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Weather: A 40 percent chance of showers after 11am. Partly sunny, with a high near 81. Breezy, with a south wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
Tuesday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 55. West wind around 9 mph becoming north after midnight.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- Tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry now including evening hours: Flagler Beach United Methodist Church‘s food pantry is open today from 9:30 a.m. to noon and again from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 1500 S. Daytona Ave, Flagler Beach. The church’s mission is to provide nourishment and support in a welcoming, respectful environment. To find us, please turn at the corner of 15 Street and S. Daytona Ave, pull into the grass parking area and enter the green door.
The Palm Coast City Council meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For meeting agendas, audio and video, go here.
Flagler Beach’s Planning and Architectural Review Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 105 S 2nd Street. The board takes up Veranda Bay’s latest proposal. For agendas and minutes, go here. Cancelled: no items.
The Bunnell Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board meets at 6 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell.
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 10-18, at the Flagler County Public Library: Do you enjoy Chess, trying out new moves, or even like some friendly competition? Come visit the Flagler County Public Library at the Teen Spot every Tuesday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. for Chess Club. Everyone is welcome, for beginners who want to learn how to play all the way to advanced players. For more information contact the Youth Service department 386-446-6763 ext. 3714 or email us at [email protected]
The Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Club meets at 5 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy, 8 p.m. at Cinematique Theater, 242 South Beach Street, Daytona Beach. General admission is $8.50. Every Tuesday and on the first Saturday of every month the Random Acts of Insanity Comedy Improv Troupe specializes in performing fast-paced improvised comedy.
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center: Nightly from 6 to 9 p.m. at Palm Coast’s Central Park, with 57 lighted displays you can enjoy with a leisurely stroll around the pond in the park. Admission to Fantasy Lights is free, but donations to support Rotary’s service work are gladly accepted. Holiday music will pipe through the speaker system throughout the park, Santa’s Village, which has several elf houses for the kids to explore, will be open, with Santa’s Merry Train Ride nightly (weather permitting), and Santa will be there every Sunday night until Christmas, plus snow on weekends! On certain nights, live musical performances will be held on the stage.
Juxtapositions: A conversation between Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon in the Oval Office, December 9, 1970. I’m not making this up:
Nixon: The thing that concerns me about this thing you sent over on Cambodia was Moorer’s, it seems to me, lame excuse that they did not have any intelligence because the weather has been bad. I don’t think they are trying to do a good enough job in trying to get the intelligence over there. You understand what I mean?
Kissinger: Yes I do.
Nixon: There are other methods of getting intelligence than simply flying. They’ve got the methods of the Cambodians to talk to and a hell of a lot of other people and I don’t think they have done enough there. The second thing is as I have put on here now I want you to get ahold of Moorer tonight and I want a plan where every goddamn thing that can fly goes into Cambodia and hits every target that is open.
Kissinger: Right.
Nixon: That’s to be done tomorrow. Tomorrow. Is that clear?
Kissinger: That is right.
Nixon: I want this done. Now that is one thing that can turn this around some. They are running these goddamn milk runs in order to get the air medal. You know what they are doing Henry. It’s horrible what the Air Force is doing. They aren’t doing anything at all worth a damn.
Kissinger: They are not imaginative.
Nixon: Well, their not only not imaginative but they are just running these things – bombing jungles. You know that. They have got to go in there and I mean
really go in. I don’t want the gunships, I want the helicopter ships. I want everything that can fly to go in there and crack the hell out of them. There is no limitation on mileage and there is no limitation on budget. Is that clear?
Kissinger: Right, Mr. President.
Here’s the full transcript.
Simon Tisdall in a recent Guardian: “The UK’s reported decision to restrict intelligence-sharing with the Pentagon on suspected drug-traffickers’ boats in the Caribbean is a modest yet symbolic act of resistance to Donald Trump’s imperialist revival. Britain is said to have objected to repeated, lethal US airstrikes on alleged smugglers off Venezuela’s coast – which have been widely condemned as illegal extrajudicial killings amounting to murder. The strikes appear to foreshadow direct US attacks on Venezuela itself.”
