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Weather: A 30 percent chance of showers before 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 68. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 37.
- 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:
The Cold-Weather Shelter known as the Sheltering Tree will open tonight: The shelter opens at Church on the Rock at 2200 North State Street in Bunnell as the overnight temperature is expected to fall to 40 or below. It will open from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. The shelter is open to the homeless and to the nearly-homeless: anyone who is struggling to pay a utility bill or lacks heat or shelter and needs a safe, secure place for the night. The shelter will serve dinner and breakfast. Call 386-437-3258, extension 105 for more information. Flagler County Transportation offers free bus rides from pick up points in the county, starting at 3 p.m., at the following locations and times:
- Dollar General at Publix Town Center, 3:30 p.m.
- Near the McDonald’s at Old Kings Road South and State Road 100, 4 p.m.
- Dollar Tree by Carrabba’s and Walmart, 4:30 p.m.
- Palm Coast Main Branch Library, 4:45 p.m.
Also: - Dollar General at County Road 305 and Canal Avenue in Daytona North, 4 p.m.
- Bunnell Free Clinic, 4:30 p.m.
- First United Methodist Church in Bunnell, 4:30 p.m.
The shelter is run by volunteers of the Sheltering Tree, a non-profit under the umbrella of the Flagler County Family Assistance Center, is a non-denominational civic organization. The Sheltering Tree is in need of donations. See the most needed items here, and to contribute cash, donate here or go to the Donate button at this page.
Palm Coast Charter Review Committee Meeting: The city’s committee, appointed by the City Council to propose revisions to the city charter, meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 160 Lake Ave. The committee is made up of Patrick Miller, Ramon Marrero, Perry Mitrano, Michael Martin and Donald O’Brien. The meeting is moderated by Georgette Dumont, an independent moderator and the Director of the Master of Public Administration program at the University of North Florida. The meeting is open to the public and includes a public-comment segment.
Temple Beth Shalom Blessing of the Pets: Temple Beth Shalom’s always popular “Blessing of the Pets” and pet fair is scheduled for Jan 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 40 Wellington Drive in Palm Coast. It’s free. Bring your furry, scaly, feathered and other animal friends for a non-sectarian blessing from our rabbi. All the cool puppies and kitties will be there. Also, get to visit with the Sheriff’s horses and K-9s. It’s non-denominational and free of charge. Also on hand will be adoptable pets from Community Cats and Flagler Humane Society as well as pet groomer, boarder, trainer, and boutique with items for sale.
The Bunnell City Commission meets at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 2400 Commerce Parkway, Bunnell. To access meeting agendas, materials and minutes, go here.
Nar-Anon Family Groups offers hope and help for families and friends of addicts through a 12-step program, 6 p.m. at St. Mark by the Sea Lutheran Church, 303 Palm Coast Pkwy NE, Palm Coast, Fellowship Hall Entrance. See the website, www.nar-anon.org, or call (800) 477-6291. Find virtual meetings here.
Storytime: In my Jules Vernian quest through the wonders of the short story I read one from 1612 by François du Souhait, “A Comical Story,” that gathers about nine people–a merchant, a student, a police officer, a bourgeois, and so on, along with wives, mistresses and other riffraff as they wait for a play to begin. To pass the time, the nine challenge each other, Decameron-like, each to tell a funny story. The student among them tells the one about the traveling bourgeois-farmer. Arriving in Brussels too late, the bourgeois found the city’s gates closed. He was traveling with his wife. They find an inn outside the city limits, where another guest was also staying. During the night the wife gets up to attend to her “needs,” and on the way back falls into the guest’s bed by alleged mistake. The two happily fornicate to their other needs’ delights until at morning the bourgeois finds them in flagrante and so on. His wife professes herself to be innocent but for an innocent mistake. He demands redress from the innkeeper for enabling such a mistake under his roof. The innkeeper tells him to get lost. The bourgeois sues, loses, and by then his wife has decided to turn her “mistake” into a fact of life: she and the guest embrace their adultery. The bourgeois is so ridiculed in Brussels that he escapes to Milan where, after learning of his wife’s death, he remarries and lives happily, at least until he dies. Little did he know that his greatest humiliation was yet ahead. His new wife grieves for him all the way to the cemetery. There, an archer is guarding the corpse of a bandit who’d been put to torture for his crime, and killed. The archer was warned to guard the body until morning–why, to what end, why hasn’t the bandit’s body been buried in the convenient cemetery: we are not to know and we are not to ask, the assumed answers having been lost in the four centuries’ intervening dark matter. If the archer were to lose the body, he was warned, he would be condemned in place of the corpse. He notices the widow crying and wailing her love to her defunct. He approaches her. They talk. They get horny. They irrigate the grave with their own delights, cuckolding the bourgeois yet again, and of course by the time they’re done, the bandit’s corpse has disappeared. The archer, now bowed, panics. Fear not, his concubine tells him: we’ll disinter my husband and replace your corpse. But the bandit was tortured and disfigured, the archer pleads. Fear not, she tells him, suggesting the solution. And so she gets to work–the archer “has more humanity than she does,” we read, so he stands by–disinterring the bourgeois, then cutting off his ears and–phallic wink and nudge–and his nose, and putting him at the gibbet in place of the bandit. “Thus this poor bourgeois was tormented by his scourges, I mean his wives, during his life, and after his death,” the story concludes, “which is why I remain free and have no desire to become a martyr as soon as I become a husband. Besides, I am of the opinion that, as long as other men’s wives are alive, I should not take one for myself.”
