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Category: Energy

May 20 2024

Enviromoonbat Conundrum: Lithium From Fracking

Great news for enviromoonbats: a new source has been found for the lithium that is required in massive quantities for the glorified golf carts they want to force us into. Now the bad news: it comes from fracking wastewater.

It turns out that the Marcellus Shale — a long swath of sedimentary rock in the northeastern United States that holds huge amounts of frackable gas — holds huge quantities of lithium too. Justin Mackey and other researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pennsylvania were pleasantly surprise[d] when they studied the contents of wastewater dredged up in the fracking process at 515 sites in the Keystone State, reports Science Alert.

Fracking provides clean and cheap natural gas, but possibly due to its effectiveness, it is haram in the liberal religion.

Nuclear energy provides affordable electricity without allegedly harmful carbon emissions. Liberals oppose it, because it too is haram.

Whether our moonbat overlords will exploit the Marcellus Shale is doubtful. After all, why would they want to make increasingly mandatory EVs affordable, when they can just coercively subsidize them?

On a tip from R F.

May 14 2024

Gas May Go Up Another 47¢ in California

How much pain will Californians take before they stop voting for Democrats? They already have the highest taxes in the nation and pay more for energy than any state but Hawaii. How about if the kooks in charge jack up the price of gasoline by another 47¢ because the climate?

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is the state’s regulating body charged with implementing the most ambitious climate action of any jurisdiction in the world: achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.

An amended version of CARB’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCSF) was released in a preliminary report in September and included potential price pass-throughs for consumers as the state moves toward its clean air goals.

The report projected that by next year, gasoline prices could go up an average of 47 cents per gallon, with similar annual increases thereafter.

The idea is to incrementally make driving too expensive for any but the rich.

The odds of this having a perceptible impact on the weather are nil.

At some point, the worm may turn, even in California.

On a tip from Steve T.

May 11 2024

Weather Has Upper Hand

We are told that the weather can be controlled by green energy boondoggles. Actually, Mother Nature is in control.

From India:

No wonder Indians rely on coal.

Are there lessons to be learned from events like this? No there are not. The main purposes of green energy projects are to launder taxpayer money and to demonstrate how devoutly moonbats worship the Global Warming Hoax. No doubt developing countries also exploit them to acquire handouts from the West. Whether any energy is generated is irrelevant.

On a tip from WDS 2.0.

May 01 2024

G7 Agrees to Shut Down Coal by 2035

Unless the woke globalist ruling class is overthrown soon, there could be dark times ahead — literally:

Energy ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) wealthy countries reached a deal to shut down their coal-fired power plants by 2035 at the latest, in a significant step toward the transition away from fossil fuels.

These countries, which include the USA, will not remain wealthy for long, because they will not be able to afford the energy required to sustain their economies.

The accord will be included in the G7 energy ministers’ final communique to be released on Tuesday at the end of a two-day meeting in Turin.

Coal is the cheap and abundant energy source that combined with capitalism allowed the West to pull humanity out of the poverty it had been mired in from the beginning. Banning this staple of energy production is like banning wheat — although our rulers are more likely to ban meat, in accordance with their liberal flakiness.

According to ruling class ideology, coal is offensive to the atavistic weather gods we are told to worship. Yet the carbon emissions produced by coal overwhelmingly come from China and India, which are not run by suicidal fools and therefore will continue to burn it.

The only impact of a G7 ban on coal will be to put people out of work and to raise the price of energy. There is zero chance that it will perceptibly impact the weather — as if the weather were a problem anyway.

On a tip from Wiggins.

Apr 18 2024

Human Waste as Sustainable Aviation Fuel

We can’t use readily available fossil fuels, because they are said to be offensive to the atavistic weather gods worshiped by liberals. We can’t use clean and affordable nuclear power, because libs don’t like that either. Wind and solar are great for laundering taxpayer money, but are not capable of generating more than a small fraction of our energy needs. What then can we use to keep the lights on, wheels rolling, and jets in the air? Moonbats have the answer. It is something they can supply in great abundance — because they are full of it:

Wizz Air is making waves with its recent announcement that up to 10% of its flights could be powered by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) derived from human waste by 2030. In an innovative approach to tackling the dual challenges of waste management and sustainable air travel, the Hungarian budget airline is joining forces with UK-based Firefly to transform sewage sludge into a biofuel that could see passengers flying on planes powered by an unusual source—human feces.

They ought to use urine, considering the name of the airline.

