Tag: electricity

Electricity Prices have Risen Seven Times Faster Under Biden than Trump

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Electricity prices have experienced a significant rise since the beginning of the Biden administration, rising more than seven times faster than under the entire Trump administration.

The average price of electricity has increased by 29.4% since January 2021 as of March, far greater than the preceding four years under the Trump administration, when electricity prices increased by only 4.0%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The jump in electricity prices accompanies a number of policies from the Biden administration that have curbed energy production, such as a regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency that requires that existing coal-fired power plants cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040.

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Commentary: For Electricity, Americans Deserve More Choices

RealClearWire
Electric Grid

Amid a polarizing presidential election, areas of common ground are rare, especially around energy. President Joe Biden has labeled climate change as “the only existential threat humanity faces,” and outlined an agenda to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Meanwhile, his would-be Republican challengers have pledged a different course, with the frontrunning campaign of former President Donald Trump pledging to “maximize fossil fuel production” and roll back funding for Biden’s landmark 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. 

A step back from the daily partisan back-and-forth reveals an idea with something for everyone to support: increasing choice when it comes to where consumers get their energy. A commitment to freedom and creating our own destinies is quintessentially American. Yet most of our citizens have zero control over their power provider and the cost of their energy, and very few politicians on either side of the aisle say anything about it. 

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Commentary: The Answer to American Electric Grid Reliability Is Fuel Cells

RealClearWire

In 1932, Americans were doggedly trudging through year three of the Great Depression when a candidate for president spoke of “the human importance of electric power in our present social order … It lights our homes, our places of work and our streets. It turns the wheels of most of our transportation and our factories. In our homes it serves not only for light, but it can become the willing servant of the family in countless ways … Electricity is no longer a luxury,” he declared. “It is a definite necessity.”

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Wisconsin Governor Vetoes Bills Aimed at Protecting Consumers Against Climate Change Alarmist Agenda

M.D. Kittle

Governor Tony Evers turned to his veto pen once again last week, this time killing consumer protection bills that interfered with his far-left climate change agenda, according to the state’s largest business lobby.

The Democrat vetoed Assembly Bills 141 and 142, and Senate Bill 49, among 10 Republican-led bills killed by a governor who has used the state’s powerful veto pen more liberally than any governor in Badger State history.

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Nuclear Energy Renaissance Emerges as Counterbalance to Democrats’ ‘Green New Deal’

Just the News

by Addison Smith   Alternative clean energy plans to the Democrats’ Green New Deal are getting a boost from a new generation of nuclear energy technology, which can produce zero-carbon emission electricity with a much smaller footprint than earlier reactors. The innovations and advances of the nuclear power industry are gaining favor from Europe and Asia to America, transforming a debate that has been dominated over the last decade by solar and wind development. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and serves as Vice Chair for the Conservative Climate Caucus, said nuclear has “come back into the forefront” of the energy policy because it is abundant, continuously generating and zero emissions. “We want a cleaner, healthier planet,” Miller-Meeks told a recent Just the News special report sponsored by ClearPath “But we also want to be able to compete economically around the globe.” Wind and solar, she said, cannot provide a “continual base load that will be able to provide energy and electricity if the sun’s not shining, and the wind isn’t blowing.” By contrast “natural gas and nuclear are two of those things” that can, and nuclear specifically can do so while helping…

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Stacey Abrams Joins Dark Money-Backed Group Looking to Crack Down on Gas Stoves

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by Bronson Winslow   Two-time failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is joining an environmental advocacy group that is looking to crack down on gas stoves, according to the group’s website. Abrams will be joining Rewiring America, a group that aims to electrify homes and appliances and suggests gas stoves can lead to asthma and air pollution, as a senior counsel to implement a “national awareness campaign” that pushes America towards a reliance on electric energy, according to a Rewiring America press release. The left-of-center advocacy group, which works to minimize the use of oil and natural gas, is sponsored by the Windward Fund, a nonprofit managed by liberal “dark money” consulting firm Arabella Advisors. “Rewiring America anchors our work in how the decisions we make around the kitchen table about the machines we use can save us money, make our homes and communities healthier, and reduce climate-harming emissions,” Rewiring America co-founder and CEO Ari Matusiak said in the release. “Stacey Abrams’ career of public service has hit all these themes and more. She’s a brilliant and visionary organizer who will accelerate our work and expand the audience for the benefits of electrification — the most equity-centered climate strategy we have.” Abrams will work to assist the…

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Electricity Prices Jumped More than Double that of Inflation Last Year, Consumer Index Shows

Just the News

Prices for electricity in the United States soared well above overall inflationary levels last year, putting an added squeeze on consumers already reeling from significantly inflated costs of most consumer goods.

The Consumer Price Index Summary released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics this month showed the 12-month average price of electricity last month jumping a whopping 14.3 percent, more than double the 6.5 percent of overall price increases.

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Commentary: The Left Sacrifices Natural Gas at the Altar of Climate Nirvana Leaving Good Americans Freeze to Death

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The just-departed polar vortex confirmed that when Mother Nature is enraged, it’s wise to have options. Maddeningly, today’s “pro-choice” Democrats want Americans to have one energy choice.

Neo-totalitarian, Left-wing eco-extremists are banning new natural-gas access in scores of locales. If not reversed, this cruel, stupid, needless policy will kill Americans.

