WhatFinger


Institute for Energy Research

The Institute for Energy Research (IER) is a not-for-profit organization that conducts intensive research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets. IER maintains that freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions to today’s global energy and environmental challenges and, as such, are critical to the well-being of individuals and society.

Most Recent Articles by Institute for Energy Research:

Electricity Shortages: Brace for Impact

Electricity Shortages: Brace for ImpactAmericans can expect to see electricity shortages this summer as traditional power plants are being retired more quickly than they can be replaced by renewable energy and their required battery storage, the electric grid’s independent system operators warn. Power grids are straining as conventional power plants fueled by coal and nuclear are being retired for intermittent forms of energy such as wind and solar power that need back up from traditional plants or from battery storage. Wind and solar farms cannot produce electricity 24/7 as Americans demand it and need expensive and large batteries to store their output for later use. While some battery storage capacity is being added, independent grid operators have warned that the rate of the additions may not be fast enough to offset the closures of traditional power plants that can supply power 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Wednesday, May 18, 2022

India Is Reopening Coal Mines and Restarting Idle Coal Plants

India Is Reopening Coal Mines and Restarting Idle Coal PlantsDue mainly to a devastating heat wave that hit India, the world's third-largest greenhouse gas emitter is planning to reopen more than 100 coal mines previously considered financially unsustainable. India's power minister asked states to continue importing coal for the next three years and has evoked an emergency law to restart generation at some idle power plants using imported coal. Over 43 percent of the plants fired by imported coal, which have a total capacity of 17.6 gigawatts and account for 8.6 percent of India's total coal power capacity, had been idled. Power ministry officials are working with those involved in debt restructuring of financially stressed idle plants to make them functional, and a government committee will facilitate passing on higher costs of generation to customers.
- Thursday, May 12, 2022


Renewables "Market-Failed" Natural Gas in Texas

Texas Governor Greg Abbott "lied on Fox News about renewable energy being the culprit in Texas' blackout," stated the business editorialist for the San Antonio Express last month. "If a snide tweet or a trash-talking appearance on a hard-right talk show could have done the trick, we'd have stayed warm last week." Check your premises, stay humble. Intermittent wind and solar power is a root cause of the Great Texas Blackout of 2021. Moreover, the great distraction of decarbonization (natural gas is bad too) and of climate change (warmer winters were expected by NOAA/climate models) brought out the worst in the scapegoated private sector.
- Sunday, March 28, 2021

Funding Infrastructure Investment: A Trucking Tax?

Congress is looking for ways to fund President Biden's infrastructure program. The current estimate is a $3 trillion package, including a huge wish list of which infrastructure would be a major part. At the top of the list is a truck mileage tax that Democrats have been eyeing since 2017. The American Trucking Association is opposed to the idea and called truck-only fees "discriminatory." The trucking industry currently pays half the receipts into the Highway Trust Fund despite representing a small percentage of the vehicles on roads.
- Saturday, March 27, 2021

The World Since I Was Born

Some climate Tweeters have taken to adorning their Twitter bios with the atmospheric CO2 concentration in the year of their birth.  If there were room in my bio I would list that and some other stuff. Since 1953, the increase in energy consumption may well be the primary driver of rising CO2 concentrations, but it has also been critical to the economic growth that drives phenomenally beneficial trends in virtually every metric of human wellbeing. Rising energy consumption is almost certainly responsible for a portion of that 1.6 degree warming, but over the past century, the even greater warming has not been associated with any significant rising trends in world-wide hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, or wildfires.
- Friday, March 26, 2021

Copper Mine in Arizona Under Scrutiny

On February 24, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order to bolster critical supply chains to help insulate the economy from future shortages of critical imported components by making the United States less reliant on foreign supplies. His executive order requires his administration to review critical supply chains with the aim of bolstering American manufacturing of semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and other cutting-edge technologies. The president ordered yearlong reviews of six sectors and a 100-day review of four classes of products where American manufacturers rely on imports: semiconductors, high-capacity batteries, pharmaceuticals and their active ingredients, and critical minerals and strategic materials, like rare earths. Lithium-ion batteries that power most electric vehicles, for example, rely on raw materials—like cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements—where China has a stranglehold on global supply.
- Monday, March 15, 2021

