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Charles Wemyss, Jr.'s avatar

Well, well some cold water on the green save the planet watermelons. Whoopsie Jennifer Granholm got it wrong. (No waaay! Waaay!) NY of course will have its cake and eat it too, data centers galore supported by Governor Hochul’s new nukes plan! One can imagine NYSERDA merging with the NYPA to get green nukes built and the Empire State is back baby! As for NEISO they will be on a cannabis greenhouse grow house roll, it will become Maine’s largest export product by 2030! Just ask them in Augusts! To make it even better for the elite watermelons in their effete watering holes, the Gulf of Maine is the Saudi Arabia of offshore wind! Thousands of “free” megawatts out at sea! “Lobsterah’s, we doan need no stinking lobsteraah’s!” The reality is that the six New England states and NYS enjoy some of the highest power prices in the lower 48, high taxes, environmental constraints on building anything other than a marijuana grow house and people are voting with their feet. Load likely will continue to decline and those gas pipelines that the governor of Massachusetts stopped when she was attorney general won’t be built either so good luck with new gas generation. Welcome to the Peoples Republic of Luancy and Fantasy of New England and New York State. State run grocery stores for the down trodden, the blind, lame and lazy. Give us your unwashed and unshaved and we shall all live in the dark together!

Great post as always EBB’s!!

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SmithFS's avatar

Notable that Granholm in charge of energy, like the Greenpeacer in Canada, similar airheads in Britain, Germany & Australia, all zero experience in the field or even a related field, the guy in Germany had a degree in linguistics, and the NRC chief the Biden regime installed has a degree in divinity. That's how you can tell the administration is Malthusian DeGrowther Misanthropes, likely Ecofascists. Which has long been the agenda of the International Bankster Overlords.

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James F. Lavin's avatar

And how many articles have we seen about Trump’s cabinet being unqualified while Granholm praised?

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Jeff Walther's avatar

A clear symptom was shutting down the perfectly good Vermont Yankee. That is also where Meredith Angwin came to my attention, because she ran the excellent web site, "Yes, Vermont Yankee" for many years trying to save the plant.

Anyone who has not should read her book, "Shorting the Grid", although the basics are seeping into the public (or this audience's, at least) consciousness.

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Roger Caiazza's avatar

Do not ever forget that New York shut down three nuclear units before the licenses ran out - two at Indian Point and the still born Somerset on Long Island.

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Jeff Walther's avatar

Also good examples. I was trying to pick an early sign that the folks in those parts had lost their minds, but I think Somerset predates my Vermont Yankee evidence.

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Roger Caiazza's avatar

Good post, reality is coming up to bat at last.

One point regarding NY's lack of data centers. The NYISO projects large load increases due to the net-zero electrification transition and the proposed Micron chip fab plant that , if fully built out, would have load equal to VT and NH combined. Maybe those influences are outside of the time frame of this analysis?

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Isaac Orr's avatar

It could be. I believe that DOE used NERC date which probably came for NYISO. We didn’t have time to dig too deep into the assumptions for each RTO

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Jeff Walther's avatar

Micron is planning a fab up there?!? I thought they, as an institution, had more sense than that. Seems to be a well run company otherwise. They publish some of the best datasheets for their products in the industry and have for at the 30 years I've been paying attention.

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Roger Caiazza's avatar

The disconnect between enormously high electricity prices and getting a fab plant does not make sense. The local politicians must have given away the bank to overcome that issue.

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Kris Martin's avatar

The projected lack of data center growth in NYS is at odds with what we’re already seeing upstate, with many companies approaching rural communities that have relatively low electric rates. Growth may not be as high as in some parts of the country, but it’s definitely well above zero.

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Isaac Orr's avatar

That’s why I thought those assumptions were a big odd.

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Ian Braithwaite's avatar

Thank you EBBs. I wish we had this sort of public reality check in the UK, and I guess you wish you hadn't had to wait so long.

