Tag: infrastructure

Democrats Spark “Manufactured Power Crisis” In Maryland As Left Begins To Panic

Maryland’s deepening energy crisis and the resulting hyperinflation in power bill costs that have steamrolled working-class families are a stark reminder of why local elections matter. It’s also a case study in what happens when one-party rule goes unchecked. Under far-left Democratic leadership, the state has been so epically mismanaged that it now faces multiple cascading crises, whether fiscal, energy-related, or tied to illegal aliens or violent crime. 

Last week marked a significant inflection point for the panicking Maryland Democratic Party, which can no longer ignore the power bill crisis. 

Governor Wes Moore, speaking from a swanky vineyard in northern Baltimore County, was forced to address the crisis and now has blamed skyrocketing power bills on the regional grid operator, PJM.

Moore’s claim that PJM is somehow responsible for Maryland’s power crisis is a masterclass in political deflection.

What’s actually happened is that Moore and the Democratic Party have championed failed globalist “green” policies that led to the premature retirement of reliable fossil fuel power generation across the state for intermittent solar and wind, leaving the grid more fragile than ever. Meanwhile, baseload capacity has stagnated, forcing the state to import a significant portion of its electricity from neighboring states just to keep up with the soaring demand driven by data centers, EVs, and reshoring efforts. 

The power crisis is entirely self-inflicted and a result of failed green policies pushed by far-left state and local officials wearing climate-crisis blinders. These crazed leftists have no business managing the state’s energy infrastructure, let alone its future. 

Local TV station WBFF Fox Baltimore’s Gary Collins spoke with Maryland Del. Ryan Nawrocki, a Republican representing Baltimore County, who called the energy crisis in the state “manufactured” by failed green policies of the Democratic Party. 

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An Overlooked Vulnerability That Could Cripple America’s Power Grid

  • U.S. transformer wait times have ballooned from 50 to 127 weeks, crippling grid resilience in the face of wildfires, storms, or attacks.
  • The Build America, Buy America Act and global demand for transformers have limited supply, with domestic production covering only 20% of needs.
  • Experts warn that the grid remains dangerously unshielded from electromagnetic pulses—natural or man-made—which could lead to catastrophic blackouts.

Electric transformers aren’t something most people think about unless one attached to the power lines serving their home or business is damaged, resulting in a power outage. Most of the time, power comes back on quickly, indicating that the transformers were not the problem. It takes longer to replace a transformer damaged beyond repair.

And that can be a problem if large numbers of transformers are damaged at once such as occurred in the recent California wildfires. That’s because the waiting time for new transformers is now 127 weeks.

In case you don’t know, transformers are typically used to bring down voltage. Utilities use high voltages to transfer electricity long distances because it’s more efficient. The electricity voltage must then be “stepped down” to the level that most homes and businesses use.

It turns out American trade policy is complicating matters for the American grid. The Build America, Buy America provisions of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed under the Biden administration require substantial and, in some cases, 100 percent domestic content for goods and services used in a wide range of federally funded infrastructure projects, including maintenance and expansion of the electrical grid. And, few infrastructure projects move forward without at least some federal contribution. Unfortunately, America only produces about 20 percent of the equipment it needs for its electrical power and transmission system.

Even if the United States were not restricting supply of these goods through Build America, Buy America requirements, there would still be long waiting times. In fairness to those who passed the infrastructure bill, the waiting time for a new transformer back then was 50 weeks—not particularly fast, but far better than today’s wait of over two years for most transformers and now even four years for specialized transformers.

What’s happened is a perfect storm for manufacturers in the form of quickly increasing demand. “Aging grid infrastructure, new renewable-energy generation, expanding electrification, increased EV charging stations, and new data centers all contribute to the rising demand for these machines,” according to the IEEE Spectrum. And that demand is coming from all over the world, including fast-growing Asia, a European Green New Deal, and America’s huge infrastructure spending that includes large sums for expanding green energy and readying the grid for that expansion.

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AI in Wyoming may soon use more electricity than state’s human residents

On Monday, Mayor Patrick Collins of Cheyenne, Wyoming, announced plans for an AI data center that would consume more electricity than all homes in the state combined, according to The Associated Press. The facility, a joint venture between energy infrastructure company Tallgrass and AI data center developer Crusoe, would start at 1.8 gigawatts and scale up to 10 gigawatts of power use.

The project’s energy demands are difficult to overstate for Wyoming, the least populous US state. The initial 1.8-gigawatt phase, consuming 15.8 terawatt-hours (TWh) annually, is more than five times the electricity used by every household in the state combined. That figure represents 91 percent of the 17.3 TWh currently consumed by all of Wyoming’s residential, commercial, and industrial sectors combined. At its full 10-gigawatt capacity, the proposed data center would consume 87.6 TWh of electricity annually—double the 43.2 TWh the entire state currently generates.

