Down she goes

 

The truth is buried in the very last paragraph: Obama's war on coal did this to us

Why electricity prices are surging for U.S. households

... certain facilities like old fossil-fuel powered plants have been decommissioned and new energy capacity to replace it has been relatively slow to come online ...

The more things change, the more the fascist U.S. system of corporate welfare does not

 

In race to attract data centers, states forfeit hundreds of millions in tax revenue to tech firms

 

... In the race to attract large data centers, states are forfeiting hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue, according to a CNBC analysis. Among the beneficiaries of these exemptions are tech giants such as Amazon, Meta and Google, which all have market caps of over $1 trillion. 

Tax breaks have long been a tool states use to compete for businesses. However, watchdog groups said that for data centers the tradeoffs are iffy, because the facilities don’t tend to create large numbers of jobs, while the amount of electricity required can be immense. 

The growing number of tax breaks has sparked a debate about whether massive corporations should be receiving these generous incentives. ...

Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a nonprofit research group that tracks corporate subsidies and advocates for transparency and accountability in economic development, has spent more than a decade examining the impact of exemptions nationwide. He said the clear winners are the Big Tech companies.

“There was a giant transfer of wealth from taxpayers to shareholders,” LeRoy told CNBC. “Some states, like Virginia, are headed toward billion-dollar annual losses.” ...

LeRoy calls it a losing proposition for taxpayers.  

“When tax breaks don’t pay for themselves, only two things can happen: Either public services are reduced in quality, or everybody’s taxes go up in other ways if you’re going to try to keep things the same in terms of quality of public services,” he said. ...

 

Meanwhile, known corporate welfare, in the form of tax abatements and subsidies by states and localities to attract businesses to come and bring jobs, is presently estimated at in excess of $417 billion. The real total is probably far higher given that local data is poor relative to state disclosures.

 

The data, incomplete as it may be, shows just ten states where we're talking about only "hundreds of millions" in lost tax revenue and tax loss expenditures. In the rest we're talking about billions, even tens of billions.    

Israel has started attacking Iran's oil sector in Bushehr Province this morning, which will concern China since it imports 16% of its oil from Iran, buying 90% of Iranian oil exports

 The cash China provides Iran in this transaction funds the ballistic missiles raining down on Tel Aviv this week.

 

 

 

The average price of piped utility natural gas in May 2025 was 1.626, 59% higher than the 2010-2020 average of 1.023

 

The average price of gasoline in May 2025 was $3.306 per gallon, 7.2% lower than the average under Biden but still much higher than under Obama or Trump I

Under eight years of Obama gasoline averaged $2.974 per gallon.

Under four years of Trump gasoline averaged $2.488.

Under four years of Biden gasoline averaged $3.563. 

Electricity made a new all time high price in May 2025 at 18.2 cents per kWhr, which is 36% higher than the 2010-2020 average of 13.4 cents

 

GM will not produce EVs at Orion Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit as the company moves production of gasoline vehicles to the US from Mexico to avoid 25% tariffs

 GM to invest $4 billion in U.S. plants amid tariffs for Mexican-produced vehicles

... GM said the investment will add assembly of the gas-powered Chevrolet Blazer and Chevrolet Equinox that are currently produced in Mexico to two other plants in the U.S. and convert a large idled plant in Michigan — formerly expected to build all-electric trucks — to make gas-powered SUVs and trucks in 2027. ...

 

Burning cargo ship bound for Mexico from China with 800 electric vehicles on board abandoned off the coast of Alaska lol

 

... Fires across all vessel segments hit the highest level in a decade in 2024, according to insurer Allianz Commercial. ...

More.

Gee, I wonder why.

Don't park one in your garage.

 

Update Wed Jun 25, 2025:

She sank, 16,000 feet under lol.

The ninth car-carrier in ten years the video says.

 

 

 

Low-inertia renewable energy systems are prone to blackouts such as in Spain in April because they cannot maintain stable frequencies in the absence of high-inertia fossil fuel, hydro, and nuclear energy systems

 The Physics Behind the Spanish Blackout: Madrid knew solar and wind power were unreliable but pressed ahead anyway.

When a grid failure plunged 55 million people in Spain and Portugal into darkness at the end of April, it should have been a wake-up call on green energy. Climate activists promised that solar and wind power were the future of cheap, dependable electricity. The massive half-day blackout shows otherwise. The nature of solar and wind generation makes grids that rely on them more prone to collapse—an issue that’s particularly expensive to ameliorate. ...

