• Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
Climate Change Dispatch
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Who We Are
  • Facts Vs. Fearmongering
    • Real science vs Junk Science
      • 1100-plus Peer-Reviewed Studies
      • 97% – Myth of the Climate Change Consensus
      • Michael Crichton: Aliens Cause Global Warming
      • Climate change and its causes
      • Climate Science Primer
      • CO2 is not pollution
      • Deceptive Surface Temperature Records
      • Editorial: Great Global Warming Hoax
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 1
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 2
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 3
      • Why CO2 Is A Minor Player In Global Climate
      • Why Politicized Science Is So Dangerous
    • Facts Not Fear
      • A Simple Question For Climate Alarmists
      • Climate Change – The Facts
      • Climate Change Fears Are Empirically Baseless
      • Global Warming 101
      • Global Warming Q&A
      • Understanding The Medieval Warm Period
      • Ocean Cycles and Climate
      • Overview of Plate Climatology Theory
      • Precautionary Principle
      • Should We Celebrate Carbon Dioxide?
      • The Skeptics Handbook
      • Weather Versus Climate
      • Why I’m a GW skeptic
      • Winning the climate debate with facts
      • Why Aliens Cause Global Warming
    • Greenhouse FAQs
      • CO2, Plants, & Industry
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • Is global warming real?
      • Measuring temperature
      • Swimming in CO2?
      • Scientists urge caution?
      • Today’s warming trend
      • Variations in temperature
    • Gore’s Greatest Goofs
      • Deconstructing the Truth
      • Fact-Checking Al Gore’s Latest Predictions
      • How Gore Created The Global Warming Hoax
    • Inside Real Climate
      • Closer look at the 97% Consensus
      • GW’s Amazing Story
      • IPCC gets failing grade
      • Real Climate Exposed!
      • Truth about Real Climate
      • We’ve Been Conned
      • What is there a 97% consensus about?
    • Behind the IPCC
      • 1,000 Scientists Dissent
      • Climategate: Caught Green-Handed!
      • Climategate Inquiries
      • Climategate Inquiries 2
      • NIPCC Report Now Available
      • Understanding the Climategate Inquiries
  • Submissions
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Who We Are
  • Facts Vs. Fearmongering
    • Real science vs Junk Science
      • 1100-plus Peer-Reviewed Studies
      • 97% – Myth of the Climate Change Consensus
      • Michael Crichton: Aliens Cause Global Warming
      • Climate change and its causes
      • Climate Science Primer
      • CO2 is not pollution
      • Deceptive Surface Temperature Records
      • Editorial: Great Global Warming Hoax
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 1
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 2
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 3
      • Why CO2 Is A Minor Player In Global Climate
      • Why Politicized Science Is So Dangerous
    • Facts Not Fear
      • A Simple Question For Climate Alarmists
      • Climate Change – The Facts
      • Climate Change Fears Are Empirically Baseless
      • Global Warming 101
      • Global Warming Q&A
      • Understanding The Medieval Warm Period
      • Ocean Cycles and Climate
      • Overview of Plate Climatology Theory
      • Precautionary Principle
      • Should We Celebrate Carbon Dioxide?
      • The Skeptics Handbook
      • Weather Versus Climate
      • Why I’m a GW skeptic
      • Winning the climate debate with facts
      • Why Aliens Cause Global Warming
    • Greenhouse FAQs
      • CO2, Plants, & Industry
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • Is global warming real?
      • Measuring temperature
      • Swimming in CO2?
      • Scientists urge caution?
      • Today’s warming trend
      • Variations in temperature
    • Gore’s Greatest Goofs
      • Deconstructing the Truth
      • Fact-Checking Al Gore’s Latest Predictions
      • How Gore Created The Global Warming Hoax
    • Inside Real Climate
      • Closer look at the 97% Consensus
      • GW’s Amazing Story
      • IPCC gets failing grade
      • Real Climate Exposed!
      • Truth about Real Climate
      • We’ve Been Conned
      • What is there a 97% consensus about?
    • Behind the IPCC
      • 1,000 Scientists Dissent
      • Climategate: Caught Green-Handed!
      • Climategate Inquiries
      • Climategate Inquiries 2
      • NIPCC Report Now Available
      • Understanding the Climategate Inquiries
  • Submissions
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Climate Change Dispatch
No Result
View All Result

What To Know About Your Electric Utility’s Costs And Reliability Challenges

by Craig Eicher
January 30, 2025, 9:00 AM
in Energy, News and Opinion, Politics
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
3

coal power plant
Many years ago, a comedy group posted a video featuring actors as average Americans in a slick faux commercial satirizing coal energy. Turns out the coincident target of this mockery was the rest of us and how little we understand about what powers our lives. [emphasis, links added]

“What if the power to sustain your world was right inside a mountain?” asks the narrator. He continues, “What if you could power an entire city for a hundred dollars?”