Because drawing this much power from the public grid is untenable, the project will rely on its own dedicated gas generation and renewable energy sources, according to Collins and company officials. However, this massive local demand for electricity—even if self-generated—represents a fundamental shift for a state that currently sends nearly 60 percent of its generated power to other states.

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon praised the project’s potential benefits for the state’s natural gas industry in a company statement. “This is exciting news for Wyoming and for Wyoming natural gas producers,” Gordon said.

The proposed site for the new data center sits several miles south of Cheyenne near the Colorado border off US Route 85. While state and local regulators still need to approve the project, Collins expressed optimism about a quick start. “I believe their plans are to go sooner rather than later,” he said.

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Largest U.S. Power Grid Issues “Max Generation Alert”

America’s largest power grid has issued a ‘Maximum Generation Alert‘ and ‘Load Management Alert‘ for Thursday, the third this summer, as extreme heat pushes power demand to the brink, with air conditioners running at full blast across its 13-state eastern U.S. service area. 

“The alert is also targeted at transmission/generation owners, who then determine if any maintenance or testing on equipment can be deferred or canceled,” PJM said, adding, “By deferring maintenance, the units stay online and continue to produce energy that is needed.”

PJM posted on X that electricity usage is expected to reach 151,485 megawatts by 5 p.m. today (Eastern Time). The good news is that the grid has about 161,643 megawatts of spare capacity available. This spare capacity will act as a buffer to prevent rolling blackouts during peak evening usage. 

The unfolding story in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions is an alarming one for power grids.

Years of Democratic leadership at every level of government have pushed climate crisis propaganda that forced premature decarbonization of power grids by retiring stable fossil fuel power generation, swapping it for unstable solar and wind. Yet, there wasn’t a perfect one-to-one swap, and this has led to a mix-and-match in base load power capacity versus demand – now colliding with a rapid boom in data center construction across the region, especially the power-hungry CIA data centers in Loudoun County, Virginia. 

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Brace For Soaring Electricity Bills: Biggest US Power Grid Sets Power Costs At Record High To Feed AI

Very soon if you want AI (and even if you don’t), you won’t be able to afford AC.

Just this morning we warned readers that America’s largest power grid, PJM Interconnect, which serves 65 million people across 13 states and Washington, DC, and more importantly feeds Deep State Central’s Loudoun County, Virginia, also known as ‘Data Center Alley‘ and which is recognized as one of the world’s largest hubs for data centers…

… had recently issued multiple ‘Maximum Generation‘ and ‘Load Management‘ alerts this summer, as the heat pushes power demand to the brink with air conditioners running at full blast across the eastern half of the U.S.

But as anyone who has not lived under a rock knows, the deeper issue is that there’s simply not enough baseload juice to feed the relentless, ravenous growth of power-hungry AI server racks at new data centers. 

“There is simply no new capacity to meet new loads,” said Joe Bowring to Bloomberg, president of Monitoring Analytics, which is the independent watchdog for PJM Interconnection. “The solution is to make sure that people who want to build data centers are serious enough about it to bring their own generation.”

Well, there is another solution: crank up prices to the stratosphere. 

And that’s precisely what happened. As Bloomberg reports, business and households supplied by the largest US grid will pay $16.1 billion to ensure there is enough electricity supply to meet soaring power demand, especially that from a massive buildout in AI data centers.

The payouts to generators for the year starting June 2026 topped last year’s record $14.7 billion, according to PJM Interconnection LLC, which operates the grid stretching from the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic. That puts the capacity price per megawatt each day at a record $329.17 from $269.92.

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“No Spare Capacity”: Watchdog Warns Largest US Grid Is Maxed Out Amid Data Center Buildout

America’s largest power grid has issued multiple ‘Maximum Generation‘ and ‘Load Management‘ alerts this summer, as summer heat pushes power demand to the brink with air conditioners running at full blast across the eastern half of the U.S. The deeper issue: there’s not enough baseload capacity to support the explosive growth of power-hungry AI server racks at new data centers. 

“There is simply no new capacity to meet new loads,” said Joe Bowring, president of Monitoring Analytics, which is the independent watchdog for PJM Interconnection, who Bloomberg quoted. “The solution is to make sure that people who want to build data centers are serious enough about it to bring their own generation.”

New AI data centers are popping up across the PJM Interconnection—the largest U.S. power grid, serving 65 million people across 13 states and Washington, D.C. Part of PJM’s territory includes Loudoun County, Virginia—known as ‘Data Center Alley‘—which is recognized as one of the world’s largest hubs for data centers.

The problem is that next-generation server racks at AI data centers are now consuming more than twice the power they did just a few years ago. For example, Nvidia’s GB200 AI rack draws 120 kW, compared to 60–80 kW for the earlier HGX models. Multiply that by thousands of racks in large, hyperscale centers, and it’s clear that AI computing is rapidly gobbling up grid capacity while baseload power in the form of fossil fuel power generation has been retired. 

