The Natural Gas Story Could Be The Energy Story Of 2018 - 2019 -- October 16, 2018

Link here over at Argus.

A House of Commons select committee will carry out an inquiry into whether the UK has enough gas storage after events last winter heightened concerns about supply security, its chair Rachel Reeves said today.

The cross-party Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) select committee will take evidence on 31 October to assess whether the government has the "necessary measures" in place to cope with a repeat of last March's gas deficit warning, Labour MP Reeves said.

"Following the closure of Rough there have been issues over our ability to ensure supply in the winter," she said at the Energy UK Annual Conference 2018.

The UK issued its first gas balancing alert in seven years on 1 March, as cold weather and supply disruptions left the system short.

While the system balanced without market intervention, it led to a record NBP prompt price spike and prompted calls from industrial users for a government review including subsidies for new and existing storage facilities.

The UK government said Rough being available at the time would have made little difference to supply security and maintained the UK benefits from diverse supply sources.

Meanwhile, over at oilprice.com:

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EVs -- Rambling

I spoke about driverless cars with an individual in Starbucks this morning whose business was trucking/logistics. He was not convinced of their usefulness. At one time I was not convinced either but I am a convert. Driverless cars are a bigger deal than most people think, I think.

On the other hand, he thought that EVs had now become "accepted." He came to that conclusion when the top three (GM, Ford, FiatChrysler) and/or the top four (add Mercedes) came on board and embraced EVs. I did not pursue the conversation.

I'm not convinced.

I don't think folks understand all the obstacles before EVs can go mainstream.

Something like 40 to 50% of Americans do not live in their own single unit home. In the short term, single unit homes are where EVs will be charged. Almost half of all Americans would be resistant to buying an EV simply because they don't live in their own home. Then we get to range, range anxiety, charging availability when away from home, and time to fully charge an EV.

Natural Gas Could Well Be The Energy Story Of 2018-2019 -- September 29, 2018

Re-posting from earlier today, since "natural gas could well be the energy story of the year."

US natural gas:

• fill rate well below 5-year average and the gap is not closing
• New England could face natural gas shortage over next month or so
• natural gas being diverted from New England to Florida
• Florida: #1 electricity producer in US; #2, Texas
• Florida: converting from coal to natural gas

Natural gas: this might be the story of the year -- lots of buzz, lots of talk -- from SeekingAlpha yesterday --

• a severe cold spell could raise Henry Hub natural gas prices to a range of $12-$16/MMBtu, “similar to where marginal generation costs of fuel oil and diesel would be,” says Citi’s Anthony Yuen
• and if bitter cold weather hits both the U.S. and “either Europe or Asia at the same time... spot LNG [liquefied natural gas] prices could surge to $20/MMBtu at the extreme," Yuen writes; Nymex U.S. natural gas currently trades at ~$3.00/MMBtu
• Yuen thinks a spike in gas prices this winter could lift shares of gas-oriented companies such as Range Resources, Southwestern Energy, and Cabot Oil & Gas
• shares of many gas companies, while up from winter lows, are still lower YTD, reflecting concerns that there is too much new gas supply to sustain a rally in the gas market

It is being re-posted because a reader has sent me the following story:

Domestic natural gas production of about 82 billion cubic feet a day isn't nearly enough to provide for peak winter demand, which is why up to about 4 trillion cubic feet of gas is stored underground and nearly 3 trillion drawn upon during some heating seasons.

This year, though, the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects the starting amount at the end of next month to be around 3.3 trillion cubic feet--the lowest since 2005, when natural gas prices hit their all-time high.

A projected ending storage level much below 1 trillion cubic feet often spooks traders. A 2005-style hurricane-fueled squeeze is out of the question, but a big price spike isn't.

It was just four winters ago that a cold winter caused a 75% surge in futures prices to above $6 a million British thermal units. So far there is little sign of anxiety among traders, with both front-month and February futures below $3. Thursday's weekly inventory report and forecasts for continued builds in coming weeks were encouraging, yet storage is now 20% below year-ago levels and 18% below the five-year average. Possible tough sledding ahead.

