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A Looming Political Earthquake

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  The Inflation Reduction Act’s unprecedented climate spending –  much of it uninvestigated – may soon lead to unprecedented scandals.   Eye on the News   Politics and  law,  Economy, finance, and budgets ,  Infrastructure and energy   Mark P. Mills   Nov 04 2024   If it weren’t for the election season swamping news coverage, odds are more people would be talking about the revelation that, to quote a  Bloomberg  headline, “The World Bank Somehow Lost Track of at Least $24 Billion.” In fact, that may understate the reality: the World Bank’s “accounting gap” could be as big as $41 billion. The missing funds in question were for “climate finance” projects, “financed by taxpayer dollars from its member countries, the biggest being the US.”   According to the  Oxfam  report that was the source for the Bloomberg story, “ There is no clear public record showing where this money went or how it was used,  which makes any assessment of its impacts impossible.” It is possible that much, maybe eve
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Storage Units A do-it-yourself guide to nullifying the green new math.

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  Nov 05, 2024 ∙  “ In science, there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting. ” – Lord Kelvin In the commodity and materials sectors, new products and processes typically follow a carefully synchronized series of scaling steps before reaching full commercial volumes. Advances developed in the laboratory are piloted in small facilities, after which key findings are fed back to engineering teams. Assuming no showstoppers are found, a market development plant is then constructed to supply enabling customers. Once product-market fit and manufacturing viability are confirmed, construction of a commercial facility commences. At each step, surprises are often encountered, workarounds found, and designs tweaked. No sane company would risk big money by skipping directly to the end. Given the vital role electricity grids play in modern life, it is astounding that governments the world over are directing trillions of dollars of taxpayer money toward the transition to wind, solar, and b
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Unplugging Growth? AI, the Cloud & Electricity Demands

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  The year 2024 will go down as the pivot when the growth in U.S. electricity demand reverted to normal. After a two-decade interregnum of no growth, many forecasters, including those in the electric utility industries, thought that was the new normal. Planning for a static future is quite different from meeting the needs of robust growth. Now we find myriad power-demanding hot spots around the country, from Georgia and Virginia to Texas and California and a huge swath of the northeast, as well as states like North Dakota reporting radical increases in requests for power, and soon. In nearly every case, the demands that will materialize in the next one to three years vastly exceed current plans to build sufficient generating capacity, of any kind. The reason for this surprise? If you believe the headlines and hype, it was because of the staggering electricity demands coming from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. Thus we saw headlines echoing a new trope, such as “Can AI Derail the
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New York's rules on turbine transportation are blowing its climate goals out of reach

  By  Rosemary Misdary   Published Nov 4, 2024   As New York state falls behind on its ambitious climate goals, concern is mounting among environmentalists and industry insiders about bureaucratic red tape that results in it taking a whole day to transport a wind turbine just 100 miles. State Department of Transportation policies surrounding the transit of turbines, which are considered “super loads,” limit the hours and frequency the machinery can hit the road. Critically, the big rigs hauling the turbine parts must be escorted by state troopers working overtime. The rules often lead to absurd situations when troopers escorting a turbine reach the limit of their jurisdiction and must then stop and wait for troopers from the next jurisdiction to take over. The cargo must then be re-inspected. Wind farm developers told Gothamist that the policies mean they can only deliver the components of two-and-a-half turbines each week. New York state aims to produce  4,000 megawatts   of onshore w
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Budget watchdog pans New York's proposed carbon tax plan

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  Citizens Budget Commission says it would cost businesses and consumers billions. Environmentalists disagree. By  Rick Karlin , Staff Writer   Oct 29, 2024   A well-known budget watchdog group is taking aim at plans for New York to enact a carbon tax designed to reduce air emissions, saying it is unrealistic as written.     ALBANY — A leading budget watchdog group is leveling criticism at the carbon tax state policymakers are designing to fight global warming. The Citizens Budget Commission, in a recent report, contends that New York’s incipient Cap and Invest program is unrealistic and could cost businesses and consumers billions of dollars a year.   Supporters of the plan, though, say it’s a tool needed to pay for the ambitious goals of removing carbon emissions from the economy to fight climate change.   The state Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority are scheduled to issue draft regulations by the end of the year
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Solar Costs Jump, More Offshore (And Onshore) Wind Woes, SMR Update, More H2 Cancellations

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  Koshkonong project cost jumps 42% in 19 months, GE Vernova takes $700M charge on its offshore wind business and will remove blades at Vineyard Wind, plus SMRs and H2!   Oct 26, 2024 ∙    Hurricanes are hell on solar projects. Photo credit:  Duke Energy The frequent flier miles are piling up. Last week, I was in Santiago talking about mining and hydrogen. This week, I was in Idaho Falls, speaking to the Idaho Advanced Energy Consortium about the energy transition, SMRs, and high-voltage transmission. Next week, I’ll be talking about electricity demand growth, inflation, and grid reliability in Huntsville with my friends at the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association. Amid all the travel, I’m doing my best to keep up with the news. And there has been a metric ton of noteworthy energy news over the past few days. Among the most important items are the continuing increases in solar prices, particularly at the controversial Koshkonong solar project in Christiana, Wisconsin, and the stor
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