On Sunday, we cited the EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook for July, which showed that average summer wholesale power prices across the PJM, NYISO, and ISO-NE grids are the highest in the nation. These prices now far exceed those in Texas’ ERCOT, the U.S. average, and even the traditionally high-cost West Coast markets. The blame is squarely focused on the Democrats’ initiative to recklessly decarbonize power grids.

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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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Anti-Government Militia Targets Weather Radars: What To Know

An “anti-government militia” called Veterans on Patrol has declared that it is targeting weather radar installations in Oklahoma.

In an interview with News 9 on Tuesday, Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer, the founder of VOP, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as an anti-government militia, confirmed the group’s intentions. When asked whether they were targeting the radars, Meyer replied, “Absolutely.”

Newsweek contacted the SPLC and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for comment on Friday via an online form and email, respectively, outside usual working hours.

Why It Matters

Following widespread floods that have devastated Texas in the past week, a number of conspiracy theories have swirled online around cloud seeding and weather manipulation.

Founded in 2015, Veterans on Patrol initially focused on vigilante activities along the U.S.-Mexico border but has since shifted toward conspiracy-driven campaigns, including those involving weather manipulation. The group’s rhetoric has grown more extreme in recent months, raising concerns among public safety officials.

Meyer’s recent admission follows the vandalism of News 9’s radar system in northeast Oklahoma City. Surveillance footage captured an individual tampering with electrical components, disabling power to the radar, damaging the generator and control panels, and knocking the system offline for several hours on Sunday.

CBS affiliate KWTV reported having footage of a man disabling the power supply to its NextGen Live radar. The station suggested the incident may be connected to rhetoric from VOP.

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America’s largest power grid is struggling to meet demand from AI

America’s largest power grid is under strain as data centers and AI chatbots consume power faster than new plants can be built.

Electricity bills are projected to surge by more than 20% this summer in some parts of PJM Interconnection’s territory, which covers 13 states – from Illinois to Tennessee, Virginia to New Jersey – serving 67 million customers in a region with the most data centers in the world.

The governor of Pennsylvania is threatening to abandon the grid, the CEO has announced his departure and the chair of PJM’s board of managers and another board member were voted out.

The upheaval at PJM started a year ago with a more than 800% jump in prices at its annual capacity auction. Rising prices out of the auction trickle down to everyday people’s power bills.

Now PJM is barreling towards its next capacity auction on Wednesday, when prices may rise even further.

The auction aims to avoid blackouts by establishing a rate at which generators agree to pump out electricity during the most extreme periods of stress on the grid, usually the hottest and coldest days of the year.

High prices out of the auction should spur new power plant construction, but that hasn’t happened quickly enough in PJM’s region as aging power plants continue to retire and data center demand explodes.

PJM has made the situation worse by delaying auctions and pausing the application process for new plants, according to more than a dozen power developers, regulators, energy attorneys and other experts interviewed by Reuters.

“We need speed from PJM, we need transparency from PJM and we need to keep consumer costs down with PJM,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told Reuters in an interview. “I think they’ve taken some steps in that direction which is really encouraging to me and we’re going to continue to work at it.”

PJM says the supply and demand crunch has been caused largely by factors outside of its control, including state energy policies that closed fossil-fuel fired power plants prematurely and data center growth in “Data Center Alley” in Northern Virginia and other burgeoning hubs in the Mid-Atlantic.

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The Real National Emergency: Endless Wars, Failing Infrastructure, and a Dying Republic

Seventy years after President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about the cost of a military-industrial complex, America is still stealing from its own people to fund a global empire.

In 2025 alone, the U.S. has launched airstrikes in Yemen (Operation Rough Rider), bombed Houthi-controlled ports and radar installations (killing scores of civilians), deployed greater numbers of troops and multiple aircraft carriers to the Middle East, and edged closer to direct war with Iran in support of Israel’s escalating conflict.

Each of these “new” fronts has been sold to the public as national defense. In truth, they are the latest outposts in a decades-long campaign of empire maintenance—one that lines the pockets of defense contractors while schools crumble, bridges collapse, and veterans sleep on the streets at home.

This isn’t about national defense. This is empire maintenance.

It’s about preserving a military-industrial complex that profits from endless war, global policing, and foreign occupations—while the nation’s infrastructure rots and its people are neglected.

The United States has spent much of the past half-century policing the globe, occupying other countries, and waging endless wars.

What most Americans fail to recognize is that these ongoing wars have little to do with keeping the country safe and everything to do with propping up a military-industrial complex that has its sights set on world domination.

War has become a huge money-making venture, and the U.S. government, with its vast military empire, is one of its best buyers and sellers.

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