This is not from The National Inquirer, or from some nut contributing to SeekingAlpha.

The natural gas concern is from The Wall Street Journal. 

Link here.  Or here if you have a subscription to the Journal. 

Note: natural gas out of the Permian is going for as little as 50 cents, it was reported not too long ago.

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Micro-Dosing

Re-posting: LSD. Story here. Silicon Valley (?) getting ready to do "formal"testing. We talked about this earlier this year.

Three-page essay in the current issue of The London Review of Books, by Mike Jay, in his review of two new books:

• How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics, Michael Pollan, May, 2018
• The Science and the Story of the Drugs That Changed Our Minds, Lauren Slater, February, 2018

My hunch: marijuana is soooo old news.

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 Notes To The Granddaughters

I have journaled all my life. I have kept calendars. I make and keep lists. I am obsessive-compulsive about these sorts of things.

I wish I had done even more. I can think of many more things I wish I had done along this line.

But it looks like I paled in comparison to Kavanaugh's journals and calendars. Wow.

I think about that often. I thought of it again when reading the "Diary" essay -- a regular feature -- in The London Review of Books. 

Will I destroy my journals before I die? I was brutally honest in them. Often I wrote when I was most depressed.

Wow, it was so much easier back then.

Somebody to Love, Jefferson Airplane

Re-Posting: Cheniere, Asia; Qatar Has Sold Its Entire Flexible Winter LNG Supply -- December 6, 2017

Updates

Later, 10:49 p.m. Central Time: see first comment --

The rapid development of improving liquification processes for natural gas has huge implications.

Telurian's $15 billion dollar cost to produce 27 million tons per year of LNG at its proposed Driftwood project is astonishingly low. [Lake Charles, Louisiana.]

For context, the massive LNG Gladstone operations off Queensland [Australia] cost about $60 billion for roughly the same capacity.

In addition, the Norwegian company, Golar, is teaming up with an outfit named Delfin to position 4 FLNG ships off Louisiana which will produce LNG much more cheaply yet.

On the other end, converting older ships into regasification facilities - FSRUs - will economically allow receipt of LNG almost anywhere in the world.

These are the reasons behind tentative plans to import US LNG into a Melbourne-based FSRU in a few years.

Coals to Newcastle.

Original Post

This is just one of the reasons I do not enjoy watching business shows on network television, particularly CNBC. [My latest stretch of not watching CNBC began last Thursday afternoon and continues). The show will spend all day (sometimes multiple days) talking about a single deal (like the Aetna - CVS story), talking about it ad nauseam and completely missing all the other incredible stories out there.

This was posted earlier. It's such an incredible story, on so many levels, I am re-posting it:

Cheniere boosts LNG tanker fleet amid Asian demand boom -- from Reuters via Rigzone, data points:

• expanded its shipping fleet with a flurry of spot vessel charters to keep up with Asian winter demand growth as spot prices hit three-year highs
• Cheniere's Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana: 22 cargoes last month
• ramping up its fourth train
• more than half its shipments going to China, Japan, or South Korea
• can you say Panama Canal expansion (which the NY Times famously said the expansion was doomed to failure)
• < but get this: Qatar entirely sold out of flexible winter LNG supply following a frenetic period of deal-making with term buyers in China and South Korea
• Cheniere now has 22 ships on the water

It appears the world's largest exporter of LNG is no longer the swing producer; the swing producer/exporter for LNG is the US. 

This has been predicted for quite some time -- that the LNG market would get really, really tight. I did not expect it to happen so soon. Must be a cold, cold winter in Asia,

Making America great again -- with energy. 

Natural Gas Shortage This Winter? -- July 6, 2016

Bloomberg is reporting:

A blistering start to summer is helping put U.S. natural gas futures on course for the biggest gain in eight years.

