California comes to Maine
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CO2 pollution control is coming our way
The past decades have seen an increasing trend for bad ideas to originate in California, metastasize north to Oregon and Washington, and then roll east. The latest? For the first time ever, New England is facing rolling blackouts this winter due to the lack of fossil fuels.
New England’s historic overreliance [sic] on fossil fuels to power its electricity grid may come to a head this winter in the form of rolling power outages if a prolonged cold spell hits, the grid operator said Monday.
ISO New England has warned about the potential effects of the region’s heavy use of natural gas to power its electricity for at least a couple decades. But its wording this year took a stronger tone in the face of the supply shortages and natural gas prices that have soared almost 95 percent from October 2020 through October 2021.
In a worst-case scenario, ISO New England might have to institute region-wide rolling power outages that would affect different people at different and short periods of time, Gordon van Welie, ISO New England’s president and CEO, said. He said he doesn’t want to cause undue alarm, but it makes sense to examine potential threats now.
There have been no grid-wide rolling outages in New England to date, but if they are required this winter, ISO New England would give each utility in the region a percentage by which to lower electricity supply, said ISO New England spokesperson Matt Kakley. The grid operator would inform consumers of any outages via news outlets and its website. …
The region is in a more precarious state entering this winter because there also are supply shortages of heating oil and liquefied natural gas, both of which can be used to power the grid when there isn’t enough natural gas. Those fuels filled the natural gas gap during the 2017-18 cold snap and the cold winter in 2013-14, so controlled power outages were not necessary, ISO New England said.
But this year, the world’s liquefied natural gas market is much tighter than it was last year, with Asia and Europe competing for supplies. Shortages of truck drivers are causing logistics logjams with oil. Maine and other New England states could come up short.
“The region would be in a precarious position if an extended cold snap were to develop and these fuels were not available,” van Welie said. …
Mainers [and ll New Englanders — Ed] will see that price surge in their electricity bills starting Jan. 1. State regulators recently approved more than 80 percent rate hikes for standard offer electricity, the default rate for those who do not buy electricity from a third party. For Central Maine Power and Versant Power customers, that means an average $30 a month extra ….
ISO New England estimates that the peak electricity use in the region this winter will be 19,710 megawatts under normal weather conditions. That could rise to 20,349 megawatts during below average conditions. Last winter’s peak demand was 18,756 megawatts on Dec. 17, 2020. The record high was 22,818 megawatts set on Jan. 15, 2004, during a cold snap.
The Greens of New England have spent decades closing nuclear and oil-fired power plants and blocking the construction of transmission and pipelines; the latter two done in the name of preventing states “from investing capital in fossil fuel infrastructure”; how nuclear power plants fit into that strategy is unclear, except that anything not powered by daylight or fickle winds is to be shunned.
Not to be outdone, Biden’s first executive order, issued on the day of his inauguration, was to stop the construction of the Keystone pipeline, and in the succeeding weeks blocked exploratory drilling or fracking on federal lands, imposed huge new fees on existing federal oil leases, and sent the strongest signal possible to the oil industry that he was intent on putting them out of business. Naturally, oil soared from $60 bbl to over $100.00, and shortages arose.
His response? He released 50 million bbl from our oil reserve, which “replaced” the 800,000 bbl the Keystone pipeline alone would have brought in from Canada (which, if you’re counting, would have brought in 50 million bill in 62.5 days, and then continued unabated) and went begging, hat in hand, to Iran, Venezuela and Russia, asking them to please save us from his folly. They laughed.
So in less than a year Biden and his Greens have transformed America from an oil-exporting country to a beggar dependent on our enemies to keep our industries and transportation systems running, and our homes warm. That’s exactly the outcome the Greens wanted and now cheer; the rest of the population won’t be as enthusiastic come February.
