Locator: 48924CROCKETT.
Charlie Crockett, "$10 Cowboy": link here.
And then look at this: "Killers of the Flower Moon" written by Charley Crockett and T-Bone Burnett.
How in the world did Charley Crockett hook up with T-Bone Burnett?
This is truly overwhelming.
Willie Nelson --> Johnny Cash --> The Highwaymen --> Charley Crockett.
Add Waylon Jennings.
Wow, Crockett could easily have been a fifth member of The Highwaymen.
Locator: 48924META.
Updates
August 24, 2025: link here.
In December, construction began on Meta’s biggest-yet data center: a $10 billion complex of nine buildings, housing bank upon bank of servers that will take up over 4 million square feet, an area larger than Disneyland.
Original Post
Meta’s $10 billion data center will need roughly three times the amount of electricity that the city of New Orleans uses in a year, and increase Entergy's electric needs in the state by around 30%. With the commission's approval, the utility can now begin constructing the three new plants and other transmission infrastructure.
Two of the electricity plants will be located near the data center in Richland Parish and a third in St. Charles Parish.
The power plants are expected to come online in 2028 and 2029, and at full strength, they’ll generate 2.25 gigawatts of electricity. Ultimately, the AI data center could draw 5 gigawatts of power as it’s expanded.
Three Mile Island nuclear generating station:
META's Louisiana nameplate capacity:
Back of the envelope:
Another comparison:
The Copper Mountain Solar Facility is fully operational, forming one of the largest solar generation complexes in the United States with a total capacity exceeding 1 gigawatt (GW) across its five phases.
The latest phase, Copper Mountain V, entered commercial operation in March 2021, expanding the facility in Boulder City, Nevada. The complex is co-located with several other projects in the Eldorado Valley, with RWE Clean Energy being a primary owner.
All this for one META data center. And Stargate will be much bigger?
One last thought: it's going to take really, really deep pockets to compete with these magnificent seven, and the tech twenty.
Locator: 48922B.
Another win: US Supreme Court rules in favor of President Trump; allows administration to cut funds for DEI initiatives at NIH. Link here. Every win emboldens the president.
Generation Z: favors Trump by a wide margin. Source. When Geiger tweets, I listen:
**********************************
Back to the Bakken
MDU wins the lottery: link here. Pipelines are tracked here.
WTI: $63.47. Tea leaves: no rate cut this year; and, Trump won't meet again with Putin.
Active rigs: 29.
Five new permits, #42240 - #42244, inclusive:
Two permits renewed:
Four permits canceled:
Locator: 48921MDU.
Link here for this map.
I wonder if Judge Boasberg will stop it?
Locator: 48920FANTASY.
This study was accomplished before Trump / Burgum announced America's new renewable energy policy.
Locator: 48918ELECTRICITY.
Up until a few years ago, it was estimated that electricity demand in the US would flat-line or increase about a percent / year from now until 2030. It is not being predicted that electricity demand will increase by 25% between now and 2030.
Here is the data from just a few years ago (2022), link here.
Electricity consumption in the United States was about 4 trillion kilowatthours (kWh) in 2022 Electricity is an essential part of modern life and important to the U.S. economy.
Total U.S. electricity consumption in 2022 was about 4.07 trillion kWh, the highest amount recorded and 14 times greater than electricity use in 1950.
Total annual U.S. electricity consumption increased in all but 11 years between 1950 and 2022, and 8 of the years with year-over-year decreases occurred after 2007.
Total electricity end-use consumption includes retail sales of electricity to consumers and direct use electricity. Direct use electricity is used by the same industrial or commercial sector facility where it is produced. The industrial sector accounts for most direct use electricity.
Total direct use of electricity by the industrial and commercial sectors was about 3.5% of total electricity end-use consumption in 2022.
Total U.S. electricity end-use consumption in 2022 was about 3.2% higher than in 2021.1 In 2022, retail electricity sales to the residential sector were about 2.6% higher than in 2021, and retail electricity sales to the commercial sector were about 4.7% higher than in 2021.
Electricity retail sales to the industrial sector in 2022 were about 2.0% higher than in 2021 but were about 4.1% lower than in 2000, the year of highest U.S. retail sales to the industrial sector. The industrial sector's percentage share of total U.S. electricity retail sales was about 31.1% in 2000 and 26.0% in 2022.
Locator: 48917OIL.