A man in a hard hat says, “Cheap power is clean power. The future is later.” A woman looks soberly at the camera, “Electricity comes from the walls in my home where I live.”

It’s quite funny. Even my former co-workers at an investor-owned utility where I worked 18 years thought it was.

But the reality is your electric utility is a bit conflicted on exactly how much esoteric understanding they’d like their customers to have about their business.

Of course, it’s good for folks to value energy efficiency and conservation, and how they can be safe around power lines.

But, when it comes to understanding how utilities produce and deliver power or make money? Well…

The fact is, the world of utilities has changed quite a bit in many ways, and hardly at all in others. It’s an industry that has a natural resistance to change, mostly because what’s often called the world’s largest machine – the electric grid – has served us well for more than a century.

It underlays the entirety of our industrialized economy, powering everything. Yet, for a couple of decades now, efforts to clean it up and make it smarter have often conflicted with the grid’s primary directive to deliver reliable, affordable, safe power.

And today, this conflict remains mostly unresolved.

So, here are six things about utilities that I think everyone should understand:

1. Power For All Restricts Innovation – And That’s Not Necessarily A Bad Thing

Let’s start with a simple concept – you wouldn’t want your electric utility to fail and go out of business. At the same time, that utility must serve any customer within its service area. No choice.

This “obligation to serve” often motivates utilities to make their proposals for rate increases quite urgent; it also means a utility is probably not an organization you’d want taking an undue risk on unproven new ideas.

In the world of multi-billion-dollar investments, any failure means wasted money from customers’ bills.

Some notable examples of near-misses or outright turkeys: smart grid, vehicle-to-grid, microgrids, in-home controls, clean coal, carbon sequestration, smart meters, hydrogen fuel cells, wave energy, offshore wind, and creative pricing strategies.

Some of these projects just languished, while others lost billions, but all were pursued with the best of intentions – thanks to regulatory mandates, customer demands, and even managerial misjudgment.

While many argue our utilities should be investing in R&D, others want to hold their reins and let them buy only proven technologies, limiting the risk of a bad bet.

2. “BANANA” is the New “NIMBY”

Nothing is more challenging for a utility than expanding its infrastructure because no one wants to look at it and live near it. In fact, community opposition has grown so strong and sophisticated that NIMBY – Not In My Backyard – has been rebranded BANANA – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything.

The people who are responsible for delivering your energy would generally prefer to go about quietly building power plants, stringing wires, and hooking up customers without any complications like regulatory approval, county permitting, and public open houses.

But that’s not how it works, because when it comes to spending large amounts of money as a regulated utility does, it must get the okay from countless people at the local, state, and federal levels.

Adding complexity is the reality that each group has parochial priorities that might not align with those of the others.

For example, FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, recently voted to give state utility commissions a larger role in shaping the development and cost allocation of electric transmission systems. Hey, more local control – what’s wrong with that?

Well, according to some observers, an individual state could push back on projects they see as benefitting other regions. If states leverage their enhanced involvement to oppose certain projects, this could create hurdles for transmission designed to move electricity across state lines.

Communities have historically tried to stop utility-scale projects for fears of EMFs, reduced property values, and interruptions to their mountain views. But ultimately, higher authorities have decided a project’s success is mostly based on the greater good. Do we now want this to change?

3. AI And Data Are Eating Us Alive

Every time you text a selfie to a friend, that photo is duplicated among multiple data centers in acres of solid-state computers, cooled around the clock.

And now, artificial intelligence – which can write a term paper or produce a movie in seconds – is generating a record surge in demand for electric power, which utilities are struggling to meet.

Not only is the generation not there, but also in short supply are transmission engineers who are needed to perform complex grid studies to serve the load.

AI is driving new demand in some regions to the point where they are contracting for nuclear power, which produces an enormous amount of energy at a near-fixed cost in a relatively small size.


The Honest Broker is written by climate expert Roger Pielke Jr and is reader-supported. If you value what you have read here, please consider subscribing and supporting the work that goes into it.

This is a guest post by Craig Eicher. Craig recently retired after more than 20 years in the regulated U.S. utility industry. Craig’s primary roles included negotiating and maintaining gas and electric franchise agreements, managing the integration of community stakeholders into large projects, such as transmission service expansions, renewable energy and regulatory proceedings, and leading the wholesale electricity business.