So long as moonbats remain in charge, the biofuel will pile up ever deeper:

The bold move by Wizz Air comes amid increasing pressure from the EU for airlines to adapt to more sustainable practices, with a mandate requiring a minimum of 20% of jet fuel to qualify as SAF by 2035, escalating to 70% by 2050.

In the USA, this form of biofuel is already heavily subsidized, although for now it is mostly used in academia rather than energy production.

On a tip from Steve T.

Apr 04 2024

Strategic Petroleum Reserve Replenishment Canceled

After crippling domestic oil production, the Big Guy sold 6 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to our communist Chinese adversaries. Lest we recover:

The Biden administration has canceled two planned oil purchases aimed at replenishing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), the Department of Energy confirmed Wednesday.

As with his border policy, Biden’s energy policy makes it hard to believe he means the country well.

On a tip from KirklesWorth.

Mar 27 2024

Single Storm Wipes Out Thousands of Solar Panels

Another day, another green energy fail:

A hailstorm hammered thousands of solar panels at a Fort Bend County farm with emergency crews investigating, and neighbors worried whether any chemicals were leaking.

If you thought green energy is good for the environment, I have a bridge across the East River to sell you.

Experts said that most of the time, large solar farm panels are made of compound cadmium telluride.

You don’t want that in your well water.

It is a toxic substance that can cause kidney, heart, skin, and lung issues.

Solar panels in this area near Houston cover more than 10,000 acres.

At least no one will go broke over incidents like this until we all do, green energy projects being so heavily subsidized. But then, if they made any sense, they wouldn’t have to be.

On tips from Mr. Freemarket and Wiggins.

Feb 04 2024

California to Impose Equity on Electricity

Under absolute moonbattery, equity can be imposed on anything imaginable — even electricity:

California governor Gavin Newsom is standing by the state’s soon-to-be-implemented “equitable” policy to base electricity bills on income, rather than usage, even as public and political opposition to the idea builds in the Democratic coalition.

Mass immigration has successfully converted California to a single-party system. No Republican has been elected to statewide office since 2006. But even some other Democrats balk at Newsom’s radicalism:

Newsom’s commitment to California’s income-based electricity billing plan followed a press conference by a group of Democratic lawmakers who want to reverse the policy, after they voted in its favor as part of a 2022 budget bill. Citing public outcry, they condemned the plan as another price hike for Californians’ astronomical energy bills that would punish conservation-minded households while also subjecting everyone to invasive income checks. …

This emerging rift over a policy that’s been praised by supporters as an “equitable” boost for the state’s transition to zero-emission electricity is a rare hiccup in the Democratic supermajority’s typically lockstep approach to energy mandates.

There will be no transition to zero-emission electricity. Wasteful government-subsidized boondoggles like wind turbines will never meet more than a small fraction of demand, especially after California outlaws real cars in favor of glorified golf carts. The transition will be to no electricity — except for the privileged few.

Electricity rates have risen nearly 70 percent since 2010, when the state started to break from fossil fuels, and California households pay nearly 83 percent more than the average for homes elsewhere in the United States.

Despite a few getting cold feet, Democrats needn’t worry. They will remain in control until they have ridden the erstwhile Golden State into total collapse, thanks to the demographic leverage they have achieved through open borders. Currently they are at work doing the same thing to Texas.

On tips from R F and WDS 2.0.

Jan 17 2024

Electric Car Idiocy Will Make the Cold More Deadly

Winter is a powerful argument against electric vehicles. Even if you are able to get a pricey moonbatmobile to charge in the cold, there are other people to think of. Charging EVs unnecessarily strains an already vulnerable power grid. A countermoonbat in Yukon can attest to the likely consequences:

Meanwhile, liberal authorities exert increasing pressure to force more people into EVs, increasing both the stress and the reliance on the power grid, even while they restrict energy production in the name of their atavistic weather gods. Green blackouts already loom.

Good thing the guy in the video has a generator. Democrats oppose them.

At the risk of stating the obvious, our moonbat rulers do not mean us well. They are engineering an energy crisis.

On a tip from Jack S.

Jan 11 2024

Engineering an Energy Crisis

If the destruction of hydroelectric dams doesn’t strike you as an act of war, consider it in the context of this:

Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute (API), issued a stark warning that the White House was dragging its feet on allowing energy firms to drill on federal lands, threatening the economy and jobs. …

‘Washington is on the cusp of spoiling the American energy advantage, undermining it with short-sighted policies and hostility toward US oil and natural gas,’ Sommers told the API’s annual meeting in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.