Gas has surged 17 percent this year, rebounding from a 17-year low. Drillers, burned by earlier declines, are refilling storage at half last year’s pace as extreme heat boosts the use of air conditioners, increasing gas demand from power plants.

By November, supplies will probably drop below the five-year average, the benchmark for normal levels, for the first time in 13 months, based on storage rates.

Just four months ago, gas plunged after the warmest winter on record left the market with a glut large enough to last through the year. Instead, hot weather and a slowdown in shale production are eating into the surplus, signaling an era of higher prices as gas exports rise and electricity generation cuts into excess supply.

“We’re moving toward a potentially serious deficit in the supply-demand balance for this coming winter,” said one analyst.

Gas inventories were 25 percent above the five-year average in late June, down from 54 percent in April. An extended slide in production would erase the surplus by the end of the year, leaving stockpiles at a deficit to normal levels for the first time since May 2015 and pushing prices to $3 this month.

Natural-Gas Prices Rise As Supplies Look Lean -- Said To Be "Very Disconcerting"; Analysts Expected 14 BCF Injection, Only 4 BCF

Link at The Wall Street Journal:

Natural-gas prices climbed on Thursday after new data raised some concerns about producers' ability to meet future demand. Gas for May delivery rose 6.9 cents, or 1.5%, to settle at $4.655 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Trading was volatile—after falling early in the day, prices soared as much as 4% following the release of U.S. inventory data.

Last week, more gas flowed into storage than was taken out for the first time this year. Analysts had expected the increase would be 14 billion cubic feet; instead, stockpiles grew by 4 billion cubic feet, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly storage report.

"This is very disconcerting. It's a slow start," said Teri Viswanath, natural-gas strategist at BNP Paribas.

"The industry is going to have to work that much harder to ensure" there is enough gas in storage before the start of next winter, she said. The U.S. consumed a record amount of natural gas last winter, as freezing temperatures spurred demand for gas-fired heating.

About half of U.S. households rely on natural gas to heat their homes, according to the EIA.

The Williston Wire; Chicago's Utility Costs After A Brutal Winter; The Nation's Natural Gas Reserves To 11-Year Low -- The Road To New England

No links; it is easy to subscribe to The Williston Wire.

As Williston begins its downtown streetscape renovation, The Renaissance Companies will begin construction on a seven-story new construction mixed-use property. The Renaissance on Main is scheduled to break ground this year and open in 2015. Anticipating high interest, Renaissance is now pre-leasing the retail and office spaces and accepting apartment inquiries.

Airline boardings in North Dakota last month surpassed 100,000, setting a record for February. The state Aeronautics Commission says 100,999 passengers boarded planes at North Dakota's eight large airports last month, up 8 percent over the year. The airports in Dickinson, Williston, Fargo and Grand Forks all set records for the month. Williston's boardings were up 35 percent over the year and Dickinson's were up 171 percent. Both cities are in the booming western oil patch. Great Lakes Airlines pulled out of Devils Lake and Jamestown at the end of January, but SkyWest Airlines is to begin service to those cities in June.

McKenzie County roads and highways are not the only local infrastructure experiencing an influx in traffic due to an increase in oil activity. Local air traffic has also seen an upsurge. "Air traffic is roughly five times more than what it was three years ago," said Tim Taylor, chairman of the airport board. "A lot of the flights landing and taking off here are related to the building and construction going on in Watford City." In 2014, the airport board plans to begin two major projects: construction of a larger parking apron and new airport terminal for roughly $3.5 million.

Posted earlier: rending on Twitter. Another No. 12 seed in the NCAA men's basketball tournament with upset hopes. North Dakota State pulled it off Thursday, March 20.   Freshman Carlin Dupree, in the game only because Bison star Taylor Braun fouled out, hit two free throws and a key basket in overtime and the Bison won an NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament game Round of 64 for the Summit League for the first time since 1998.  The 80-75 win over No. 5 seed Oklahoma in the West Region second round was stunning in its theater.

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The Utility Costs For A Brutal Chicago Winter

Chicago Business Journal is reporting:

Chicagoans and North Shore residents better hope it warms up in April.

