Climate Insanity on steroids!


Essay by Paul Driessen







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Why Are Oil and Gasoline Prices So Cheap?

crudeAmerica’s natural gas shale boom has taken off in an amazing way allowing for ridiculous amounts of cheap clean energy to flood our country.

The natural gas commodity is taking over the coal industry in large measure and this all happened from a couple decades of private sector and some government financed research in the art of extracting this trapped gas from shale rock.

This phenomenon has caused a lack of dependence on OPEC oil from the mideast as we are producing quite a bit in America on our own.

We are using oil and natural gas and not importing as much from other countries.

Electricity rates in Texas are fairly low in price because we generate most of our electricity using natural gas.

To compete with America’s rich abundance of cheap energy OPEC has been forced to lower the price of their oil.

Just recently a barrel of oil fell under $60 a barrel in price and this trend may continue on below $40 as OPEC tries to compete with who was once their largest importer.

Unfortunately, frackers and all those jobs created from fracking may be hit hard by these cheap oil prices as gas grows closer in parity to other fuel prices.

Consider this quote from the Economist regarding oil prices and the ramifications of lower prices:

“The main effect of this is on the riskiest and most vulnerable bits of the oil industry. These include American frackers who have borrowed heavily on the expectation of continuing high prices. They also include Western oil companies with high-cost projects involving drilling in deep water or in the Arctic, or dealing with maturing and increasingly expensive fields such as the North Sea. But the greatest pain is in countries where the regimes are dependent on a high oil price to pay for costly foreign adventures and expensive social programmes. These include Russia (which is already hit by Western sanctions following its meddling in Ukraine) and Iran (which is paying to keep the Assad regime afloat in Syria). Optimists think economic pain may make these countries more amenable to international pressure. Pessimists fear that when cornered, they may lash out in desperation.”

Regarding the success of natural gas fracking in the US consider this quote from Bjorn Lomborg:

“The biggest U.S. environmental impact of the Obama era is the one that nobody (not the president, not Congress) envisioned. It is the shale gas revolution that was made possible by the United States spending $10 billion on R&D to develop hydraulic fracturing over the past 30 years.

Over the past five years, this investment has made gas much cheaper, allowing a significant shift in electricity production from coal to gas. Since gas emits less than half the carbon dioxide per energy unit than coal does, this means that in 2012, when adjusting for more wind and lower economic output, the gas switch reduced U.S. emissions by about 300 million metric tons of CO2, causing emissions to hit lowest level since 1994. At the same time, it is estimated that the economic benefit to the United States is about $283 billion per year. This compares favorably to all of Europe’s wind and solar energy, which reduces CO2 emissions by about 91 million metric tons and cost about $40 billion annually.”

Spooky Threats to the Electric Grid

sunAn increased risk from Islamic terrorists and multiple assaults on U.S. companies from places like China and Russia show that risks to the electric grid are on the rise.

“A widely circulated white paper by Symantec in June cited an “ongoing cyber-espionage campaign” against the energy sector by a shadowy hacker group known as Dragonfly. The report added that energy grid operators, utilities, oil and gas firms were at risk—not just domestically, but abroad as well. Additionally, others say the industry has far more work to do in the face of rapidly multiplying challenges to U.S. interests.”

In September and October of 2014 a large solar storm coming from heightened sun activity had scientists spooked that the electric grid could be compromised,


Major disruptions are not expected, even though the flare was on the high end of the solar flare scale. Wednesday’s flare followed a weaker flare late Monday.

“We expect geomagnetic storm levels in the G2 (moderate) and G3 (strong) range,” said NOAA space weather forecaster Bill Murtagh.”

The scary aspect to a solar flare storm if destructive enough is that it could permanently take out the electric grid and would require months of rebuilding.

Hacking into the electric grid for the purpose of disrupting electric supply to critical internet infrastructure has been reported on multiple occasions.

“There were two separate physical breaches at a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Silicon Valley substation that have heightened security fears within the industry. A PG&E spokesman told CNBC that the utility company plans to spend $100 million over the next three years “to enhance security at our critical facilities.”

These are just some of the scary things the electric grid has to deal with this Halloween and the threat is real and may one day affect all of us.

Procrastinating and Getting Electric Service on at New Home

meterOne of the most common scenarios I encounter is with new home owners who wait until the last minute to request electric service to be turned on at their new place.

I have a Realtor friend who sends me referrals of people who just bought a new home and they waited until the last minute to request electric service on in their home.

What I have found to be the best advice for same day service is to have them call the incumbent provider in their area.

This provider is TXU Energy in the Dallas Fort Worth and much of the East Texas area and it is Reliant Energy in the Houston area.

The reason I have them do this is because TXU for instance, can get someone out to their house in sometimes two hours or less even when calling at 4 p.m. on the day you need it on.

That type of fast service is hard to beat. Now keep in mind they are simply having Oncor Electric Delivery, the pole and wires company come out to turn service on.

It is really a mystery to me how this happens as quickly as it does but take advantage of it because it has saved a ton of headaches for quite a few people.

Now I tell these referrals to call or sign up online and request a “new move-in” order with TXU.

If you do it online it may not switch until the next day. If you call in and specifically ask for a priority move-in with an expectation that it gets turned on the same day they very likely will be able to fulfill the request.

It’s critical to just sign up for a “month-to-month” no contract rate because you will be shopping for a cheap electric provider a few days later.

The problem with TXU as of now and what I have seen the last decade is that they are not always the most competitive provider although at times they may have the most favorable rate. I recommend comparing other companies with TXU to make sure.

I have consistently seen much higher fixed rate products that involve a contract when dealing with TXU but of course this is not always the case…at times you may find a rate with TXU that beats the other providers.

So after you have gotten your electric service on you have made it past what may have looked like the potential for an inconvenient night or two without electricity.

Now you just need to get on this site and search and compare electric companies and rates. Go ahead and look at what TXU has to offer…you may just find that you were right in checking our compare chart against them to see who has the cheaper rate. I recommend only comparing fixed rates when doing this as month-to-month rates can adjust in price by going up and down from one month to the next.

With companies like TXU and others there will be some kind of notice that the rate is changing and TXU has said that they even give more notice than is required if their month-to-month product will be changing.

The fixed rates do not change but variable prices and month-to-month prices do which is another reason to get off of that temporary TXU month-to-month price ASAP even if they do give advance notice of price changes.

People procrastinate so if you get a notice, what are you going to do? You likely will put that on the back burner and do something about it way later than you should have.

You don’t want a $300 electric bill by being on a month-to-month product that you failed to act on when the price changed. So instead do this,  type your zip code in on our little widget on the top right of this page and click compare.

The comparison will appear allowing you the ability to sort through and find the term and price of a fixed contracted electric rate that fits your situation best.

I hope this explanation helps you as I have found it to be the most requested residential service request I receive. “I need electric service on, like yesterday!”


Electricity Price Surged to All-Time Record for March




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