Sommers observes that the Biden Regime is “sowing the seeds for the next energy crisis.” Never let a crisis go to waste; if there is no crisis, create one.

Not that we haven’t had plenty of real crises since Biden’s handlers took power, thanks to the vacuum created by America’s decline:

The energy boss spoke as wars raged in Ukraine and Gaza, threatening global energy flows and making prices volatile. …

‘Our adversaries have shown time and time again their willingness to weaponize energy,’ Sommers said.

This includes the adversaries who have taken control of our government.

On a tip from Ed McAninch.

Dec 23 2023

EV Mandates Loom With Power Grid Under Siege

Sometimes storms have silver linings:

A top Maine state environmental agency delayed a highly-anticipated vote to approve a sweeping electric vehicle (EV) mandate amid a storm that caused widespread power outages.

The Maine Board of Environmental Protection…

…voted in late October to approve the Advanced Clear Car Program, which would mimic regulations in California mandating that more than 40% of new car purchases in the state be electric by 2027 and 82% be electric by 2032. The agency was expected to finalize that mandate during the meeting on Thursday.

After they have the lights back on, leftist tyrants like Democrat Governor Janet Mills will go right back to making transportation dependent on the increasingly undependable power grid — speaking of which:

Natural gas power generation has become increasingly crucial as more unreliable wind and solar have been added to U.S. power grids. Yet, the EPA seems even more determined to destabilize U.S. power grids by imposing severe restrictions on U.S. natural gas production through methane reduction rules that could shut down a significant portion of U.S. natural gas production.

At the same time, the EPA is also coming after coal with regulations intended to prevent its use.

Coal retirements are increasing the prospect of an electric reliability crisis. Already, utilities have announced plans to retire some 81,000 megawatts (MW) of coal-fired generation (almost half the existing coal fleet) within the next six years.

The two-pronged attack will have a devastating attack on our electricity supply.

Alarm bells that U.S. power grids have become increasingly destabilized have been sounding for years. [The North American Electric Reliability Corporation] has repeatedly stated that U.S. grid instability has already reached dangerous levels. Yet, EPA has ignored the warnings and continued to march forward with rules that will cause U.S. power grids to fail.

Back in Maine, Rep Jared Golden observes the obvious:

“Forcing Mainers to purchase cars and trucks powered by electricity when our grid is insufficient, charging stations are few and far between, and a storm like yesterday’s would render 80% of cars useless is, to say the least, ill-advised.”

Unless the objective is to immobilize the population.

Mobility is freedom. The Soviet Union used internal passports to prevent it. Democrats use the global warming hoax.

On tips from Chuck A, R F, and ABC of the ANC.

Dec 11 2023

Biden Promises to Shut Down 60% of US Electricity

Last week we acknowledged Pearl Harbor Day. The point was not only to mourn those who died, but to remind ourselves never again to let our enemies sneak up on us. Imagine if the Japanese had been able to inflict something truly devasting — like shutting down 60% of our electric power:

Team Biden announced it will stop production of all new coal plants in the United States.

This comes on the heels of President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency saying this year it would impose new power-plant emission regulations that are virtually impossible for coal plants to comply with.

That’s only one prong of the attack. They are also coming after natural gas:

Kamala Harris trumpeted the next day new rules to “sharply reduce methane from the oil and natural gas industry.” …

Eliminating methane is a de facto ban on natural-gas power plants.

Natural gas is relatively clean and plentiful. It is largely responsible for keeping the lights on.

These regulations will cause rolling blackouts and brownouts across the country, much like we’ve already seen in California — America’s forerunner of radical anti-fossil fuel policies.

The lights will go out intermittently, and home heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer will have to be turned off or rationed.

Coal provides 20% of our electricity. Natural gas provides 40%. Green energy boondoggles are highly effective at laundering taxpayer money to pay off Democrat campaign donors, but they do not reliably generate energy. Consequently,

Without gas and coal plants, hospitals, schools, the Internet, construction projects and factories will be routinely shut down when unreliable alternative-energy sources like wind and solar power aren’t delivering enough juice.

We could use generators for when there is no power — except that Democrats are coming for those too.

Meanwhile, Democrats are progressively banning real cars, so that transportation will be reliant on the overburdened power grid.

