Blog

22May

When Playing to the Crowd Prevents Progress

May 22, 2018 It’s easy to get confused by the news these days. On a daily basis we see green rhetoric eclipsing the stated purpose of environmental crowd. Take New York’s Gov. Cuomo, for example. Even as he is greening-up his creds for a potential presidential run with commitments around reducing New York’s carbon emissions, […]
14May

Analysis Paralysis

May 14, 2018 Due, in part, to a winter that only begrudgingly and belatedly yielded to spring, this month’s EIA Short-term Energy Outlook now predicts higher coal production for the year than it predicted just last month: 751 million short tons, up from 740 MMST predicted in April. What does this tell you? When it […]
10May

Blowing Hot Air in the Energy Market Discussion

May 10, 2018 To pick a winner for clumsiest quote of last week would be tough. Some votes might go to Elon Musk berating “bonehead” questions from analysts who were simply doing their jobs. Others might choose former Mayor Giuliani conjuring the image of himself as a knight charging to Ivanka Trump’s rescue during his […]
30Apr

Speak Now or Forever Hold Your PR

Last week, while many watched with baited breath as EPA Administrator Pruitt was grilled at hearings on Capitol Hill – more for his travel preferences and security muscle than his policies – an important deadline came and went: the deadline for comment on the repeal of the so-called Clean Power Plan. And it’s ironic that, […]
25Apr

When It Isn’t the Ships but the Fleet that Sinks

There’s a sudden change in the wind, and it isn’t spring. In the space of a week, far-sighted officials at FERC, at the Department of Energy and in Congress have shifted attention away from saving First Energy’s plants to saving the grid’s reliability. Under assault is the lazy assumption held by the “do-nothing” faction that […]
18Apr

Reduce Coal Emissions? “No” Say NGOs, “Yes” Say Voters

It’s too soon to be alarmed, but there may be an outbreak of common sense upon us.  Unless stopped by doctrinaire ideologues, recent signs of rare agreement on the energy front just might lead to actual progress. We refer first to the bipartisan support for “45Q” fossil energy technology tax credits. Then last week’s Senate […]
11Apr

RFF Sees the Heat But Not the Blast

Did ancient Pompeii decline because of the heat? Well, yes, heat had much to do with its evisceration. But if you don’t consider the role of Vesuvius you wouldn’t appreciate what happened to Nero’s favorite metropolis. That’s the problem we have with the findings of a report last week from Resources for the Future. In […]
05Apr

A Common Thread in the Climate Change Debate

EPA’s listening session last week in Gillette, Wyo. – the last of four – brought to an end the coast-to-coast listening sessions, extending from the San Francisco Bay to the Powder River Basin, on through West Virginia, where voices from all sides debated the EPA’s future regulation of carbon emissions. The final hearing was a […]
28Mar

In the Church of Climate Change, It Is Time for Heresy

The Sierra Club, Greenpeace and Coal Swarm make a compelling case in their newest report documenting the gradual decline in global coal capacity. Only it isn’t the case they wanted to make. If anything, the greens scored an own goal with conclusions that oddly confirm the futility of their current course. The annual report found that in […]
13Mar

Storm Warnings for the SS Grid

Have we successfully weathered doubts about grid resilience and reliability? We’ll know more after FERC digests the assessments from grid operators that were due Friday. But Beltway pundits appear to have already consigned fears over possible brownouts and rate hikes to yesterday’s news. The Department of Energy’s staff report concluded that the SS Grid was […]