Red Tape Closes Ohio Power Plants Before Replacements Ready

Power Plant

Despite the key positions states like Ohio and Pennsylvania hold to solve future energy problems, shifting the power grid from coal and natural gas to wind and solar isn’t as easy as flipping a switch.

A cadre of Pennsylvania legislators trekked to Columbus for a joint meeting of three House and Senate committees from the two states to be advised by energy officials on PJM, the regional power grid to which both belong.

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Commentary: The Delusions of Davos and Dubai Surrounding Wind and Solar Energy

Solar Energy

In the most recent “Conference of the Parties,” otherwise known as the United Nations extravaganza that convenes every few years for world leaders to discuss the climate crisis, several goals were publicly proclaimed. Notable were the goals to triple production of renewable energy by 2030 and triple production of nuclear energy by 2050. Against the backdrop of current global energy production by fuel type, and as quantified in Part One, against a goal of increasing total energy production from 600 exajoules in 2022 to at least 1,000 exajoules by 2050, where does COP 28’s goals put the world’s energy economy? How much will production of renewable energy have to increase?

To answer this question, it is necessary to recognize and account for the fact that most renewable energy takes the form of electricity, generated through wind, solar, or geothermal sources. And when measuring how much the base of renewables installed so far will contribute to the target of 1,000 exajoules of energy production per year in order to realize—best-case scenario—800 exajoules of energy services, the data reported in the Statistical Review of Global Energy is profoundly misleading.

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Commentary: Coal’s Life-Saving Role Ignored by Climate-Obsessed Media

Coal Mining

On a recent cold winter day, residents of Munich were surprised to see people skiing in the street. Yes, that is how much snow fell in the German city and other parts of Europe during the early winter of 2023-2024.  

Despite a disruption to both ground and air travel, the Germans survived the freezing weather with access to heating and basic utilities. But not everyone in our world is as fortunate as those living off reliable energy sources in Western economies.

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Republican AGs Push Back Against ‘Reckless’ Plan from Biden’s EPA That Could Further Hobble American Coal

by Nick Pope   Several state attorneys general are engaging in legal battles against President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine whether or not his administration will be able to impose its costly plan for implementing a regulation designed to further incapacitate the American coal industry. Multiple states…

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Ohio Democratic Ex-Congressman Ryan Backs Liquid Natural Gas Hub in Philadelphia

Supporters of exporting liquid natural gas (LNG) from Philadelphia got unambivalent backing from Democratic former Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan at a state hearing at the city’s Navy Yard on Thursday.

The liberal ex-lawmaker who unsuccessfully opposed Republican J.D. Vance for the U.S. Senate from Ohio last year is now on the leadership team of the pro-natural-gas Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future. In that capacity, he appeared before the LNG Export Task Force to strongly urge the creation of an LNG terminal at the Port of Philadelphia. 

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Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions Hit Record High

Global carbon dioxide emissions hit a record high of more than 36 billion tons in 2022, although emissions grew more slowly than anticipated, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported Thursday.

Emissions from coal surged by 1.6%, to a record breaking 15.5 billion tons, as Europe turned to coal after Russia slashed exports of natural gas following its invasion of Ukraine, the IEA reported. Growth in renewable energy sources mitigated more than half a billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions, helping keep emissions growth below expectations, and accounted for roughly 90% of all new power generation.

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

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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Worldwide Coal Use Set to Hit an All-Time High Due to Energy Crisis

Global coal consumption will reach an all-time record by the end of 2022 as shortages of natural gas have driven up energy prices, forcing countries to burn more coal, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The international community is set to use over 8 billion tons of coal in 2022, representing a 1.2% increase in coal consumption compared to 2021, as countries began using coal as a cheaper alternative to natural gas after prices spikedfollowing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the IEA’s annual coal report which was released Friday. The agency predicts that coal consumption will hover around such levels until 2025 as although coal demand could fall in the West, it remains high in developing Asian nations like China and India.

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Worldwide Coal Usage Skyrockets Ahead of Major UN Climate Conference

The global energy crisis is causing coal use to soar ahead of the United Nations’ COP27 summit, where countries will renew pledges to phase out fossil fuels, Bloomberg reported Friday.

Numerous world leaders, including President Joe Biden, will attend Egypt’s COP27 to discuss plans to slash carbon emissions and promote green energy amid a raging energy crisis. Meanwhile, coal-fired electricity generation, particularly in Europe, is surging as Russian natural gas and renewable energy sources are in short supply, according to Bloomberg.

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Commentary: Expensive Energy Is a Core Feature, Not a Bug, of Biden’s Climate Agenda

“Every government intervention creates unintended consequences, which lead to calls for further government interventions,” observed the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises. He was being generous by describing interventionism’s nasty side-effects as “unintended.” Some younger interventionists are naïve, and know not what they do, but the older, street-smart captains of progressive politics understand the harms their policies entail. For them, the adverse consequences are features, not bugs. The only downside is the risk of political retribution at the polls.

