by Jeff Ihnen | Mar 4, 2025 | Energy Rant
Pouring Into Texas Money talks, and if states were holding speech contests, Texas would be the frontrunner. While states like California boycott conferences in Florida and Texas over DEI and reproductive policies, those things, unfortunately, don’t matter to some of...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 25, 2025 | Energy Rant
Last week, I explored the macro impacts of electrifying our heating systems and using ground source (aka geothermal) heat pump (GHP) systems rather than cold-climate air-source heat pumps (CCHPs). In a nutshell, deploying GHPs in the colder regions of the country...
by Stan Nabozny | Feb 18, 2025 | The Decarbonized Cold Chain
Carbon policy has officially moved from the sustainability team to the balance sheet. Across North America, cities are enforcing building emissions caps with real financial penalties—and cold storage facilities are among the first to feel the impact. For operators...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 18, 2025 | Energy Rant
Over the many years I have taught electrification basics for the Wisconsin Public Utilities Institute’s (WPUI) Energy Utilities Basics course, I dive deeply into heat pumps and their impact on the grid. I explain the messy chart in Figure 1 like a palm reader, except...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 11, 2025 | Energy Rant
Last week, I described elements of Trump’s Unleashing American Energy executive order. It: Expands oil and gas exploration on federal lands Promotes mining and recovery of rare and exotic earth minerals for manufacturing leadership Targets federal spending on...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 4, 2025 | Energy Rant
President Trump’s top priorities include closing the border and restoring “energy dominance.” Readers know he ran on “drill baby, drill” and ending wind generation and electric vehicle subsidies, but what are some of the finer points? His...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jan 27, 2025 | Energy Rant
I was triggered a couple of weeks ago by this article in The Wall Street Journal: 2024 Was the Hottest Year. Here Are Climate Trends to Watch in 2025. I’m not debating that 2024 was the hottest year on record. My micro observation is that our winters in the Midwest...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jan 21, 2025 | Energy Rant
I bet you didn’t see or hear on your favorite news platform, whether it’s NPR, MSNBC, CNN, FNC, Axios, Facebook ????, the big three networks, or some dying newspaper platforms, that one of the largest lithium-ion electricity storage plants in the world caught fire and...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jan 13, 2025 | Energy Rant
Eight and a half years ago in Betting with Deregulation – A Risky Proposition, I wrote the following in this blog, “Companies who want deregulation of anything must be prepared for eventual pain – just ask the major airlines and a bunch of telecom companies, many of...
by Jake Millette | Jan 9, 2025 | The Big Why
It seems every day I see news about the exploding growth of data centers, driven by artificial intelligence and crypto-currency mining. As AI gets integrated into everything (whether we want it or not), the energy required to do the same tasks multiplies. (A ChatGPT...