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Commentary: Solar’s Lofty Ambitions Are Consuming Ever-Larger Expanses of Land Down Below

RealClearWire

Wedged in the southern flank of Virginia, Charlotte County is home to some 11,500 people who live amidst rolling hills and family farms, pastures and sawmills, a historic Civil War battlefield, and four townlets tinier than many suburban subdivisions.  

But this pastoral tableau will be swept up in the green revolution when construction begins here on the nation’s largest solar power facility east of the Mississippi River. The planned 800-megawatt Randolph Solar Project in Charlotte County will replace a commercial lumber farm of loblolly pines with 1.6 million photovoltaic panels covering an area equivalent to seven square miles. 

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Commentary: Exposing the Filthy Truth Behind the ‘Clean Energy’ Promise of Electricity

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Electricity! It’s magical. It’s mystical. We’ve been obsessed with harnessing its power for thousands of years. As far back as 600 B.C. Thales of Miletus wrote how amber could be charged by rubbing it. In 1600, William Gilbert translated the Greek word amber to electricity.

On June 15, 1752, Benjamin Franklin promoted his theory that lightning was electrical by flying a kite during a lightning storm. Around this time, Michael Faraday discovered that moving a magnet inside a wire coil could generate electricity. From there, he built the first electric motor. He later built a generator and a transformer.

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Thousands of Coloradans Find Smart Thermostats Locked Thanks to ‘Energy Emergency’

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Thousands of Colorado residents were unable to control the temperature of their homes after they were locked out of their smart thermostats due to an “energy emergency.”

Xcel Energy customers in Pueblo, Colorado, who opted into the company’s AC Rewards program, which offers a $100 enrollment bill credit and $25 annually, received a notification last week that they were locked out of temperature controls.

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Arizona Official Says California’s Electrical Power Grab Could Lead to Outages

The Center Square
Silhouette of powerlines

The head of the Arizona Corporate Commission worries that California power officials moving their wattage to the front of the line would export power outages to Arizona and elsewhere.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently decided to allow the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) to prioritize energy flow throughout California over Arizona. This concerns to the chairwoman of the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), Lea Márquez Peterson.

CAISO petitioned FERC to make changes to its tariff related to transmission priority through California in response to the extensive blackouts in August 2020. The summer readiness plan approved by California’s primary grid operator deprioritized the electrical wattage sent outside the golden state when the power demand is high.

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Economic Development Roundup: Green Hydrogen Fuel Production Plant Slated for Georgia

The Center Square
hydrogen fuel plant

Hydrogen solutions provider Plug Power will invest $84 million to open a green hydrogen fuel production plant in Kingsland, Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp’s office said.

The investment is expected to create 24 jobs in Camden County. Plug Power’s GenKey solution combines critical elements to power and fuel and provides services to Amazon, BMW, Southern Company, The Home Depot, Group Carrefour and Walmart.

“With this hydrogen production plant, we are expanding our green hydrogen network to provide zero-emissions fuel to customers in Georgia and across the Southeast,” Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh said. “Investing in Camden County is the right choice to support Plug Power’s continued growth.”

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Tennessee Valley Authority’s Use of Diverse Power Generation Sources Credited With Keeping Electricity Flowing in Tennessee During Winter Storms

Jason M. Reynolds

Unlike Texas, Tennessee has been blessed to largely keep the electricity on during the winter storms, with Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) crediting its diverse generation assets.

Although thousands of homes throughout the Tennessee Valley have lost power at different times thanks to issues like trees falling on transmission lines, electric generation in the Volunteer State has held up despite the high demands from below-freezing temperatures.

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Research Indicates Spiders Use Electric Fields to Take Flight

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small jumping spider

by Sadie Witkowski   Since the 1800s, scientists have marveled at how spiders can take flight using their webbing. Charles Darwin remarked on the behavior when tiny spiders landed on the HMS Beagle, trailing lines of silk. He thought the arachnids might be using heat-generated updrafts to take to the sky, but new research shows a totally different cause may be at play. Erica Morley and Daniel Robert from the University of Bristol in England were interested in exploring a second explanation for the spiders’ ability. They thought spiders might sense and use electrostatic fields in the air. “There have been several studies looking at how air movement and wind can get spiders airborne, but the electrostatic hypothesis was never tested,” Morley told VOA. Some observers suggested electrostatic fields might be the reason the multiple draglines some spiders use to float don’t get tangled with each other. Biologist Kimberley Sheldon from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, who was not involved in the new research, pointed out that “though these spiders will have five or six draglines, those strands of silk do not get entangled. So we’ve known for a while that electrostatics probably [are] at least interacting with the spider, with…

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California Becomes First State in the U.S. to Require Solar Panels on New Homes

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Builders in California will be required to fit solar panels on most new homes from 2020 under a new rule adopted on Wednesday, the first of its kind in the United States. The far-reaching standards, adopted unanimously by the five-member California Energy Commission, require that new residential buildings in the state be equipped with the panels. “We cannot let Californians be in homes that are essentially the residential equivalent of gas guzzlers,” Energy Commissioner David Hochschild said ahead of the vote. Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Law, said the new rule would lower the price of solar panels nationwide as manufacturers tapped into California’s huge consumer base. “This is pretty landmark,” he said by phone. “It helps basically provide a market for solar.” The United States’ most populous state has frequently been at odds with President Donald Trump’s aggressive rollback of policies to combat climate change. Governor Jerry Brown is planning a global climate summit this September. Nine percent of single-family detached homes in the state of 39.5 million people currently have solar panels, according to a 2017 U.S. Department of Energy report the Energy Commission cited. The renewable…

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