The price Peoples Gas and sister utility North Shore Gas will charge for natural gas next month will rise to $1.19 and $1.21 per therm, respectively, the most Chicagoans have paid to heat their homes since natural gas prices soared in late 2005 and early 2006 after Hurricane Katrina knocked out much of gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. For March, Peoples customers are paying 93 cents per therm, which is already much higher than the 68 cents per therm being paid by suburban customers of Nicor Gas.

Nicor's gas charge for April will remain 68 cents, making Peoples' and North Shore's about 75 percent higher for the month.

The difference between what Peoples and Nicor are charging is highly unusual. In the past, when natural gas prices spiked, both utilities showed similar increases.

And, despite a brutally cold winter that has reduced gas storage supplies to their lowest levels in more than a decade, the market price of gas has risen only modestly, with the exception of some frigid days during the polar vortex when gas prices shot up.

The average Chicago household will see a $165 gas bill next month, and that's assuming the weather is normal and the cold spring doesn't continue. Last year's April bill for the same household was $105.

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Nation's Natural Gas Reserves Fall to 11-Year Low

The Gillette Star & Tribune is reporting:

Natural gas inventories nationwide reached an 11-year low during the second week of March, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Thursday, in what industry analysts said could be a boon for Wyoming.

Nationwide natural gas storage fell to 953 billion cubic feet, the lowest level since May 2003 and almost 50 percent below last year. Natural gas stocks were about 47 percent, or 876 BCF, below their five-year average of 1,829 BCF, the EIA said. 

Producers will need to ramp production to meet the increased demand, said Wyoming Public Service Commission Administrator Darrell Zlomke.

He estimated companies will need to produce an additional three to four billion cubic feet per day to meet the 3.6 trillion cubic feet needed for storage next winter. Much of that production is likely to come from the Marcellus shale formation in the eastern United States and the Eagle Ford formation in Texas, Zlomke said.

"If they can grow that production enough, it will lessen upward pressure on prices," Zlomke said. 

Still, he said it is likely consumers will receive higher utility bills come next winter.

Without coal, the nation is on the road to New England.

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The Interview

I was in the car today for a about 45 minutes running errands, and happened to catch Rush Limbaugh in between getting in and out of the car, running in and out of stores. [I had to take the car because I was picking up a table on which to play Mah Jongg with the granddaughters.] He played a bit of a CNBC - Squawk Box interview with someone regarding global warming. The interview was interesting; Rush's comments even more so.

The CNBC interview is here (the photograph with the polar bear is priceless). Based on the little I heard at the time (and I'm not re-listening to it now because my wi-fi is very, very slow) this interview may, in fact, just about encapsulate everything I've said about global warming. Again, I've only heard bits and pieces of the interview.

Some take-aways:

• for the American electorate, global warming is at the bottom of their list of concerns
• it is not "US warming, it is global warming" -- until China, Russia, Brazil, et al play along, US efforts are meaningless
• "economic suicide" if the US goes it alone

From the linked site, three reasons why the "global warming movement" has failed, including the fact that Americans have more immediate things to worry about, like the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008 to worry about

By the way, the cover of September, 2013, issue of the National Geographic is the reason I no longer appreciate the magazine the way I did when I was growing up. The cover was beneath "the dignity" of the National Geographic. Apparently What's Up With That agrees.

A Reminder That A Lot Of Young Journalists Are Clueless -- But Not All

I'm posting this story only for archival purposes. The comments are most interesting. I'm not exactly sure what point the reporter was trying to make. He sounds disillusioned. The AP is reporting this story.

This is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here for what you think you may have read here, but if investors had the same outlook at this reporter, they wouldn't be in investing very long.

America's plan to use more natural gas to run power plants, make chemicals, drive vehicles and heat homes may not go as smoothly as expected.

There's plenty of natural gas in the ground, everyone seems to agree. But the harsh weather this winter shows there are obstacles to producing it, and more pipelines have to be built.

The bitter temperatures boosted demand for natural gas to heat homes and businesses. But wells in some places literally froze, making it difficult for some drillers to keep gas flowing. And the high demand clogged pipelines, so even when there was enough production, the gas couldn't get where it needed to go.

I'm curious what energy source this reporter thinks would be better. Windmills? LOL.

In fact, the problem that gas couldn't get where it needed to go was self-inflicted in many (most?) cases.

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An exception to the rule that many young journalists are clueless might be Kevin Chupka who wonders if President Obama might be the two-term version of President Obama. President Obama hasn't make his "malaise" speech but he is disillusioned, frustrated over the failure of ObamaCare (previously posted). I do think he should be given credit for staying cool with regard to the Ukraine. He let Putin take the Crimean, and turned a very, very risky "Cuban crisis" into a minor diplomatic row which will play out in the UN or in The New York Times. A "President Bush" would have us in another shooting war in the Ukraine, or at least the risk of doing so if Dick Cheney were running the show. So, fortunately, "no drama Obama" kept our noses out of where we don't belong and simply let Putin do what he wanted, not that Obama had many options. And so we get this Breakout story:

The ongoing crisis in Russia and Ukraine has, for some, highlighted deficiencies in President Obama’s foreign policy (or lack thereof). Breakout’s Jeff Macke likens it to the widely held belief that President Jimmy Carter was particularly weak when dealing with the Iran hostage crisis. “Apparently we stopped Putin by saying ‘you’re gonna lose all the good will you had with the Olympics,’” Macke contends. “It reminded me very much a Jimmy Carter-esque kind of scolding morality.”

Unfortunately, after that great headline and opening paragraph, the reporter sort of lost it, and made excuses for President Obama. Sad. The reporter got off to such a good start. 

Natural Gas Prices In Chicago -- Sticker Shock: The Road To New England

Chicago Business is reporting:

Heating bills in Chicago are going way up, both next month and also next year if Peoples Gas has its way.

The Chicago natural gas utility announced today that its charge for the gas commodity in March is soaring 79 percent to 93 cents per therm from 52 cents in February. The steep increase is a result of the extreme cold weather that has boosted the near-term cost of natural gas and the price to transport the fuel, the company said.

At the same time, Peoples filed with state regulators for a delivery rate hike that would take effect in the middle of next winter. That $129 million increase, if the Illinois Commerce Commission granted it in full, would bring the average Chicago household's monthly gas bill to nearly $100.

Wow, Does Anyone See The Unintended Consequence In This Story? This Is Quite Incredible: The Road To New England

First, some facts to get out of the way: renewable energy, wind and solar, will never make a significant contribution to the electricity needs of this country. And wherever wind and solar replace coal or natural gas, the costs are three to five times higher. That won't change over time. I may be wrong on some of the details, but the underlying premise is correct: wind and solar will never make a significant contribution to the electricity needs of this country. There is simply not enough land area available. This was posted back in 2012, but I doubt anything has changed.

Second: nuclear is pretty much dead in this country. Even if "we," as a nation, embraced nuclear energy this weekend, it would take 20 years to get new nuclear reactors built and on-line.

Third: if you want to know where I'm going with this story, check out the stories at the "NG_Shortage" and "NG_NewEngland" tags at the bottom of the post. Those links are about the natural gas shortage in New England this year, and the spot price of natural gas jumping to $40 or more compared to the "going" price of $4. Why? Everybody in New England switched to natural gas this past year; there was not enough; and there was no alternative.

Fourth: the country will need more electricity in the future, not less. EVs, server farms, LED TVs, computers, smart phones, it's all going to add up. 

Now, the story. I was not going to post this story as a stand-alone post. I posted/linked it deep in the blog for archival purposes when Don sent it to me. But while reading it, posting it, linking it, it dawned on me that the natural gas companies are sitting very, very pretty.

