Vestal Residents for Safe Energy

06/05/2026

The federal Department of Energy gave PJM legal authority to curtail data centers and other large loads, due to hot weather causing stress on the system, particularly in Maryland and Virginia.

Under the Department of Energy order, the PJM Interconnection can curtail power to data centers with backup generation as a last resort before instituting rolling blackouts.

06/03/2026

The petrochemical gang has hugely increased their profits this year, due mainly to Trump’s war on Iran, which gave them an excuse to raise their prices by nearly 50%. The avarage price for gas rose from under $3 per gallon before the conflict to the current range of around $4.49 per gallon!

War Big Oil cashes in on Iran war as drivers face soaring gas prices While Americans confront the highest fuel prices in years after the U.S.-Israel war on Iran disrupted global oil markets, fossil fuel giants are reporting surging profits, expanding stock buybacks, and prioritizing shareholder payo...

06/01/2026

The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects that next year commercial electricity use will exceed residential consumption for the first time ever, due in part to bitcoin miners, cloud computing, data centers and other commercial sector factors. The agency expects residential energy usage to remain largely flat over the next two years, but that the overall rising demand will also raise residential electricity prices.

Meanwhile, residential prices have been growing in all regions of the United States, “and we expect this trend to continue,” the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.

05/30/2026

Solar power is now expanding faster than any power source ever has, with the industry currently constructing 1GW of new solar panels every 15 hours. Nearly all of those who have installed rooftop solar PV systems feel quite pleased with those installations.

Solar is the most cost effective energy solution of all. Adopting solar makes lots of sense, as it's pushing fossil fuels to the background.

05/28/2026

Last year, state regulators created 29 large load tariffs, mainly in response to the artificial intelligence boom, and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has created a model tariff framework for large-load customers, recommending that utilities require such customers to bear “the financial risks associated with unprecedented new demand.”

The guidelines call for utilities to charge large-load customers for upgrades that “would not have been needed ‘but for’ the interconnection” of that customer, “irrespective of whether other customers will benefit” from the infrastructure.

05/26/2026

Our current drill-baby-drill president’s administration just gave the petrochemical gang an OK to bypass The Endangered Species Act, and wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico could face some major threats as a result of that greedy move.

05/24/2026

The Department of Energy recently got legally accused of exceeding its authority by ordering the owners of a Michigan coal-fired power plant to continue operations past a planned 5/31/25 shutdown date, and the case may set a precedent for other pending cases, but regardless of the final decision, the loser will probably file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A decision in the Consumers Energy case could set a precedent for legal challenges to Department of Energy orders keeping fossil-fueled power plants from retiring.

05/22/2026

Trump’s “American energy dominance” plan revolves around rising fossil fuel costs and expensive nuclear power, so he opposes low-cost wind and solar power. However, the U.S. public generally does still favor those cheaper clean energy sources, and small-scale solar capacity has had a major increase in the last year.

Plug-in balcony solar systems make it easy for homeowners and renters to install their own solar panels and offset the cost of electricity..

05/20/2026

Even though the NYC area has so far not experienced the kind of rising electricity demand that data centers have brought to other parts of the U.S., the electrification of buildings there and the appearance of EVs has led Con Ed to plan on spending over $29 billion in the next five years for substations and other grid upgrades.

New York City and its suburbs are not seeing an influx of data centers like other parts of the country, but building and transportation electrification is driving gradual demand growth.

05/18/2026

Since Salt Lake City has a known air pollution problem, it would make sense for that city to switch from diesel-powered school buses to electric ones. While electric buses can have a higher up-front cost, they also have lower maintenance and repair costs, they don’t waste as much energy, they’re healthier for the drivers and riders, and they’re often more comfortable as well.

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