The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
December 2025
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Democratic Women’s Club
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
‘Annie,’ at Limelight Theatre
Random Acts of Insanity’s Roundup of Standups from Around Central Florida
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
‘Annie,’ at Limelight Theatre
Al-Anon Family Groups
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
For the full calendar, go here.
Just because the United States won the cold war doesn’t mean our Government did everything right. On the contrary, as one of the most zealous cold war Presidents, Ronald Reagan, delicately put it when acknowledging the criminal excesses of the Iran-contra scandal, ”mistakes were made.” Indeed they were. The Central Intelligence Agency, in particular, was a command center of malfeasance in the 1980’s. Under its Director, William Casey, the C.I.A. fed the White House exaggerated reports of Soviet military and economic strength and kept Congress in the dark, illegally at times, about various covert operations. Meanwhile, a mole within the agency, Aldrich Ames, was peddling secrets to the Kremlin, with the result that at least 12 prized overseas ”assets” were killed.
—-From a review by Sam Tanehaus of Secrecy: The American Experience, by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Oct. 14, 1998.
Laurel says
You’d think those two (apparently expendable) men could have been rescued (according to law) by our aircraft carrier already out there.
No witnesses, or evidence, to explain who they were, and what they were doing.
The corruption is blatant.
Sherry says
Couldn’t agree more Laurel!
Cue the Maga excuse makers with “TDS”= “trump DEVOTION Syndrome”!
Sherry says
Hello Laurel. . . You’re going to love the latest from Robert Reich:
Friends,
The most dangerous corporation in America is one you may not have heard of.
It’s called Palantir Technologies, a Silicon Valley tech company that may put your most basic freedoms at risk.
Palantir gets its name from a device used in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, in which a “palantir” is a seeing stone — something like a crystal ball — that can be used to spy on people and distort the truth. During the War of the Ring, a palantir falls under the control of the evil Sauron, who uses it to manipulate and deceive.
Palantir — co-founded by far-right billionaire Peter Thiel and its current CEO Alex Karp — bears a striking similarity.
It sells AI-based data platforms that let their clients, including governments, militaries, and law enforcement agencies, quickly process and analyze massive amounts of your personal data.
Whether it’s social media profiles, bank account records, tax history, medical history, or driving records, the tools that Palantir sells are used to help clients identify and monitor individuals — like you.
Why should this matter to you? Billions of your tax dollars are going to Palantir, and what Palantir is working on could be used against you.
As Palantir’s Karp says: “Palantir is here to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world and, when it’s necessary, to scare enemies and on occasion kill them.”
Early in his current term, Trump signed an executive order requiring government agencies to consolidate all of their information about you into one giant database — something that has never been done before. To help process this massive amount of information, Trump chose Palantir.
Trump claims this is about “efficiency.” But as one Silicon Valley investor described it, Palantir is “building the infrastructure of the police state.”
Data privacy experts warn that when government data is pooled together, it can be used by a tyrant to intimidate or silence opposition. The possibilities for abuse are huge. One of Palantir’s major projects is a new immigrant surveillance system for ICE’s deportations.
We’ve already seen Trump target people or organizations he considers enemies. Imagine if he could punish or deny services to individual Americans based on their political affiliation, whether they’ve attended a protest, or even posted an unflattering picture of him online.
Palantir could be giving Trump the power to do just this.
Palantir co-founder and Trump ally Peter Thiel has made no secret of his disdain for democracy, writing “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
But when he speaks of “freedom,” he isn’t thinking about you. To Thiel, “freedom” means that he and his fellow tech oligarchs get to do what they want, without consequences, while the rest of us live in an authoritarian police state.
It’s a match made in Mordor — Trump gets the infrastructure to go after his enemies. Thiel gets to end American democracy.
The danger of Palantir’s AI-powered super database on all Americans is amplified by the vast wealth and power of those associated with it, and their apparent disdain for democratic institutions.
To protect democracy and our individual freedoms, we need to elect leaders who will defend the public from corporations like Palantir — not partner with them.
Tolkien’s palantir fell under the control of Sauron. Thiel’s Palantir is falling under the control of Trump.