Read rest at The Honest Broker

  • Truth
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Gettr
  • Threads
  • gab-logo Gab
  • Mastodon
  • Buffer
  • Telegram
  • Email
  • Copy Link
  • Share Using More Networks…

Popular Posts

Energy

Professor Makes Stunning Discovery: ‘Absolutely, 100 percent, Offshore Wind Kills Whales’

Jul 15, 2024
Electric Vehicles (EVs)

The ‘Green’ Scam Of The Century: How ‘Renewables’ Increase Fossil Fuel Demands

Oct 23, 2024
News and Opinion

Antarctica Is Colder, Icier Today Than At Any Time In 5,000 Years

Apr 15, 2024

Comments 3

  1. Gary Brown says:
    9 months ago

    JANUARY 30, 2025 World’s largest battery storage facility for power from solar panels burns and poisons nature reserve

    A recent fire at the Vistra Moss Landing Power Plant and Energy Storage Facility in Northern California, one of the world’s largest lithium-ion battery storage facilities, has poisoned a vital nature reserve in the area.

    https://expose-news.com/2025/01/30/battery-storage-facility-burns-poisons-nature-reserve/

  2. Steve Bunten says:
    9 months ago

    Adding complexity to the electric grid is how different states are managing their utilities. Blue states like CA, NY, and here in Colorado are telling their utilities that they must go to net zero on their generating electricity. To make matters worse both CA & NY have shuttered most of their functional nuke plants (CA still has one left operating) while forcing the utilities to install more unreliable wind and solar and closing coal plants. Here in CO we have no nuclear plants so we depend on coal and natural gas plants to provide the reliable electricity while our major utility (Xcel Energy) is deploying more wind and solar with plans to close the last of the coal plants.

    One sign that people are waking up to the likelihood of losing electricity is the ads for buying home backup generators that kick in automatically.

  3. Spurwing Plover says:
    9 months ago

    We cant let our whole Nation depend upon Wind and Solar since its not reliable enough and China Pockets a reward from Bidens acts of Treason

Stay Connected On Social Media

gab-logo

Donate Today

Beating back the alarmist narrative takes time and money. Please donate today to help!

Recent Posts

  • COP30 Amazon17 Republican AGs Urge Trump Admin To Skip COP30 Over Green Energy Policies
    Oct 24, 2025
    The attorneys general say attending COP30 would back costly, unreliable wind and solar and risk U.S. energy security. […]
  • severe storm over cityClimate Expert Reveals Latest Scandal Tied To Billion-Dollar Disasters
    Oct 24, 2025
    Climate Central takes over the Billion-Dollar Disasters tabulation, sparking fresh controversy over its methods and motives. […]
  • ocean sun cloudsNew Study Finds 75% Of Rising Ocean Heat Likely Natural, CO2 Not A Factor
    Oct 24, 2025
    Study shows ocean warming driven mostly by natural cycles, not greenhouse gas emissions, challenging mainstream global warming narratives. […]
  • LNG terminal in germanyU.S. And Qatar Push Back On EU’s Climate Mandates That Threaten LNG Exports
    Oct 24, 2025
    U.S. and Qatari officials warn that the EU’s latest climate regulations under CSDDD could endanger Europe’s access to affordable natural gas. […]
  • marines trainingCrazy Hill Op-Ed Demands Generals Respond To Climate Change ‘National Security’ Threat
    Oct 23, 2025
    The Hill warns of climate Armageddon unless U.S. generals join the fight against ‘Mother Nature,’ now deemed a national security threat. […]
  • Shipping port near power plantEurope’s Energy Crisis Shows Net Zero Dogma Comes At A Cost
    Oct 23, 2025
    While China’s rare earth threat exposes U.S. supply chain risks, Europe’s energy crisis shows how net zero policies backfired spectacularly. […]
  • wind farm climate outDemocrats Ditch Climate Messaging As Rising Utility Costs Hit Voters
    Oct 23, 2025
    As Democrats struggle with climate messaging, voters feel the pinch from rising utility bills and the party's costly green energy policies. […]
  • Protest system change not climate changeLead Attorney Admits Real Goal Of Climate Lawsuits: Backdoor Carbon Tax
    Oct 23, 2025
    A top lawyer spearheading climate lawsuits says the quiet part out loud: litigation is a backdoor carbon tax on oil companies and consumers. […]
  • WMO reportHow The World Meteorological Organization Lies To You—Using Your Taxes
    Oct 22, 2025
    The WMO’s 2025 greenhouse gas report hides key data that undercuts the so-called climate 'crisis' narrative—funded by your tax dollars. […]
  • Hurricane generating ocean waves2025 Hurricane Season Is Flopping As Alarmist Predictions Fail
    Oct 22, 2025
    The 2025 hurricane season so far has seen no major U.S. landfalls, exposing alarmists’ failed predictions of catastrophic storms. […]

Get Instant Email Notifications

Subscribe to receive a digest of daily stories, or get emailed once they're published. Check your Junk/Spam folder for a verification email.