California City Bans New Gasoline Stations

The City Council of Petaluma, California, has voted to ban new gasoline stations in order to reduce gasoline availability to motorists and accelerate the transition to electric vehicles. The ban does not include existing gas stations, but existing gas stations will not be allowed to add new gas pumps. Instead, they are encouraged to build electric charging bays. The legislation will also streamline the process for adding more electric vehicle infrastructure like electric charging bays and hydrogen fuel cell facilities. The new prohibition is part of Petaluma's plan to completely phase out carbon emissions by 2030. Petaluma, located 30 miles north of San Francisco, has about 60,000 people. It is 15 square miles in size and has 16 operational gas stations. Neighborhood opposition in Petaluma to a new Safeway gas station prompted years of litigation and promoted the permanent ban on new stations.
- Sunday, March 14, 2021

Gasoline Prices, Oil Prices Tick Up

Supply and demand have been mostly responsible for the increases in oil and gas prices since the heart of the pandemic. Global demand exceeds production by 2.8 million barrels a day. Demand has recovered in China and India and is on the upward spiral in the United States and Europe. Oil stockpiles that rose during the pandemic have decreased due to output cuts by OPEC+ (OPEC and its partners) and lower production in the United States during the pandemic. U.S. oil production was further curtailed by more than 10 percent, 1 million barrels per day, due to the freezing weather hitting oil producing states, particularly Texas. Adding to that, OPEC+ recently agreed to continue its production cuts through the end of April with minor exceptions. A March 7 attack on a Saudi oil port further increased Brent oil prices to over $70 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate oil prices had hit a low of minus $37.63 a barrel shortly last April before settling around $40 a barrel, but are now in the mid-$60 a barrel range.
- Sunday, March 14, 2021

Understanding the Texas Energy Predicament

Texas is being hit with record temperatures and escalating energy prices as cold weather has caused over 4 million customers to be without power and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s independent system operator which manages about 90 percent of the state’s electric load, has found itself unprepared for the onslaught, losing wind turbines to icy conditions and gas lines to freezing temperatures. Furthermore, natural gas for heating homes and businesses is given priority over electrical generation and industrial supply needs, which limits natural gas supplies available to generating units.
- Sunday, February 21, 2021

Biden Cancels Keystone XL Pipeline Permit

President Joseph R. Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline permit on his first day in office, despite the pipeline being completed at the border, the greenhouse gas emissions from the pipeline's operation becoming carbon-free by 2023, the Canadian government supporting the pipeline, the technology advances that have resulted in a decline in greenhouse gas emissions per barrel of oil sands by 30 percent since 1990, the thousands of jobs that will be lost, and the less safe and more expensive movement by rail and truck that will be used to bring the Canadian oil into the United States instead. To make the $8 billion project more palatable for the Biden administration, Keystone XL's owner TC Energy announced an array of initiatives to accompany the pipeline's construction.
- Tuesday, January 26, 2021

China's Actions Defy Commitment to Carbon Neutrality

China is not only building coal-fired plants in its own country, but it is also building them around the world. As of 2019, China had 2,363 active coal-fired power plants and was building another 1,171 plants in China and hundreds more in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. Most of China's plants (80 percent) have pollution control equipment that remove sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates, but the coal plants China is building in Africa and most likely elsewhere do not. And none of the plants China is building remove carbon dioxide despite China pledging it will be carbon neutral by 2060. Coal plants can operate for 40 to 60 years or even longer. China's party leaders know that its so-called production of renewable generating technologies, many of which are not connected to the grid, is a good smokescreen for its coal power—and few Western governments will dare to criticize China. Clearly, President-Elect Biden will not criticize China either.
- Tuesday, January 19, 2021