Grids need to stay on a very stable frequency—generally 50 Hertz in Europe—or else you get blackouts. Fossil-fuel, hydro and nuclear generation all solve this problem naturally because they generate energy by powering massive spinning turbines. The inertia of these heavy rotating masses resists changes in speed and hence frequency, so that when sudden demand swings would otherwise drop or hike grid frequency, the turbines work as immense buffers. But wind and solar don’t power such heavy turbines to generate energy. It’s possible to make up for this with cutting-edge technology such as advanced inverters or synthetic inertia. But many solar and wind farms haven’t undergone these expensive upgrades. If a grid dominated by those two power sources gets off frequency, a blackout is more likely than in a system that relies on other energy sources. ...

Just a week prior to the blackout, Spain bragged that for the first time, renewables delivered 100% of its electricity, though only for a period of minutes around 11:15 a.m. When it collapsed, the Iberian grid was powered by 74% renewable energy, with 55% coming from solar. It went down under the bright noon sun. When the Iberian grid frequency started faltering on April 28, the grid’s high proportion of solar and wind generation couldn’t stabilize it. This isn’t speculation; it’s physics. As the electricity supply across Spain collapsed, Portugal was pulled along, because the two countries are tightly interconnected through the Iberian electricity network. ...

The customers, naturally

 After Trump order, who will pay to keep Michigan coal plant on life support? 

... While the details still remain unclear, utility customers will ultimately be the ones to pay it, they say. ...

The 1935 law Trump administration officials used to order the plant stay open — more commonly deployed for emergencies like hurricanes, wildfires or extreme heat — entitles Consumers to recover its expenses as it complies, according to Dan Scripps, chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities in the state. ...

The same day this story was published Consumer's Energy informed me my budget plan payment amount will rise by $48 monthly for the next year.

We are already paying.

The Trump Energy Department's Chris Wright saves 1,450 megawatts of electric generating capacity by stopping closure of Michigan coal plant operated by Consumers Energy

... The plant was originally set to close on May 31, which would have been 15 years before its lifespan was scheduled to end.

More.

The green lunatic running the Michigan Public Service Commission is furious. Common sense people from the area are no doubt relieved.

 

Energy inflation year over year in April 2025 is negative, but prices for electricity have never been higher, natural gas is climbing in record territory, and gasoline prices under Trump are still Biden-like

 

Trump's phony Liberation Day for working Americans evaporates into thin air, new 90-day pause brings 145% reciprocal tariffs on China, which tanked markets in early April, down to 30%

Stock futures surge. Crude oil surges. US Treasury yields surge.

U.S. and China agree to slash tariffs for 90 days in major trade breakthrough

 

... The trade agreement means that “reciprocal” tariffs between both countries will be cut from 125% to 10%. The U.S.′ 20% duties on Chinese imports relating to fentanyl will remain in place, meaning total tariffs on China stand at 30%. ...

Trump had imposed tariffs of up to 145% on Chinese imports, prompting Beijing to respond with retaliatory curbs of its own, including restrictions on some rare earth elements. ...

Speaking of gasoline prices lol

 

Hello Washington Times, hello, how did Biden's increased oil supply from the SPR to buy the 2022 elections lead to increased gasoline price at the very same time?

 I'm so confused.

Doesn't price drop on an increase in supply?

"Let's increase supply so prices rise so the voters vote for us and not them" makes absolutely zero sense.

... Mr. Biden sold off hundreds of millions of barrels of oil after Russia invaded Ukraine, causing already rising gas prices to spike even higher. ... 

The Biden administration sold off roughly 206 million barrels of oil from the SPR between 2021 and 2023. ...

Democrats fended off an anticipated red wave in the November 2022 midterms, keeping control of the Senate and barely losing House seats, although Mr. Biden’s party remained in the minority in the lower chamber. ...

More. 

 

 

Apparently some idiot in the White House fed Trump the $1.98 price of wholesale, unfinished gasoline as the price paid by consumers at the pump

... Trump repeated this inaccurate assertion about three $1.98 states at least three times this week. Then, during a commencement address at the University of Alabama on Thursday night, he used an even lower figure. ...

More.

 

Spain and Portugal achieve net zero way ahead of schedule

 

18 things which set new price records on an average basis in 1Q2025: beef, beef, and more beef, ice cream, sugar, coffee, OJ, chicken, American cheese, beer, wine, eggs, electricity

 

sirloin

chuck roast

beef roasts

beef steaks

ground beef

ice cream

sugar

coffee

orange juice

chicken

ground chuck

round steak

round roast

American cheese

beer

wine

electricity

eggs

The average price of gasoline in the United States remains Obama-like in March 2025