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

 

The average price of piped utility gas in the United States is again knocking on the door of nosebleed levels in March 2025

 

The average price of electricity in the United States hit a new record high of 18.1 cents in March 2025

 

Canada stopped exports of hydroelectric power to New England on March 6th

On March 6, at the start of the still-simmering trade war between the U.S. and Canada, hydropower generator Hydro‑Québec quietly stopped exporting electricity to New England. ...

Hydro‑Québec’s main transmission line into New England, known as the Phase II line, stopped exporting any meaningful amount of power two days after President Donald Trump’s tariff on Canadian imports went into effect. Last March, by comparison, anywhere from a few hundred megawatts to more than 1,200 MW flowed along the line at any given time, making up between 5% and 10% of the region’s electricity use on average, Turner estimated. ... 

Last year, 5,560 gigawatt-hours of power traveled into the region over the Phase II line, less than half the amount exported in 2022. ...

More.

Kremlin Karoline shockingly spouts Russian propaganda, says Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station is on the Ukraine-Russia border

The official White House spokesperson is conceding that the lands taken in Russia's invasion of Ukraine are Russia.

This is a lie, a big lie, an utter disgrace.

 

 

The US depression in road travel from COVID-19 ended in 2024 and lasted five years

 The 3.257 trillion miles of 2019 was exceeded in 2024 by 5 billion miles, on an average annual basis.

The depression in road travel from the Great Financial Crisis lasted eight years, from 2007 to 2015.

Previous to that we had similar, but smaller contractions in US road travel, from 1979 to 1982, three years, and from 1973 to 1975, two years, precipitated by the oil trade shocks of the Iranian Revolution and the Yom Kippur War respectively.

You are now free to move about the country.

 

The United States consumed 20.25 million barrels of oil per day in 2023, 3.88 million of which come from Canada and 3.38 million from Alberta lol

 

  What could possibly go wrong?

... Canada is the fourth largest oil producer in the world and Alberta is the country’s biggest producer. Some 97% of the country’s 4 million bpd of oil exports went to the U.S. in 2023 with several European nations and Hong Kong taking the remainder, according to Canada’s energy regulator. Alberta supplied 87% of the oil exported from Canada to the U.S. in 2023. ...

[Alberta Premier Danielle] Smith said Canada is looking at three different pipeline proposals to its West Coast, at least one pipeline into the Northwest Territories, one into Manitoba, one to the Hudson Bay, and one into Eastern Canada.

“Those are conversations we were not having three months ago,” [provincial energy minister Brian] Jean said of the pipelines. ...

More.

In February 2025 the average cost of electricity is 31.6% higher than it was 2016-2020

 The average price per kWhr was $0.136 for the five years 2016-2020.

 

 

In February 2025 piped utility gas to heat your home, heat your water, and cook with costs 55.7% more than it did on average 2016-2020

 The average price 2016-2020 was $1.0174 per therm.

 

 

In February 2025 gasoline costs 34.8% more than the average 2016-2020

The average price 2016-2020 was $2.419/gallon.

 

Ontario's Doug Ford slaps 25% tariff on electricity bound for Minnesota, Michigan, and New York, threatens total cut-off

 

Ontario slaps 25% tax increase on electricity exports to U.S. in response to Trump’s trade war 

 

... “I will not hesitate to increase this charge. If the United State escalates, I will not hesitate to shut the electricity off completely,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference in Toronto. “Believe me when I say I do not want to do this. I feel terrible for the American people who didn’t start this trade war. It’s one person who is responsible, it’s President Trump.” ...

Quebec is also considering taking similar measures with electricity exports to the U.S. ...

Ford estimated it will add about CA$100 ($69) a month to the bills of each American affected. “It needs to end. Until these tariffs are off the table, until the threat of tariffs is gone for good, Ontario will not relent,”  Ford said. ...

Ford’s Progressive Conservative government just won reelection by standing up for Canada against Trump. ...