Ed. note: Alaskans are waking up to a sneak attack on electric affordability and reliability by agenda-driven special interests and their pliable politicians. The latest incident concerns the state’s third largest hydro project, which has become a Trojan Horse for Green New Deal programs. “Cronyism, abuse and manipulation of our critical energy infrastructure is the result of ‘stakeholder inclusion’,” as energy expert Kassie Andrews writes in this two-part post.
At 40 MW capacity, the Eklutna Hydro Dam Project generates 5–6 percent of the total electricity for the Railbelt. Eklutna provides the most significant share of renewable energy, 44 percent of Matanuska Electric Association (MEA)’s renewable portfolio and 25 percent of Anchorage area-service-provider Chugach’s renewable portfolio.
With capital depreciation and small operating costs, Eklutna is the lowest-cost electricity source for Southcentral Alaska. …
Continue Reading“The solar excess contributes to electricity rates in California that are the highest in the continental United States. Only Hawaii has higher electricity rates, a function of its isolation and need to import fuels for power generation.”
Has California’s enthusiasm for solar power gone too far? That question is being asked as the state is curtailing large amounts of solar generation and paying other states to take the Golden State’s solar excess.
The Los Angeles Times (November 24, 2024) reported:
In the last 12 months, California’s solar farms have curtailed production of more than 3 million megawatt hours of solar energy, either on the orders of the state’s grid operator or because prices had plummeted because of the glut, according to an analysis of data by The Times.
Data from the state’s grid operator, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), shows that curtailments of solar generation, because the conventional market for power in the state was less than was being generated and electric storage capacity was full, have doubled compared to 2021.…
Continue ReadingRichard McCann (Ph.D), co-founder and senior consultant in energy, water, and environmental policy at M.Cubed, is a regular critic of my posts and comments on social media. Here is an exchange that flushes out Malthusianism (really neo-Malthusianism) in the climate debate for the record.
Bradley: Failure: Kyoto Protocol to Paris Accord. End the futile, wasteful anti-CO2 crusade.
McCann: Here’s why we can’t let this rest: https://mcubedecon.com/2025/10/15/modern-climate-change-is-now-18-times-faster-than-historic-global-warming-mass-extinction-events/
Bradley: So tired, so wrong. Malthusian studies are garbage in-garbage out. Statism is the problem, not CO2 enrichment.
McCann: Please show how its wrong. This is no more “Malthusian” than the air pollution studies of the 1960s that has led to much improved air quality across the county and even the world. Even Churchill agreed in the 1950s that coal burning needed to end in London because of the consequences.…
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