Tag: infrastructure

Ukraine Drones Hit Blue Stream Pipeline Compressor — Targeting Russia’s Gas Lifeline To Turkey On Day One Of NATO Summit In Ankara

Ukraine struck the Krasnodarskaya compressor station in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai on the evening of July 7 — timed, whether by design or coincidence, to the opening day of the NATO summit hosted by Turkey in Ankara. The Krasnodarskaya station is a critical node in the Blue Stream pipeline, which carries Russian natural gas directly to Turkey under the Black Sea. Gazprom confirmed the attack in an official statement, saying deliveries were not disrupted. That claim should be treated as a floor, not a ceiling — Gazprom has institutional incentive to minimize the incident and a track record of doing so.

The strategic geometry is deliberately provocative. Ukraine is attacking infrastructure that supplies gas to Turkey — the very country hosting the NATO summit where Erdogan is simultaneously positioning himself as both NATO convener and back-channel broker with Russia. At the summit, Erdogan separately announced new arms supplies to Ukraine while thanking the US, Spain, Germany, and Italy for air defense assistance during the Iran conflict — a performance of omnidirectional relevance that only Erdogan could plausibly sustain.

The Kremlin’s response was predictable: calling the strike “terrorism against critical global energy infrastructure.” What is less predictable is Turkey’s actual long-term posture. Ankara depends on Russian gas via Blue Stream and Turkish Stream, is courting Ukraine with weapons, is hosting the NATO summit, and is negotiating quietly with Moscow. Ukraine’s targeting of the Blue Stream compressor — reportedly guided by Palantir’s Maven targeting system — puts Erdogan in a genuinely uncomfortable position: his NATO allies’ weapons are striking infrastructure that heats Turkish homes.

Gazprom said exports were unaffected. This is the second reported attack on Blue Stream infrastructure in recent weeks, suggesting Ukraine has identified the pipeline as a pressure point specifically because it hurts both Russian revenue and Turkish dependency simultaneously — a two-for-one leverage play. There has been no indication Kyiv offered Turkey any advance warning….

President Trump has intentionally courted Turkey for its refusal to get involved on the side of Muslim Iran in the conflict, going so far as returning access to the F-35. Whether Anakara will remain in Trump’s camp as Russian gas is slowed is another issue entirely.

Keep reading

MAMDANI’S NYC: Con Edison Shuts Off Power to 10,000 Customers in Queens as Temps Soar Over 100 Degrees

Mamdani’s New York City.

Con Edison shut off power to 10,000 customers in Queens, New York, on Friday as temperatures soared over 100 degrees.

This is after Communist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged New Yorkers to raise their thermostats to 78 degrees to alleviate strain on the energy grid.

“ConEd pulls the plug on nearly 10,000 customers in Howard Beach, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park as power demand soars with temps pushing 100 degree,” 4 New York reported.

It gets even worse.

500,000 customers are being urged to reduce their electricity use while the ConEd crews make repairs.

Per 4 New York: ConEd cuts voltage by 8% across parts of the Bronx, Westchester, Queens and Brooklyn under soaring demand. Nearly 500,000 customers are being urged to slash electricity use while crews make repairs. Neighborhoods include: Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Mamaroneck, Pelham, Bronxville, Eastchester, Northeast Bronx, City Island, Glendale, Forest Hills, Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village, Long Island City, Hunters Point, Sunnyside, Woodside, Bay Ridge, Park Slope, Sunset Park, Borough Park, Dyker Heights, Flatbush, Kensington, Bensonhurst and Windsor Terrace

Keep reading

Conservative Catches CNN Host Abby Phillip in a Glaring Hypocrisy as She Defends Communist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Absurd Demand on Air Conditioning

Notorious CNN host Abby Phillip’s efforts to defend communist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s demand for air conditioning went sideways when one of her guests caught her in a huge hypocrisy.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Mamdani on Wednesday requested that New Yorkers set their thermostats to 78 degrees. He claimed this was to alleviate stress on the energy grid.

Temperatures are soaring into the triple digits in the Midwest and East Coast this week and into the July 4th holiday weekend.

“The best protection against extreme heat is air conditioning, he added. If you don’t have it at home, know now where you’ll go to stay cool. Check in on your neighbors, especially seniors, and if you see someone outside who appears to be in distress, call 311 so we can get help to them.

