Free Republic

French President Emmanuel Macron chastised public utility and energy companies for scaring the public with “absurd scenarios” of potential blackouts this winter. Rather than addressing the underlying reasons contributing to the burgeoning energy crisis in France and indeed across Europe, President Macron called for an out of sight, out of mind approach to potential power cuts this winter. Speaking from an EU-Western Balkans summit in Tirana, Albania on Tuesday, Macron bluntly said “stop all this” in reference to discussions surrounding the energy crisis. The French president said that institutions such as the publicly-owned Réseau de Transport d’Électricité (RTE) energy utility...

California residents are still braced for rolling blackouts this week ... and puts a power grid made fragile by renewables in jeopardy of failure. Electric car owners now might not be able to drive the high-priced vehicles Democrats demanded they buy. On Tuesday, state officials said California faces its greatest threat of blackouts this year, with power demand likely to eclipse 51,000 megawatts setting a new high. “As people crank up their air conditioners, the state forecasted record levels of energy use, said Elliot Mainzer, president of California Independent System Operators, which runs the state’s electrical grid,” the Associated Press...

In California this week, there is a heat wave. There have been heat waves before; it’s not unusual for the area. But the energy grid is no longer up to it; so California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, took to the airwaves, to make an impassioned plea. “Everyone has to do their part to help,” Governor Newsom declares, in his new public service commercial. He then goes on to list his expectations for the taxpayers of California. The state already told people not to charge their electric cars. Now, Governor Sunshine says, you should wake up early and run your air conditioning...

California’s power grid operator declared a stage 3 energy emergency alert Tuesday evening, warning that rotating power outages were "very possible" as a brutal heat wave walloping the state pushed electricity demand to its limits. "Energy Emergency Alert 3 with rotating #power outages very possible. Please reduce your energy use," The California Independent System Operator (ISO) tweeted. California ISO warned residents earlier Tuesday to be prepared for the possibility of rotating power outages and issued an Energy Emergency Alert (EEA) 2 for 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Some 67,000 Californians were without power Monday evening, according to powerotage.us, while ongoing...

Califiornians are apparently not heeding officials’ warnings that they should sacrifice their comfort for the sake of whatever business or social-engineering plan is the new thing. CAISO shows that usage is up 13% today from yesterday at the same time of day and for a second consecutive day, the state’s grid operator issued a level-2 energy emergency alert. ... The emergency declaration allows officials to order some large power consumers to shut down in a last-ditch effort to avoid outages. “We are heading into the worst part of this heat wave, and the risk for outages is real and it’s...

After averting blackouts Monday night, the managers of California’s electricity grid had to navigate a day when energy consumption in the state is expected to blow past the all-time record. SMUD issued a separate warning to the Sacramento region that blackouts could hit the area for the first time in 20 years. “We’re heading into the worst part of this heat wave,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a video posted Tuesday morning. “The risk of outages is real and it’s immediate.”

California’s energy overseer warned of blackouts starting Wednesday and urged residents to “avoid using large appliances and charging electric vehicles, and turn off unnecessary lights.” The state also wants those thermostats set no lower than 78 degrees. Called a Flex Alert, the California Independent System Operator says households should “reduce energy use from 4-9 p.m. when the system is most stressed because demand for electricity remains high and there is less solar energy available.”“The power grid operator,” the notice says, “expects to call on Californians for voluntary energy conservation via Flex alerts over the long weekend.”And not drive anywhere, I...

A combination of shocks is rippling through emerging market economies and has sparked soaring food and energy inflation, power blackouts, and social unrest. Countries with the weakest balance sheets and high debt loads appear to be sliding first into turmoil. This could be the beginning innings of an emerging market crisis last seen in the 1990s when socio-economic distress toppled governments, according to Bloomberg. Already, skyrocketing food and energy prices have caused turmoil in Sri Lanka, Peru, Egypt, and Tunisia. The chaos could broaden as some emerging market countries, heavily saturated with debt, could be shocked by higher debt-servicing costs...

Australia’s energy minister asked Sydney and the New South Wales (eastern part of the country) residents to turn off lights and energy-intensive appliances in the evening to prevent power blackouts due to an ongoing energy crunch, The Independent reports. The federal energy minister, Chris Bowen, asked residents in a televised address to turn off energy-intensive devices between “6 to 8 [pm]” to mitigate risks of a spike in power during peak hours. He pointed to several offline coal-fired plants because of maintenance and unexpected issues. Reuters notes that 65% of eastern Australia’s power is generated by coal, but more than...

Critics of Illinois’ aggressive effort to shift to renewable sources for making electricity have long said it’s like flying an airplane while trying to build it. That airplane crashed faster than even they expected. Electricity bills and the risk of brownouts are jumping quickly in Illinois, and it’s not just green energy skeptics saying so. The most significant warning came recently from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, which oversees the power grid for Illinois and much of the Midwest. Their warning was contained in a recent forecast by the North American Electric Reliability Corp., a regulatory authority that...