Laurel says
Sherry: And who is Peter Thiel’s protégé? Vance, our Vice President. Vance is Thiel’s boy, and introduced him to Trump. The pieces of the Project 2025 are coming together, the plan that Trump said he knew nothing about, with the blessings of, at least, half our politicians! Definitely, with the blessings of our President, and sadly, many of our fellow American citizens who cannot see, or will not see, what is happening.
If you recall, Trump wanted all our information on who we all voted for, supposedly to make sure there was no “fraud.” The DOGE boys collected unknown amounts of data on all us citizens. The fraud is happening right before our eyes, and little is being done to stop it.
As of 10:16 am, today, December 3rd, Palantir is trading at $171.90 USD per share. It started as a stock trading at under $10, but continues to climb. The major investor is the U.S. Government. Can you imagine? We are literally investing in our own democratic demise. Anyone who has this stock, in my opinion, should sell it now.
Trump said “You won’t have to vote anymore.”
Ray W. says
According to the Wall Street Journal, there exists a Jacksonville airport-based aircraft manufacturing concern; its business model is to grab a share of the $43 billion and growing annual market of moving wealthy people around the world via business jet-class aircraft.
Said Paul Touw, CEO of Otto Aerospace:
“Everybody’s running around all excited about Firefly and Space X and Rocket Lab. … The market for moving wealthy people around the world every day is actually much bigger than the market for moving stuff into space.”
Business jet-class aircraft are smaller in seat capacity than regional-class aircraft, a different class of aircraft manufacture that Flagler County recently courted.
Thus far, Otto Aerospace, per the story, has raised $250 million from private investors, plus $515 million from state funds as an “incentive package”. It has one full-sized mock-up aircraft, but no flyable prototype.
The impetus for the story appears to be Flexjet’s decision to place an order for 300 of Otto Aerospace’s Phantom 3500 aircraft that could, when delivered, provide approximately $5.85 billion in market value to Flexjet, based on the company’s current pricing for its own business model of leasing or selling fractional shares of its fleet of planes to individuals and Fortune 500 companies. The monetary value of the 300-aircraft purchase deal to Otto Aerospace was not disclosed to the reporter.
Flexjet already possesses 340 business-class aircraft; it wishes to grow the fleet to better cater to luxury clientele who want to fly privately to attend, in the reporter’s words, “invite-only NAPA Valley wine tastings and philanthropic events.”
Flexjet, itself, just raised $800 million in investment funding from private-equity firm L Catterton.
So what sets Otto Aerospace apart from other business class jetmakers?
The Phantom 3500 lacks traditional windows that create aerodynamic drag during flight. From external “high-resolution” cameras, interior screens called “virtual windows” display a “virtual view of the outdoors”, a panoramic view that CEO Touw calls “supernatural vision.”
Described CEO Touw to the reporter:
“You no longer have to lean over and look out the window. … You could sit in our seat and look at the entire world around you … it is surreal.”
According to CEO Touw, the windowless aircraft exterior both saves weight and cuts fuel costs. His company’s claim is that Phantom 3500 aerodynamic values will provide 60% savings in fuel costs compared to current business class jets.
In the reporter’s view, the Phantom 3500 could result in private flights cheaper in cost per seat than current prices for airline business-class seats.
Otto Aerospace’s long-term business model is to move from business jet-class manufacture into the regional-class aircraft marketplace. Its shorter-term model is to begin delivery of its Phantom 3500 business-class jets to Flexjet and other customers by 2030.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Innovation paces at a scale beyond wonder. The world seeks out ever more efficient technologies. A nation populated with many of the greatest universities in the world continually graduates innovators who compete with the best the rest of the world has on offer. No one person can fix all of America’s ills or drive all of America’s advantages; it takes a village.
Sherry says
trump administration childishness never ends! This from Politico:
Global pop star Sabrina Carpenter may be “Man’s Best Friend” — but not Donald Trump’s, becoming the latest celebrity to condemn the president’s use of her music.
In response to a video posted by the White House using one of her songs, the “Espresso” singer replied Tuesday that “this video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
The video of agents arresting individuals — an apparent part of Trump’s immigration crackdown — is overlaid with Carpenter’s song “Juno.” The White House’s caption reads, “Have you tried this one?” in reference to one of the lyrics.
In a statement, the White House continued to reference Carpenter’s music.