“This administration is using every tool we have to keep New Yorkers safe, but the strongest city is one where neighbors look out for one another. And to every business owner, please set your thermostats to 78 degrees to alleviate the stress on our grid.”

Of course, we all know the Gracie Mansion (where Mamdani lives) will be fully air-conditioned. According to Marxists like him, the rules should apply only to the masses.

Phillip, though, saw Mamdani’s demands as reasonable. During her show last night, she repeatedly cited then-South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s similar requests from a 2015 heat wave in the Palmetto State as a reason to let New Yorkers suffer.

Conservative guest Ben Ferguson then challenged Phillip by asking whether she raised the temperature in her home in solidarity with Mamdani. This caused the panel to go off the rails.

After the shouting died down, Ferguson dropped a bombshell: the CNN studio they were debating in was nowhere near 78 degrees.

Keep reading

Mamdani Tells New Yorkers to Set Thermostats to 78 Degrees to Alleviate Stress on the Grid Amid Life-Threatening Heat Wave

Far-left NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday urged New Yorkers to set their thermostats to 78 degrees to alleviate stress on the energy grid.

Temperatures are soaring into the triple digits in the Midwest and East Coast this week and into the July 4th holiday weekend.

Mamdani encouraged New Yorkers to raise their thermostats amid the life-threatening heat wave.

“I am asking every New Yorker to make a heat plan before the worst of this weather arrives,” said Mayor Mamdani on Wednesday.

“The best protection against extreme heat is air conditioning. If you don’t have it at home, know now where you’ll go to stay cool. Check in on your neighbors, especially seniors, and if you see someone outside who appears to be in distress, call 311 so we can get help to them. This administration is using every tool we have to keep New Yorkers safe, but the strongest city is one where neighbors look out for one another.”

“And to every business owner, please set your thermostats to 78 degrees to alleviate the stress on our grid,” Mamdani told New Yorkers.

Keep reading

Are Taxpayers Helping to Finance America’s Data Center Boom?

“Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else” ~ Frédéric Bastiat

A strikingly large number of massive data centers are being built across the United States. It is currently estimated that there are more than 4,000 data centers in the U.S., and more are on the way.

The federal government as well as local and state governments are providing financial incentives for these investments. Such incentives occur in an environment that lacks transparency and proper disclosure. As an extension of this opaqueness, the benefits to justify these subsidies also remain unclear. Many would argue that promises of job creation have been grossly overstated (and the data centers’ potential role in creating a digital control grid kept secret), while energy and resource concerns—as well as the potential costs of site cleanup if and when the facilities close down or fail—have been minimized. This, in addition to the secrecy surrounding the planning and financing of the data center industry, indicates that the negative impact to local residents and the American taxpayers may be substantial.

The following report examines this matter and is organized into two main sections. The first covers the federal layer of financial influence helping to advance the data center boom—the One Big Beautiful Bill. The second section focuses on the generous state and local government tax incentives, which are costing state governments billions in revenue losses. The conclusion elaborates on an opportunity to join the effort in seeking clarity on America’s data center industry, with additional resources provided in the links below.

Keep reading

Largest US Power Grid Declares Emergency To Prevent Blackouts

A mega heat dome is set to descend on the eastern half of the U.S., prompting the Energy Department to issue two emergency orders to reduce the risk of rolling blackouts in the Mid-Atlantic area as PJM Interconnection braces for record power demand.

DOE’s first order directs the PJM region, which serves 67 million people across 13 states, “to dispatch specified units and to order their operation as needed to maintain reliability.”

The second order states that PJM, working with transmission owners and electric distribution companies, must use backup generation as a last resort before or during a Level 3 energy emergency.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said, “Maintaining affordable, reliable, and secure power in the PJM service territory is non-negotiable.”

Bloomberg’s forecast for maximum temperatures across the Washington, D.C., metro area could average in the low triple digits through Saturday.

Keep reading

Blackstone Sells Stake In Three Virginia Data Centers Amid Grassroot Outrage

Up until now, when it comes to real estate, Blackstone was best known in recent years for dumping many of its trophy office properties – which in the aftermath of work from home never recovered their projected cash flow potential – at a huge discount. Now, it may be pulling a page from its old, pre-Lehman playbook  by calling the top in yet another commercial real estate segment: data centers. 

