Have you been getting involved in the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Program Office Environmental Impact Study of the Grain Belt Express? Perhaps you'd like to get to know the guy in charge of denying or approving this loan.
The biased media wants you to meet:
The man in charge of how the US spends $400bn to shift away from fossil fuels
The biased media wants you to meet:
The man in charge of how the US spends $400bn to shift away from fossil fuels
Go ahead. Click the link. He's laser-focused on working with affected communities.
John Podesta, senior adviser to Joe Biden on clean energy, said that the loans office is “essential to the effective implementation” of the administration’s goal to eliminate planet-heating emissions by 2050. “Jigar is laser-focused on working with all levels of government, project sponsors and affected communities to deliver on that mission and realize results for the American people,” Podesta said.
But did you see him at any of the meet and greet poster board shows across the Midwest this week? Probably not. He may not fit in.
...Shah, a debonair former clean energy entrepreneur and podcast host who matches his suits with pristine Stan Smiths, oversees resources comparable to the GDP of Norway: all to help turbocharge solar, wind, batteries and a host of other climate technologies in the US.
Those Stan Smiths are not going to be pristine very long down on the farm. Heaven forbid he gets a little reality on his fancy shoes!! He can only keep his shoes clean if he sticks to his own turf.
Deep in the confines of the hulking, brutalist headquarters of the US Department of Energy, down one of its long, starkly lit corridors, sits a small, unheralded office that is poised to play a pivotal role in America’s shift away from fossil fuels and help the world stave off disastrous global heating.
I wonder what would be more disastrous? Global heating or cow poop on the pristine Stan Smiths?
It really doesn't seem to matter. Your tax dollars are being awarded to companies like Ultium Cells, that has a plant in China, or a Nevada lithium mine that is set to destroy a rare endangered flower.
The LPO's enthusiasm for Grain Belt Express seems to be based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how transmission lines are paid for. A DOE representative said she could not discuss how ratepayers would pay for the line because that part of the LPO's evaluation is done by the financial folks. But what do they know about electric rates? I'm going to hazard a guess that it's not much if they are even considering making a "loan" to Grain Belt Express, a project without a clear rate process to realize the revenue it would need to pay back a taxpayer loan.
Grain Belt is NOT a regionally planned, cost allocated transmission project. It cannot and may not recover its costs from captive ratepayers because it was not planned or ordered by regional grid planners. Instead, Grain Belt can only recover revenue through Negotiated Rate Authority granted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. This authority, granted to former owner Clean Line in 2014, allows the company to fairly negotiate with voluntary customers in a fair and open competitive negotiation process. After selling its service to voluntary customers, Grain Belt must make a compliance filing with FERC and FERC must accept it. Only then may Grain Belt Express realize any revenue to pay back a loan. So far, Grain Belt has only announced a contract with just one customer for less than 5 percent of its expected capacity. That's not going to pay back any loan. What's more, Grain Belt Express representatives recently shared that the company has not yet decided if it would be a merchant transmission project that collects revenue through Negotiated Rates. Therefore, there is NO RATE set through which Grain Belt Express can realize revenue. Electric rates are regulated by state utility commissions at the retail end, and by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at the wholesale end. The U.S. Department of Energy has no authority to set or regulate electric rates at all. It can just give away your tax dollars to a company without the means to repay the loan.
Isn't that how Solyndra happened?
It really doesn't seem to matter. Your tax dollars are being awarded to companies like Ultium Cells, that has a plant in China, or a Nevada lithium mine that is set to destroy a rare endangered flower.
The LPO's enthusiasm for Grain Belt Express seems to be based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how transmission lines are paid for. A DOE representative said she could not discuss how ratepayers would pay for the line because that part of the LPO's evaluation is done by the financial folks. But what do they know about electric rates? I'm going to hazard a guess that it's not much if they are even considering making a "loan" to Grain Belt Express, a project without a clear rate process to realize the revenue it would need to pay back a taxpayer loan.
Grain Belt is NOT a regionally planned, cost allocated transmission project. It cannot and may not recover its costs from captive ratepayers because it was not planned or ordered by regional grid planners. Instead, Grain Belt can only recover revenue through Negotiated Rate Authority granted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. This authority, granted to former owner Clean Line in 2014, allows the company to fairly negotiate with voluntary customers in a fair and open competitive negotiation process. After selling its service to voluntary customers, Grain Belt must make a compliance filing with FERC and FERC must accept it. Only then may Grain Belt Express realize any revenue to pay back a loan. So far, Grain Belt has only announced a contract with just one customer for less than 5 percent of its expected capacity. That's not going to pay back any loan. What's more, Grain Belt Express representatives recently shared that the company has not yet decided if it would be a merchant transmission project that collects revenue through Negotiated Rates. Therefore, there is NO RATE set through which Grain Belt Express can realize revenue. Electric rates are regulated by state utility commissions at the retail end, and by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at the wholesale end. The U.S. Department of Energy has no authority to set or regulate electric rates at all. It can just give away your tax dollars to a company without the means to repay the loan.
Isn't that how Solyndra happened?
To conservatives, the loans office, which was founded in 2005, is forever tarred by the much-criticized decision during Barack Obama’s administration to loan $535m to Solyndra, the California solar firm, only for the company to file for bankruptcy two years later, in 2011.
The huge new financial arsenal at the office’s disposal risks “Solyndra on steroids”, according to Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the incoming Republican chair of the House energy committee. A group of Republicans led by Rodgers have said the new loan authorities “raise questions about increased risks of waste, fraud and abuse, especially if the administration uses the program for its rush-to-green agenda”.
Well, here ya go, Representative Rodgers. The next Solyndra. Be careful where you step!
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