“Here’s a Short n’ Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: we won’t apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country. Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, referencing Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet” album and “Manchild” song.
Carpenter is the latest in a long line of musicians condemning Trump and demanding that he stop using their songs, dating back to his 2016 campaign.
In 2024, Beyoncé threatened a cease and desist order to the Trump campaign after it used her song “Freedom” in a video. That song later became former Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign song.
Swedish band ABBA, rock band Foo Fighters and singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins have also demanded the president stop using their music at rallies and in videos over the years.
PhD in collapse says
The pedo king committed war crimes and raped the constitution. I for one don’t support the fascists oligarchy and know this game is over . “ we the people” lost miserably. Why not go radical in helping people instead of attacking them! the guardians of pedophillia (gop) must be removed and jailed! If any hope remains.
Ray W. says
UPI News reports that the Uruguayan government recently authorized seismic study of its “deep-sea” region for the possible presence of exploitable crude oil reserves.
Apache, Petroleum Geo-Services, Compagnie Generale de Geophysique and Searcher received work orders to use air guns that pulse high-intensity sound at 250 decibels to create seafloor images. These four companies intend to partner with several other major oil exploration companies. In a related move, Uruguay’s Environment Ministry barred seismic activity where marine life is detected within 3,300 feet of the air guns.
Apache already plans to drill an exploratory well 124 miles offshore in waters greater than 6,560 feet in depth. An Argentine partner company, YPF, expressed optimism when “comparing the potential to recent discoveries off the coast of Namibia.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Technological breakthroughs abound in the energy industry. Whether the breakthroughs qualify as improvements depends on perspective.
I continually assert that a clean energy future beckons, but the fact cannot be ignored that the world’s populace demands an ever increasing production of energy to meet their perceived needs. So long as seven billion people want to consume energy in whatever form the way the most prosperous one billion people do, energy demand is going to continue to rise. If one billion people have climate-controlled homes, personal transport and the many electronic devices that define one possible electronic future, many of most of the other seven billion people are going to want those things, too.
Solar and wind and EV sectors are growing faster than the rise in demand for energy, but that doesn’t mean solar and wind have reached a threshold that tips the world into reduction of reliance on fossil fuels for energy generation.
Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon blowout, BP announced Project 20K, an engineering effort to develop equipment sufficient to safely drill at depths of 20,000 psi of water pressure. Actual exploration at the deep sea levels possible from use of the new equipment began in the early 2020’s, meaning that any nation with a deep sea offshore region could then begin to consider whether to explore for the presence of oil what previously could not have been explored.
Since availability of Project 20K equipment, Guyana, Suriname, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina have found or are beginning the effort to find offshore oil. Nations all over the world are doing the same.
Could it happen at some time in the near future that so much deep sea oil is found in so many different regions of the world that OPEC’s grip on the international crude oil marketplace could be loosened, if not broken? Why would a refinery owner in New Zealand pay to transport crude oil all the way from Saudi Arabia if India or Pakistan or the Philippines were to become net crude oil exporters?
During the Shale Oil revolution, America became a net energy exporter when considering exports of electricity to Canada and Mexico and exports of natural gas and exports of crude oil all over the world outweighed imports of energy.
Its been about 70 years since we were a net crude oil exporter, and we are far from being one now, but innovation continues apace.
Who knows where the energy future will point? Much of the low hanging fruit in the Permian Basin has already been plucked. Exploration options across the globe have expanded. Some publications argue that the world is far underestimating future data center electricity demand.
Jim says
Just a reminder that we’ll have midterm elections next November and all of us get a chance to vote out our current do-nothing congress and put some folks in that will support the Constitution and put this administration under a microscope for all to see. Now, I know that our current “congressman”, Randy Fine is as disgusting a “human being” as could ever be imagined is virtually unbeatable in this MAGA district but even he might be at risk if the Democrats put up a decent candidate. Probably not but I won’t give up hope!
Trump and his team have done a masterful job of making a joke of “affordability”, of our relationships with our allies, of our failure to support Ukraine in their unjust war instigated by Russia (Trump’s boyfriend Putin has him over a barrel), has caused severe damage to our farmers and cattlemen, just to name a few “successes” of this administration.
