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Did the people of Massachusetts actually think Quebec was going to send electricity their way when they needed it for themselves?
Center Square (2/2/26) reports: "The electric grid powering much of the U.S. through a harsh stretch of winter has largely held up, but there is an increasing risk of supply shortfalls, an industry observer says. The risk has grown in recent years as demand increases from data centers trying to keep up with the artificial intelligence boom and the digital economy. At the same time, generation plants that burn coal, oil and other fuels are being replaced by solar and batteries and natural gas-fired plants...The grid in the Northeast has seen disruptions in recent days, but not widespread outages, said Will Rampe, an energy policy analyst at the Institute for Energy Research. Rampe noted that electricity supplies from New England Clean Energy Connect, a new 1-gigawatt transmission line that started running in mid-January, were not able to supply power to Massachusetts from Hydro-Quebec during Winter Storm Fern because Quebec needed the energy for its own use...'Policymakers in state capitols in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic have pushed for more wind and solar versus what actually served the grid during the times of the greatest emergency,' Rampe said. 'New England relied on oil to produce 40% of its electricity at peak demand during the storm last weekend. This shows the importance of reliable sources of electricity and that efforts to restrict natural gas and coal from the energy mix do not serve consumers’ interests.'"
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Reliable energy fuels innovation.
New York Times (2/3/26) reports: "The German manufacturer announced plans to expand factories in several U.S. states and build a new plant in Mississippi. Siemens Energy, the German company, plans to invest $1 billion to make more electrical equipment in the United States, a welcome development for utilities and data center developers. The manufacturing expansion announced Tuesday amounts to a bet that the artificial intelligence boom, which is propelling plans for new energy-hungry data centers, will drive U.S. electricity demand higher well into the future...At the end of 2025, the United States had more natural gas power capacity in development than any other country, according to the Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit organization. 'We’re confident until the end of the decade,' Mr. Bruch said of demand for natural gas turbines. 'Beyond that is speculation.' Siemens Energy, which currently makes large gas turbines in Germany, is planning to start producing them again in Charlotte, N.C. — but at an existing plant. Higher tariffs on imports were a factor, but not the most important one, Mr. Bruch said. 'If you just would have tariffs and no market, you would not localize,' he said. 'The main driver is really market, market, market.'"
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This one is personal.
Utility Dive (2/2/26) reports: "The owners of a Colorado power unit say the Department of Energy violated their Constitutional rights when it ordered them to continue running a coal-fired generator they had been planning for years to retire at the end of 2025. By mandating the generator’s availability to operate, the order 'constitutes both a physical taking and a regulatory taking'c of property by the government without just compensation or due process, in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and federal law, the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and the Platte River Power Authority said in a Jan. 29 request for clarification and rehearing....Energy Secretary Chris Wright invoked his emergency powers under the Federal Power Act’s section 202(c) when he issued the order on Dec. 30, the day before the 427-MW coal-fired Unit 1 of the Craig Generating Station was slated for retirement. He justified the action based on an alleged power supply shortfall in a region covering Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The generating unit is owned by Tri-State, a nonprofit wholesale supplier, and Platte River, a public power entity...As part of Tri-State’s plan to replace the unit, it bought the 145-MW Axial Basin solar facility that will use transmission capacity dedicated to the Craig Unit 1. Tri-State may have to curtail the solar plant if there is inadequate transmission capacity when the coal-fired unit is running."
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Wouldn't it be a shame if the state created investment uncertainty right now by proposing new taxes on oil and gas production in Alaska?
Alaska Beacon (2/2/26) reports: "The Trump administration is soliciting bids for what it intends to be the first in an annual series of oil and gas lease sales in federal waters of Southcentral Alaska’s Cook Inlet. The upcoming sale will offer about 1 million acres in Cook Inlet, with bids to be opened on March 4, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said on Friday. The auction has been named the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act Lease Sale 1' because it is the first of six lease sales mandated under the sweeping tax and budget bill passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump last summer. The six sales are to be held by 2032, under the bill...The federal lease sale coincides with the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas’ scheduled annual lease sale for state territory in the Cook Inlet basin. Results of the state lease sale, which is offering 2.9 million offshore and onshore acres, will also be released on March 4. The planned “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” Cook Inlet lease sales are in addition to several sales that the administration has proposed for nearly all areas of federal waters off Alaska, from the High Arctic to the Gulf of Alaska waters south of the Kodiak Archipelago and the Aleutian chain. The proposed lease sales are listed in a new five-year draft plan released by BOEM in November."
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Energy Markets
WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $62.57
Natural Gas: ↑ $3.28
Gasoline: ↑ $2.88
Diesel: ↑ $3.63
Heating Oil: ↑ $239.50
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $66.65
US Rig Count: ↑ 579 |
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"Spending money on speculative projects that we hope will reduce CO2 emissions in the future is a strategy that is based on hope and ideology, not economics and reality. That approach has been a consistent failure."
– Todd Myers,
Washington Policy Center
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Whose Policies Are Increasing Electricity Rates?
AEA (2/2/26) blog: "E&E News reported recently that Senate Democrats gathered to “reinforce a core midterm message: Republican policies have driven up energy prices for Americans.” Before Democrats cast blame for electricity prices, they need to look in the mirror. Recently, along with Always On Energy Research, the Institute for Energy Research (IER) released a report called “Blue States, High Rates” that tells the real story of the electricity prices in the United States. What’s striking about the map is that if you didn’t know what you were looking at, you might assume it was a map of how states voted in the 2024 presidential election. It’s not—it’s a map of electricity prices. The correlation is unmistakable: The vast majority of states with electricity prices above the national average voted for the Democratic nominee in both 2020 and 2024. Meanwhile, 8 of the ten states with the lowest electricity prices are reliably red. But here’s what Democratic Senators need to understand: this isn’t a map of politics. It’s a map of policy consequences. The correlation exists not because of how people vote, but because of what elected officials do once in office. And Democrats in office consistently enact policies that intentionally increase the price of electricity."
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