Energy Policy
April 23, 2023 — John Hinderaker
We are living in the era of stupid energy projects, but offshore wind must be the worst. If there is a dumber way to generate electricity, I don’t know what it might be. The environmental impacts are obvious, which is why well-connected liberals like the Kennedys nix offshore wind projects near where they live. And one can only wonder what will happen as more offshore wind turbines are erected off
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April 21, 2023 — John Hinderaker
One of the many problems with “green” energy is that it is ridiculously expensive. Millions of Americans, if they have to pay the cost of wind or solar energy to power their homes, will not be able to afford it, and will have to sell out. Liberals know this, despite their absurd propaganda about wind energy being “cheap.” So what can they do? Follow the usual liberal playbook: make upper-income
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April 8, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Not the German government, which continues on a collision course with reality. But Germans have figured out that the green dream is turning into a nightmare. This report is on a survey of Germans done by forsa: An overwhelming majority of the German population is of the opinion that a successful energy transition is not realistic. According to a Forsa survey, 88 percent of respondents share this view. 88 percent!
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April 3, 2023 — Scott Johnson
After I wrote here yesterday about my frustrations as a victim of one of the thousands of Xcel Energy outages that we experienced following the storm this past weekend, I received a third email from Xcel advising me of the outage — this one posted at 12:23 p.m. Sunday afternoon. I actually had figured as much when the lights went out at 4:45 a.m. Saturday morning, so this only added
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April 2, 2023 — John Hinderaker
What we call liberalism in America is a global philosophy or movement. Thus, what Janet Daley writes in England’s Telegraph applies equally here, and across the West: “The Left now has a demonic new aim: to make ordinary people poorer.” We are living through the most startling political realignment in more than 100 years. Never since the advent of modern socialism in the early 20th century has the Left openly
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April 2, 2023 — Scott Johnson
John itemized a few of the “Joys of living in the north” when he found himself unable to escape from his cul de sac yesterday morning. John didn’t even mention the joy of the utility service offered by Xcel Energy. The power went out at our house at 4:45 a.m. yesterday morning. Xcel thoughtfully sent me two emails to tell me the power was out. I pretty much figured that
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March 29, 2023 — Steven Hayward
As everyone knows, California is leading the bandwagon to have an all-electric car and truck fleet as soon as 2035. The assumption is that people will charge up their batteries overnight when electricity demand drops. The defect in this plan is that while electricity demand starts to fall later in the evening (except during heat waves), California’s supply of electricity also falls because it is lopsided toward wind and especially
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March 27, 2023 — John Hinderaker
On Saturday evening, Sunday morning in Australia, I did a fun appearance on Outsiders, the excellent Sky News program that I have been on a number of times. Rowan, Rita and James asked me about some of the issues we have been covering here on Power Line: the Left’s insidious effort to make us eat insects, the U.S. government’s insane energy policies, and the three-cornered battle now going on among
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March 19, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Enormous amounts of money are being made by “green” fraudsters, utilities and politicians who tell us we are in the midst of a transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy. In fact, no such transition is underway; fossil fuel consumption is higher than ever. And no such transition will take place, ever, either in America or anywhere else in the world. Why? Because wind and solar are both
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March 15, 2023 — John Hinderaker
A Biden administration Consumer Product Safety official said that regulation of gas stoves, including a potential ban, was in the works. Conservatives (and people who like to cook) were then up in arms, but were reassured by numerous “fact checkers” that it was a false alarm. Just another right-wing fantasy: the Biden administration has no such plan. So the CSPC just made it up, apparently. Only it turns out that
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March 15, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Every day brings a torrent of interesting energy data and news items to my in-box, and the sheer volume of it usually means I don’t end up bringing much of it to Power Line. Here’s a solution: a new weekly feature of the best or most significant energy stories of the moment. I already mentioned this week’s big story yesterday: the Biden Administration’s approval of the ConocoPhillips Willow site in
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March 2, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Herewith an omnibus post on the climate and energy scene for today (though I could do this at the top of each hour every day): • Did you notice how the mainstream media rushed to mention that the Department of Energy assigned “low confidence” to their finding that COVID-19 likely originated from a lab leak in Wuhan? How come the mainstream media never mentions the “low confidence” scientists often assign
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February 28, 2023 — Elizabeth Stauffer
Running low on gas? No worries. Find the nearest gas station. Pop the gas cap. Insert the nozzle into the gas tank opening, wait a minute or two and you’re good to go. The process gets a bit more complicated for drivers of electric vehicles. First they must find a nearby charging station. If they’re lucky, they may be able to find a fast charger where the process might take
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February 28, 2023 — John Hinderaker
As pollution has declined worldwide and damage from extreme weather events has grown less and less, the environmental movement has become ever more shrill and demanding. It has become obvious that catastrophic anthropogenic global warming is no longer a scientific hypothesis–it failed, in that regard–but rather is an unhinged pseudo-justification for every left-wing policy prescription. At the Spectator Australia, Alan Moran documents the fact that the Earth is getting along
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February 27, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The DFL’s Blackout Bill, requiring that all electricity be produced by wind and solar energy by 2040, has now been signed into law by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The bill’s proponents have not offered any estimate of its cost to ratepayers, nor have they produced a feasibility study purporting to show that 100% wind and solar electricity can reliably power our state. My organization, on the other hand, has authored
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February 19, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Al Gore’s hypocrisy is well known: consuming ten times the average household’s electricity in his Tennessee mansion, buying a beachfront mansion in California while warning of sea level rise, flying in private jets while hectoring us about our carbon footprint, etc. Turns out Gore’s investment fund, Generation Investment Management, dedicated to “sustainable” investing (ESG before it was the cool term) is in on the con, too. Bloomberg reports: Espousing a
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February 19, 2023 — John Hinderaker
At Watts Up With That, Paul Homewood analyzes California’s “green” energy mandate, which contemplates both that all electricity will be obtained from “green” sources, and pretty much everything will be electrified. Even a cursory look at the numbers confirms that it can’t be done. Currently, California’s energy comes overwhelmingly from fossil fuels. Wind and solar are footnotes: The inherent intermittency of wind makes it ridiculous to rely on wind turbines:
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