At the same time, the corruption that is going on right in front of all of us is almost beyond belief. Trump and his family continue to line their pockets with riches through grift “like no one has seen before” (to quote the Chief Grifter).
And now we’re committing war crimes and murder for the whole world to see.
Remember this next November and, if enough people have a moral compass, even Randy Fine can be sent home!
Tony Mack says
Given a combat objective, Navy SEALS follow orders. Either Bradley was specifically ordered to “take no prisoners”, or he made a unilateral decision to eliminate those survivors. Either way, he screwed the pooch. Certainly, we don’t know all the circumstances at this point but a career Naval officer and a SEAL as well, would know the rules of engagement and he most certainly would know not to “eliminate” unarmed people clinging to life in the middle of the sea. The overriding question remaining to be determined is: are we at “war” with Venezuela or is this some concocted “police action” exposing the contorted logic of the Trump Administration? One final thought…President Truman had a sign on his desk that read — “The Buck Stops Here” because he understood that the Commander in Chief was the final and most responsible person in the chain of command. Trump, knowing of his previous rantings, most likely would have a sign that says — “The Buck Stops Over There” because the only place Trump wants the “Bucks” to stop are the ones that go into his pockets…
BillC says
Spokesmodel Hegseth thinks he’s James Bond.
Ray W. says
Norway has a western coastal road from Trondheim in the north to Kristiansand in the south of some 680 miles in distance; it is called the E39 highway. To drive the complete distance, seven of many fjords must be crossed by ferry.
Norway has set out to build tunnels under those fjords by 2050 to eliminate the ferry crossings, a project that will cut total travel time by half.
The first and longest and deepest of these seven tunnels should be finished by 2033.
This first project, connecting Stavanger to Bergen, Norway’s second and fourth most populated cities, consists of two two-lane tunnels totaling 17 miles in length at a maximum depth of 1,286 feet below sea level. A side tunnel will connect to a small island named Kvitsoy, Norway’s smallest municipality.
With a tunnel of this length, ventilation will be key. The project uses what is called “a longitudinal ventilation system”, a system reliant on “jet fans to create airflow – complemented by shaft ventilation extending to Kvitsoy.”
On a point related to challenges in tunnel ventilation, Reuters and other sources report that of the nearly 20,000 new personal vehicles sold in Norway in November, 97.6% of them were classified as fully electric vehicles. Norway, a nation that set out long ago to adopt 100% electric personal vehicle transport, is maturing into that vision.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Two things.
First, from what I have come to understand, in the mid-60’s, Norway, a nation of slightly fewer than six million people, first leased to oil and natural gas extraction companies sovereign seafloor for exploitation. But Norway took a different approach than America took. Norway leased the seafloor at current market value, not the low values the U.S. government gets from its oil and natural gas leases on public lands.
After a few years, the Norwegian government established it’s old-age pension fund, now worth an estimated $1.5 trillion in value, a fund managed separately from its larger “sovereign wealth fund.” The sovereign wealth fund was established in 1990 and first funded in 1996. Both funds are completely independent from government oversight. This second fund is valued at approximately $2.1 trillion today.
A perhaps unique aspect of these two funds is that zero money is permitted to be invested in Norwegian stocks or bonds, in order to avoid the “Dutch disease”, caused when a nation’s resource wealth invested in the nation’s economy inflates the local currency and makes it harder for other national industries to compete.
The Norwegian government, over the decades, invested in hydro-power projects up and down its western coast to the extent that dams provide nearly all of Norway’s electricity needs, with any excess being sold into the European electricity grid. Profits from these infrastructure investments go to local municipalities.
A study by Elsevier’s Journal of Public Economics, published in May 2022, reflected a finding that despite massive local government revenue payments, there was zero evidence that Norwegian municipal mayors diverted public funds to their own use.
