I seem to be on a ‘renewables suck so bad they blow’ kick here all of a sudden.
But holy smokes – it’s as if the floodgates have opened and commonsense, coupled with a cold firehose dose of reality checks, is beginning to wash through state houses and parliaments all over the world.
And hallelujah.
This just caught my eye because it only broke this afternoon. What a sea change that it’s even being discussed in deep blue, J.B. Pritzker-dominated Illinois.
The Land of Lincoln is rethinkin’…nuclear power plants.
Illinois lawmakers are considering a repeal of our ban on Large Modular Reactors in an energy omnibus
This is smart, because those are the only kinds of reactors that are both licensed by the NRC and have existing supply chains.
Clinton already has an early permit for up to two… pic.twitter.com/S9cgYcPHgj
— Michael McLean (@cornoisseur) May 23, 2025
SAY, WHUT?!
In answer to shrinking supply, skyrocketing energy costs, and royally pissed off Illinois residents, the state legislature is hustling to come up with a plan for the future. Especially with large data centers wanting to move into the state, and their enormous requirements for energy that simply can’t be met at the moment on IL’s fragile grid.
So the hustle is on to find a fix, because, to be honest, with all their clean ‘renewable’ energy moves, they’ve already pretty well screwed everyone over at the present.
There seems to be nothing but bad news in the pipe for IL utility rate payers this summer, and not a thing to be done to relieve it. Plus, the threat of rolling blackouts now, too.
Customers around Illinois will see significantly higher prices on their electric bills next month.
The average residential customer of northern Illinois’ Commonwealth Edison will pay about $10.60 per month more this summer, according to a company statement. Downstate Ameren Illinois says customers can expect an 18% to 22% increase in their monthly bill, or about $45 per month depending on usage. Prices will likely decrease in October once winter electric rates go into effect.
Increasing energy prices are causing alarm among some consumer advocates and state policymakers, who worry that the long-term problems underlying the rising costs could lead to even higher prices or rolling blackouts.
Clara Summers, who advocates for consumer-friendly energy policy on behalf of the nonprofit Citizens Utility Board, said the ComEd price increases were for two reasons: increasing demand from data centers and large manufacturing as well as procedural issues slowing down new renewable projects.
The head of the Illinois Environmental Council is still mouthing the ‘We want to keep rates down while combating climate change!’ line even as her advocacy fights every single common-sense solution to lower those rates. Peasants’ quality of life, be damned.
And it’s a big grid in bad shape. In fact, it’s the worst in the country.
…In December, federal officials at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation — the nonprofit oversight agency for grid operators — designated the grid for central and southern Illinois as “high risk” for not having enough electricity to meet demand on hot days in the summer and cold days in the winter over the next five years. The grid that stretches from central Canada to the Mississippi river delta is the only power grid in the nation to have that designation, with much of its risk stemming from power plants closing.
But ‘climate change!’
KEEP SHUTTING DOWN THOSE PLANTS
So, the most recent auction for purchasing electricity from the grid for the next five years hit a bit of a spike based on projected available power versus projected demand. The graph at the story link of the jump in price for electricity is gruesome. And IL state law says that it gets passed directly to the customer.
Ouch.
…The increase was determined at two recent capacity auctions, which are how grid operators set energy prices for years into the future. High prices at these auctions can indicate low supply relative to demand.
PJM Interconnection, the grid operator for northern Illinois, saw a roughly eight-fold jump in its most recent capacity auction compared to the year prior. Downstate’s energy grid, Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, saw more than a 20-fold year-over-year price jump at its capacity auction in April.
Everyone in the industry, especially the smaller providers, is saying the state is shutting things down too quickly for how quickly the demand is outpacing the capacity. There’s been no allowance for that (Hello, Spain…?).
…But other municipal utility officials, including those at Springfield’s City Water, Light and Power, are less optimistic about future prices.
“Regulations are forcing plant retirement a little too soon,” CWLP spokesperson Amber Sabin said. “And the grid operators that are here, they have resources that they can’t connect to the grid. They’re waiting, or they don’t get financing or ever developed. They have supply chain issues, workforce issues, right? There’s a cost to all of that.”
Legislators know they are on the hook big time, and even with all the mewling about Net Zero goals, climate change, clean whatever, they are quietly looking at what was once unthinkable – not only small nuclear, but rescinding the ban on the big plants.
Why?
Because all the approval processes for those are already in the federal system (Nuclear Regulatory Commission), have existing supply chains/manufacturing base already set up, and, not coincidentally, the Big Beautiful Bill has nuclear carveouts to encourage states to do just that.
…Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, put out a pitch to ease the pressure on electric demand earlier this year by expanding nuclear energy. She was the architect of a bill two years ago that eased the state’s moratorium on new nuclear power plants, lifting it for next-generation, small generators.
Rezin, who leads several energy-related groups of lawmakers as part of her involvement at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said all states are facing similar issues around electricity.
“All energy buildout will take years because of the regulatory process,” Rezin said. “That’s why it’s important now. The state of Illinois needs to send positive messages to companies that are looking to invest in technology — whether it’s nuclear or any other kind of energy producing plant — that we are open for business.”
The climate cultists are spazzing already that its even under discussion not to mention mad as hornets about the rollbacks of their pet renewable subsidies.
At the end of the day, IL consumers with pitchforks and torches – because they need the light – may decide for them.
In New Zealand, the last remnants of the reign of one of the most vile, revolting autocrats ever to take power and advantage of a crisis situation are finally being swept away.
Jacinda Ardern, the pinch-faced dictator who ruled with an iron fist from 2017-2023, used her COVID authority to declare a ‘Climate Emergency’ declaration in 2020 after New Zealand came up with a Net Zero plan in 2019. Tiny New Zealand, she declared, would be at net-zero emissions by 2050.
Part of her crusade included an oil drilling and exploration ban and transition to renewables at breakneck speed.
Par for the course in these circumstances, it ‘backfired ‘spectacularly, and Ardern was thrown out of office in 2023 when voters chose a right-wing government.
Last month, energy was in such short supply that Kiwi families were warned to conserve.
…It comes after National Grid operator Transpower was last month forced to warn families to limit their electricity usage to avoid a shutdown during a cold snap.
That was enough for the current resources minister.
…In 2018, Ardern went so far as to claim that “the world has moved on from fossil fuels.“
The decision comes after the implementation of renewable energy failed in New Zealand, generating higher prices and increasing the risk of blackouts.
New Zealand Resources Minister Shane Jones said Ardern’s policies had been a disaster:
“Natural gas will continue to be critical in delivering secure and affordable energy for New Zealanders for at least the next 20 years. We are already feeling the pain of constrained supply.“
Also, Jones said the country is focused on “growing the New Zealand economy, creating jobs and increasing prosperity and resilience. The Government is not prepared to sit on the sidelines and watch our industrial and manufacturing dwindle because of energy security concerns.”
The complete failure of the renewables led to today’s official announcement that New Zealand was back open for business – the oil and natural gas business. And they are already planning an expansion of their existing fields.
New Zealand has abandoned its pursuit of net zero by revoking a ban on drilling for oil and gas.
The country’s government confirmed the shift in its latest budget this week, which unveiled plans to invest NZ$200m (£90m) in new offshore gas fields.
The reversal marks an end to a policy announced by Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister, in 2018. She claimed at the time that “the world has moved on from fossil fuels”.
…In particular, she is seeking to attract international oil and gas companies with a taxpayer-backed subsidy of NZ$200m (£88m).
It comes after New Zealand’s planned shift to renewables backfired, generating higher prices and raising the risk of blackouts.
Renewables could not cut the mustard, and New Zealanders were unable to heat their homes in the face of untapped and enormous natural resources because of the climate cult madness.
…The decision to reverse the ban followed three years of rising energy prices that left 110,000 households unable to warm their homes, according to Consumer NZ, a non-profit advocate.
Transpower, the equivalent of the UK’s National Grid, also previously warned that the nation was at high risk of blackouts because renewables were not producing enough power during cold spells.
New Zealand’s natural gas
Ms Ardern’s move came despite geologists discovering billions of cubic metres of natural gas in the seabeds around New Zealand.
Sean Rush, a UK barrister who now runs the Sean Rush Energy and Infrastructure Law consultancy in Wellington, New Zealand, said: “Finally, the New Zealand government grew a spine and recognised that climate change is not an existential threat – but an economy without fossil fuels is.”
The current uber-progressive, Malthusian Labour government in the United Kingdom is sweating bullets. They are dead set on this very path for all of the UK.
The New Zealand reversal has exposed the Net Zero fever dream yet again for the expensive, ruinous, cult-driven fantasy that it is.
I guess they’re hoping no one reads the papers.
Beege ADDS: Just thought I’d toss this out there.
Thanks to @POTUS, American nuclear dominance is being released! pic.twitter.com/PF5jFW503N
— Secretary Chris Wright (@SecretaryWright) May 23, 2025
