The electric generation transition occurring in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) states, including New York, has been progressing relatively slowly, but the electricity consumers (“frogs”) have noticed that electricity prices are increasing (“the water is getting warmer”) and have become uncomfortable.

From 2019 to 2025, the looming implementation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) chilled investment in Pennsylvania’s electric grid. For six years, Pennsylvania teetered on fully implementing RGGI’s multistate cap-and-trade program, which imposes a carbon tax on power producers. New generation proposals plummeted by 38 percent, and generation projects fueled by natural gas collapsed by 65 percent—even as neighboring Ohio’s project pipeline grew.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) states are continuing their planned transition to a renewable plus storage electric grid. Load growth and the shuttering of conventional generation capacity are moving them toward “Tipping Points”, beyond which renewable generation additions would be required to be dispatchable, so that they could replace conventional generation capacity rather than just displace a growing portion of its output.

Environmentalists would have us believe that coal a dying energy source. But, thankfully for American coal states such as West Virginia and Canadian provinces Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, all of which use millions of tonnes of coal every year to generate electricity, that is not even remotely true.

RGGI Transition Powerplants discussed the physical requirements of the renewable plus storage powerplants which would be required to replace existing conventional powerplants and add new generating capacity as the RGGI states continued their planned transition.

We are currently working on an exciting new project called the Social Cost of Blackouts. In this upcoming report, we argue that regulatory agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and utility regulators should be required to determine whether proposed power plant regulations or integrated resource plans (IRPs) will result in blackouts based on hourly reliability assessments using historical weather patterns, and to calculate the economic damages from those outages.

The member states of the regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative are continuing their efforts to transition their electric systems toward renewable generation systems. Electricity demand growth and the shuttering of existing fossil fueled generation are moving them toward “tipping points” beyond which renewable generation would have to be dispatchable to maintain grid stability and reliability.

The international committee responsible for the official scenarios that feed into climate modeling that are the basis for most projective climate research and the assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just published the next generation of climate scenarios.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) states (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont) remain committed to reducing CO2 emissions from their electric generation infrastructure. Virginia was an RGGI state until 2023 and legislation currently requires the state rejoin RGGI in 2026.

Dear Chief Justice Roberts: The Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence has long been valued by the federal and state judiciary for its neutrality, clarity, and restraint. It is used by more than 3,000 federal judges, many state judges, and has been cited in over 1,700 judicial opinions. Its purpose has always been to assist courts in evaluating scientific evidence—not to advance particular scientific, political, or policy agendas.

In Solar and Storage Marketing we estimated the cost of transitioning a Maryland residence with an existing 18.5 kW solar PV system connected to the utility grid to operate reliably off-grid during recent winter storm Fern, which reduced solar system generation to near zero for a period of 10 days.

Of the hundreds of conferences I have attended in my career, the 16th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC16) held on April 8 and 9 in Washington DC stands out as one of the very best. The several dozen presentations were well researched, right on topic and delivered with the right combination of content, humor and showmanship.

Solar energy system contractors and battery manufacturers have recently expanded their efforts to include battery storage capacity in residential and small commercial solar installations. Some are even teasing the idea of going off the grid. Adding a storage battery to a solar system is not a trivial expense.

The politically promoted concern about “affordability” rapidly focused on electricity rates as a target rich environment. In one sense this is not surprising, since electricity is used almost universally and thus affects virtually everyone. In another sense it is surprising, since electricity is one of the most heavily regulated commodities in the economy.

Last month I wrote a couple of articles about the January 23-27 winter storm and its ramifications on a future electric system that depends upon wind and solar and how it demonstrated that Dispatchable Emissions-Free Resources (DEFR) will be needed.

The State of California, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and renewable energy advocates take great pride in the growth of renewable generation in the California market, as illustrated in the Facebook posts highlighted in our commentary “California Dreaming”.

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Protestors stood in the snow outside the offices of Ohio’s utility regulator in January to say they were fed up with rising electricity rates. Even a few years ago, the scene would have been hard to imagine, considering the complexity of utility costs and the obscurity of state regulatory agencies. But rate hikes in Ohio and across the country have provoked frustrated consumers to demand answers.

Politicians looked around for a cause for control, found climate change, diagnosed it as a crisis and applied Net Zero by 2050 as the remedy. The cause of the climate change crisis was diagnosed as anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions.

When it comes to renewable energy, Michigan is the state to watch. By law, it must transition from 15% renewable electricity today to 50% by 2030, 60% by 2035, and be powered entirely by “clean” energy by 2040.

Analogy: a : a comparison of two otherwise unlike things based on resemblance of a particular aspect b : resemblance in some particulars between things otherwise unlike Extension cord: an electrical conductor used to move electricity from where it is available to where it is needed.