Here is the abstract from the study:
“Economic theory and evidence suggest that political leaders take advantage of government revenue windfalls – particularly from natural resource exploitation – to enrich themselves. We revisit this hypothesis by combining information on massive local government hydropower and petroleum revenues in Norway with five decades of registry data on individual mayors’ earnings and wealth. We find that, while the resource expansions massively boost local government revenues and spending, there is no evidence that mayors exploit the windfalls to enrich themselves. We attribute our precisely estimated zero-finding to characteristics of the Norwegian institutional and informational environment. First, we show that the revenue windfalls induce citizens to seek political information and raise their rates of electoral participation. Second, in the early sample period when local newspapers were more important, mayors’ wage responses were negatively related to newspaper coverage. In sum, our results suggest that voter information is a key disciplining accountability mechanism, potentially explaining our zero-rent result.” Political rent, in this context, means graft.
A total of $3.6 trillion divided by nearly 6 million means that Norway has under control independent of government oversight more than $600,000 per resident, all because Norway had the vision to look after the best interests of its people rather than to look after the best interests of crude oil and natural gas extractors.
Second, I checked Chinese New Energy Vehicle (NEV) sales in the month of November: 1,495,969 units.
BYD led all Chinese NEV makers with 474,921 vehicles sold in November. For the year with one month to go, BYD has sold 4,182,038 NEV’s, about as many as it sold during all of last year when it overtook Ford as the world’s fourth-largest automaker, with 916,764 cars and light trucks sold overseas through the year’s first eleven months.
Is it reasonable to make the following arguments?
Should FlaglerLive continue to point out to its readers evidence suggestive of local political figures attempting to enrich themselves at the public trough?
Can it be argued that for decades, the U.S. government has supported the fossil-fuel industry to the tune of some $20 billion per year and has little to show for it?
Can it be argued that for decades, Norway has leased its sea floor resources to energy extraction companies at fair market value and kept the money away from any government control to the benefit of its people and has much to show for it?
Can it be argued that for seventeen years, the Chinese government has supported its fledgling NEV car and light truck sector to the tune of some $15 billion per year, according to a Center for Strategic & International Studies paper, and has much to look forward to?
Yes, I know of the shortcomings of Wikipedia, but according to a site on car production in China, in 1985, Chinese industry made 5,200 cars. Forty years later, the sector will see production likely passing the 31 million units mark, with the NEV sector likely crossing the 50% threshold.
Ray W. says
With a number of FlaglerLive commenters stirred by FP&L asking for so much more money from Florida’s regulatory oversight commission, I decided to check on current natural gas prices across the country.
I found a Trading Economics publication, complete with up-to-date prices for natural gas at the wellhead: $4.8 MMBtu at the start of December. For the first eleven months of the year, prices fluctuated wildly, from a low of $2.97 per MMBtu on August 20th to what it is today.
Here is the text accompanying the graph:
“US natural gas futures climbed above $4.8MMBtu at the start of December, the highest in three years, and extending a more than 15% gain for November. Cold weather continues to boost demand, with intense cold expected across the Northeast and Great Lakes from December 3-7. Forecasts also point to below-normal temperatures in these regions in the weeks ahead. Record LNG exports have added further upward pressure, with US shipments reaching 10.7 million tons in November, a 40% increase from a year earlier. Meanwhile, EIA data showed that energy firms withdrew 11 billion cubic feet of gas from storage in the week ending November 21, the second straight weekly draw, highlighting tightening supply-demand fundamentals as December begins.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
FlaglerLive readers should not forget that FP&L used to advertise that its electricity prices were 30% lower than the national average. But those were times when there was a glut of natural gas due to a lack of LNG export capacity and that was when coal was still somewhat widely used to generate electricity. At that time, it was easy for FP&L to charge 30% less than the cost charged for utilities reliant on coal.
Now that so many expensive and wasteful coal plants have been shut down and now that so much LNG export capacity has been added, starting with the two Obama administrations and continuing through both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, and now into the second Trump administration, it seems that natural gas has lost much of its former economic advantage.
With solar and wind, combined with battery backup, increasingly undercutting natural gas’s economic status, the best natural gas can hope for is for prices at the wellhead to remain low, something unlikely to happen as more and more LNG export plants become operational. But with natural gas at a three-year high and more liquefaction plants scheduled to open next year, low natural gas prices seem ephemeral.
What price FP&L pays for the natural gas it needs directly impacts your home and business electric bills. The EIA projects that natural gas prices will continue to rise. If so, so too will our electric bills.