Blog

Washington, D.C., March 2, 2024 –Is there life off the electric grid? Roscoe Bartlett, 87, a Republican who represented my western Maryland congressional district in Congress for 20 years before losing a reelection campaign to a Democrat in 2012, has long been preaching about the limits of the electric grid. He’s been an outspoken advocate […]

Washington, D.C., February 28, 2104 – In 1946, George Orwell wrote a brilliant essay about how language and politics intersect, which has relevance today. In this essay, “Politics and the English Language,” published in Horizon, Orwell makes the essential point: bad thinking begets bad writing and bad writing begets bad thinking. He says succinctly, “But […]

Washington, D.C., February 27, 2014 – The Department of Energy’s behind-schedule, over-budget project at the Savannah River weapons plant in South Carolina to blend weapons-grade plutonium with uranium to make civilian nuclear fuel appears to have the blind staggers. Don’t be surprised if the project, which enjoys enormous support in South Carolina and Georgia, is […]

Washington, D.C., February 26, 2014 – As a journalist for some 40 years, I have learned to be skeptical about almost everything around me. The credo of journalism, beaten into me by education and life lessons is, as the journalistic cliché has it: “Your mother loves you? Check it out.” So it’s time to reiterate […]

February 24, 2014 – Here’s an interesting conundrum, posed by UBS utility analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith in a recent report sent to his clients: If anti-nuclear and economic forces succeed in closing several nuclear plants in the New York in the near term, it could cripple the state’s plans for reducing greenhouse gas emission and devastate […]

Washington, D.C., February 20, 2014 – The wicked winter of 2014 and what may have been a terrorist attack on a California electric substation last year were on the minds of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission today, although not on the formal FERC agenda. First, a weather report. After experiencing two mild winters, this year […]

Washington, D.C., February 18, 2014 – Climatologist Judith Curry, dean of the Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Science, is a heretic to those who embrace the conventional litany about global warming. Once a devotee the accepted view, in recent years she has raised the yellow flag of skepticism. That’s made her a target […]

Washington, D.C., February 12, 2014 – As Valentines’ Day approaches, here’s a love note to the environmental movement. It has done so much over the past century-and-a-half to call attention to the assaults of modern, industrial society: Destruction of wilderness, attacks on vulnerable species; emissions of noxious chemicals into our air and water. The world […]

Washington, D.C., February 2, 2014 – Imagine, a techno-thriller for power geeks and grid gurus? Well, that’s just what the father-son team of Pat and Chris Hoffman have delivered in their book “Fury of the Fifth Angel.” When I started reading the book, within the first five pages I was reminded of the fine sci-fi […]

Washington, D.C., January 21, 2014 – Sorry, I confess I just don’t get it. Why is the Department of Energy still negotiating with the Southern Company for a below-market loan to finish construction of two more units at Georgia Power’s Vogtle nuclear plant? The utility says it will go it alone if the Obama administration […]