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AI

Aug 11
Love144

Automobile Preferences and Adolescent Food Fights

By Energy Rant No Comments
Last week, The Wall Street Journal quietly mentioned that the transition to electric vehicles died months ago. "After the highly anticipated EV boom in the U.S. fizzled out, President Trump and Congress set out to eliminate state and federal regulations they argue were designed to mandate battery-powered vehicles for American consumers." I missed the news stories and headlines declaring the EV market dead. I don't think it's dead. Consistent with my 15-year-old prediction, I believe they are headed for a niche slice of the market with a steady 5-10% U.S. market share. They have their place in the market. In…
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Jul 21
Love142

A Dive Into Nuclear Power Financials

By Energy Rant No Comments
Saving the best for last, there was a session at the Mid-America Regulatory Conference entitled Nuclear, Go Small or Go Home. I could call that false advertising because there was almost no discussion on SMRs, or small modular reactors. Only a University of Illinois-Champaign researcher panelist mentioned SMRs. Why might this be? The freeze on nuclear power is thawing, brought to you, in part, by Springfield. Are SMRs the answer? We shall see a little bit in this Rant post. Long term, time will tell. Nuclear Power and Public Opinion Suzie Jaworowski, Indiana’s Secretary of Energy, said nuclear power has…
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Jul 15
Love141

Precedented Times in the Utility Space

By Energy Rant No Comments
This week, I am just about wrapping up everything from the Mid-America Regulatory Conference held in Indianapolis. However, there is so much content that I’m saving the best (nuclear power) for last, next week. Cyber Threats An early session featured a panel of cybersecurity experts discussing the relentless and ruthless threats to our grid and utilities. As I listened to that with my cybersecurity training background and reading about it, I realized that the most significant vulnerabilities are soft targeting and social engineering, rather than brute force hacking. What is soft targeting? Tailgating through a security gate is one example.…
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Jun 04
Love137

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

By Energy Rant No Comments
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

By Energy Rant No Comments
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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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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Apr 21
Love131

Fanatical Execution Beats the Box

By Energy Rant No Comments
Did you notice the lights flickering or dimming around noon on Saturday? That was me stomping on the AI gas pedals to inspire this week’s edition of the Energy Rant. I asked ChatGPT for an example of thinking outside the box, which, duh, is precisely what artificial intelligence cannot do worth a hoot. It only brings solutions within the massive data set from which it has to draw. Outside the Box I asked, “Give me an example of thinking outside the box.” It gave me the nine-dot puzzle, which many or most of you have already seen: Challenge: Connect all…
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Apr 08
Love129

AI, Manufacturing, and The Bridge Out Ahead

By Energy Rant No Comments
President Trump plans to remake the world economy, and he's not going to flinch on the tariffs he leveled on "liberation day," April 2, 2025. The man is resolute, noting for 40 years that the United States has been "ripped off" by nations around the globe. Here are links to his appearances on Larry King Live in 1987 and the Oprah in 1988, illustrating he hasn't changed his mind. How do the tariffs work? According to Axios, it's simple – each country's trade deficit is divided by exports to the United States, divided by two, with a minimum of 10%.…
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Oct 02
Love47

Using AI With Caution

By Energy Rant No Comments
Last week, I presented some findings that artificial intelligence can churn out dozens of product ideas in a fraction of the time humans can deliver. The AI bots provide higher-ranking ideas, so long as the criteria are defined, and the bot stays in the box. I also provided excerpts from a “help” chatbot that delivered no help but successfully raised my heart rate and blood pressure. Use It or Lose It Smartphones and computerized anything can make us dumber, less capable, vulnerable to power or network outages, and even bad directions. Last week, for example, I regretted turning navigation over…
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