GOLDEN CRESCENT AND 1000 ISLAND NEWS

  And my 10 most-popular articles this year on Substack.   Dec 31, 2024   EV maker Canoo, which trades under the ticker GOEV, wins the stock price chart of the year award. In January, the company’s stock was trading for more than $100 per share. It closed on Monday at about $1.38 per share. From Donald Trump’s decisive victory over Kamala Harris to the “blade liberation event” on an offshore wind project near Nantucket, 2024 was an epic year in energy. Here, in no particular order, are seven of this year’s top energy and power stories. I’ve also included a list of the 10 most popular articles I published here on Substack.   To receive all new posts, make comments, and support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribed Osage Wind Project Ordered Removed by December 1, 2025 On December 18, the Osage tribe won a decisive decision in the longest-running legal battle over wind energy in American history.  As I reported on December 20 , a ...

  Some of the largest companies on the planet have been generating headlines in the final weeks and months of 2024 for their efforts to scale up nuclear energy production. On October 14, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company, the world’s fourth largest by market cap, had “signed a pioneering agreement to purchase clean energy in the US from Kairos Power, a leader in building small modular nuclear reactors,” which Pichai described as Google’s “latest step in our history of accelerating clean energy sources and will help support AI investments.” Two days after Google broke the news of its agreement with Kairos Power, Amazon, which has the fifth largest market cap on the planet, announced it will invest half a billion dollars in X-energy, a leader in the advanced nuclear reactor and fuel technology space. With its investment in X-energy, Amazon said in a statement that the company aims “to bring more than 5 gigawatts online in the United States by 2039, the ...

  One reason so many businesses and people are leaving New York is its tax-and-spending ratchet. And now Democrats in Albany are spreading the high costs of their progressive government to other states under the guise of climate remediation. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday signed legislation that will require fossil-fuel producers to pay $75 billion to supposedly help the state adapt to climate change. “This landmark legislation shifts the cost of climate adaptation from everyday New Yorkers to the fossil fuel companies most responsible for the pollution,” Ms. Hochul’s office declared. She’s right about shifting costs, but those who will pay her climate tax are American fossil-fuel workers and consumers. Under the program, bureaucrats will apportion responsibility for climate change among some three dozen companies that have sold fossil fuels in the state based on their global CO2 emissions from 2000 to 2018. It’s impossible to determine a company’s contribution to climate ...

  HIGHLIGHTS SMR Alliance example of nuclear power development in EU   Government officials say funding available for nuclear energy   Europe now has the political will to develop nuclear power infrastructure after years of favoring renewable energy investments, government and industry officials said during an industry conference in Brussels Dec. 17.   A new business model for EU nuclear energy investments, including the development of small modular reactors and a potential competitiveness fund, are urgently needed to capitalize on this momentum, the officials added.   Nuclear energy is an "inevitable" energy choice for Hungary, said Attila Steiner, state secretary for energy and climate policy in Hungary's energy ministry. "I believe this is also the case for Europe." Hungary has led policy negotiations for the 27 European Union countries for the last six months of 2024 as it held the rotating EU presidency.   There is "a good political will" to suppo...

  Enel must spend $300 million to remove the turbines and pay $36 million in damages and attorney’s fees. Former head of Osage Minerals Council: “I’m so happy I can barely talk.”   Dec 20, 2024   Osage Chief James Bigheart. Credit:  Visittheosage.com Somewhere, Chief James Bigheart must be doing a victory dance. On Wednesday, the Osage Nation prevailed again in federal court in Tulsa, winning a decisive ruling in the longest-running legal battle over wind energy in American history. In her judgment (I’ve posted it  here on Google Drive ),  US District Court Judge Jennifer Choe-Graves ruled that Enel’s subsidiaries, Osage Wind LLC, Enel Kansas LLC, and Enel Green Power North America, “committed trespass, continuing trespass, and conversion in the construction of a wind farm on Indian land.” She ruled that the plaintiffs in the case, the US Government and the Osage Minerals Council, prevailed on the merits and are “entitled to monetary damages on their conver...

The American Grid is in Bad Shape   Emmet Penney Dec 20, 2024     Society runs on trust. You need to feel confident that the milk you bought last week will cost about as much this week. You need to feel confident that when you walk from your parked car to the grocery store to buy that milk, you don’t get mugged. That’s why inflation and high crime inspire social unrest. They gnaw at you, make you feel like your society wears a ski mask, and wants you to empty your pockets right now or else.   That’s also why you need to feel confident that when you put the milk in your fridge, it won’t spoil because the power will stay on. The power grid doesn’t just route electricity to your home — it’s a conduit of social trust. It’s the physical twin of the more ephemeral social fabric. A trustworthy society has a robust grid.   And that’s what troubles me about the latest  Long-Term Reliability Report  from the North American Electric Reliability Corp., our gr...