According to Bloomberg, Blackstone is selling its stakes in a trio of data centers across Northern Virginia for $3.5 billion, cashing out of part of a bet it made less than three years ago.

Digital Realty Trust will pay $1.2 billion of cash and offer $2.3 billion of its shares to Blackstone funds, the firms said in a statement Monday. In exchange, the data center company will acquire Blackstone’s 80% interest in two 96-megawatt data centers in Manassas, Virginia, and a 50% interest in a 96-megawatt center in nearby Sterling.

The assets involved in this week’s sale were part of a joint venture that Blackstone announced it would set up with Digital Realty in 2023 as it sought to get ahead in the AI arms race that has engulfed Wall Street in recent years. Blackstone and Digital Realty will continue to work together on their remaining data center investments located elsewhere in Northern Virginia as well as in Paris and Frankfurt. 

“We have developed a strong partnership with Blackstone,” Greg Wright, Digital Realty CEO, said in the statement. “This transaction reflects the next phase of that relationship, allowing us to increase our ownership in a portfolio of fully leased, high-quality hyperscale assets.”

It does. The question is why did Blackstone decide to pull the cord now, just as fresh doubts are creeping whether the Mag 7s will continue funding the AI expansion with virtually unlimited capex.

As part of Wall Street’s broader push into data centers, investment has poured into Northern Virginia, which is considered the country’s largest data center market, and is better known as “Data Center Alley“.


Keep reading

Ukraine Closes Week Of Record Drone Attacks On Russia By Hitting Important Weapons Plant

Ukraine announced Saturday that it used its Flamingo cruise missiles overnight to strike Russia’s Titan-Barrikady weapons plant, which reportedly manufactures parts for its powerful Oreshnik missile.

The military plant is in Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, which is a major industrial city in southwest Russia. Writing on X, President Zelensky described it as a “major industrial complex” where Russia “produces artillery systems and specialized military equipment, including components for missile launch systems.”

“Every Russian defense facility involved in the war against Ukraine is a legitimate target for our long-range strikes,” he wrote.

The Associated Press reports, “Volgograd Gov. Andrei Bocharov confirmed an attack on a business in the region’s Krasnooktyabrsky district, saying 10 people had been wounded and taken to a hospital. He said production facilities at the site were damaged but did not identify the company.”

Additionally, “Ukraine’s state security service said Saturday morning that Ukrainian forces also struck an oil pumping facility in Russia’s Vladimir region that supplies fuel to Moscow, for the second time this month.”

But on the other side of the border, Ukrainian media reports that Russia was also busy with now nightly airstrikes:

Russian forces targeted production facilities belonging to the Naftogaz Group, Ukraine’s largest national oil and gas company, in the Poltava and Kharkiv regions.

The barrage of attacks included 129 drones, of which 113 were destroyed or jammed by Ukrainian forces, Ukrainian media reported.

The Russian overnight attacks on Ukraine killed two people and injuring more than 20, according to state officials.

At a moment much of the globe’s attention remains fixated on Iran and the fate of energy shipping through the largely blocked Strait of Hormuz, the Ukraine war is rapidly escalating.

Keep reading

Moscow Oil Refinery Faces Six-Month Shutdown After Relentless Ukrainian Drone Attacks

Moscow’s largest oil refinery is expected to remain out of service for at least six months after suffering significant damage in a series of Ukrainian drone attacks this month, according to Reuters, citing sources familiar with the matter, after Zelensky earlier vowed to bring the war to Russian territory. Kiev and the West are flirty with massive Russian retaliation at this point, which is precisely what Putin has vowed.

The refinery is located on the southern outskirts of the Russian capital and a major fuel supplier to the whole region. It was struck at least twice before this month – as dramatic and intense eyewitness videos captured – forcing operations to halt. Meanwhile via Newsquawk: 

Russia has reportedly asked for 50k tonnes of gasoline from Kazakhstan to help ease domestic fuel shortages, according to sources.

“Repairs will take at least six months,” one source said, describing the extent of the damage at the Moscow Oil Refinery.

The Gazprom Neft operatd facility processed 11.6 million metric tons of crude oil in 2024 and produced roughly 2.9 million tons of gasoline and 3.2 million tons of diesel fuel, according to public data.