US oil production, link here. At the link, one can click on the year to add / remove a particular year.
How does that stack up with the rest of the world, link here?
Same source: US, Russia, and Saudi Arabia:
Locator: 48916CO2.
I quit tracking atmospheric CO2 a long, long time ago.
I was curious. I checked in today.
Wow, they used to post updated numbers one month after the measurements -- gave them time to "massage" the numbers.
I see now they're taking a whole year to "massage" the numbers before releasing them:
And in some cases, like August, 2024, they don't even have the data:
Locator: 48915SRE.
The story is being reported in various ways.
But apparently a final investment decision is targeted for later this year (2025) for an agreement to take effect in 2027, to extend the partnership between Sempra and COP.
For the archives.
COP:
******************************
The Book Page
The other day I posted comments regarding:
The Immortal Game: A History of Chess or How 32 Carved Pieces On A Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Art, Science, and the Human Brain; David Shenk, c. 2006.
At the time, I said I couldn't recommend the book one way or the other. At that time, I had barely begun the book. Now I am about halfway through the book and am loving it. Highly, highly recommend it. The vignette about the Benjamin Franklin's tête-a-tête / chess game with Lady Howe is worth the price of the book.
Lady Howe, nee Mary Hartrop, was Admiral Richard Howe's wife. Admiral Howe served as "a" British naval officer during the American Revolutionary War. "A" -- LOL.
Admiral Richard Howe's brother was General William Howe who rose to become Commander-in-Chief, America during the American War of Independence. Howe was one of three brothers who had distinguished military careers.
Keeping track of the Howes:
Locator: 48914EVS.
Link here: more natural gas generation needed.
*******************************
Recipes
Best salads of all time -- 23 of them.
Locator: 48913ELECTRICITY.
Link here: more proof that the US needs a more robust electricity grid.
Link here: more natural gas generation needed.
See also Trump's policy on renewables at the blog. Scroll to very bottom of the blog at the link.
See also Burgum at the blog.
Locator: 48912B.
Mortgage fraud: by a Fed governor? CNBC talking heads not concerned. At worst, "it's a problem that has to be dealt with." But other than that, let's just move on.
Economic numbers: look incredibly good.
Economic numbers: not good. It's hard to believe the Fed will dither another month.
Walmart: big miss on EPS but beat on top line. Shares drop 3% pre-market in line with what the rest of the market has been doing this week -- falling. Although share price dropped, CNBC talking heads not particularly concerned. Walmart talks about it, but tariffs really not a big deal for Walmart, again, in the big scheme of things.
*********************************
Back to the Bakken
WTI: $62.99.
New wells:
RBN Energy: Canada's pitch on data centers focuses on hydropower, natural gas resources.
As demand for data centers accelerates, developers continue to search for locations that offer the best combination of several factors, starting with the availability of uninterrupted (and affordable) power. Those variables have led to a data-center buildout in several parts of the U.S., such as Northern Virginia, Texas and California’s Silicon Valley, but Canada has its own set of positives to lure developers. In today’s RBN blog, we look at the state of data-center development in Canada, how the factors that affect site selection differ from the U.S., and how Canada is working to become a bigger player in the global market.
Demand for data centers (see Storm Front), which are home to thousands or even tens of thousands of networked computers that process, store and share data, has grown significantly with the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, which demand far more computational power (and energy) than conventional Google searches. The prospect of a massive buildout of data centers has utilities just about everywhere preparing for a surge in power demand (see Where You Lead I Will Follow). And while access to uninterrupted power is a critical factor for companies deciding where to build a data center, it’s not the only variable — power prices, access to fiber-optic networks and climate also play a major role, and there are some significant differences between the Canadian and U.S. markets.
North America is the global leader in data center development, with about a 40% market share, with virtually all of that in the U.S., which has nearly 4,000 sites in operation, according to DataCenterMap.com. Canada has 283 data centers in operation, and while that’s less than 1% of the U.S. total, it still makes Canada a Top 10 market globally. The majority of Canadian data centers are located in major population centers near the country’s U.S. border (see Figure 1 below), including Toronto (86), Montreal (58) and Vancouver (29), although some are located in more remote areas, and Alberta has big plans to ramp up investment there (more on that in a bit).
Figure 1. Data Center Locations in Canada. Source: DataCenterMap.com
**********************************
Disclaimer
Brief
Reminder
Briefly:
