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Big Green Tries to Bully PJM Into Using More Unreliable Solar/Wind

Big Green, particularly the New Jersey chapter of the odious Sierra Club, persists in trying to convince the general public that unreliable renewables (solar and wind) are less expensive than alternatives like natural gas. That’s simply a lie (see Study Proves Solar is 10X More Expensive than NatGas for Electric). Solar and wind are 10X and 7X more expensive, respectively, than using natural gas to produce electricity, when all costs are factored. Yet the Clubbers and their sycophants showed up at PJM headquarters yesterday to bully and pressure PJM into approving more solar and wind ahead of gas for new power additions. Read More “Big Green Tries to Bully PJM Into Using More Unreliable Solar/Wind”

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Study Proves Solar is 10X More Expensive than NatGas for Electric

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” That quote is attributed to Adolf Hitler, a master of lying propaganda. The environmental left is also a master at lying propaganda. Like this lie: “Solar is now ‘cheapest electricity in history’, confirms IEA.” That’s a lie. We have the receipts to prove it’s a lie. The Heartland Institute, one of the world’s leading free-market think tanks, recently analyzed all major forms of energy used to produce electricity, comparing apples with apples. The clear low-cost winner is natural gas—some 10 times cheaper than the price of solar energy. Read More “Study Proves Solar is 10X More Expensive than NatGas for Electric”

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Bloomberg Admits NatGas No Longer a “Bridge” – Now the Destination

What have we been telling you for YEARS? That natural gas is not a “bridge” to an unreliable renewable energy nirvana, but is, instead, the destination (see Baker Hughes CEO Says NatGas is the Destination, Not Just a Bridge). That truth is now so obvious that even the Commies at Bloomberg can no longer deny it. In fact, Bloomberg says the “script has flipped,” with unreliable renewables seen as a bridge to the long-term use of natural gas! Read More “Bloomberg Admits NatGas No Longer a “Bridge” – Now the Destination”

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The Staggering Cost of Forced Green Energy Transition on Consumers

The research continues to roll in that deeply blue Democrat states that insist on forcing their citizens to convert to so-called green energy are driving them out of those states. Last week, we brought you an analysis of counties along the Pennsylvania/New York border, on either side (see New Study Compares Fracking’s Economic Impact on PA, NY Counties). The counties in PA where there is fracking are economically thriving. Those on the NY side are impoverished and losing population. Now comes another study, this one from California (New York’s political soulmate), revealing the staggering costs California consumers and businesses will incur as the state pursues its aggressive green energy mandates. It ain’t pretty. Read More “The Staggering Cost of Forced Green Energy Transition on Consumers”

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It’s Time to Eliminate Biden’s “Green New Scam” ATM Machine

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) was created to help advance clean-energy infrastructure and technologies that allegedly had the potential to be adequate energy resources but struggled to secure private investment. In reality, LPO is a taxpayer-backed ATM for unreliable energy technologies and infrastructure that can’t compete without federal funding. It’s a Biden-era boondoggle, and it’s time to scrap it. Read More “It’s Time to Eliminate Biden’s “Green New Scam” ATM Machine”

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Ohio Power Siting Board Rejects Huge, Ugly, Unreliable Solar Farm

Local townships, whether governed by a majority of Republicans or Democrats, typically reject proposals to install massive, ugly, bird-killing (and filled with toxic chemicals) solar farms, no matter where they are tried (red or blue states). It’s a problem for the tone deaf environmental left. Solar farms are even rejected in blue New York! Another such installation tried to gain approval in Stark County, Ohio, recently. The Ohio Power Siting Board, citing local opposition, rejected a permit for a 150 megawatt solar farm that would have gobbled up 860 acres in Washington Township. Read More “Ohio Power Siting Board Rejects Huge, Ugly, Unreliable Solar Farm”

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Left’s Latest Strategy to Halt Fracking is to Use the Bond Market

