Tag: green energy

Maryland’s energy price explosion

In July, my electric bill crossed a number I never thought I’d see: over $500. Yes, it was a brutally hot month, but we’ve had very hot summers before in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. We’ve run the air conditioning nonstop before and never reached even $400.

What’s going on?

A few things. Let’s start with this week’s announcement by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore of a $2 million “Residential and Commercial Energy Storage Program.” The idea is to offer rebates to homeowners and businesses that install battery systems, which can store energy and reduce strain on the grid. Moore says, “When we invest in clean energy, we help expand supply.”

That all sounds nice. But here’s the problem: Every “investment” like this costs money, our money, and it hasn’t lowered a single bill so far. In fact, it’s done the opposite. Almost laughable is another planned “solution” to the energy crisis: Maryland utility customers will receive a rebate on their bills next month, estimated at about $40 per household, depending on electricity usage. A second rebate is planned for January. 

On June 1, utility rates across Maryland jumped. Baltimore Gas & Electric, Pepco, Delmarva Power — pick your provider, the story’s the same. We were told it’s because of supply problems and the need for infrastructure upgrades. The reality? The state continues to remove reliable, always-on energy sources and replace them with more expensive alternatives that can’t carry the load on their own. We’re importing more energy from other states at higher rates and paying for that gap via higher bills.

The jump we saw in our bills this summer isn’t a one-time bump. Maryland is part of a regional power grid called PJM. Recently, the price PJM charges to ensure there’s enough power cleared at the maximum allowed rate. Translation: In 2026, we’ll see another increase, 1.5% to 5% higher on top of what we’re already paying now. And that’s just the short term. With the growing demand from massive data centers sucking up power, Reuters reports bills in our region could climb 30% to 60% by 2030.

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Power-Bill Crisis Spreads From Maryland To New Jersey, May Doom Democrats As ‘Green’ Implodes

A power bill crisis is gripping parts of the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and is set to worsen, threatening to financially crush households as long-range forecasts point to a brutally cold winter. What began in Baltimore, Maryland – as first covered in our reporting one year ago– has now spread to New Jersey, where residents are furious over skyrocketing electricity costs. 

The common denominator in both states? A disastrous green energy agenda, pushed by radical leftist lawmakers, is dismantling reliable and cheap fossil fuel power generation in favor of unstable solar and wind. This has unleashed a power bill armageddon on working-class and middle-class households, as well as mom-and-pop businesses, all while baseload power demand surges in the era of AI data centers.

Fox News is beginning to latch onto the power bill crisis theme, starting with coverage of New Jersey residents who are absolutely furious over exploding power bills. This new development could severely damage the state’s Democratic leaders in the upcoming elections.

This all started when New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities approved a 17 to 20% rate hike for power bills in June. Many residents were shocked when they opened their bills at the end of last month. 

“$200 more, I know my electrical bill,” one Jersey woman told Fox News reporter CB Cotton, adding, “I was shocked. So to say the least, I’m very disappointed. This is killing us, and every time you turn around it’s something more. You only get little pleasures in life that you enjoy, and my air conditioner is one of them.”

Perhaps Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s decision to shutter the state’s nuclear and coal plants, without a one-to-one replacement for lost capacity on the grid, was a catastrophic error that is only now coming home to roost. He also prioritized offshore wind farms and other green energy projects, which have left the grid more fragile than ever.

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Yet Another Misleading Report on “Low-Cost” Wind and Solar

In a just-released report, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) claims that renewable energy is the most cost-competitive source of new electricity generation worldwide. The report further claims that “91% of new renewable power projects commissioned last year were more cost-effective than any new fossil fuel alternative” based on levelized costs, which can be thought of as the energy equivalent of a fixed mortgage.

If those claims sound too good to be true, it’s because they are. IRENA’s boasts ignore a fundamental reality: the intermittent electricity generated from wind and solar is fundamentally different than electricity generated by traditional generating resources that are not subject to the whims of the weather.