The article is linked at this post:

Bloomberg is reporting another coal plant in the heart of coal country is closing. The country is converting to natural gas. This is for the archives. Some day folks are going to be wondering why their electric bills are so high. Come back to this article for an explanation. For the archives.

For evidence, look to the E.D. Edwards power plant, built in 1960 close to the coal mines south of Peoria. While it pumped out electricity for once-booming steel mills and distilleries, the plant cruised along and avoided spending the millions of dollars to install a scrubber on its smokestack.

And so Edwards, confronting a need to meet state and federal rules to clean up and mounting competition from cheaper natural gas, was part of an unusual transaction last year. Owner Ameren Corp. paid Dynegy Inc. to take Edwards and four other Illinois coal plants off its hands, a transaction that perplexed some analysts.

“This was an exercise in kicking the can down the road,” said David Johnson, an analyst at ACM Partners, a financial advisory firm that reviewed the sale for environmentalists trying to scuttle it. “To throw money at someone to take something off your hands is a bit atypical.”

Ameren’s move is among a series of closures, bankruptcies or fire sales by companies desperate to get out of investments in aging U.S. coal plants. Owners are reacting to abundant electricity from natural gas and wind, flat or declining demand and a slew of new environmental rules meant to clean up the country’s top source of pollution. Also in the mix: efforts by environmentalists targeting individual coal facilities.

Read the article and then re-read the preamble above.  Do you see where "we" are going? This is quite incredible. The president has set the United States to go down the road of ensuring that there is only ONE fuel source for electricity some twenty years from now. Presidents think very long term, that's why they are called "change agents." (Google -- "change agents")

If the math doesn't work for renewable energy (wind or solar); hydroelectric is maxed out; nuclear is dead; and coal is dead; what's left to provide electricity for the nation? This is quite incredible. One almost gets the feeling that Washington movers and shakers were heavily invested in natural gas when they came up with the idea of how to kill coal.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read her, but this is quite incredible. 

Think about it. I take that back. Don't think about it. Re-read all the stories this past two months about the high cost of natural gas in New England, and how they are literally on the cusp of running out. That's not an exaggeration. If I had the time I would post the links but they are easily found at the blog and everywhere on the internet.

This is one of those "aha" moments. I assume, because presidents come and go, coal will make a comeback in this country, but that assumption could be wrong. The refineries along the coast spent billions of dollars converting to heavy oil capability and they aren't eager to switch back to light oil capability due to the billions of dollars it would take. They are still hoping Canadian heavy oil will reach them.

Likewise, all the electric utilities that have spent billions switching to natural gas aren't about to switch back to coal. And that leaves the US on the road to New England: natural gas shortages and/or high price electricity due to high price natural gas.

The road to New England: the US quest for a single fuel source for electricity. 

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or anything you think you might have read here, but I'm certainly not going to avoid this investment opportunity. This is a once in a lifetime investment strategy. Thank you Mr Obama. 

Addenda:

This was sent in by a reader as another example: Chicago's two coal-fired plants to shut down sooner than expected. It's an old story but is another example of going to one fuel for electricity, natural gas, without really thinking this through. The reader points out that the state of Illinois has nuclear power but the plants are probably in their last decade of life, and as they age, anything can happen. The reader also makes this point: "to me it appears the power generating companies are being separated from the utilities... the utilities are more just distribution companies now...  the regulation for the power generation is really a burden."

Let's Do The Weather ... Breaking News -- 900,000 Lose Power In Midwest, Northeast Due to Global Warming

Breaking news -- 900,000 lose power in midwest, northeast due to global warming, climate change, extreme weather. TD Waterhouse is reporting:

Almost 900,000 homes and businesses were without power in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast early Wednesday following severe snow and ice storms overnight, according to local power companies.

The hardest hit state was Pennsylvania with over 640,000 customers out Wednesday morning. Other affected states were Maryland, West Virginia, Arkansas, New Jersey, Kentucky, Delaware, Ohio, Virginia, Indiana and New York. 