That’s the predicament in which the Biden administration now finds itself. It is also the theme of “Energy Inflation Was by Design,” a new report by supply-chain consultant Joseph Toomey.

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Top 10 Tough Votes Democrats Had to Take During Vote-a-Rama for Massive Spending Bill

During a “vote-a-rama” on their $739 billion reconciliation spending bill that has hundreds of billions for climate and health care programs, Democratic senators had to take a series of uncomfortable votes on hot-button issues — particularly tough for those representing swing states.

The bill, which also includes federal funding for 87,000 new IRS agents, passed on a party line vote 51-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.

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Whaley Energy Plan for Ohio Excludes Fossil Fuels

Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nan Whaley this weekend took to Twitter to promote an energy plan for the Buckeye State that excludes fossil-fuel production in favor of renewables.

“Check out mine and [running mate Cheryl Stephens’s] energy plan…,” she wrote. “1. Reform the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) so consumer interests are at its core; 2. Spur innovation & create good-paying, union jobs in clean energy; 3. Build climate resilient communities.”

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Schweizer: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Other Wall Street Leaders Partner with Chinese Coal, Military Enterprises

The investigative journalist and author of Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win told The Star News Network the titans of capitalism on Wall Street are now the partners of the Chinese Communist Party.

“What China wants from Wall Street is access to Western capital with no questions asked, and unfortunately the biggest fans on Wall Street are prepared to give it to them,” said Peter Schweizer, who is the president and founder of the Government Accountability Institute and the host of The Drill Down podcast.

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Analysis: Many Environmentalists Oppose Nuclear Energy Despite Its Reliability, Carbon-Free Footprint

Expanding U.S. nuclear power — an energy source that many environmentalists and lawmakers oppose — could be the most reliable way to achieve a carbon-free electricity grid, according to experts.

Nuclear energy is considered a renewable energy source because it produces zero emissions through fission, the process of splitting uranium atoms, according to the Department of Energy. Currently, nuclear accounts for about 9% of total U.S. energy consumption, slightly less than all other renewable energy sources combined and coal, government data showed.

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China Ramps Up Coal Production Despite Its Climate Promises

The Chinese government ordered its domestic coal suppliers to ramp up production and rubber-stamped approvals for new mines as the country faces an energy crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported.

China, like Europe and many other parts of Asia, has faced rapidly increasing energy costs over the last several months as its economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the WSJ. The rising cost of coal — which accounts for the vast majority of China’s energy supply — has been a main driver of the overall price increases.

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Commentary: The Biden-Harris Ticket’s Radicalism Would Cost Ohio Dearly

If Joe Biden and his new running mate Kamala Harris get their way, millions of high-paying American energy jobs will be eliminated and entire industries will be cut to the bone.

Ohio, like a number of other states across the country, has enjoyed tremendous benefits from the shale energy revolution. The shale boom was a crucial lifeline following the 2008 financial crisis, which cost Ohio more than 2 million jobs.

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States Try Again to Block Coal Sales That Trump Revived

A coalition of states, environmentalists and American Indians on Monday renewed its push to stop the Trump administration from selling coal from public lands after a previous effort to halt the lease sales was dismissed by a federal judge.

Joined by the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and several environmental groups, Democratic attorneys general from California, New York, New Mexico and Washington state filed a lawsuit challenging the administration’s coal program in U.S. District Court in Montana.

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Commentary: Magical Thinking Meets the Inconvenient Realities of the ‘New Energy Economy’

by Mark P. Mills   A week doesn’t pass without a mayor, governor, policymaker or pundit joining the rush to demand, or predict, an energy future that is entirely based on wind/solar and batteries, freed from the “burden” of the hydrocarbons that have fueled societies for centuries. Regardless of one’s…

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Trump’s EPA Finalizes Plan to Repeal And Replace Obama-Era Coal Plant Regulations

by  Michael Bastasch   The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its plan to repeal and replace an Obama-era regulation that critics said would cost thousands of coal industry jobs. EPA will repeal the Clean Power Plan, which the U.S. Supreme Court stayed and it never went into effect. EPA’s replacement…

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Obama-Era Judge Slams the Brakes on Trump Order to Open Fed Lands to Coal Mining

by Tim Pearce   A federal judge in Montana delayed a Trump administration attempt to open up more federal lands to coal mining Friday, The New York Times reported. U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris ruled that the Trump administration illegally overturned a moratorium placed on coal mining on federal lands by former President…

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Trump’s EPA Moves to Repeal Obama’s De Facto Ban on New Coal Plants

by Michael Bastasch   The Trump administration proposed rolling back Obama-era regulation that opponents called a de facto ban on building new coal-fired power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will raise carbon dioxide emissions limits for new coal-fired power plants and eliminate the Obama administration’s mandate that new facilities…

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Announces a Changed Standard for Carbon Limits, Demands ‘Urgent Action’

by Julie Kelly   A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change offers a timely reminder that much of the Left’s doomsday hysteria can be traced to the modern-day environmental movement. Like Democrats’ dire warnings that everything from tax cuts to net neutrality will result in mass casualties,…

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