has apparently not been deeply politicized and been made a tool of the progressive Left. I find FERC's statements to be spot on in terms of engineering reality, and citizens should think twice before ignoring its warnings. Biden's war on coal through executive orders, new regulations, and ramping up existing regulations is purely policy driven, and not justified by honest cost/benefit analysis. Unless this trend is turned around, we will all pay the price.
Here in Virginia we have many Data Centers opening up.These Centers take massive amounts of electricity.On Demand electricity, which is not solare or wind.Our Gov.decided to use all types of energy and we are seeing coal and gas powered plants being re instated.The grid cannot hold unless we continue to use organic fuels.Thank you Robert for a great article.I posted this.
A charitable interpretation of this policy move is they forgot to talk to real systems engineers. A cynic would say they know but can’t or won’t reverse course and would rather hope for mild weather and in the event if grid failures, blame the utility operators. Perhaps we need to experience extreme power prices and ongoing rolling blackouts to wake the voting public. I finally threw in the towel and am contracting for a gas generator and another 500 gallon propane tank for the house. Wasted $$$ for back up that I should not require. I’m lucky I can afford it. There goes one semester of tuition.
At some point in the near future, if the delusional left/green bureaucrats fail to reengage with physical reality, industry will have no choice but to ignore their dictates. The enemy of the US people is the US government.
The whole issue is an interesting exercise in communism when you implore government to control land use. If your buying small property in rural areas, stay away from the big transmission lines. The farther away from those you are, the less likely you are to ever be approached. Texas is planning on building 20 new natural gas power plants near big cities. Ratepayers will pick up the 18 billion dollar price tag for construction. People in the suburb living in half million dollar homes will enjoy having these built by their homes belching smoke and methane, instead of having clean energy projects in the rural areas that support landowners, schools, and communities.
Rather than just a static model, what is the generation makeup now, it is also worthwhile to look at the trajectory of generation:
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=48896
The role of coal in US electricity has declined significantly in the recent past.
As presented in the piece, carbon capture and storage has a flat trajectory at zero.
Nuclear is also flat.
Gas has increased, as have wind and solar.
Why?
Low gas prices have helped the decline of coal, I don't see a future of continually low gas prices.
Renewable have declined in cost, and there are incentives from governments. These have increase increased renewables, and both of these are likely to continue.
I don't think a 90% decline in fossil fuel usage necessarily means 90% of plants close. Capacity factors can change also.
Any change in the makeup of the grid creates costs and risks during the period of transition.
Climate change itself puts stress on the grid also, on both the demand and supply side.
It is not just Washington DC. It is too many corporates in America that choose not resist this Democratic madness on net zero.
Instead of villifying lunatics like Doniger, they choose allow their extremism to go uncontested.
Why are America's big banks not against net zero?
The key to cashing in on the subsidies available to renewable generators is to be old enough to take the money, run, and die before you fall victim to the grid collapse.
Hello Mr. Smith, I have read that book published in 2020, thanks. What I am trying to do is give credit to Commissioner James Danley and his recent statements. They are entirely in-line with my analysis of the ERCOT grid and the lessons learned in the 2021 Uri storm. When commissioner Willie Phillips (a Democrat) was confirmed by the Senate in late 2021 as new FERC commissioner, commentary at the time was that the new 3-2 Democrat majority might swing policies towards a more radical green direction and ignore reliability needs. However, in my view Commissioner Danley's recent statements indicate that FERC has not gone off of rails in terms of their fundamental charter of protecting grid reliability. I think it is important that we give credit where credit is due, regardless of political affiliation.
Loved your 2012 interview on PBS debating $385 MILLION EDF ANTI NUCLEAR Fred Krump on Nuclear POWER. You won but Fred won more $$$$$$$$$!
Good article. Refreshing to hear honesty from a bureacracy. It is something every leader of utilities should have been saying to their regulators and politicians for the last two decades but are to cowardly to push back.
Didn’t the Supreme Court just rule that the EPA can’t set CO2 emission limits? Seems like this is just a way to signal to the NGO complex and create more lawsuits.
Thankfully reality bats last. Your voice is going to be really important on this over the next few years Robert!
At some point, the facts have to get ahead of the alt-energy fiction.
Kudos to your graphic artist...
Not getting enough pipeline permits? The TRC passes them out like candy. That’s false. We are having two highly volatile exporting LNG pipeline projects built across our ranch now at the same time and we already have three. Private companies are in a big hurry to get natural gas to the coast to export. They are a big bunch of bullies. The billion dollar companies only care about building export terminals and taking Ag land using eminent domain so they can make more billions. They don’t care if anyone has oil or natural gas in the US. We no longer support oil and natural gas after the destruction they have done. We will no longer lease our minerals. We will lease for wind or solar.
Thank you for a great article. From the comments below, it is good to see that others are also seeing the true consequences of the push towards massive construction and reliance on non-renewable solar and wind. I live in the MidWestern USA, and here is another poorly reported negative impact of utility scale solar -- we are losing our ability to grow and provide food for our Nation at an alarming rate. At present, over 8,000 acres of prime farmland in my county are leased for utility-scale solar development. The leases take the land out of production for between 3-4 decades, and will likely destroy the soil so that future agricultural production will be impossible. Solar developers are preferentially targeting prime farmland for utility solar construction. The Biden Admin target is to construct solar on millions of acres. No one seems to be paying attention to the future impact on our ability to feed our Nation and the world. So when we are counting on non-reliable wind and solar to power our homes and businesses, not only will we be sitting around in the dark a lot, but we may also be hungry. Citizens have to organize and make their voices heard --STOP THE NON-RENEWABLES MADNESS!
But why decarbonize?
It is encouraging to see that at least one federal department (FERC) that has apparently not been deeply politicized and been made a tool of the progressive Left. I find FERC's statements to be spot on in terms of engineering reality, and citizens should think twice before ignoring its warnings. Biden's war on coal through executive orders, new regulations, and ramping up existing regulations is purely policy driven, and not justified by honest cost/benefit analysis. Unless this trend is turned around, we will all pay the price.
Here in Virginia we have many Data Centers opening up.These Centers take massive amounts of electricity.On Demand electricity, which is not solare or wind.Our Gov.decided to use all types of energy and we are seeing coal and gas powered plants being re instated.The grid cannot hold unless we continue to use organic fuels.Thank you Robert for a great article.I posted this.
A charitable interpretation of this policy move is they forgot to talk to real systems engineers. A cynic would say they know but can’t or won’t reverse course and would rather hope for mild weather and in the event if grid failures, blame the utility operators. Perhaps we need to experience extreme power prices and ongoing rolling blackouts to wake the voting public. I finally threw in the towel and am contracting for a gas generator and another 500 gallon propane tank for the house. Wasted $$$ for back up that I should not require. I’m lucky I can afford it. There goes one semester of tuition.