Are You Ready For Power Blackouts This Winter?

Weather pundits on TV and even The Old Farmers Almanac are telling us key factors like Solar Cycle 25, El Nino, and a polar vortex moving south from the North Pole will combine to give most of the U.S. a colder and a much more snowy winter. Are we ready? Is the Biden administration ensuring our gas and coal-fired power plants are winterized and have enough fuel? Of course not.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a not-for-profit regulatory authority whose stated mission is "to assure the effective and efficient reduction of risks to the reliability and security of the grid," released a report warning that two-thirds of the United States is facing winter power blackouts. That will happen because of our reliance on solar and wind farms and the retirement and cancellation of new coal and natural gas power plants.

Peter Zeihan, geographer and demographer extraordinaire, has sounded the alarm. He knows the re-industrialization of the United States is beginning and is poised to exceed the astounding growth of American manufacturing capacity in the early years of WWII. The demand for more electric power will happen because America is shortening its vulnerable supply chains and rebuilding industries that moved to China and other countries. Zeihan notes,  “Conservative estimates show electricity demand increasing by more than 50%,” adding that if we also electrify transportation we must double the number of power plants needed.

Now we come to Michael Bloomberg. With $96.3 billion he is the 12^th richest man in the world. Like Zeihan he is a greenie but one with infinitely less understanding of the need for more power plants and the impact on our electrical grid by the global warming hoax. After Bloomberg pledged $500 million in September, his Bloomberg Philanthropies stated that money would “finish the job on coal” and “slash gas plant capacity in half, and block all new gas plants” in favor of wind and solar energy. Unlike Zeihan, Bloomberg does not understand that the transition to green energy he is funding will destabilize our power grid, damage transformers, and cause long-term outages.

Happily, Bloomberg’s plan to crush coal-fired power plants is sailing onto the rocks and shoals of America’s re-industrialization demands for a robust power supply. An example of those demands is the $4 billion Panasonic electric vehicle battery plant in Kansas. That 2.7 million square foot plant requires so much reliable energy that the local coal-fired plant cannot be closed. Instead, it will be expanded and its life extended.

Despite the Biden administration’s call for all fossil fuel power generation, including natural gas, to be eliminated by 2035, NERC warned about what will happen this winter, stating, “Fuel production or transportation disruptions could limit the amount of natural gas or other fuels available for electric generation. Wind, solar, and other variable energy resource generators are dependent on the weather.” Mark Olson, NERC’s manager of reliability assessments, added,  “The growth of intermittent resources, like solar generation, on the distribution system significantly increases load forecasting complexity and uncertainty. Once again, we strongly recommend that operators take the necessary steps to prepare for winter.”

Massachusetts Democratic Governor Healey is a major greenie as are the states surrounding her. So instead of listening to NERC and ensuring America’s main gas terminal in Massachusetts is prepared for winter, the Everett Liquefied Natural Gas Facility that receives 99% of all U.S. imports of natural gas may cease operations in 2024! That closure means millions of Americans, especially in New England, will face heating shortages and power blackouts this winter. Has Governor Healy conveniently forgotten the power blackouts during Christmas 2022? Or winter storm Elliot that caused whiteouts, traffic jams, and 10,000 delayed flights? All that happened because gas-fired plants were short of fuel and solar and wind power could not equal the demand for power. She must have also forgotten what happened in Texas during the winter of 2021.

Texas leads all the other states in adopting “renewable energy.” Shutting coal power plants and replacing them with renewable energy means that 45% of Texas power is now provided by wind and solar farms. Nevertheless, this November voters in Texas remembered Winter Storm Uri in 2021. Power outages during that storm prevented Texans from heating their homes and between 246 and 702 froze to death. (In Texas, it seems the count depends on who is counting.) So this November Texas voters created the $5 billion Texas Energy Fund, dedicated to funding new plants that provide power continuously – not just when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing.

Have Texans found a less expensive way to get around Biden’s regulations against fossil fuel power generation in order to achieve zero CO2 emissions by 2050? A study showed that effort would cost trillions of dollars. On top of supporting the Ukraine war, the Israeli war, arming Taiwan, giving aid to our enemies, and all the other Biden administration’s spending, the national debt is now at the point where we will soon be forced to default on our bonds and destroy the dollar.

The Department of Energy’s rosy estimate of the United States building out 30 gigawatts of wind energy by 2030 is also in trouble because planners and materiel suppliers are canceling major wind farm projects.

Siemens’ plan to build a $200 million windmill factory in Virginia was canceled in recognition of offshore wind farms being canceled everywhere. Plans for two huge wind farms on the New Jersey coast have been abandoned as well as the Park City Wind Project in Massachusetts. That cancellation came after Connecticut utilities dropped long-term power purchase contracts. Are American power utilities getting as smart as China?

In the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, China and 195 other countries agreed to control their carbon emissions to help control climate change. As a result, the U.S. is spending billions on solar and wind farms. Is China doing the same? Not a chance. Today, China remains the world’s biggest emitter, spewing out 12.7 billion metric tons of CO2 each year. (The U.S. emits 5.9 billion tons.) While watching Americans spend themselves into bankruptcy to comply with the global warming hoax, China builds coal-fired power plants and sells us solar power panels.

Since 2016, China has added 233 gigawatts of coal-fired energy! With its 3,092 operating coal-fired power plants, China now burns more coal than all other countries combined. And, China is adding even more coal power plants.

Why are they building so many coal power plants? For two reasons: First, China has 13% of the entire world’s proven reserves of coal. Their railroads move 200 million tons from coal mines to power plants every year. Second, China depends on oil imports for 72% of its needs. If war breaks out, it would be easy for an enemy to interdict shipments of oil and gas supplied by ships or pipelines. So China’s government is ensuring electric power will be available for its industries and people in peace or war, and in summer or winter.

In contrast, the Biden administration cancels energy exploration, sells our oil reserves, and blocks construction of coal and gas-fired power plants in favor of solar and wind farms.

So now Americans are left with hoping this winter is mild. And above all, that the sun always shines and the wind always blows.