As we so often say, the left’s creativeness in their quest to destroy fossil energy (the thing that makes civilization possible) never ceases to amaze us. The left thought it could bully investors into divesting from fossil energy companies using ESG (environment, social, and governance) policies. That flamed out. They tried to force Big Banks to abandon loans for fossil energy companies. Yeah, that’s down the tubes, too. But, once again, they’re baaaaaack! This time, the left is pushing something called Sustainability-Linked Bonds (SLBs). The plan is to entice (force, coerce, bully) national oil companies (NOCs) and public development banks (PDBs) to use SLBs, which force NOCs to phase out fracking “transition” to the renewable energy business. Yeah, here we go again with the transitioning bullcrapus. Read More “Left’s Latest Strategy to Halt Fracking is to Use the Bond Market”

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Biden’s Green New Scam Is Alive And Well in the PA Marcellus

President Trump was 100% correct in calling the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Biden’s “green new scam.” Here is a perfect example. The heart of Marcellus Shale country is the highest-producing natural gas county in Pennsylvania, Susquehanna County (not far from where MDN sits). Anyone who lives in our region knows this: It is one of the cloudiest regions of the country. Binghamton, NY (where MDN resides) averages 212 cloudy days per year! Yes, we’re nuts for living here. About 25 minutes south of Binghamton down Interstate 81 sits Clifford Township, PA, in Susquehanna County. It’s just as cloudy as Binghamton. Yet Biden’s IRA (“green new scam”) is paying to build a….wait for it….solar farm in Clifford Township! In a place that is cloudy 58% of the time. Taxpayers are paying for this insanity. Meanwhile, natural gas (more reliable, easier to produce, and almost as clean as solar) keeps chugging away in Clifford and other locations around Susquehanna County. Read More “Biden’s Green New Scam Is Alive And Well in the PA Marcellus”

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Reuters Admits the Obvious: Energy “Transition” & Renewables a Bust

The Reuters news agency, based in the U.K., is typically objective in its news coverage. It tilts to the left a bit, depending on the reporter. But overall we tend to trust most of its coverage. It’s certainly better than Bloomberg by a mile. However, when we saw the opening line of a Reuters article titled “Climate policy requires a more realistic approach,” we were blown away by its brutal honesty. Here’s the very first two sentences of the article: “The pursuit of net zero carbon emissions has been a resounding failure. Despite trillions of dollars spent on renewable energy, hydrocarbons still account for over 80% of the world’s primary energy and a similar share of recent increases in energy consumption, according to The Energy Institute.” Wow! Read More “Reuters Admits the Obvious: Energy “Transition” & Renewables a Bust”

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Canceled Conn. Gas-Fired Plant Blocking Battery Plant at Same Site

Here’s a story in the karma-is-a-boomerang department… In July 2019, the Connecticut Siting Council approved the Killingly Energy Center gas-fired power plant project after initially rejecting it (see Connecticut Approves New Natgas-Fired Electric Plant in Killingly). The Killingly project would have built a 650-megawatt gas-fired plant in eastern Connecticut. The Siting Council recognized that some 6,000 megawatts of older, less-efficient power plants in the region are retiring, and without new plants coming online to provide electricity, Connecticut and its neighboring New England states will begin to experience rolling blackouts without new supplies of electricity. Yet the radical left blocked Killingly with a flurry of lawsuits and regulatory challenges. Now, an Israeli firm wants to build a battery farm at the same location but can’t because the site was authorized to build the gas-fired plant, and the authorization (permit/certificate) for Killingly is still valid and not rescinded. Read More “Canceled Conn. Gas-Fired Plant Blocking Battery Plant at Same Site”

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Mark Mills Deflates the Enviro-Left’s “Magical Thinking” Balloon

Mark Mills

Mark Mills is an author, formerly a Senior Fellow for the Manhattan Institute, and a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal. Mills is an energy expert that we’ve quoted on MDN many times. He’s one of our favorite authors and speakers. Mills recently gave a presentation to NACCO Industries, a Cleveland organization. In his presentation, Mills addresses twelve “magical transition” claims pushed by the media and so-called experts about how the energy transition is purportedly progressing, the cost involved, and the benefits for mankind. Using data presented in charts (see the slide deck below), he eviscerates the twelve claims one by one. Read More “Mark Mills Deflates the Enviro-Left’s “Magical Thinking” Balloon”

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DOE Inspector General Sounds the Alarm on $385B in “Green” Loans