In the U.S., the Energy Information Administration (EIA) makes the same mistake. The EIA claims that wind and solar will account for the lion’s share of new generating capacity for the next decade and will provide electricity at a lower levelized cost than any traditional resource, including new natural gas generators.

But the episodic nature of wind and solar power has critical impacts on both supply adequacy and cost, which, while recognized by some, are nonetheless not incorporated into bottom-line data. Traditional coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydroelectric generating plants can be scheduled to run when needed. Some of them, especially nuclear and most coal plants, are designed to operate continuously and are referred to as “baseload” facilities. Others, especially natural gas plants, can quickly be turned on or off (“dispatched”) to match changes in demand. Collectively, traditional generation can be both scheduled and dynamically managed, enabling the operators of electric grids to reliably meet demand at the lowest cost.

The inherent intermittency of wind and solar reduces the physical and economic value of their capacity relative to traditional generating resources, as sufficient reserves or storage must be maintained to meet demand when they are unavailable. Merely reporting total wind and solar capacity misleads because it does not account for the adequacy of the electrical energy generated to meet demand and the actual costs to do so.

Here’s an analogy. Imagine that a city and its citizens are offered two types of buses for commuting. One is with new buses and free fares. However, these run only one-third of the time, are often unpredictable, and are less likely to show up on bad-weather days. If you wait for one of these new free buses but it fails to show up, you must suffer the inconvenience of having to take a relatively expensive Uber ride, which can cost even more on busy or bad-weather days. Meanwhile, the other option is to pay a modest fare (say, one-tenth of an Uber ride) on a conventional bus—but one that’s reliable, regardless of weather. Over a year of commuting, the total costs for the “free” bus service are likely to be much higher and the value much lower than commuting on the conventional bus service.

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EPA cancelling $7B in community solar grants, Dems call it ‘illegal’

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced it will claw back $7 billion in already earmarked funds from the Solar for All community grants and then eliminate the program, a move that Democrats claim is against the law.

“This money was intended for our constituents and communities to help lower energy bills,” Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., stated Friday. “Clawing these funds back isn’t just brazenly illegal – it’s a betrayal by this Administration of working families who will now pay higher energy bills just so Republicans can grind their axe against clean energy.”

The repeal of the program, however, directly implements orders from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law a month ago. Among multiple other green energy policies, the OBBBA repeals the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which the Solar for All program falls under.

The program, funded by taxpayer dollars via the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, has already promised funds to 60 grant recipients across the U.S. The money was meant for the creation or expansion of solar programs meant to lower electricity bills for approximately 900,000 low-income households and increase their access to solar-produced energy.

The abrupt rescinding of the funds, though allowed for by law, will disrupt plans in 49 states. However, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said that “very little money” has actually been spent and that recipients are still “very much in the early planning phase, not the building and construction process.”

“But the bottom line again is this: EPA no longer has the authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep this boondoggle alive,” Zeldin added.

Republicans targeted dozens of similar federal green energy programs and grants in the OBBBA, arguing that such subsidies create a false demand for unreliable sources of electricity that have minimal positive impact on the environment.

The Solar for All program in particular wasted taxpayer dollars, Zeldin said, by diluting the billions of dollars through pass-through entities, with middlemen taking a 15% cut of total funds “by conservative estimates.”

Additionally, the program received an exemption from the Build America, Buy America law, which requires federal agencies to use American workers, products and infrastructure for projects funded by American taxpayers.

States including Ohio, Illinois, Arizona, Missouri, Virginia and Michigan had each been awarded more than $100 million from the Solar for All program and have already planned on how to disperse the promised funds.

Democratic governors were quick to condemn the EPA’s decision, with Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin – which received over $62 million worth of grants – deeming it “unnecessary,” as The Center Square reported.

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Wind & Solar Energy Bankrupting Sunshine State

The State of Florida, long a model of economic growth and conservative fiscal policy, now faces a paradox: while bathed in sunshine and surrounded by natural beauty, it is flirting with energy insolvency. Despite its bounty of natural gas and a history of reliable and affordable electric power, the Sunshine State is increasingly embracing wind and solar energy—two intermittent sources heavily reliant on subsidies, regulatory distortion and taxpayer support.