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.
April 2026
Flagler Woman’s Club Charity Golf Tournament
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
Dead Men Tell No Tales…. Or Do They? Murder Mystery Dinner Show
“The Sound of Music,” at Athens Theatre
‘Line’ and ‘All In the Timing’ At City Rep Theatre
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
Dead Men Tell No Tales…. Or Do They? Murder Mystery Dinner Show
“The Sound of Music,” at Athens Theatre
Al-Anon Family Groups
‘Line’ and ‘All In the Timing’ At City Rep Theatre
For the full calendar, go here.
A citizen of Brussels, returning from his farms, was unable to reach the city because a fortified garrison town like that one closes early. Consequently, he sought lodging at Notre-Dame-au-Rouge, three leagues from the city. He had difficulty finding a room because the egg merchants and market-goers were due to arrive that evening to ensure they reached Brussels early the next morning. After being refused at three or four inns, they finally asked for lodging at the Silver Cross, where they met the same resistance as in the other taverns. However—whether due to prior acquaintance or because destiny willed it so—they were put up on the condition that they accept this courtesy from an egg merchant who, being a regular guest on that specific day, had reserved his room. This egg merchant arrived later than usual. The citizen went to bed as soon as he had finished supper, and the merchant did the same in his turn. Around midnight, the citizen’s wife went to attend to her needs and, returning by feel in the dark, she got into the bed of the merchant. He, being awake, made room for her—whether he believed she was the housemaid or was simply pleased by the good fortune that came to him while he slept. She was not there long before he judged that she was more inclined to laugh than to sleep, given the advances his touch provoked; these gestures were, perhaps, familiar to her from her husband at that same hour. He changed his tactics and, wishing to sow his neighbor’s field, he handled his flail to thresh that sheaf, making the fields bear fruit until the sixth harvest. When day broke, this woman—who could not complain of the merchant’s treatment without being ungrateful—began to cry out that she was a lost woman. The husband woke up and, seeing her alone in another bed (for the merchant had left at daybreak to be there for the opening of the city gates), asked her what was the matter. She threw herself from the bed and begged his pardon for having been so mistaken. Her husband insisted on knowing the offense before granting absolution. She gave him an account of everything that had happened, even declaring the secret details of their encounter. He flew into such a fury that, had he been Spanish, he would not have left a soul in the city—unless they were even more wicked than he.
–From Du Souhait’s Comical Stories (1612).
Laurel says
USS Bonespurs headed for the crime ridden State of Maine.
Please, someone Baker Act this guy!
Republican Dave says
Democrats, get ready to shoot yourselves in the foot again. A large portion of the Republicans do not like what is going on with ICE. As a Republican, I can tell you, that as soon as the Democrats start campaigning to de-fund ICE, the Republicans will dig in to vote for Trump’s people again. The Democrats lost on the issue of border control, and it will lose on it again.
Jim says
Good to know that even when Republicans know their leaders are doing un-American (actually in-human) things, if the opposition party points this out, the primary action is to band together and vote for more of the same.
By the way, the “issue of border control” has absolutely nothing to do with a militant federal police agency beating and killing American citizens. Or is the Republican position that we can accept a little “collateral damage” to get every last illegal out of this country?