It comes at a sensitive moment Russia continues to grapple with fuel supply challenges. At the moment, the Crimean peninsula is witnessing unprecedented government restrictions on selling gas to civilians, as well as half the population suffering an electricity blackout due to major Ukrainian drones strikes on Kerch port, and in particular damage to the large thermal power plant there.

Also, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said this week that Moscow is considering a ban on diesel exports to stabilize domestic markets amid emerging shortages.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) previously claimed responsibility for a June 16 strike that reportedly damaged the refinery’s primary oil-processing unit, described by Ukrainian officials as the plant’s “heart.” That’s when the facility first reportedly suspended operations following the attack.

Two days later, Ukraine launched another large-scale drone assault on Moscow. Russian authorities reported hundreds of drones targeting the capital, resulting in fires at multiple locations.

Since international crude oil prices surged following the war in the Middle East centered on Iran, Russia has boosted its oil revenues as not only prices have jumped – but Russian oil was made desirable in India again – thanks to American waivers for sales of Russia’s crude already loaded on tankers in connection to easing the global crisis due to the Iran war.

Keep reading

Maryland Protests Data Center Costs

A group of 80 Maryland state lawmakers are backing a complaint at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over the PJM Interconnection’s cost allocation for transmission lines that support data centers.

Driven by the way PJM spreads transmission costs, Maryland ratepayers will pay $1.6 billion over the next decade for transmission projects that were approved in the grid operator’s last three regional transmission expansion plans that are designed to mainly serve out-of-state data centers, Maryland’s ratepayer advocate — the Office of People’s Counsel — said in its May 7 complaint.

“While PJM’s rules are unfair for many PJM states, they impact Maryland disproportionately simply because Maryland sits next to Data Center Alley in Virginia,” the Maryland lawmakers said in a Wednesday filing at FERC. “Given the projections of massive data center growth — more than 80,000 megawatts over the next 20 years — PJM is likely to bill Maryland customers billions more for future data center-driven transmission costs.”

The complaint at FERC comes amid an intense focus across the United States on how data centers can affect the electric bills of existing ratepayers through increased generation and transmission costs. The complaint centers on the transmission side of the equation. It contends that FERC is barred from approving transmission cost allocation methodologies that assign costs to ratepayers that won’t gain “roughly commensurate” benefits.

PJM’s cost allocation methodology assigns half of certain regional transmission projects based on a load-ratio share across its footprint, which assumes that all transmission built will benefit the entire grid, according to the ratepayer advocate’s complaint. The other half of transmission costs are assigned via a “solution-based distribution factor analysis,” which fails to capture certain reliability issues caused by data centers, the ratepayer advocate said.

Spreading data center-driven transmission costs across PJM’s footprint could lead to overbuilding, according to the complaint.

“By socializing data center-driven transmission costs to all ratepayers, it insulates states and utilities that attract speculative load growth from overbuilding and stranded asset risk while shifting those risks to neighboring states’ ratepayers,” the ratepayer advocate said.

Further, state-level large-load tariffs fail to address, and may make worse, the misallocation of transmission costs caused by PJM’s transmission cost allocation methodology, according to the complaint. 

Also, recent FERC-approved utility “transmission security agreements” between utilities and data centers are “often confidential, highly variable, and fail to protect existing customers,” the ratepayer advocate said.

The agreements leave ratepayers exposed to transmission costs caused by data centers, according to the ratepayer advocate. “Moreover, they carry potential legal consequences that may prove difficult to unravel,” the ratepayer advocate said. The ratepayer advocate said FERC should order PJM to revise its cost allocation methodology so that data centers pay for the transmission projects that they cause.

As a start, PJM should be required to assign the costs of transmission projects that are designed to serve data centers and other large loads to the grid operator’s zones where the data centers are located, according to the complaint. That would allow state-level large load tariffs to address those transmission costs, the ratepayer advocate said.

“The upstream leakage of a substantial portion of data center driven costs at the regional level to other zones through the current operation of the PJM tariff creates an unjust subsidy for that data center load,” the ratepayer advocate said.

The complaint calls on FERC to order PJM to re-study the baseline reliability projects approved in its last three regional transmission expansion plans to determine the costs caused by forecast load growth from data centers. 

FERC has extended the comment deadline on the complaint to July 27.

Keep reading