According to energy analyst Dave Walsh, a speaker at last weekend’s Reclaim Campaign event in Venice, Florida, this green energy shift is not only misguided—it is a direct threat to Florida’s economic sustainability.

Dave Walsh, former president of Mitsubishi-Hitachi Power Americas and a frequent commentator on energy policy, has issued repeated warnings about the consequences of an overreliance on renewable energy. His central thesis is simple: wind and solar power are not financially or technically viable replacements for baseload energy.

Unlike clean coal, natural gas or nuclear—which produce consistent power regardless of time or weather—wind and solar depend on conditions beyond human control. In Florida, that volatility translates into higher costs, increasing grid instability, and growing dependence on backup generation that negates many of the claimed environmental benefits.

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Gone with the Wind: Joe Biden’s Last Minute ‘Green’ Project Cancelled in Idaho

The Department of the Interior announced Wednesday that it is moving to terminate the Lava Ridge Wind Project in southern Idaho, reversing an approval made by the Biden-Harris administration in December 2024.

The Department of the Interior announced Wednesday that it is moving to terminate the Lava Ridge Wind Project in southern Idaho, reversing an approval made by the Biden-Harris administration in December 2024.

The agency cited legal deficiencies in the project’s authorization and pointed to widespread opposition from Idaho residents, many of whom raised concerns about the project’s proximity to a World War II memorial site.

The Lava Ridge Wind Project was slated to include up to 231 wind turbines spread across nearly 60,000 acres of land.

The Biden-Harris administration’s approval of the project came during its final weeks and was met with criticism from lawmakers, local officials, and residents concerned about its impact on the Minidoka National Historic Site.

“Under President Donald Trump’s bold leadership, the Department is putting the brakes on deficient, unreliable energy and putting the American people first,” said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in a statement.

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World’s Poor in for Hard Time as Pope Leo Backs Green Agenda and Net Zero

On matters of Catholic dogma, the Popes claim to be infallible. But on the science around climate change and the political Net Zero lunacy they frequently talk out of their pontifical posteriors. Who can forget the late Pope Francis’s claim that humans are causing earthquakes, a suggestion that only the whackiest of climate alarmists can utter. Alas, the new Bishop of Rome is also capable of ruminating out of his rear end with Pope Leo XIV recently giving us his ‘world is burning’ sermon. At a recent ‘green’ mass at his summer estate in Castel Gandolfo, he added: “We must pray for the conversion of so many people inside and outside of the church, who still don’t recognise the urgency of caring for our common home.”

As a ‘lapsed’ Catholic, your correspondent has been the beneficiary of many such ‘conversion’ prayers. Fear works well if you are a schoolboy sitting at the feet of Sister Agnes, headmistress of St Anselm’s primary school in Dartford, with the fires of hell promised for missing mass on Sunday and the numerous Holy Days of Obligation. Papal fears of a world burning due to excessive holidays in Benidorm are a bit tame. After all, it has been done to the far limits of stupidity by the UN activist-in-chief Antonio Guterres. Come on Leo, I can’t help thinking, you can do better than that.

Needless to say the new Green Pope is all-in on the fake science of weather attribution. “We see so many natural disasters in the world, nearly every day and in so many countries, that are in part caused by the excesses of being human, with our lifestyle.” One can only pray that the new Pontiff gets around to reading the latest scientific assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, where little or no human involvement is observed in almost all natural weather events, now and forward to 2100. He might care to consider that deaths from natural disasters have plunged by 95% over the last 100 years, while the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has led to a remarkable 15-20% ‘greening’ of the planet.

Wearing green vestments for his special mass in the new ecological education centre at the summer residence, Pope Leo urged the world to recognise what he called the urgency of the climate crisis, and “hear the cry of the  poor”. But the poor are not crying, at least not for the rich Western elite fantasy of Net Zero. Many in the developing world see hydrocarbon use as the key to lifting them out of grinding poverty. They are aware of the enormous increase in staple crops that has occurred over the last 60 years due to the use of hydrocarbon-enabled fertilisers. They can feel the extra food in their bellies – to deprive them of the natural stored energy of the Earth at this stage in their development would, in Sister Agnes’s often spoken words, be wicked.