Skibum says
Republican Dave… excuse me for saying the obvious, but it sounds like you’re talking out of both sides of your mouth. You and “a large portion of the Republicans” do not like what is going on with ICE, but at the same time if Democrats dare to do anything about it, you and other Republicans will just stand there mute and not only approve the ongoing, unethical, brutal ICE surges but you will also vote for these extremist idiots and their policies once again???
Is that what I am hearing, because I’m just shaking my head in shock and confusion! So… you’re NOT a maga supporting extremist… no, wait a minute… you ARE, or maybe MIGHT be, or are WILLING to be, but it doesn’t matter what maga extremists do, I guess, to include murdering American citizens who are lawfully protesting. Your allegiance only depends on Democrats??? Oh hell, you completely lost me now… good grief!
Republican Dave says
Skibum, both you and Jim totally missed the point. Both of you quickly jumped to conclusions. I didn’t say I was voting this way again, I did not vote for Trump, either time. What I was saying was that the Democrats keep fussing over the same stuff, instead of what the people really want and need, and it doesn’t work for them. Keep it up, and get the same results. If they vote to de-fund ICE, the Republicans, who are unhappy with the administration right now, will turn back and dig in.
Sherry says
OK Republican Dave. . . exactly what “should” the Democrats in Congress do to push back on the tragedies created by ICE?
They are receiving ZERO cooperation from their Republican counterparts in trying any kind of oversight of the Executive branch, as provided in our constitution. Their only leverage is the power of the purse. Should they just continue to “do nothing” like the Republicans and just blindingly “trust” that somehow Trump will magically come to his senses?
Laurel says
Yeah, wow, y’all piled a lot on Republican Dave!
Now I know what it feels like to be a Republican on this site.
I think what he was trying to tell y’all is the Trump people throw out “woke” and “DEI” in terms that are not really that important to the general public, who are hurting, and/or upset right now. You know, there are two sides of the isle, and that “other” does not consist of only the regular commenters you see here.
The right wing politicians start bashing trans people, which is very wrong, but the vast majority of people cannot relate. They are not overly concerned about a tiny portion of the population, when they, themselves, are living paycheck to paycheck. But, the Democrats jump all over it. Then, they jump all over the next thing the far right spits out, again, missing what most people are concerned about, such as healthcare. Trumplicans keep spitting and Democrats keep chasing, and we lose.
Republican politicians defer, and the Democrats chase like clockwork. Maybe looks a little manipulative?
Don’t lump everyone together. Stop and listen when “confused.”
Laurel says
Skibum: I am not a Republican, a Democrat or a Christian. I belong to no tribe, thank goodness. This allows me to listen, and see, beyond any tribe. You, Sherry and to a certain degree, Jim, swooped down on a person trying to tell you something, like a flock of seagulls on a french fry.
You may not remember, I don’t expect you to, that I have many times written here how Democrats shoot themselves in the foot. In fact, I have written that I’m surprised that they have any feet left! It’s what they do. So, since y’all have all the answers, enjoy, but get some steel toed shoes!
Ray W. says
Out of curiosity driven by a story about the relative value of the dollar falling against a “basket” of six foreign currencies, i.e., Japan, Canada, EU, Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, I looked up on the yahoo!finance site how the dollar performed over the year before President Trump took office in 2025 and how it performed the year after.
At market close on January 22, 2024, the dollar was comparatively strong against the basket of currencies: 103.33.
At market close on January 21, 2025, the dollar was comparatively stronger against the basket of currencies: 108.08.
Right now, the dollar, compared to the basket of currencies, is at 96.97. On January 20, 2026, the dollar was at 98.64.
According to a recent Newsweek article, investors view Greenland as a major event and that a perception of policy instability is prompting an investor move including foreign central banks’ move away from the dollar.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Investor perceptions notoriously fluctuate. But it is no secret that investors move money in a way they believe protects their perceived best interests.
Yes, the level of the American federal debt has its own impact on investor perceptions. The struggle over Federal Reserve independence has a different effect on investor perceptions.
Who knows what the comparative value of the dollar will be in a week, a month, a quarter, or a year?
Ray W. says
Bloomberg reports that an investment team at Norway’s $2.1 trillion sovereign wealth fund is reconsidering its investment policy parameters in light of recent perceptions of international political turmoil. From other news sources, roughly $1 trillion of the fund’s value is placed in US equities.
In a statement, the fund’s board wrote:
“The political risk to which the fund’s investments are exposed abroad are increasing. … The fund may ultimately be subject to increased taxation, regulatory intervention and even confiscation.” According to the board, it is becoming difficult to see “clarity about who is, and more importantly will remain, one’s friends.”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
As foundation for this comment, free trade agreements need to be understood as differing from trade deals or pacts.
During his first term in office, President Trump negotiated what’s referred to as the USMCA. The USMCA is what is known as a free trade agreement. Tens of thousands of different goods and services might come under the umbrella of the USMCA.
Canada recently announced a trade deal, not a free trade agreement, with China, by which deal 49,000 Chinese EVs can enter Canada per year and Canadian canola oil and beef can enter China.
Nonetheless, President Trump threatened Canada with new 100% tariffs, saying Canada can’t just be a “drop off” port for Chinese goods.
Canada then announced its plan to meet withIndia’s trade officials.
Said Canada’s Foreign Minister, Anita Anand, to a Bloomberg reporter:
“We need to protect and empower the Canadian economy and trade diversification is fundamental to that. That is why we went to China, that’s why we will be going to India and that is why we won’t put all of our eggs in one basket.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I accept the premise that a comprehensive free trade agreement can differ from a far more limited trade deal.
Maybe Trump is right in claiming that importing no more than 49,000 Chinese EVs per year into a nation of some 40 million people can lead to Canada becoming a “drop off” port into an American vehicle marketplace that saw over 16 million new cars and light trucks sold in 2025.
Then again, maybe Trump is wrong. Perhaps the conclusion can be supported that he is simply exaggerating in hopes that the innumerate among us will fall for his exaggeration. Such a strategy of exaggeration has worked for him in the past.
This was common knowledge in motorcycle circles decades ago.
For years, Harley held its annual dealer show in Las Vegas. Factory output was then at maximum capacity. Dealers attending the show placed orders for different models for the coming year. Harley did not then allow dealer markups above MSRP on new vehicle sales. Canadian dealers ordered as many of the popular models as they could. When the motorcycles arrived in Canadian dealer showrooms, people would buy the Canadian models at MSRP and bring them across the border. Many of these motorcycles would find their way to Florida dealerships. Now used, the Florida dealers could sell them at prices significantly above MSRP.
I looked at it as innovative capitalism in action. Maybe I was wrong.
Ray W. says
The New York Post reports that winter season vacation bookings by Canadian travelers are down 41%. And, whenever President Trump disparages Canada, bookings begin to drop within 48 hours. 78% of Canadian-owned travel agencies say that gross bookings to the United States are down.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I have not changed my position that if one treats an entire populace like shit, they tend to remember it.
Back to the story.
Vermont’s Jay Peak ski resort, located mere miles from the border with Canada, reports season pass renewals by Canadians are down 35%.
Unlike the national figure of 3% tourism GDP, Vermont relies on tourism for 9% of its total GDP. State tax revenue derived from tourism is down $75 million.
Said Tom Foley, director of business intelligence for Inntopia, to the reporter:
“Canadians are affronted by what feels like a betrayal of a long-time friend. … A level of trust has been broken that is going to be incredibly difficult, and may be generational, to recover. … I don’t think that in general US travel should be looking for a recovery from the Canadian market anytime soon.”
Ray W. says
After President Trump threatened the EU last week with an additional across-the-board 10% tariffs if he didn’t get what he wanted from Greenland, VW’s CEO, Oliver Blume, announced that Audi was dropping plans to build a manufacturing factory in the US, claiming it was not “financially feasible” to build here.
Of all of Audi models sold here, only the Q5 is assembled in Mexico; the rest are built in Europe. Audi sells some 200,000 vehicles each year in America.
Mr. Blume added that VW, in the short-term, plans to focus on cutting costs. Long-term, VW would await more “reliable business conditions.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
How many times have American tariff threats changed over the past 12 months? What cautious business would ever risk billions of dollars if the economics change with every whim and caprice and glimpse of eye-catching glitter?
Ray W. says
CNBC reports that approximately 10% of all US natural gas production has been temporarily curtailed by winter storm Fern’s freezing temperatures.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
That 10% natural gas production impingement due to frozen pipes at the wellhead reported a few days ago is now reported to be a 15% impingement. Winter storm Fern has passed but a second Arctic blast has settled in. Until the jet stream returns north, the cold may linger.