Submit a tip

Please enter your email, so we know you're human.

Books You May Like

exposing great lie

Have a suggestion? Let us know! We swap out books based on your input. We participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. See here.

  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us

© Portions copyright Climate Change Dispatch

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Who We Are
  • Facts Vs. Fearmongering
    • Real science vs Junk Science
      • 1100-plus Peer-Reviewed Studies
      • 97% – Myth of the Climate Change Consensus
      • Michael Crichton: Aliens Cause Global Warming
      • Climate change and its causes
      • Climate Science Primer
      • CO2 is not pollution
      • Deceptive Surface Temperature Records
      • Editorial: Great Global Warming Hoax
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 1
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 2
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 3
      • Why CO2 Is A Minor Player In Global Climate
      • Why Politicized Science Is So Dangerous
    • Facts Not Fear
      • A Simple Question For Climate Alarmists
      • Climate Change – The Facts
      • Climate Change Fears Are Empirically Baseless
      • Global Warming 101
      • Global Warming Q&A
      • Understanding The Medieval Warm Period
      • Ocean Cycles and Climate
      • Overview of Plate Climatology Theory
      • Precautionary Principle
      • Should We Celebrate Carbon Dioxide?
      • The Skeptics Handbook
      • Weather Versus Climate
      • Why I’m a GW skeptic
      • Winning the climate debate with facts
      • Why Aliens Cause Global Warming
    • Greenhouse FAQs
      • CO2, Plants, & Industry
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • Is global warming real?
      • Measuring temperature
      • Swimming in CO2?
      • Scientists urge caution?
      • Today’s warming trend
      • Variations in temperature
    • Gore’s Greatest Goofs
      • Deconstructing the Truth
      • Fact-Checking Al Gore’s Latest Predictions
      • How Gore Created The Global Warming Hoax
    • Inside Real Climate
      • Closer look at the 97% Consensus
      • GW’s Amazing Story
      • IPCC gets failing grade
      • Real Climate Exposed!
      • Truth about Real Climate
      • We’ve Been Conned
      • What is there a 97% consensus about?
    • Behind the IPCC
      • 1,000 Scientists Dissent
      • Climategate: Caught Green-Handed!
      • Climategate Inquiries
      • Climategate Inquiries 2
      • NIPCC Report Now Available
      • Understanding the Climategate Inquiries
  • Submissions
  • Contact Us

© 2025 Climate Change Dispatch

 
Share via
  • Facebook
  • Like
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • VKontakte
  • Print
  • Email
  • Reddit
  • Buffer
  • Love This
  • Weibo
  • Pocket
  • Xing
  • Odnoklassniki
  • WhatsApp
  • Meneame
  • Blogger
  • Amazon
  • Yahoo Mail
  • Gmail
  • AOL
  • Newsvine
  • HackerNews
  • Evernote
  • MySpace
  • Mail.ru
  • Viadeo
  • Line
  • Flipboard
  • Comments
  • SMS
  • Viber
  • Telegram
  • Subscribe
  • Facebook Messenger
  • Kakao
  • LiveJournal
  • Yammer
  • Edgar
  • Fintel
  • Mix
  • Instapaper
  • Copy Link
  • Truth
  • gab-logo Gab
  • Gettr
  • Baidu
  • Mastodon
  • Threads
  • Bluesky
Share via
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • VKontakte
  • Print
  • Email
  • Reddit
  • Buffer
  • Love This
  • Weibo
  • Pocket
  • Xing
  • Odnoklassniki
  • WhatsApp
  • Meneame
  • Blogger
  • Amazon
  • Yahoo Mail
  • Gmail
  • AOL
  • Newsvine
  • HackerNews
  • Evernote
  • MySpace
  • Mail.ru
  • Viadeo
  • Line
  • Flipboard
  • Comments
  • SMS
  • Viber
  • Telegram
  • Subscribe
  • Facebook Messenger
  • Kakao
  • LiveJournal
  • Yammer
  • Edgar
  • Fintel
  • Mix
  • Instapaper
  • Copy Link
  • Truth
  • gab-logo Gab
  • Gettr
  • Baidu
  • Mastodon
  • Threads
  • Bluesky