A link from Drudge ... IceAgeNow is reporting that 4,406 record low temps were set in January, 2014, due to global warming, climate change, extreme weather. And the fact that it was winter, and that the earth quit warming 18 years ago.

The Billings Gazette is reporting:

Classes have been cancelled and most of the Montana State University Billings campus will be shut down through Thursday due to a weather-related natural gas shortage.

An MSUB news release said Chancellor Rolf Groseth decided to cancel class and close the campus offices beginning Wednesday and continuing through at least Thursday due to a gas shortage spurred by the recent cold snap that's struck much of the U.S., including Billings.

Another record-breaking month for Duluth, MN. Duluth News Tribune is reporting:

They found it in a little-known statistic of “winter with most days where the temperature dipped below zero.”

So far this winter, the temperature has dropped below zero on 50 different days. We aren’t at the record yet, only in 11th place. But we are on pace to break the record, forecasters said Wednesday. The record is 59 days with below zero temps set in the winters of 1958-59, 1916-17 and 1874-75.

Duluth also could set the record for the most consecutive days with the daily low temperature below zero. As of Wednesday, that streak sat at 17 days in a row. The record is 22 days in a row set in 1936 and 1963.

Meanwhile, in Midland, TX, MRT.com is reporting:

A layer of soft snow blanketed streets and vehicles, and icicles formed on eaves Thursday morning as record-setting temperatures dipped into the teens.

The Permian Basin region is no stranger to frosty weather. Two arctic blasts shut down major roadways and sparked widespread power outages late last year, and Midlanders woke up Super Bowl Sunday to snowy scenes out their windows. 

On Thursday, the low exceeded 1989’s record single-digit temperature by only four degrees, according to the National Weather Service. But the high in 1989 was 28 degrees, earning Thursday’s high of 21 a low-high temperature record. 

“We broke that one pretty easily,” said NWS meteorologist Andrew Arnold, noting this year’s fickle weather is nothing out of the ordinary.

Unless you're a warmist.

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I just rode my bike against a strong, strong north wind in 28-degree (Fahrenheit) weather, about a six-mile ride, I suppose. I had warm gloves on but not roughneck-winter-North-Dakota gloves and by the time I reached the Grapevine, TX, library, my hands were pretty cold. First aid courses came in handy; went to restroom and warmed them using cold water first, never using hot water.

I can type pretty well now. Felt nauseous for maybe fifteen minutes (the feeling is gradually going away), but no chest pain, so all's well that ends well, as William used to say.

A reader noted this with regard to Texas, cold, and wind:

... on Monday morning only 17 percent of ERCOT’s wind capacity (1,782 megawatts of the approximately 10,400 megawatts of wind capacity) were operating at that time.  According to Fuel Fix, this means that "on Monday [wind] only contributed about 3.2 percent of electricity used during peak demand…"

It is obviously a judgment call whether 17 percent of capacity and 3.2 percent of total generation is indeed “massive quantities” of wind or merely middling amounts.

And then this little bit of trivia. According to wiki, Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state. Glad to know it's there when you need it. NOT.

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A Note to the Granddaughters 

For The Archives

CNS News is reporting:

Dr. Don Easterbrook – a climate scientist and glacier expert from Washington State who correctly predicted back in 2000 that the Earth was entering a cooling phase – says to expect colder temperatures for at least the next two decades.

Easterbrook’s predictions were “right on the money” seven years before Al Gore and the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for warning that the Earth was facing catastrophic warming caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide, which Gore called a “planetary emergency.”

“When we check their projections against what actually happened in that time interval, they’re not even close. They’re off by a full degree in one decade, which is huge. That’s more than the entire amount of warming we’ve had in the past century. So their models have failed just miserably, nowhere near close.

And maybe it’s luck, who knows, but mine have been right on the button,” Easterbrook told CNSNews.com.

“For the next 20 years, I predict global cooling of about 3/10ths of a degree Fahrenheit, as opposed to the one-degree warming predicted by the IPCC,” said Easterbrook, professor emeritus of geology at Western Washington University.