On January 8, 2024, a confluence of factors forced the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) to initiate rolling blackouts that affected about 120,000 electricity customers in two dozen communities on the island of…
According to the Long Term Reliability Assessment, a report by the nonprofit organization, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), energy reliability is a growing issue on electricity grids across the…
On New Year’s Eve, 2023, Xcel Energy shut down Unit 2 at the coal-fired Sherburne County (Sherco) generating station. Unit 2 was a 680-megawatt (MW) facility capable of powering 25…
In many ways, 2023 feels like the eye of the hurricane threatening the reliability of the American electric grid. It was the first year since 2019 that rolling blackouts didn’t…
On Christmas Eve, 2022, millions of American families experienced rolling blackouts as frigid temperatures brought by Winter Storm Elliot caused fuel supply problems for natural gas power plants throughout the…
Last week, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the international regulatory authority with the mission to ensure the reliability of the electric grid, released the latest version of its…
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)’s Winter Reliability Assessment has identified MISO as one of the areas at an elevated risk of capacity shortfalls, i.e. blackouts, if we experience higher-than-normal generator…
I’m not generally a fan of calling anything I disagree with “woke,” but in this instance, the headline was too good to pass up. On November 27, 2023, Ed Ballard…
Last week, Mitch and I detailed the massive costs associated with replacing the electricity generated by the Lower Snake River (LSR) dams with 100 percent wind, solar, and battery storage.…
Leaked court documents reveal that the Biden administration has been secretly conspiring with tribal nations and environmental groups to spend $1 billion to prepare for the destruction of four hydroelectric…
It has been nearly three years since Winter Storm Uri caused more than 24 million Texans to suffer through four days of rolling power outages due to inadequate electricity supplies. …
Last week, Xcel Energy announced it is seeking to install 1,200 megawatts (MW) of new wind capacity in southwest Minnesota by 2027, which would constitute a 25 percent increase in…
Last week, I wrote about how Minnesota Public Utilities Commissioner Joseph Sullivan warned that a large blackout would cause the public to “absolutely revolt.” Sullivan correctly noted that the power…
In 2019, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced his plan to mandate that 100 percent of Minnesota’s electricity come from carbon-free sources by 2050. As part of his pitch, the Governor…
Minnesota families who buy their electricity from Xcel Energy are paying the highest prices of any investor-owned utility in Minnesota, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.…
Wind and solar electricity prices are soaring in response to supply chain disruptions, rising costs for materials and labor, interest rate hikes, and increasing costs to connect wind and solar…
Advocates of mandating wind and solar often talk about these electricity generators as if they will usher in a new utopia for us all. For a local example, look no…
In early August, four of the largest electric grid operators in America warned that President Biden’s proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new and existing fossil-fueled power…
I’ve been hesitant to attempt any predictions about potential blackouts on the grid this year because I don’t want to become a Boy Who Cried Wolf. Also, it hasn’t felt…
MN350 is a liberal energy group in Minnesota best known for opposing the replacement of the aging Line 3 pipeline with a newer, safer pipeline and lobbying for more wind…
Duke Energy recently made a smart announcement outlining plans to replace one of the company’s coal-fired power plants with new small modular reactors at the Belews Creek Steam Station. In…
American Experiment Policy Fellow Isaac Orr joined Rich Gruber on the radio to discuss the findings of our study on the Environmental Protection Agency’s new regulations on carbon dioxide emissions…
At a time when reliability concerns are plaguing most regional power grids in America, it helps to remember one of the largest blackouts in the country’s history — the 2003…
On August 8, four regional grid operators, Pennsylvania Jersey Maryland (PJM), the Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator (MISO), the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and Southwest Power Pool (SPP) issued…