Nearly one-sixth of the nation’s natural gas supply cannot flow from wells because regulators did not require weatherizing at time of construction. Somehow, since the 1970s, Alaskan natural gas has flowed year-round to Alaskan customers, but Texas natural gas supplies freeze up over and over again.
Let’s think this through. American natural gas storage facilities hold only so much reserve stored gas. Should the freeze last too long, American gas-fired power plants may begin to shut down as reserves dwindle. This happened to the Texas grid years before winter storm Uri struck in 2021 and Texas regulators did nothing in the interim despite thousands of new gas wells being drilled. The entire Texas grid collapsed in one night in 2021 when winter storm URI struck Texas, in large part because power plants ran out of natural gas. In 2026, five years after Uri, and the wellheads are still freezing over.
Can it be correctly argued that over about 15 years, Texas regulators have had two warnings and they have done far too little to meet the challenge?
On average, according to EIA projections, American gas production will be 107 billion cubic feet per day this year. At $3.50 per cubic foot, which is a million BTUs of energy, nearly $400 million passes hands each day. Lose 15% for an appreciable term and losses begin to add up. But what happens if gas prices spike upwards during an extended outage? FP&L relies heavily on natural gas. Every FlaglerLive reader knows that FP&L asks regulatory approval of higher customer rates when natural gas prices spike for long enough.
Reports out of Europe have natural gas importers scrambling to buy extra natural gas cargoes in anticipation of US LNG exports dropping. An LNG tanker filled with Australian gas has already been rerouted to Europe. Other reroutings are expected.
This is for the gullibly stupid commenters who roam among us shouting that renewables are intermittent and therefore too unreliable
Nearly all energy production sources are intermittent.
Drought? Hydropower output drops.
Twice per year, every natural gas plant in the country, not counting the times when they blow up or flood or break due to metal fatigue, shuts down for scheduled maintenance.
My SIL spent his early years with Mitsubishi on field engineering teams working from Canada to Argentina on natural gas turbines.
Outages can last from weeks to months. Once, after a long outage at a Mexican plant, when the repaired turbine fired up, sensors detected an imbalance. On stripping down the turbine, one of the hollow blades was found with peso coins inside. The theory was that a subcontractor sabotaged the repair in order to stay onsite.
Another time, during a shift change when the engineers were discussing plans, a companion turbine blew up, killing a number of other workers.
Refineries shut down twice per year for scheduled maintenance. Refineries repeatedly blow up. Just a few years ago, an Indiana refinery blew up, necessitating a month long repair. Regional gas prices spiked.
Coal-fired plants shut down for maintenance. They too blow up on occasion. “Mill puffs” occur when coal dust explodes. Boilers and pipes rupture. Metal fatigue is the main reason coal-fired plants operate only for so many years.
American grids keep a 15% redundancy reserve to keep up whenever the most efficient power plants go offline. A solar farm providing little power at night doesn’t mean shit to our grids, except to the gullibly stupid, who fall for political lies day after day.
Right now, a number of our few remaining coal-fired power plants sit idle year-round, waiting to fire up only during peak winter and summer demand cycles. They are called “peaker” plants for a reason.
Ringtone now, the oldest and least efficient of our many CCNG plants sit idle year-round, waiting to fire up first, before the coal-fired plants are fired up, because these are the second most costly plants in our grids. These, too, are called peaker plants.
For about five years, I have commented on energy issues because such issues are the sources of some of the biggest lies spread by the professional liars who sit atop on of our two political parties. Coal is not king, it hasn’t been king for about twenty years.
Did Biden cause gasoline prices to rise after OPEC voted to cut oil production in 2021? The professional liars said yes. The gullibly stupid lie launderers said yes. The truth was no. OPEC caused the initial rise.
When Russia invaded the Ukraine, gasoline prices rose again. The professional liars lied again. The gullibly stupid laundered the lies again.
Every FlaglerLive reader ought to know by now that no one should take at face value anything submitted by certain commenters. These commenters have spent years undermining their credibility by their inveterate lie laundering.
Ray W. says
Barchart reports that values for naturalgas futures dropped slightly yesterday compared to Monday’s “3.25-year” high.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
Reuters reports that after years of on-and-off negotiations, 10 Northern European nations met at a “North Sea Summit” on Monday to sign an agreement to jointly develop a vast wind farm spread far across the North Sea, all connected by “bi-directional” undersea cables to supply 100 GW of electricity, enough to power 50 million homes.
