by Jeff Ihnen | Aug 5, 2025 | Energy Rant
This week, I’m providing the other side of last week’s Less for More Train. From my 30 years of observation in and around the utility industry, utilities were driven into the oncoming mess of less reliability for higher electricity costs. I use the word...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jul 28, 2025 | Energy Rant
Michaels Energy was founded in 1984 in the wake of the 1970s energy crises when fear of energy starvation gripped the nation and world. Forecasts indicated natural gas and crude oil reserves would soon be depleted. Policymakers were so freaked out that, for a short...
by Jeff Ihnen | Aug 6, 2024 | Energy Rant
This is the third and final post in a series of Energy Rants on rising electricity prices and unreliability. The first post, Rising Price of Less Reliable Electricity, defined and quantified the problem and discussed some reasons and challenges in the future. Last...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jan 15, 2024 | Energy Rant
The depth of decarbonization will ride the line where the net of cost and convenience meets that of conventional alternatives. Polling from the University of Chicago indicates 38% of Americans are willing to chip in one (1) dollar per month to fight climate change,...
by Jeff Ihnen | Aug 28, 2023 | Energy Rant
Last week, we looked at Total Resource Cost (TRC) tests that were developed decades ago to put a high value on avoided source energy costs. That was right for the time, but not today. I demonstrated that energy costs, mostly dominated by natural gas, are near historic...