New York To Purchase Batteries to Back-Up Offshore Wind

New York will purchase a 100-megawatt battery system to back up its offshore wind fleet, which is expected to total 9 gigawatts of capacity by 2035. The battery will be supplied by South Korean developer 174 Power Global, who has announced plans for the battery system, which will store energy to be used during peak demand in New York City. NY utility Con Edison will buy the power and bid it into the wholesale market for seven years. The batteries will be housed in dozens of containers and connected to a nearby Con Edison transmission substation, which will be able to supply 400-megawatt-hours of power into the grid.
- Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Wind Power Problems Rise to Prominence

People from California to New York and from France to Germany are becoming aware of the problems with wind power due to its noise pollution, scenic disruption and unfulfilled promises. In Germany, many anti-wind groups have launched litigation against developers and government to either prevent wind farms from being built or to seek substantial financial compensation for the loss of the use and enjoyment of their homes.
- Monday, January 18, 2021

Climate Injustice

What is the most we should take from a poor person to make somebody who is already four times as rich two-thirds of a percent richer yet? Most of us would probably argue for zero. If it does not seem fair to take anything from a poorer person to add less than one percent to the income of a much richer person, then you may need to rethink climate policy.
- Thursday, January 7, 2021

French Fishermen Join U.S. Fishermen in Fighting Offshore Wind

French fisherman have declared that they would rather die fighting than allow an approved offshore wind farm to be built off Brittany, and have vowed to take direct action to prevent construction.  The Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm is a 496 megawatt project due to begin construction in the spring. The wind farm poses a threat to the livelihoods of local fishermen by destroying a prolific and sustainable scallop bed. According to the fishermen, the project does not respect the sea and seafarers.
- Monday, December 7, 2020

Biden Plan Rids the United States of Oil and Gas

In his debate with President Trump on October 22, Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden said he would rid the nation of oil and gas—“over time, over time”. Biden’s costly and radical energy transition from oil and natural gas to renewable energy would hurt the U.S. economy, put the United States on a path to third-world status, subject the nation to rolling blackouts as the nation saw in California this past summer, lose American jobs to offshore countries, and help China to prosper more than ever for the Chinese control the supply chain for the critical metals that the United States needs for solar, wind, and electric vehicles. Biden’s transition is reminiscent of Germany’s Energiewende, or energy transition to renewable energy, where Germans are already paying three times the amount for residential electricity as U.S. homeowners.
- Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Biden’s Carbon Plan Will Raise Energy Costs, Deliver Minuscule Climate Benefit

According to Democratic Party presidential nominee Joseph Biden’s carbon plan, “he will demand that Congress enacts legislation in the first year of his presidency that: 1) establishes an enforcement mechanism that includes milestone targets no later than the end of his first term in 2025, 2) makes a historic investment in clean energy and climate research and innovation, 3) incentivizes the rapid deployment of clean energy innovations across the economy, especially in communities most impacted by climate change.”
- Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Eight States Ban Plastic Bags, but More Prohibit Local Bans

Eight States Ban Plastic Bags, but More Prohibit Local BansEight states—California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon, and Vermont—ban the use of plastic bags in supermarkets and other businesses. Soon, New Jersey will be added to the list as its legislature recently passed a ban. Some cities (e.g. Boston, Chicago, and Seattle) have also enacted bans on plastic bags. Fifteen states, however, enacted laws to restrict local officials from enacting a ban on plastic bags to ensure that laws would be uniform throughout their states.
- Sunday, October 11, 2020

History of U.S. Offshore Oil Drilling

The exploration history of the U.S. offshore oil and natural gas industry began in the Pacific Ocean at the end of the 19th century. In 1896, a 300-foot pier was built off the Santa Barbara Channel in California and a standard cable-tool rig was mounted on it. By 1897, this first offshore well was producing oil, which lasted for 25 years. Another 22 companies joined in, constructing 14 more piers and over 400 wells within the next five years. Early explorers noticed bubbles in the water from natural seeps of oil that gave them clues that oil might lie beneath the ocean. In 1911, Gulf Refining Company abandoned the use of piers, drilling in Caddo Lake, Louisiana, using a fleet of tugboats, barges, and floating pile drivers. The well (Ferry Lake No. 1) was drilled to a depth of 2,185 feet and produced 450 barrels per day.
- Sunday, September 27, 2020

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