Environmental groups may pay lip service to "environmental justice" in low-income communities, but these communities are being hoodwinked by the environmentalists who will make it harder for low-income families to pay their electric bill so the community solar program can be funded, at any cost. ...
Continue reading
Groups who oppose the reliable and affordable electricity generated by coal and natural gas such as the Sierra Club and Fresh Energy are predictably scrutinizing Great River Energy (GRE) for their plans to keep generating electricity at the Coal Creek Power Station, an enormous 1,156 MW power plant located in North Dakota. These special interest groups are hoping to pressure the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission into rejecting GRE's long term resource plan, which depends heavily on the Coal Creek plant to meet the electricity demands of their customers. This shouldn't surprise anyone, because the Sierra Club has spearheaded a nationwide campaign...
Continue reading
Last week, economist Jeffrey Sachs had an op-ed on CNN titled 'Trump's failure to fight climate change is a crime against humanity'. But new EPA data shows that American individuals and businesses are doing just fine reducing CO2 emissions without commands from the Oval Office. ...
Continue reading
State regulators have once again empowered environmental hardliners by postponing a decision on a natural-gas power plant proposed by Minnesota Power. While the plant will be built in Superior, the utility still needs the approval of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. Yet instead of voting on the $700 million plant on Thursday, the MPUC put off a final decision at the request of a far-leftist group, according to the Duluth News Tribune. Although the PUC was expected to make a decision Thursday, a last-minute filing by the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board on Tuesday asked the PUC to consider an additional environmental review...
Continue reading
Renewable energy has very little value as a power producer—it’s not as reliable as other forms of energy, it’s more intermittent and difficult to predict, and the imposed costs it has on other forms of energy make it among the most expensive sources of energy around. Coupled with government mandates, renewable energy complicates the energy system like no other energy source does....
Continue reading
Despite what its detractors say, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed last year has been an unqualified success. Unemployment is at its lowest rate since 1969, wages are rising in critical industries like manufacturing, and we now have a situation where employers are struggling to find employees, not unemployed people struggling to find jobs. Economic gains were part of the sales pitch for the tax cuts, but Minnesotans have also experienced a host of unexpected benefits from them, including refunds from electric utilities. Because the tax cuts reduced the corporate tax income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, Xcel...
Continue reading
If you’re an Xcel customer, you have most likely noticed your electricity rates have been increasing steadily in the last few years. That’s because Xcel signed a historic multi-year rate plan in 2015 extending to 2018, increasing electricity rates for all Xcel customers. Spelled out directly in its rate-case, Xcel’s rate increases were implemented almost entirely to pay for expensive investments in wind energy and other power facilities, totaling over $1 billion....
Continue reading
We often hear that global warming will eventually be the end to all of us. The message is pervasive, and it has been trumpeted again by a newly-released report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC. While renewable energy advocates, anti-pipeline activists, and others attempt to use global warming as a "trump card," when lobbying for government policies and mandates for their preferred sources of energy, its important to look at whether these claims are supported by the scientific evidence, especially as President Trump has removed the United States from the Paris Climate Accord (not a treaty), and rescinded...
Continue reading
Residents on the Iron Range have important decisions to make about the economic future of their region. That's why two rallies to demonstrate public support for the environmentally responsible mining of Minnesota’s mineral resources will be held in Duluth on October 22 and in Hibbing on October 23. Minnesota has some of the largest deposits of copper, nickel, platinum, and titanium in the world. Developing these resources would create 8,500 jobs and $3.7 billion dollars in economic output every year, according to a recent American Experiment report. Speakers will focus on the vast economic benefits mining could bring to the region and state,...
Continue reading
On October 11, 2016, three pipeline protesters from Seattle, Annette Klapstein, Emily Johnston, and Ben Joldersma, disguised as safety workers scaled a chain-link fence and used bolt cutters to unlock the shut-off valves on the Enbridge lines 4 and 67, which carry millions of gallons of oil daily across Minnesota from western Canada. The anti-pipeline activists faced felony charges that could result in up to 10 years in prison, that is, until Judge Robert Tiffany granted the protesters' motion to dismiss the case. The ruling comes as a shock, even to the protesters themselves. However, by dismissing this case, Judge Tiffany did a vast...
Continue reading