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The President Doubles Down on Bad Policy

When President Biden boasted last week about closing coal plants all across the country, he meant it. The White House has already begun spinning and clarifying his remarks, but the President knew what he was saying because there’s a plan to do it. Even as electricity and natural gas bills soar – up a startling 16% […]

Can the U.S. Learn from China?

For all the activist handwringing over domestic climate policy, for all the soup thrown on priceless works of art or the trepidation of European governments to turn back on a handful of coal plants in the face of an unprecedented energy crisis, the climate story is increasingly coming down to one country. China is piloting […]

U.S. faces costly energy crunch this winter

Via The Pottstown Mercury: Americans know that inflation has hit hard. Food prices alone are up 10 percent this year. And energy costs are now a key problem — thanks to OPEC and Russia manipulating oil prices even as natural gas prices surge. To put it bluntly, the news isn’t good. Americans are going to […]

Regulatory Intransigence

What changes over the course of four years? Not much if you compare President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to its predecessor from the Obama era. Team Biden came into office determined to pick up right where the Obama EPA had left off, hellbent on using every tool available to dismantle the domestic coal fleet. […]

Cold, Dark and Expensive

Surging energy prices are colliding with renewed grid reliability concerns this winter. While the price at the gas pump has garnered the lion’s share of attention over the past few months, the rising price of electricity and the surging price of natural gas are putting new wind in the sails of energy-driven inflation that reached […]

Transatlantic Energy Negligence

The months of warnings about energy rationing and the threat of blackouts in Europe are about to be put to the test. Winter is quickly approaching and there’s growing discomfort from policymakers that while much was done to prepare for a winter without Russian energy perhaps it was too little, too late. The European Union […]

Sweater Weather

It’s getting cold out there. And across energy-strapped Europe, government officials are taking note Last week, Danish authorities ordered one of its electricity providers to continue and resume operations of power station units that use coal and oil for fuel. And while the move is absolutely what needs to be done to keep the lights […]

Energy policy should support affordability

Via The Gazette: The U.S. is playing energy inflation whack-a-mole. Gasoline prices have retreated from wallet-draining summer highs, but consumers now find themselves looking at surging natural gas and electricity bills. The global energy crisis —driven by a warring Russia cutting oil and gas to western Europe — continues to batter energy markets and American […]

The Little Engine That Might Not

The recent 11th hour agreement to avoid a rail strike was a disaster narrowly avoided. A strike would have created a debilitating logistics chokepoint, disrupting supply chains of all kinds and creating enormous headwinds for the U.S. economy. Estimates put the cost of a rail strike at almost $2 billion a day. Yet, despite this […]

Picking the Wrong Bridge

Dispatchable fuel diversity has long provided a shield to electricity consumers from fuel price spikes. But that optionality is eroding in much of the U.S. – or is already gone – as the coal fleet is pushed off the grid. Years of warnings about the potential pain to consumers should natural gas prices spike, and […]