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Feb 28 2023

Here Come the Green Blackouts

PJM Interconnection is one of the largest operators of the US electric grid. It released a report recently explaining why Democrat energy policy makes large-scale blackouts inevitable:

Its top-line conclusion: Fossil-fuel power plants are retiring much faster than renewable sources are getting developed, which could lead to energy “imbalances.” That’s a delicate way of saying that you can expect shortages and blackouts.

Neighboring grids rely on PJM to provide backup power generated by fossil fuels when the wind doesn’t keep turbines turning.

That’s why it’s especially worrisome that PJM is predicting a large decline in its power reserves as coal and natural-gas plants retire. The report forecasts that 40,000 megawatts (MW) of power generation—enough to light up 30 million households—are at risk of retiring by 2030, representing about 21% of PJM’s current generation capacity.

Why would they retire fossil fuel plants that are required to keep the lights on? Moonbattery is why.

For example, the steep costs of complying with Environmental Protection Agency regulations, including a proposed “good neighbor rule” that is expected to be finalized next month, will force about 10,500 MW of fossil-fuel generation to shut down.

At the same time, utility-company ESG (environmental, social and governance) commitments are driving coal plants to close, the report notes. Illinois and New Jersey climate policies could reduce generation by 8,900 MW.

Despite the $billions that Democrats drove up inflation by shoveling at green energy boondoggles in the Orwellian Inflation Reduction Act,

the report says the “historical rate of completion for renewable projects has been approximately 5%,” in part because of permitting challenges. In an optimistic case, the report estimates 21,000 MW of wind, solar and battery storage capacity will be added to the grid by 2030—about half as much as the expected fossil-fuel retirements.

Meanwhile, Big Government has been exerting ever more pressure to force us into electric cars and even to use electric stoves, driving up demand for electricity, which cannot be provided on an affordable or reliable basis by wind or solar silliness.

Biden explicitly promised to abolish the fossil fuels that keep us alive. Fools voted for him anyway. Consequently, the cost of electricity will “necessarily skyrocket,” as possible de facto president Barack Obama put it — when electricity is available at all.

The blackouts have already begun in California, where Democrats have established single-party rule.

Energy shortages are not a bug but a feature of Democrat policy. As Covid reminded our statist ruling class, nothing serves state power like a crisis. Green energy is good for something other than laundering taxpayer money to pay off campaign donors. It can be used to engineer a pretext for a power grab that will make Covid lockdowns look reasonable by comparison.

On a tip from Varla.


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