Why I Love To Blog -- Reason #2 -- December 31, 2017; Some OIl Utility In Maine Is Making A Lot Of Money This Winter

This was posted a year ago based on an incredibly prescient comment from a reader:

December 15, 2016:  This comment came in today. I will have to follow this story next winter, 2017 - 2018.

As per ISO Express, oil is now providing 3% New England electricity, up from near zero for the past many months.

Coal, now providing 15%, was also near zero two weeks ago.

At today's 2,000 Mwh from coal, the looming shutdown this spring of the 1,500 Mw capacity coal burner in Brayton Point could wreck havoc next winter if/when cold occurs. 

Came in as a comment at this post: https://themilliondollarway.blogspot.com/2016/12/us-natural-gas-stocks-december-15-2016.html.

I don't know about "you" but I find this absolutely incredible that a reader spotted this a year ago, and actually said this:

At today's 2,000 Mwh from coal, the looming shutdown this spring of the 1,500 Mw capacity coal burner in Brayton Point could wreck havoc next winter if/when cold occurs.  -- December 15, 2016

Wow, what can I say? I doubt anyone can top that as far as a prognostication goes. And that is what makes it so much fun to blog. I learn a lot from my readers.

Oil, very expensive oil, is now providing upwards of 30% of the electricity in New England. Note again: last year, oil was providing 3% New England electricity, up from near zero for the past many months. 

It may be instructive to read this post again: 

The one thing not mentioned in the Forbes article is the oil burning plant in Maine that is benefiting from the lack of natural gas pipelines coming into New England.
That earlier line that "an overall concern for the environment and safety" rings very, very hollow. Something tells me it has nothing to do with an overall concern for the environment and safety but rather politics and money, with CAVE dwellers being co-opted for someone else's goals. Just saying. 

Something tells me there is a oil utility in Maine that is making a lot of money for its investors this winter. 

Disclaimer: just an opinion advanced by at least one reader.

Faux Environmentalists Take Their Collective Eyes Off the Ball

While faux environmentalists up and down the East Coast are concerned about fracking in the oil industry, it turns out "they" have an immediate, proven problem -- a problem that has been going on for decades, and it took a nine-year study ... 

Headline: fertilizer, sewage damage critical ecosystem, study finds

Link to Boston Global here.

... stark evidence in an unusual scientific experiment that demonstrates the profound damage fertilizers and sewage can wreak on marshes that are critical for protecting young ­marine life and blunting the sea’s fury.

The nine-year study, conducted in the golden-hued Plum Island estuary and published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is the first to show that marshes may be crumbling from the inside out from a massive overload of nutrients.

“This idea that everyone has to have a bright green lawn is part of what is killing the coast,’’ said lead ­researcher Linda Deegan of the Marine Biological Laboratory Ecosystems Center. “Even if you are 25 miles from the coast, it sinks down into the ground ­water and makes it there.”

Yup.  Profound damage.

Didn't even make the front page of the Boston Globe.