Natural Gas-Fired Generation Has Increased Across The US With Minor Exceptions -- EIA -- December 6, 2020

Link here. 

• minor exceptions:
• NYISO,
• ISO-NE,
• California,

Hunch: the decline in natural gas-fired electricity generation reflects downturns in the general economy in those regions and/or state-mandated changes in energy sources and/or new pipelines.

Most amazing: PJM -- Ohio and east to the Atlantic Ocean, north of the NC-VA state line, and south of New England;

Interesting: ERCOT (Texas); Florida; SERC (southeast excluding Florida, Louisiana).

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The Weather Page

Winter: first big snowstorm of the season hits parts of New England. Link to The WSJ.

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The Real Estate Page

Santa Barbara County:

• Montecito Estate
• seller: Dennis Miller and wife
• buyer: Ellen DeGeneres
• deal: $49 million
• my hunch: Ellen not worried about wealth gap
• my hunch: Ellen and wife following California governor's decree to "stay-at-home"; could use estate for filming show, movie productions;

The deal was among a string of major transactions in Montecito over the past few months. Rancho San Carlos, a roughly 240-acre estate, recently sold for $63.25 million, and the sale of actor Rob Lowe's home home in the area recently closed for $45.5 million.

Ms. DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi are widely known to be investors in real estate and have long had a home in Montecito. They sold a Bali-inspired estate in the area for $33.3 million in November, according to a person familiar with the deal.

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The Travel Page

We were stationed in the Moselle region of Germany for seven years.

From The WSJ earlier this week: Germany's Moselle region is ripe with deals on vineyard estates.

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Tokyo 2020-One Olympics

Tokyo Olympics delay costs may reach $2.8 billion. 

Actually if you read the story at the Fox Business link (https://www.foxbusiness.com/sports/tokyo-olympics-delay-costs-may-reach-2-8-billion) it appears to be much worse. 

Tea leaves, Tokyo Olympics 2021 will:

1. limit / ban guests from overseas
2. limit number of athletes
3. limit number of trainers and staff per athlete
4. limit press

And, of course, there's always a chance we won't see the games at all this summer.

Data points from the linked article:

• cost of the postponement could reach $2.8 billion
• prior to the postponement, Japan estimated the total cost would be $12.6 billion
• but a Japanese government audit last year said it was likely twice that much, about $25 billion
• Tokyo said the Olympics would cost $7.3 billion overall when it won the bid in 2013 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
• the good news: Tokyo organizers said they could add about $260 million from a contingency fund to help cover added costs. LOL. No typographical errors on my part. I don't know whether the original source is accurate. 
• the IOC is not being particularly helpful: it is unlikely that the IOC will chip in $650 million that was suggested by the IOC some months ago -- tea leaves suggest IOC not particularly optimistic about 2020-One Olympics going off as planned;