While natural gas has risen to supplant coal as the United State’s largest energy source for electricity, total energy has not increased in 10 years. Due to economic conditions and government regulations, coal plants have been shuttered at a rapid rate since 2010. In the period 1993 to 2009, retirements averaged .36 GW per year and totaled 6.2 GW. In 2020 and 2021 retirements averaged 7.9 GW per year and 95.2 GW in total. Over the next five years, planned retirements will total over 24 GW. All this has been supplanted in part by natural gas. Some facilities converted to...

The ruling classes of the globe are continuing to warn that the power grids all across the globe will be stretched thin this coming summer. There will not be electricity worldwide to meet the soaring demand for more energy, which is threatening more than one billion people with rolling blackouts. Power grids are already being stretched thin by fuel shortages, droughts and heatwaves, commodity disruptions, soaring prices due to the war in Ukraine, and the failed green energy transition where grid operators retired too many fossil fuel generation plants. Combine this all together, and a perfect storm of blackouts threatens...

Imagine one of your kids freezing to death in your home. Eleven-year-old Cristian Pineda's mother found her son dead during the Texas blackout in February 2021. Or you have a power outage for three days, losing a couple of hundred dollars worth of food because your refrigerator didn’t work, as Michelle Jones did last summer. The food she had just bought to feed herself, her daughter, and her granddaughter spoiled without electricity. This is likely to become all too common in the future. What do they all have in common? Increasing their reliance on solar and wind and closing coal...

This summer, power grids worldwide won’t produce enough electricity to meet the soaring demand, threatening more than one billion people with rolling blackouts. Grids are stretched thin by fossil fuel shortages,/B>, drought and heatwaves, commodity disruptions and soaring prices due to the war in Ukraine, and the failed green energy transition where grid operators retired too many fossil fuel generation plants. Combine this all together, and a perfect storm of blackouts threatens much of the Northern Hemisphere. The power crisis, affecting a large swath of the world and top economies, could be less than a month away when summer begins...

Millions of Americans across the Midwest, Southwest and West are expected to face blackouts throughout the summer months, an industry analysis concluded. A variety of factors, including drought conditions and low wind conditions, are expected to put Americans in roughly 28 states at risk of experiencing blackouts this summer, according to a report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a U.S. regulatory authority, published Wednesday. The region managed by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) across 15 Midwest states is at the highest risk of “energy emergencies” during the summer due to capacity shortfalls, the analysis showed.

,/A> A major bunker fuel contamination has been reported in Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub, with dozens of ships receiving tainted high sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) that has led to dangerous power blackouts, according to Bloomberg. Fuel testing firm Veritas Petroleum Services (VPS) reports 34 vessels were identified to have received HSFO from two unidentified Singapore suppliers between February and March. The marine fuel contained up to 2,000 parts per million (ppm) of chlorinated hydrocarbons. “These bunker fuel contaminations have affected 14 vessels so far and the impact has been failure of the fuel system to the auxiliary engine...

COLOMBO, April 1 (Reuters) - Police imposed an overnight curfew in several parts of Sri Lanka's main city of Colombo early on Friday after protests over the government's handling of the country's worst economic crisis in decades turned violent, an official said. Hundreds of protesters gathered near President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's private residence in a Colombo suburb late on Thursday and were broken up by police using tear gas and water cannons, a Reuters witness said. Amal Edirimanne, a senior superintendent of police, said a curfew had been imposed in four police divisions of Colombo, the country's commercial capital.

A leading environmental lawmaker from Torrance has proposed a bill that would create a state fund to support and retrain thousands of oil industry workers as California tries to phase out fossil fuel production. The idea of guiding California’s 112,000 oil industry workers out of their current field and into other careers is often referred to as “just transition,” and is considered by policy researchers a necessary step to counter job losses as the state strives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But even with a Democratic supermajority in the state Legislature, such a proposal faces an uphill battle because it’s...

Public Service Company of New Mexico consumers will likely face blackouts this summer and in summer 2023 unless the utility and state regulators find emergency solutions to cover expected shortages during peak demand, officials say. PNM and some commissioners say extending operations for a few months at the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station, scheduled to shut down in June, could resolve immediate problems facing the utility and consumers this summer. But PNM executives say the utility will almost certainly face critical shortages again in summer 2023 because the PRC has yet to approve new resources to replace some of the...

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City lawmakers are poised to decide Wednesday whether to prohibit most new buildings from using natural gas, a move that would make the nation’s most populous city a showcase for a climate-change-fighting policy that has been both embraced and blocked around the country. The measure is expected to pass the City Council and subsequently receive Mayor Bill de Blasio’s signature. If all that happens, most construction projects submitted for approval after 2027 would have to use something other than gas or oil — such as electricity — for heating, hot water and cooking. Some...