The ‘Grok been sharing the declining fortunes of the New England Energy grid (As well as energy in general) for years. As the left has swept up political power, forward-thinking means green “capacity.” This is useless in the bitter cold when we need it most while what we need – natural gas – is blocked by the same politics.
Related: The Biden’s Were Getting Rich From Foreign Energy While Blocking Domestic Production
Three years ago, ISO New England warned us. We are in desperate need of additional natural gas capacity. Without it, another long stretch of bitter cold (from few days to a week or more) would result in brown-outs and blackouts for lack of energy and no infrastructure.
No power when we need it most.
In response, the Left has continued to sing the same song. They want to expand Wind and Solar and stop any infrastructure that adds natural gas where needed; they even blocked Hydro. There’s always an excuse that will ring hollow when people can’t keep warm, not that they’re “saving the planet” for those folks.
It’s a problem, and ISO New England is back to remind us. Drew Cline, writing at The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, shares their latest concerns.
“New England has had good luck. I don’t know how else to describe it,” Harvard’s Ashley Brown said. “One year, Venezuela dumped a bunch of gas. This year it’s a warm winter. It’s a matter of time until it catches up.”
The issue, Brown said, is a shortage of natural gas pipelines.
“The fuel is there. The problem is moving it. It’s pipeline capacity, that’s what it is,” he said.
“The problem is two difficulties in building pipelines. One is the opposition, whether it’s environmental, whether it’s NIMBY. Then, after all that, you still have the problem of who’s going to finance it.”
The Northeast has gobs of gas, just not in New Hampshire. Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, west and south, have massive shale deposits. It’s not far, but then it’s too far. Left-wing Politics makes it near impossible to get it here where we need it.
In the 2018-2019 cold, we had to pay top dollar to get NG shipped from foreign lands to the New England grid to keep the lights on. All while there’s affordable, abundant stock just down the road apiece.
But partisan-policy has made it cumbersome to impossible to get it here from there. A problem that we need to address. No matter how much you love wind or solar, neither can provide basic power needs in good years. Expecting them to kick up the heat in the cold is an impossibility. They not only have decreases production in the Northeast during winter, but the cold also makes some equipment inoperable. That means less power than usual when demand is highest.
It’s stupid, and people will end up dead.
Maybe Governor Sununu can declare it a public health emergency and write an executive order mandating the quick completion of natural gas capacity. And why not? With great power comes great responsibility.
So far, we’ve seen nothing but irresponsible behavior.
The State is full of potential natural gas customers. It’s cheaper than oil, easier to deal with than wood, and if you build it – add a few power plants (maybe replace the coal-burning station to appease the Libs) – people will want to hook up. Those people are called customers, as opposed to eh energy slaves we’ve been creating with nearly two decades of bad energy policy out of Concord.