The Biden administration, in other words, wants to nearly double the demands on the electric-grid network at the same time it wants to shut down more than half of the nation’s power generation — and the most reliable sources at that.

The imperial Japanese — like every other enemy America ever faced — were downright benevolent by comparison. But at least Democrats are launching their attack right out in the open. If we don’t stop them, we have no one to blame but ourselves for the pointless poverty, tyranny, and misery they have planned for us.

On a tip from Jack D.

Dec 01 2023

Canadian Pushback Against Federal Energy Moonbattery

Canada has vast energy resources. But then, so does Venezuela. That’s no guarantee the lights will stay on with moonbats in control. Fortunately, Alberta is pushing back against Justin Trudeau and the rest of the leftists running the federal government, who want Canadians to freeze in the dark in obeisance to their climate cult:

Alberta’s United Conservative government has invoked its controversial Sovereignty Act for the first time by introducing a resolution to push back against the federal government’s proposed Clean Electricity Regulations.

The resolution calls for ignoring insane federal energy mandates to the extent law allows.

The Clean Electricity Regulations, currently in draft form, lay out the rules for getting Canada’s electricity grid to net zero emissions by 2035.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the deadline is impossible for the province to meet without risking blackouts and high costs for consumers.

Blackouts and high costs will be par for the course if liberals maintain control. See California for details.

Hats off to Danielle Smith:

If pushback continues, Trudeau may fall back upon the Emergencies Act to impose martial law, as he did when there was resistance to his Covid tyranny.

At least Covid actually existed. The climate crisis that supposedly necessitates depriving Canadians of reliable and affordable energy is an imaginary contrivance.

Expect similar conflict on the US side of the border — unless Americans are content to go without electricity for the sake of liberal ideology.

On a tip from Lyle.

Nov 19 2023

Bottom Line on Offshore Wind

Energy expert David Blackmon has revealed that when the government chooses wind projects to shovel other people’s money at, capacity to actually produce electricity is hardly even considered.

For example, at the state level…

…the wind resource constitutes less than 1% of what [New York State Energy Research and Development Authority] considers important for offshore wind projects.

They know in advance that wind projects will not generate anywhere near the electricity promised. That’s why they avoid performance guarantees regarding output.

Sweden just proved what happens you actually have performance guarantees for wind. Markbygden Ett is the largest onshore wind farm in Europe, located in Sweden and owned by China. Its electricity contract with Norwegian Hydro Energi requires that Markbygden provide a fixed amount of electricity at a fixed price for 19 years. When the wind doesn’t blow, they still have to provide the contracted amount of power, at the contracted cost, regardless of the price they pay on the electricity market to cover the shortfall. The result is that Markbygden’s forecasted expenses far exceed revenues, and the company has been experiencing large losses for several years.

The more whalekilling offshore wind projects are constructed, the less electricity they produce:

It’s called the wind wake effect. Any sailor is well familiar with this- a sailboat in front of you will steal your wind, and make your sailboat go slower if you stay behind it. …

In 2018, Harvard University flagged this and found that the average power density of a wind farm was up to 100 times lower than estimates by some leading energy experts because previous estimates failed to account for the wind wake effect.

They found a transition to wind power would require 5 to 20 times more land than previously thought, require one third of the continental U.S. to be covered by windmills in order to meet present day U.S. electricity demand, and that since the wind would get sucked out of the air surface temperatures would rise by about 0.24 degrees Celsius, with an up to 1.5 degree Celsius increase at night.

Meanwhile, the alleged point of the wind turbines is to lower supposedly excessive temperatures. As for the actual point: they are boondoggles. Their function is to launder taxpayer money to pay Democrat donors, thereby creating a massive return on investment for political contributions. This form of graft was pioneered by Joe Biden’s mentor and probable primary handler, Barack Obama. Under his administration, 80% of Department of Energy green energy loans reportedly went to his donors, confirming that the not only useless but pernicious DOE must be abolished at once.

Also, the output of offshore wind projects has been predicted to decrease by 4.5% annually. The ocean is not big enough for all the wind turbines that would be required to meet our future energy needs.

Blackmon presents the bottom line:

[O]ffshore wind doesn’t work. It’s not designed to work, or to be economically feasible in real life. It’s a giant Ponzi scheme wholly dependent on government subsidies and political “climate change” brownie points.

Yet our rulers are bankrupting the country to pay for it. This intolerable situation has resulted from insufficient pushback against climate change hogwash and a lack of consequences for the political corruption that inspires it.

On a tip from R F.

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