There is something I find deeply odd and disturbing about electrical power projections. The folly of over-use of wind and solar is becoming ever more apparent, and Robert Bryce has made known the protests across the globe against wind and solar farms,with which I have every sympathy. Yet data centres, which appear in countless articles, are written about as though they are simply a law of nature or act of God. I've seen, whether true or not, that in addition to consuming masses of electrical energy, they are also very thirsty and some have been, or are being built, in areas of water scarcity. Are they such a good thing? Does anyone know what they're really for, beyond "AI"? Who are they going to benefit, truthfully, and did anyone vote for them, or was I just not looking? Of course, we're meant to believe they're a force for tremendous good for us all, but I've heard that about stuff being slipped into the water supply.

Many times over the decades I've felt guilty for being a cynic, then looked back and realised I was nowhere near cynical enough.

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Jeff Walther's avatar

My opinion is that they will be used to more effectively sell us things we don't want and can't afford, because they replaced us in all our jobs.

Maybe they'll find a cure for cancer, too, but I doubt it.

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Ian Braithwaite's avatar

Love it - priceless !!!!

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SmithFS's avatar

#1 objective is obviously the Surveillance State - Totalitarianism, a Megalomaniac Psychopath's dream, total control over every citizen, from what you eat, to what you read, to what you do, what you believe, and where you go.

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Manny's avatar

Thank God that reality and common sense, that were seriously lacking during the Biden Administration, is back with Secretary Wright.

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Kilovar 1959's avatar

Thanks Boys, that solar battle is running hot and heavy here in Ohio. The OSB Newsletter letter keeps me informed on the winners and loosers. So far it's about 2-1 against solar, but some are still getting approved. We will see if they get built now that the subsidy faucet has been turned off https://opsb.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/opsb/about-us/resources/solar-farm-map-and-statistics

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Ryszard Dzikowski's avatar

It is strange that this report does not mention a single word about “curtailments” and “redispatch” of renewable energies and the associated costs, as if this were strictly confidential information.

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Ken Braun's avatar

Jennifer Granholm's entire managerial history points to the conclusion that she should be placed in charge of getting more Americans hooked on opioids. Within two years of implementing her policies narcotics demand would vanish.

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Jeff Walther's avatar

🤣

It's funny because it's true.

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Gene Nelson, Ph.D.'s avatar

Thank you for an excellent summary of the 07 July 2025 DoE Report. Californians for Green Nuclear Power cited the report in a filing that was accepted on 11 July by the California Public Utilities Commission. Here's the relevant paragraph:

The federal government is aware of the State of California's plan to needlessly close Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP) by 2030, per the conditions established in California SB 846 (Dodd, 2022.) California's power grid is highlighted on pages 42-43 of a new July 7, 2025 U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Report. AI, which is an important component of Silicon Valley, requires high-reliability power for the numerous data centers located there. In 2024, PG&E forecast the increased demand for electricity for data centers by 2030 in their service territory would be equivalent to 1 1/2 NEW 2,270 MW nuclear-powered DCPPs. The DoE report used PLEXOS as a modeling tool. The planned DCPP retirement is one of the factors that would reduce California's 2030 grid reliability. Here's a portion of the DoE 2030 projection table shown on page 42: (References available on request.)

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Ben Powers's avatar

What has happened to our grid reliability is nothing but criminal , albeit it was frankly chasing the good ole “other people’s money “ aka we the taxpayers… thank you Donald Trump & the energy dream team of Burgum, Wright, and Zeldin to stop the bleeding 🩸 … now it’s time to go on offensive & codify into law affordable reliable clean energy security act at the state level & soon federal law… Louisiana just did it, Ohio, Indiana later this year … USA 🇺🇸 next July 4th 🗽🇺🇸🗽

https://youtu.be/9d3EsX1vNtI?si=-xX7Mt79gN9JGQPI

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Stephen Heins's avatar

1. Life

I am Steve Heins, eighty-one years, a spark in the vast fire of being,

No college degrees to hang on my wall, no parchment to claim my worth,

Yet Columbia whispered, two French courses shy, and I learned from the world’s own book.

I have been a small-town boy, dirt under my nails from golf, chasing greased pigs through county fairs,

Six times I won, the crowd roaring, the mud my crown, my youth a wild, unbridled song.

I have swung clubs as a scratch golfer, danced on basketball courts, my body a rhythm of motion,

I have drifted, interstate highways my veins, truck stops my temples, high plains and low my congregation.

