40 Comments
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Charles Wemyss, Jr.'s avatar

The bar chart from 2001 to date with a “flourish” is brilliant. Ask any 3 year old child in the United States where electricity comes from and they will excitedly run to the switch on the wall and push it “up” for “on” and “down” for “off”! That is basically the multi generational understanding of electric power in the USA from Edison’s discovery forward, so the graph is just a gem. It is a real graphic reminder that if you don’t run down the RGGI and other rabbit holes and let the IOU’s put everything and the kitchen sink into rate base that you don’t have to plan on paying .50 cents a kilowatt hour by 2030. Simple is good. It has been a very good year for the EBB’s and their ability to bring the most important issues forward, with precise data and reasoned arguments for generating and sending an electron down the line in the most efficient manner. So carry on EBB’s, give ‘em Hell!

Kevin Fedon's avatar

Same people believe food comes from grocery stores.

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

That’s my biggest pet peeve

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

Thanks Charles!

winston's avatar

Looking forward to your work in Arizona!

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

So are we! Thanks for being a loyal reader, Winston

Frank Frtr's avatar

The moving bar chart is great. I’d suggest doing a version in which the scale of the y axis does not change, so the viewer gets a better sense of the magnitude of increase in the blue states, and the steepening of the curve from most expensive to least.

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

That sounds great. Thanks, Frank. Lots of options we can play around with

Gene Nelson, Ph.D.'s avatar

CPUC intervenor Californians for Green Nuclear Power looks forward to collaborating with EBB regarding the likely "train wreck" named the California power grid. With California's solar-dominated generation at mid-day. We believe California is dangerously close to an April 28, 2025 Iberian Peninsula blackout. The greatest danger interval is during Diablo Canyon Power Plant outages. See: "Despite a massive wildfire, Diablo Canyon produces reliable power. California's grid was likely close to collapse on May 4, 2025 - see article end," Gene Nelson, Ph.D. August 15, 2025.

https://greennuke.substack.com/p/despite-a-massive-wildfire-diablo

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

Happy to chat about what that looks like, Gene!

Gene Nelson, Ph.D.'s avatar

Isaac: Thanks. Please contact me via email with the details.

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

Great! Is it the one attached to your substack account? I can grab it through our dashboard.

Gene Nelson, Ph.D.'s avatar

Yes. Government[at]CGNP[dot]org

Sarah Montalbano's avatar

Hyped to be a part of AOER in 2026, fellas! Thanks for the shoutout.

Kilovar 1959's avatar

Isaac I have some contact with the owners of poweroutage.us. They have a massive database of who was out when over more than five years. Let me know if you need a connection for your research.

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

That’s awesome! I think we will need that for a project on the cost of blackouts!

Kilovar 1959's avatar

Sounds good, I will PM you in LinkedIn in with names and send them messages that you will be reaching out.

Ben Powers's avatar

Happy Holliday EBB, thank you for what you do… your video of states electricity prices over the years per state is 👌👍… here is to codifying America’s energy production and independence into a federal law under Affordable Reliable Clean Energy Security Act of USA in 2026

Ronald Underhill's avatar

I love the rolling chart! Have you considered providing the data as a percentage of increase (year over year) for a different way to highlight price increases/decreases?

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

That’s a great idea

Constance Gee's avatar

That Flourish chart is terrific! It would be great to be able to share just the chart on FB and X, and at Town Halls meetings throughout MA!

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

Yes Im still learning the tool and how to embed it in substack lol. You can probably download the video and post it. It’s an mp4 right now

Jeremy Ney's avatar

Love some good Datawrapper and flourish visualizations. Great stuff. Excited to see more and share more of this in 2026

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

You are actually the person that made me really want to up our visualization game. Thanks for that

Jeremy Ney's avatar

That’s fantastic to hear

Mark Silbert's avatar

I am a new subscriber and really enjoy your work.

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

Welcome aboard, Mark!

Mike Jortberg's avatar

Side project idea: I've always wondered what today's energy reality would have been had Jane Fonda's China Syndrome and Three Mile Island didn't happen the same year (1979) and we had continued building Nuclear power plants and never introduced wind farms in 1980 at Crotched Mountain, New Hampshire and Altamont Pass in the 1980s and solar in California 1982.

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

Thanks Mike! Probably better haha

SmithFS's avatar

Maybe it wasn't a coincidence:

Was TMI a movie script? Galen Winsor:

youtube.com/watch?v=q5uXzM_azWI

"Galen Winsor makes a startling statement; he claims that the Three Mile Island event was no accident. He states that the GE three of Gregory C. Minor, Richard B. Hubbard, and Dale G. Bridenbaugh wrote the script. This would sound incredibly far fetched without the almost impossibly coincidental timing of "The China Syndrome" still playing in movie theaters at the time of the accident, the unbelievable coincidence of a line in the movie about contaminating an area the size of Pennsylvania (the same state where TMI is located), and the still troubling unknown regarding how the feed pump isolation valves on the back-up feed water pump just happened to be shut (supposedly due to a "maintenance error") when the primary pump tripped off line."

atomicinsights.com/was-three-mile-island-an-accident/

some very interesting discussion in the comments. i.e.:

"Rich Lentz says: August 1, 2013 at 12:07 PM Other coincidences:

Date/Time of initial criticality of TMI-II – March 28, 1978 @ 04:00:00

Date/time of accident (on plant computer) March 28, 1979 @ 04:00:00.037 (Note: the plant computer has a 3 millisecond cycle time to scan all points)

The main story in the Paxton Herald paper (A free paper that was mostly adds and a classified listing that you picked up to find/sell stuff but VERY anti-nuclear) that week and released before the accident, was about the major accident that was going to happen at TMI in the very near future..."

Quickset's avatar

Interesting article about the TMI incident with curious details that may point to some kind of trauma-based "live exercise.”

https://www.pahighways.com/features/threemileisland.html

dappin's avatar

Congrats on the success and best wishes for more in 2026—you are filling an important and long-unfilled gap in power sector data analysis!

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

Thanks, Dappin!

dave walker's avatar

Shared this to my friends in Tucson. You guys are busy! Hasta Luego, Felize Año Nuevo! Better brush up on your Spanish for your visit to AZ.

Jory  Pacht's avatar

Your energy price data is highly flawed. According to the EIA - Your Source, show average residential electricity rates in Texas in October 2025 is $0.1611/KwH. Nearly all of your other rates are too low as well. I get your point, but you need to be accurate

https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a

Mitch Rolling's avatar

You’re looking at residential. We used average across all rate classes.

Jory  Pacht's avatar

My mistake. I see that you specifically stated all sectors

Energy Bad Boys's avatar

Yeah we did all sectors because it’s less subject to political manipulation