Choose a political tribe, and I will tell you their concerns, doubts, fears, and enemies. Those threats I could categorize include climate change, tyrannical government, terrorism, big corporate, national debt, financial collapse, and so forth. Some of those threats are more serious than others and most of them, when mixed with others, produce a much more potent threat. For instance, terrorists with nukes, or corporations using puppets to make bad law that hits everyone else. When you consider a threat, you must consider what you can control, whether it can be prevented or mitigated, at what cost, and what is…
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Last week, I mentioned that having a diversified fleet of power generating plants is a smart strategy for any utility; specifically, diversity by fuel source. The recent natural gas bonanza cut loose with the perfection of hydraulic fracturing and mind-blowing drilling capability (vertical a few thousand feet, then horizontal a few thousand feet) has unleashed a fury of kneejerk policy and utility strategy changes. As is common with the Energy Rant, Jeff says, not so fast. It isn’t that easy. There are consequences and major challenges with racing down this road without thinking.First we have the federal government (the EPA)…
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I’ve written dozens of proposals, and I’ve read dozens and dozens of requests for proposals from all sorts of entities including states, local governments, private corporations, and of course, utilities. With this comes scope of work requested, required proposal content, rules, terms and conditions, and due dates. I always consider content of the RFP to mean what it says, and if it isn’t clear what it means, either ask a question via the process detailed in the RFP, or ignore it and work it out later, or it is a minor thing – irrelevant in the big picture. Enter the…
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