transmission lines

07Aug

Soaring Costs with Little to Show

With all the noise surrounding the energy transition, sometimes it’s hard to grasp what’s truly happening, or not happening at all. Is the shift to renewable power and the infrastructure to support it moving smoothly? Or is it proving far more challenging and costly than advocates want to admit? What’s happening in California, New York […]
01May

The Biden-EPA’s Alternate Reality

While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to brush aside deep alarm over the grid reliability impacts of its new blitz of power plant rules, evidence is rapidly mounting that the nation’s supply of electricity is already in deep, deep trouble. In the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) market, which covers much of the […]
30Jan

Failure to Launch

The SunZia transmission line has become emblematic of the challenges of delivering the nation’s energy future. The project – a $10 billion effort essential to moving wind generation across several states – had been stuck in legal limbo and permitting purgatory for 17 years until it was finally approved last year. But now several Tribes […]
20Nov

Can the Biden EPA Accept Reality?

As The Wall Street Journal recently put it, “the energy transition is getting a dose of reality.” In the U.S., offshore wind projects are evaporating, transmission lines remain extraordinarily difficult to build, the nation’s first planned small modular reactor project was just cancelled and dozens of renewable-power developers are trying to rewrite contracts to recoup […]
07Sep

Stumbling out of the Blocks

With the perilous state of the nation’s electricity supply increasingly in the spotlight, the Biden administration has attempted to justify its regulatory blitz on the coal and gas fleets by pointing to what it hopes will be a lightning-fast renewable energy buildout. According to the administration’s narrative, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its largess […]
25Jul

U.S. Miners Make American Life Possible

As the U.S. labor market cools and employment gains slow, the mining industry continues to provide extraordinary career opportunities about which most Americans know very little. When asked to describe a day in the life of a miner, most think of pickaxes and canaries instead of the remotely-operated machinery, artificial intelligence and other innovations that […]
14Jun

Not Going as Planned

The New York Times almost figured it out. In “Why the U.S. Electric Grid Isn’t Ready for the Energy Transition,” The Times explores a litany of challenges to making the transition to a renewable-dominated electricity system. Yet, in reporting the story, The Times is silent on the most inconvenient truth: despite acknowledging that the grid […]
19Apr

EV Ambitions Built on Imploding Grid Reliability

The Biden administration seems perpetually optimistic, and rarely realistic. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has rolled out new tailpipe emission standards that are going to force a lightning-quick pivot to electric vehicles (EVs). By 2032, EPA hopes that 67% of new car sales are zero-emission. Getting there is going to be colossally challenging. It’s […]
29Mar

Where’s the Transmission?

As the Biden administration charges ahead with its regulatory blitz to shutter the existing U.S. coal fleet, the infrastructure required for renewable energy to reliably support American households and businesses simply doesn’t exist.  Again and again, experts warn that transmission is the key to building a renewable-heavy future. Analyses from researchers at national labs, the […]
14Sep

The Next Grid Crisis is in New England

New England recognizes it has a dangerous fuel security problem on its hands. And a telling factor in that crisis is what it doesn’t have: fuel diversity in the form of coal capacity. New England’s overreliance on natural gas, constrained gas delivery system, and inability to site and build alternatives is barreling towards a completely […]