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Energy Rant

This is a satirical and at times humorous but critical commentary on energy efficiency issues of the day.

“Keep up the good work! I like the variety of topics; never boring. It's like a Box of Energy Chocolates.... you never know what you're gonna get!”

Mike MernickSenior Vice President, ICF
Jeff Ihnen
By In Energy Rant

Are You Serious About the Climate Apocalypse?

Washington Post headline last week: “World is on brink of catastrophic warming, U.N. climate change report says.” Wolf! Wolf! People…
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Jun 30
Love138

Press and Utility Strategies From the Mid-America Regulatory Conference

By Energy Rant No Comments
Last week, I spent two and a half days at the Mid-America Regulatory Conference (MARC). This was my third consecutive attendance at the annual MARC. Each conference has featured substantially different, new, and engaging content. Last year's conference in Minneapolis featured many discussions on data-center load growth, nuclear power development, energy storage, workforce development, and my favorite quote, "We're not going to build our way out of this ." This year's conference in Indianapolis featured an amazing presence of utility executives and their visions for their companies, a little chatter about energy efficiency, load management, and demand response, some discussion…
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Jun 23
Love138

Grid-Stabilizing Parts of the ITC Spared, For Now

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At the close of my Rant last week, Avoiding a Downshift Tailspin with the ITC On Storage, I suggested the Senate spare the investment tax credit (ITC) for electric and thermal energy storage in its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB). Canceling the ITC for electric and thermal storage would doom the electric grid and force regional transmission organizations to call for rolling outages to prevent a full-blown blackout. Lo and behold, on Monday, while the Downshift Rant was under review by my marketing counsel, I learned that the Senate Finance Committee did almost exactly what I suggested…
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Jun 17
Love138

Avoiding a Downshift Tailspin with the ITC On Storage

By Energy Rant No Comments
Since the One Big Beautiful Bill (a meme from the 80s comes to mind – gag me with a spoon! 🤮) has passed, interest groups from every angle have mobilized to steer it in their direction as Senators take it up for handouts to their favorite funding organizations, led by Big Tech. Lobbyists in the Sausage Factory They say lobbyists write these bills. Gemini tells me, "Yes, lobbyists can and do write legislation. They often draft bills or provide significant input into the language of bills, which members of Congress or state legislatures then introduce. This practice is common, especially…
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Jun 10
Love137

Derisking Load Growth and Cost Overruns

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If you haven't seen my recent conversation on The False Promises of Electrification with Katherine Johnson on The KJ Show with Dr. KJ, check it out. I received a lot of great feedback from folks. I don't grade my work except for my objective, New Year's Predictions, but I'll take others' word for it on this one. Gaslighting Natural Gas and Electricity Prices Here is something from Food and Water Watch that caught my eye in the middle of the night: Lawmakers, Advocates Rally in Manhattan to Demand Action on Soaring Utility Bills. That is clickbait to me. New York…
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Jun 04
Love136

The Answer to AI is IA and the Three-Pound Organ

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Artificial intelligence is reordering society in many ways. Last week, I wrote, "We may not be getting dumber, but we're demonstrably becoming more dependent on technology, less innovative, and less creative." Since then, I have read this interesting article from Bloomberg: Does College Still Have a Purpose in the Age of ChatGPT? College students are kicking back and tasking AI to write term papers and essays while their lazy counterparts, the professors or teaching assistants, feed the papers into AI grinders to evaluate and grade the papers. "It's an untenable situation: computers grading papers written by computers, students and professors…
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May 27
Love135

AI, Nukes, and the Entropic Vortex

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Last week, I lamented permanent tax credits that balloon the national debt, drive up interest rates, and exponentially increase borrowing costs. Two things have happened since: The House passed its version of the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (OBBBA), which took the shears to "clean energy" and storage tax credits (except for sacrosanct ethanol), and Due to the ineffectiveness of the bill in slashing the deficit, the premium on the 10-year treasury over short-term maturity securities has increased to its highest level in 11 years. The rate on the 30-year treasury is at its highest in 20 years. These higher…
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May 20
Love134

Pants On Fire Fact Pickers

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I'll lead with the conclusion: decarbonization will continue if it costs less than conventional sources, with caveats. The caveats are externalities. Thermal sources of electricity, including coal, natural gas, and nuclear, are associated with externalities of carbon dioxide emissions, coal ash (which is rich in exotic rare earth minerals, aka, coproducts), and radioactive waste. At least radioactive waste is contained in tiny secure containment vessels, the cost of which is not socialized over all humans and the broader environment. Renewable sources of electricity and batteries also have externalities that no one wants to discuss. The big ones include production and…
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May 13
Love133

States’ Rights in the TOMB

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Trump's world strategy is to flood the zone with tariffs, executive orders, and chaos. Anti-Trump, aka Team Orange-Man-Bad (TOMB, get it?), fires back with temporary restraining orders. I haven't watched newer television or movies for three or four decades because real-life drama is all around if you pay attention. And the outcome is uncertain, like a football game, so that's my jam. The worst part of Trump's chaos is the uncertainty. To honor my mother for Mother's Day, I realized my very first post, and indeed, these 750 or whatever Energy Rants over the past 15.5 years, may have resulted…
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May 06
Love132

Will Musk Derangement Destroy the EV?

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To update readers on my 2025 harbingers posted on January 7, the title nails one thing: "2025 in One Word: DOWZH,". Declaration: Victory. Some Fans Turn on Their Man One result is the schism between Elon Musk and his Tesla-buying fan base. However, I will say this: except for the most heinous criminals on the planet, there are always things to admire about people, and the thing I admire in Musk is pressing on with his convictions without fear. I must have some weird or defective gene because I find it amusing when fans turn on their man, like when…
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Apr 29
Love131

A Bridge to Chaos

By Energy Rant No Comments
It is challenging to avoid artificial intelligence and its implications for the electric grid and limit AI-centric blog posts to one per month. This post follows up and doubles down on AI, Manufacturing, and the Bridge Out Ahead, which discussed Trump's tariffs, manufacturing, AI, and the associated soaring electric loads. Trump's Negotiating Tactics Fortunately, I attended a two-hour session with world-class negotiating expert Deepak Malhotra from Harvard Business School. The topic everyone enjoyed the most was his assessment of Trump's "art of the deal" negotiating tactics. It's safe to say Malhotra is no fan of Trump, in his own words.…
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