The Grid Reliability Crisis Spreads to the Midwest

Just a few months ago, the North American Electricity Reliability Corporation (NERC) warned that capacity retirements and the rapid remaking of the grid will pose tremendous challenges to reliability over the next decade. It was a warning coming on the heels of the grid catastrophe in Texas and startling blackouts in California that some tried […]

Price Spikes and Renewed Urgency to Maintain Fuel Optionality

On Monday, U.S. natural gas prices surged above $8 per million British thermal units, four times what they were before the pandemic, and a level not seen since 2008. With energy-driven inflation front-of-mind for voters and a deepening risk to the economy, the arrival of a painfully expensive new natural gas normal is only heightening […]

Coal Production Up, Being Sent Domestically

Via Cowboy State Daily: Wyoming’s coal producers are not yet seeing the impact of a European ban on the import of Russian coal, according to an industry official. However, the state’s coal producers have seen significant increases in demand for their product domestically, said Travis Deti, executive director for the Wyoming Mining Association. “With the […]

The Consequence of Policy Conceived and Executed in a Vacuum

It would be difficult to find a country untouched by the global energy crisis. Here in the U.S. inflation has reached four-decade highs, driven in large part by skyrocketing energy prices. But some are managing it better than others, with the UK serving as a stark example of energy policy malpractice. The Brits have had […]

A new use for coal?: DOE funds Bluefield project

Via The Bluefield Daily Telegraph: In a possible new use for coal, the U.S. Department of Energy is providing $3 million for a Bluefield-based project to test coal-derived building materials, including roof tiles, siding panels, bricks and blocks. The project, which will be stationed at the Bluefield Commercialization Station, could lead to a larger manufacturing […]

Innovation as a Path Forward on Energy and Climate Includes all Fuels

Just when you think the global energy crisis has reached rock bottom, it seems to find new depths. March will go down in the record books as the most expensive month for power prices in European history. And while the acute nature of the current pain stems from Russia’s weaponization of its energy resources, it’s […]

Burying the Lede, and Responsible Energy Policy

A new study designed to show that a future in Texas without coal is within reach in fact shows just the opposite. Like other studies and models before it, renewable boosters have an interesting propensity to bury the lede. In this case, a study about Texas’ vast wind and solar potential in fact highlights one […]

Dismantling Grid Reliability One Rulemaking at a Time

When Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Michael Regan recently boasted that he doesn’t have to rely on any one policy or rulemaking to achieve his agenda, he turned more than a few heads. He signaled his intent to race forward on a zealous and wide-ranging regulatory program regardless of unsettled questions about EPA’s authority to […]

EPA is Determined to Accelerate the Electricity Affordability Crisis

The energy crisis emanating from Europe is a wakeup call for policymakers about the importance of energy security and the delicate balancing act required by the energy transition. Europe’s energy policy missteps are now proving an invaluable example of a path best avoided. Overreliance on Russian energy, lack of dispatchable fuel diversity and a rushed […]

Commentary: US must learn from Europe’s energy crisis

Via Elko Daily: As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unfolds, Americans are witnessing the troubling global impacts. Oil has passed $100 a barrel, and the European Union remains beholden to Russia for almost 40 percent of its natural gas supplies. There’s a reasonable fear that Europe’s energy crisis could jump across the Atlantic. But less understood […]