New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has a habit of bullying others to cover for and fix his policy blunders. In another display of political grace, Mr. Cuomo has ordered the utility National Grid to resume natural-gas hookups that were suspended after his senseless pipeline veto this spring.
Mr. Cuomo wants to make New York ground zero in the left’s plan to purge fossil fuels. First he banned shale fracking in southern New York despite its huge potential to boost local economies. Then he blocked a natural-gas pipeline from Pennsylvania that would have reduced energy bills and reliance on heating oil.
As a coup de grâce, in May he vetoed another pipeline to bring natural gas to Long Island from New Jersey. National Grid, which provides natural gas on Long Island, responded rationally by imposing a moratorium on natural-gas hookups to prevent supply disruptions when demand spikes in the winter.
This essentially stranded tens of thousands of folks waiting for gas hookups, including more than a thousand who had deactivated their service after moving or renovating. Apparently Mr. Cuomo didn’t understand that the result of his pipeline blockade was to force residents to use more expensive and less-efficient electric appliances for space and water heating.
After folks on Long Island protested—one homeless shelter estimated that electrification would cost an additional $200,000—Mr. Cuomo last week ordered National Grid to reconnect over a thousand customers. He also directed state regulators to investigate National Grid’s decision to disrupt natural gas service and threatened to yank its monopoly.
National Grid now says it plans to truck in compressed natural gas to meet peak demand. Exactly how will this reduce CO2 emissions? The utility won’t be able to guarantee uninterrupted service for the tens of thousands of customers who want to switch to natural gas from heating oil, which emits 38% more CO2. About a quarter of New York households rely on heating oil.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the average household that uses natural gas for heating this winter will spend $580 compared to $1,501 for heating oil and $1,162 for electricity. A household that uses natural gas for space and water heating instead of electricity will save about $2,400 per year.
Consider this another parable of how the political campaign to ban fossil fuels is detached from energy and economic reality. And when reality bites and consumers suffer, politicians like Mr. Cuomo blame someone else to deflect from their own policy mistakes.
Willem Post
Mills and Cuomo are religiously opposed to more pipeline capacity, even though gas has been THE MAJOR REDUCER of CO2 for the US.
Gas provides 50% of NE generated electricity, 24/7/365, steady, not variable, not intermittent, at about 5 c/kWh, wholesale.
Wind and solar could not even exist on the grid without gas plants to do the peaking, filling in and balancing, 24/7/365, plus these highly subsidized, coddled cripples generate at 9c for wind and 11c for solar, wholesale.
Dont you just LOVE it?
Oct 21, 2019
arthur qwenk
Stupid is as Stupid Does.
Oct 21, 2019
Willem Post
Offshore Wind vs. Carbon Capture: Who’s Crushing Whom?
The US currently has one of each up and running. The energy math is decidedly one-sided.
Block Island Wind Farm
The Block Island Wind Farm generates much less energy than an average single Marcellus gas well.
During the first year of operation the Block Island Wind Farm managed a 39% capacity factor.
Note the summer lull
MWh
100% Output
Capacity Factor
Dec-16
6,313
21,799
29%
Jan-17
8,898
21,799
41%
Feb-17
7,801
19,690
40%
Mar-17
10,514
21,799
48%
Apr-17
6,904
21,096
33%
May-17
9,162
21,799
42%
Jun-17
9,932
21,096
47%
Jul-17
6,724
21,799
31%
Aug-17
5,712
21,799
26%
Sep-17
5,698
21,096
27%
Oct-17
10,195
21,799
47%
Nov-17
10,985
21,096
52%
1-yr Total
98,838
256,668
39%
That’s an average daily rate of 271 MWh/d…
That’s 924 million British Thermal Units per day (mm Btu/d).
It’s unfair to directly compare wellhead natural gas production to electricity output from a power plant.
OK fair enough.
Natural Gas
Btu/kWh
7,870
Well Production
Btu/d
5,000,000,000
Electricity Output
kWh/d
635,324
Electricity Output
MWh/d
635
Electricity Output
Block Islands worth 635/271 =
2.3
A single typical Marcellus gas well yields 2.3 Block Islands worth of electricity-equivalent energy per day.
However, the wind electricity could not exist on the grid without the other generators, mostly gas fired, performing the peaking, filling in and balancing 24/7/365, in the event wind is insufficient.
Sometimes there is very little wind 5 to 7 days in a row. Those lulls can happen any time of the year, and are particularly stressful in winter.
That crippled wind electricity is sold at 9 c/kWh, wholesale, whereas the gas turbine electricity is NOT VARIABLE, AND NOT INTERMITTENT, AND IS NOT A CRIPPLE, and costs about 5 c/kWh, wholesale.
Maine going for wind is an economic disaster in the making.
Maine should concentrate on ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF BUILDINGS AND VEHICLES
Oct 22, 2019