Editor Update: Since this article was prepared, Southern Company (the parent of Georgia Power) announced another cost increase and delay.
“Since September 2018, the project budget has increased five times, and is now expected to total more than $30 billion [from $14 billion in 2009].”
The bad news continues at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle #3 and #4, the first nuclear units to be constructed in six years. The most complicated, expensive, and hazardous way to boil water, (government-enabled) nuclear remains a mirage of cost-effective engineering.
A project that broke ground in 2013, expected to cost $14 billion with start-up in 2016 (Unit 3) and 2017 (Unit 4), is now past $30 billion with estimated start dates in 2023/24. The U.S. Department of Energy has contributed loan guarantees of $12 billion to the project.…
“The blame for the current energy crisis also falls on our industry for too often compliantly going along with the endless anti-hydrocarbon fashion of today.”
“If it is not for us to speak candidly, honestly and loudly about the critical role hydrocarbons play in the modern world, and most critically for those desiring simply to join the modern world, then who else will play this role?”
Playing offense against the critics of oil and gas is good business. It was courageous back then, and it is ESG’ish today. After all, none other than the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, said More Oil Now. And so did U.S. DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
Remember when Innovex Downhole Solutions called out North Face when the latter refused to fill a shirt order because the customer was an oil company?…
“… fossil fuels are a convenient, condensed source of energy that has helped raise living standards throughout much of the world.”
“We must all be aware that demands for effective policies will yield only superficial change as long as the role of special interests in government remains unaddressed.” (- James Hansen)
James Hansen speaks truth to power in a number of areas regarding energy and climate. There is a lot to like. But when it comes to public policy, he refuses to go where his sober analysis tells him. He is not ready to make a tectonic shift toward adaptation rather than mitigation, despite the latter’s impossible economic and policy math.
“Magical Thinking”
Magical thinking has plagued climate policy. Vaclav Smil has explained the problem with little pushback. Smil, in fact, is in the mainstream as shown by the NYT’s April 2022 article, “This Eminent Scientist Says Climate Activists Need to Get Real.”…