Will We Have the Electricity to Heat Our Homes Next Winter?

I heard a report last week that this cold winter took our electric generation to nearly 100% of the capacity at several points.  You might figure that it's okay since demand didn't exceed 100%.  Well that's not quite right.  You see, the EPA regulations have forced a number of power plants to shut down recently.  In the coming months, there are another 5.4 gigawatts that will be shut down due to the EPA's new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).  Without this generating capacity available, there wouldn't have been enough power to keep the lights on everywhere.

I've been writing about this subject and talking to anyone that would listen.  The Obama EPA is doing idiotic things to appease their "tree-hugging" supporters.  Obviously re-election by environmentally conscious voters is more important to the Democrats than doing what is right for our people.

So what happens next winter if the global cooling continues?  If climate change, man-made or otherwise, gives us another winter as cold as this one, there won't be enough electricity.  Did you hear that?  Without that 5.4 gigawatts of generating capacity, we would NOT have had enough electricity this year.

What would have happened this year without the 5.4 gigawatts online in the winter of 2013-2014?  For a start, the price of electricity would have been much higher.  If the power companies were able to predict reaching the peak capacity, they could do the rolling blackouts like the folks in California experienced a while back.  That means your electric heat pump might be running to heat your home, and the electricity gets turned off by the power company for some period of time.  Maybe it is off for an hour or two leaving you with no heat.  Of course, if the power demand rises too rapidly, and the rolling blackouts aren't done as a preemptive measure, a widespread blackout could occur.  That one could take hours or even days to bring the system back online.

Power that is shut off either in a rolling blackout or an unplanned one would leave manufacturing companies shut down.  Do the workers lose work hours due to layoff?  Even if your home is heated with a gas furnace, chances are it will be useless without electricity to run the fan.

This is all brought about by the MessAPolitico.  My liberal friends laughed back before Obama was elected.  There's no way that we will lose our health insurance.  Obamacare would never use "death panels" to deny old people or very sick people health care.  We will always have enough electricity.  The power companies would never let this happen.

Next winter, we will see what happens.  Maybe it won't be so cold next year.  Maybe there will be enough windmills generating an extra 5.4 gigawatts by next winter.  Maybe those windmills will work fine day and night, every day.  Maybe the flying cows will generate enough wind to run the windmills.