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Dep’t of Energy says continuing Biden-era energy policies will increase blackout risk by 100-fold

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released its annual “Resource Adequacy Report,” earlier this month, and it warns that blackouts are coming if the country carries out the Biden-era plan to retire fossil fuel power plants. That is not sitting well with climate activists. 

The report’s executive summary opens with a declaration that the U.S. possesses “abundant energy sources and capabilities such as oil and gas, coal, and nuclear.” It warns that the speed at which utilities are retiring fossil fuel-powered generators and replacing them with unreliable and intermittent wind and solar power threatens to increase the risk of power outages by 100X in 2030. 

“This report affirms what we already know: The United States cannot afford to continue down the unstable and dangerous path of energy subtraction previous leaders pursued, forcing the closure of baseload power sources like coal and natural gas,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement. 

The Biden-Harris administration’s report in April 2024 under then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm took on a noticeably different tone. Their executive summary warned that relying on fossil fuel resources to meet reliability requirements is “risky,” and natural gas generators should be replaced with hydrogen or fitted with carbon capture, a technology DOE engineers warned wasn’t affordable or scalable. Granholm’s report mentioned climate change 14 times, but the Trump administration’s report doesn’t mention it at all.

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Woke Netherlands Is Rationing Electricity as the Power Grid Is Overwhelmed and the Kingdom Is Focused on ‘Cutting Emissions’

Go woke, go ‘broken power grid’.

Around the world, the unreliability of the new power-generating technologies and the unwise rush towards ‘net-zero’ goals are leading the countries most invested in these ruinous policies into deep power supply troubles.

After blackouts in Spain, Portugal and parts of France two months ago, now it’s the ultra-liberal kingdom of the Netherlands that is reaping the electricity shortage that they sowed with their woke agenda.

It arose today that the Dutch are now rationing electricity.

Their overloaded power grid can’t take the pressure of rapid electrification and ‘ambitious climate goals’ (a.k.a. the Church of Climate Change policies).

Daily Mail reported:

“More than 11,900 businesses are stuck in a queue for access to the network, alongside public buildings including hospitals, schools and fire stations.”

The present crisis comes as the Dutch concentrate efforts ‘to cut carbon emissions’.

“After shutting down production at the massive Groningen gas field last year, the Dutch government has pushed a fast transition to electric heating, solar power and battery storage.”

The national grid did not grow to demand, creating widespread bottlenecks, and increasing costs.

“Officials estimate €200 billion will be needed by 2040 to expand grid capacity. Electricity prices are already among the highest in Western Europe, and Dutch households face yearly tariff increases of up to 4.7 percent for at least the next decade.”

Citizens are asked not charge e-bikes and electric cars during the peak usage hours between 4pm and 9pm.

“The Netherlands has been one of Europe’s most aggressive adopters of green policies, aiming to cut emissions in half by 2030.”

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Kathy Hochul’s only slowing down the suffering from her green-energy lunacy

Gov. Kathy Hochul finally admits the state’s “climate” goals are impossible to meet for now, but she offers no reason to trust she won’t continue to pursue them to appease green extremists, at huge cost to regular New Yorkers, if she wins re-election next year.

The climate law demands the state achieve 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040, but it’s still burning as much carbon as ever; its faltering (but hugely expensive) alternative-energy gains aren’t even enough to keep up with expected increases in demand.

The gov is making the smallest possible concession to reality, while dodging as much blame as she can: “We cannot accomplish what those objectives were back in before I became governor in a time frame that’s not going to hurt ratepayers,” she announced this month. “So, we’re slowing things down.”

Mind you, she’s burning ever-more of your dollars (via taxes and utility bills) on costly offshore wind projects, still blocking new pipelines, still preventing new-home natural-gas hookups and making non-electric vehicles more expensive.

She’s simply admitting that it’s not remotely enough, even though it keeps driving New York electricity costs through the roof. (Even roofs with solar panels on top!)

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