Big-city man, I claimed the neon pulse, skyscrapers my stars,

Yet I wandered, self-indulgent, a distant father, my heart sometimes lost in the haze.

Auto-didact, I stormed Ivy halls, no gatekeeper to bar my way,

Scholar, student, historian, I devoured books, art, music—pages my kin, symphonies my breath.

I have been a poet, words my chisel, carving truth from the stone of days,

A poetry aficionado, lover of verses that sing the soul’s quiet and its storms.

Lost soul, I’ve roamed, yet found my place in the vastness,

Eighty-one years, I stand, a blizzard of one, my life a canvas of collisions, still painting.

2. Career

I am a business writer, economist, my pen a torch in the dark of markets,

Researcher, communicator, I weave stories for the weary, the hopeful, the seeking.

Wall Street knew me, mutual fund director, shaping wealth’s pulse,

I spoke to traders, to dreamers, my words a bridge between chaos and clarity.

I am the Blizzard of One, storming broadband’s gates, defying Goliath’s shadow,

Internet Open Access my banner, freedom my cry, a digital dawn for every voice.

Practical environmentalist, I named myself, no dogma to chain my sight,

Energy efficiency my craft, lighting the world with a realist’s spark.

Chicago Climate Exchange, I was there, building markets for carbon’s weight,

Paris, I stood in its ancient halls, speaking to the EU’s schemers, my vision for emissions a map.

Lobbyist, I walked fifty states, D.C.’s marble my battleground,

For natural gas, for nuclear’s hum, I fought, my voice a gadfly’s sting.

Technology theorist, I dreamed in clouds, saw the future in circuits and code,

Bakken Basin, I spoke, The Weekly Word my stage, Professor Heins my name.

With experts—geologists, physicists, skeptics—they joined me, their truths a chorus,

We broke the noise, our podcast a fire, burning for sane energy, for human thriving.

ESG I weigh, fair and balanced, my skeptic’s eye unfooled by greenwashed hymns,

Political organizer, pain in the ass, I stir the pot, I wake the sleeping.

Tens of thousand articles, my ink a river, The Word Merchant’s flood across nations,

Curator, I gather truths, feeding allies—scientists, journalists—with light against the dark.

Self-financed, unbowed, at eighty-one, I am the storm that never quiets,

Sane energy my job, my cause, my heart’s unyielding vow.

This is my confession, my map, my open book,

Steve Heins, poet, fighter, a life of words and wars, still singing.

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Gene Nelson, Ph.D.'s avatar

Keep up your noble fight, Steve!

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Stephen Heins's avatar

You too, Gene.

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Gene Nelson, Ph.D.'s avatar

Thank you.

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Luke Ringlein's avatar

This is what happens when you build for ideology instead of load. At Forge Ahead, I’m tracking grid reliability as a national security issue. Data centers don’t run on vibes, and we're running out of margin.

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Mark Miller's avatar

Thanks for the heads up! Seems like I should prioritize ensuring our dual fuel generator will operate ok this summer as we are in PJM’s territory.

CASIO is reevaluating its DR programs- “RE: Leap Comments on IEPR Commissioner Workshop on California’s Progress Toward the Load-Shift Goal” -

https://links-2.govdelivery.com/CL0/https:%2F%2Fefiling.energy.ca.gov%2FGetDocument.aspx%3FDocumentContentId=101471%26tn=264606%26utm_medium=email%26utm_source=govdelivery/1/01010197f58bfc88-ea0b5bfe-6e6a-42ab-ad5c-5e198065cba5-000000/SVvbceQA5iKbFLPDuH335rU0UcCEq0c-EYvDSxHQHZA=413

The move to NEM 3 should help with getting more dis-patchable resources either on the grid or behind the meter in the coming years in CA.

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Jeff Walther's avatar

Thank you for another informative post, gentlemen.

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Greg's avatar
Jul 12Edited

I never thought of myself as an adult, but I like the tag #EnergyAdult.

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JBS's avatar
Jul 18Edited

But the smart-glasses set says it easy to “just keep it in the ground,” so ahkshually shouldn’t we just do that? 🤓🥸

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