Governor Gavin Newsom’s California has perfected a special skill: taking ordinary life and making it more expensive, less reliable, and more bureaucratic—all in the name of climate virtue. The latest exhibit is the California Energy Commission’s unanimous approval of the nation’s first efficiency standards for replacement tires. These rules, effective in phases starting in 2029 […]
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As Europe contemplates a post-Russia/Ukraine war landscape, the imperative to re-arm and rebuild credible conventional deterrence has never been clearer. Tanks, artillery systems, armored vehicles, munitions, and supporting infrastructure all demand vast quantities of high-quality steel—often 50–60 tonnes for a main battle tank and up to 100 tonnes for certain self-propelled artillery pieces. Yet the […]
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The elusive hydrogen economy continues to face setbacks as another high-profile green hydrogen initiative collapses under the weight of economic and regulatory uncertainties. The HyScale 100 project at Raffinerie Heide in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany, has been canceled for the second time, highlighting the persistent difficulties in scaling clean hydrogen production and the broader challenges of […]
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California’s aggressive pursuit of Net Zero and 100% clean electricity has produced record solar milestones, massive battery buildouts, and political talking points about climate leadership. It has also delivered some of the nation’s highest electricity prices, chronic reliability problems, heavy reliance on out-of-state imports, and a grid vulnerable to regional shortfalls and global energy shocks. […]
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The Renewable Treadmill of Financial Death The Renewable Treadmill of Financial Death is a topic that David Blackmon , The Nemeth Report (Dr. Tammy Nemeth) and I will be covering at our new time at 9:00 Central this Monday. The following week at 9:00, we have a special edition of the Energy Realities Podcast with Dr. Joseph Fournier, another great Substack […]
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A recent post by Peter Clack (@PeterDClack) on X captured a growing reality that policymakers and industry advocates have long downplayed: the coming wave of wind turbine and solar panel retirements will expose a physical and financial nightmare of continuous renewal. The fleet average in wind is 19 years, and they are rapidly approaching the […]
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Natan Shahar, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of Standard Carbon stops by with solutions. What if the solution to the alleged climate change was hiding in plain sight—literally in the smokestacks of power plants, factories, and boilers around the world? On this episode of the Energy Newsbeat Podcast, host Stu Turley sits down with Natan […]
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The Bank of England is moving further away from thermal coal. From October 2026, it will no longer accept bonds issued by companies deriving revenue from thermal coal mining as eligible collateral in its lending operations. Commercial banks borrowing from the Bank (including major UK institutions) will not be able to post those bonds. The […]
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New York City’s lights increasingly depend on a pair of half-century-old floating power plants that were never meant to run this hard. The Gowanus and Narrows barge-mounted generating stations, moored off Brooklyn in the Upper Bay, serve as the city’s last line of defense against blackouts. As intense heat waves and rising demand strain the […]
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California’s energy debate often rests on a convenient narrative: gasoline and diesel demand is falling, so aging refineries can—and should—simply close. A recent CalMatters commentary by Ranjit Deshmukh, an environmental studies associate professor at UC Santa Barbara, advances exactly this view. Titled in essence “Aging oil refineries don’t need more public dollars. California should let […]
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