You’ve always known that there’s corruption in the federal government, right? With that much money sloshing around, people with sticky fingers show up and grab some of it for themselves. Today’s story of government corruption will blow your mind. Thanks to the Biden Infrastructure Law and the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, some $385 billion was earmarked to be given out as “loans” to so-called “green” projects (kickbacks to political donors). The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) was delegated the responsibility to get the money distributed. So the LPO hired a bunch of independent contractors to help distribute the money, and the contractors (in some cases) are double-dealing—they are serving both the LPO *and* they are representing and serving the borrowers of that money. The DOE’s own Inspector General office is sounding the alarm and telling the LPO it should cease and desist from distributing another dime until safeguards are put in place and contractors with a conflict of interest are removed. Read More “DOE Inspector General Sounds the Alarm on $385B in “Green” Loans”

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$11B Power Line from Upstate NY Solar & Wind to NYC Canceled

For those unlucky enough to live in New York City and its sprawling suburbs, get ready for blackouts due to the lack of electricity. The state of New York and developers of the 175-mile Clean Path NY transmission line have “mutually agreed to terminate” contracts underpinning the project, which was planned to come online in 2027. Clean Path was supposed to bring 5 gigawatts (GW) of electricity from windmills and solar farms in Upstate New York to liberal elites living in and around NYC. The project was billed as “critical” to achieving New York’s climate goals, including 70% renewable electricity consumption by 2030 and developing a zero-emission electric grid by 2040. That’s all down the toilet now. Get ready to sit in the dark. Read More “$11B Power Line from Upstate NY Solar & Wind to NYC Canceled”

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Shapiro Wants to Repurpose $1.4B in NatGas Tax Credits for Renewables

In November 2022, PA’s then-Governor, Tom Wolf, signed into law a bill providing $142 million annually in state tax credits for several purposes, including clean hydrogen hubs, natural gas use, semiconductor manufacturing, and milk processors (see PA Gov Wolf Signs into Law $2.1B Tax Credit Bill for H2, NatGas). Over 20 years, the law would provide up to $2.1 billion in tax credits (NOT payouts, but forgiveness of taxes that would otherwise be owed) for certain types of projects, including for manufacturers to use PA’s homegrown Marcellus gas, turning it into things like gasoline (see NEPA Huge Deal – $6B Plant to Convert Marcellus Gas to Gasoline). Since the bill was signed into law two years ago, exactly zero dollars have been claimed, so current Gov. Josh Shapiro wants to rejigger the law (with the help of labor unions) to allow energy production to qualify for the credits. In particular, wind, solar, and natural gas used to generate electricity would qualify for the credits—but natgas must use risky CCS (carbon capture and sequestration) to qualify. Read More “Shapiro Wants to Repurpose $1.4B in NatGas Tax Credits for Renewables”

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Dominion Energy’s Wokified Plan to Use NatGas as Backup Only

Dominion Energy Virginia yesterday issued its “2024 Integrated Resource Plan” to the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) and the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC). The document outlines a plan to meet rising power demand through significant investments in new power generation from “every source,” expansion and modernization of the power grid, energy storage, and energy efficiency programs. The problem is (from our perspective), the plan deemphasizes natural gas in favor of unreliable renewables, to the peril of Dominion’s customers. Read More “Dominion Energy’s Wokified Plan to Use NatGas as Backup Only”

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EQT’s Toby Rice Says Renewables Can’t Meet Demand from AI & EVs

Toby Rice, the Chief Executive Officer of EQT Corporation, currently the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. (but about to become second-largest next week, after Chesapeake Energy & Southwestern Energy merge to become the largest, see today’s companion story), addressed the 800 attendees at the Shale Insight event yesterday. He was in Erie, PA, yesterday, just one day after he spoke at an event in New York City at that city’s so-called Climate Week. Rice had some rather blunt words about the capability of renewable energy and the inability of renewables to meet a dramatic increase in demand for energy that will come from AI data centers and a massive expansion in the use of electric vehicles. He said renewables will “not be enough” to meet that demand, especially at the prices needed. Natural gas, on the other hand, IS enough. Read More “EQT’s Toby Rice Says Renewables Can’t Meet Demand from AI & EVs”