Britain, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Norway comprise the signers.
In 2023, in response to Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, the nations pledged to develop 300 GW of wind energy, so this may be just the first of several similar projects.
The use of bi-directional cables will allow direction of electricity to wherever it can best be used.
Said Jordan Maye, an energy analyst, to the reporter:
“When it is windy in Germany, it may not be windy in the UK, so if Germany can’t use all the power, the UK can take some instead of wasting it.”
Why now, after so many years of indecision?
In the reporter’s words:
“US President Donald Trump’s transactional diplomacy and his pursuit of ‘energy dominance’ have sharpened European concerns about their heavy reliance on US liquefied natural gas (LNG), which replaced most of the volumes previously supplied by Russia.”
In other words, the goal of the wind farm agreement is to lessen exposure to political threat arising from reliance on foreign fossil fuels.
In 2025, American-sourced LNG provided 57% of the EU’s and Great Britain’s natural gas needs.
According to the reporter, the economic modeling of wind power are as follows:
“Offshore wind demands heavy upfront investment but tends to have lower long-term operating costs. Gas-fired plants, on the other hand, are cheaper to build but are also exposed to volatile global gas prices.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
When Russia invaded the Ukraine, many European nations found themselves too exposed to Russian energy leverage. So they spent billions to pivot away from Russia towards US LNG, only to suddenly find themselves too exposed to American energy leverage.
After years of dithering, wind power may now offer the best protection to 10 Northern European nations against energy threats from their former ally.
About a year ago, I commented that for some 80 years America proved itself an ally to the advanced democracies of the world, militarily, economically, and politically. In a few short weeks, I wrote, the Trump administration had transformed our government into a pack of street thugs.
Given what has happened over the ensuing year, was I wrong? Is the rule of law thriving in America?
Ray W. says
As operating costs rise and crude oil prices fall, the Houston Chronically reports that an Exxon subsidiary corporation plans to sell operations on the 168,000 acres it holds in the Eagle Ford shale basin in Texas. Some 1000 rigs extract oil and gas on the land.
Exxon will focus some of its future exploration attention on the offshore crude oil fields near Guyana, among other potential sites.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
It seems as if more and more American shale oil extractors are shifting efforts away from American shale fields to foreign shale rock formations or deep-sea pools of oil. Story after story report that the lowest hanging fruit in American shale rock formations has already been picked. Future oil extraction there is likely to be harder to find and less productive to extract.
Ray W. says
Barchart created a chart that tracks in real time the dollar’s comparative valuation against the standard basket of six foreign currencies. Between January 20th and January 25th, the dollar tanked from 99.10 to 97.17.
The real-time chart has caught on. Even Governor DeSantis chimed in with an “Ouch.”
A popular X contributor, @TheMaineWonk, wrote:
“Watching the dollar die in real time. Gee, whose policies of the last year are to blame for this?”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
Given the number of recent news articles about rare earth metals deposits in the Ukraine and Greenland, a new Morning Overview story may prove significant.
Apparently, that toxic sludge and “rust-colored” waste water left over in American retention ponds and adjoining creeks from burning coal to produce electricity contains measurable amounts of aluminum, iron, and rare earth metals. As I recall, from comments I posted some time ago about “flow” storage batteries, vanadium extracted from coal sludge and fly ash is an economically viable process, mainly from Russian power plants.
The issue is not whether the metals exist. Rather, the issue is whether they exist in concentrations sufficient to monetize extraction at scale from the waste material.
Researchers affiliated with West Virginia University and associated laboratories believe that a “huge trove” of as much as 11 million tons of rare earth metals may be recoverable from all over the country.
An as-yet unresolved question is who owns the sludge and fly-ash byproduct? The original land owner who leased the land? The former power plant operators? State or local governments? Water restoration groups that have been rehabilitating the ponds and soil?
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
Each year the Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes its Annual Energy Outlook.
From what I understand, every five years, the publication focuses on the comparative levelized cost of producing electricity from various sources, re: nuclear, geothermal, hydroelectric, natural gas, on- and off-shore wind, etc. For the first time, the EIA did not study coal costs in 2025, though no explanation for that decision was given.
In April 2025, the Annual Energy Outlook for 2026 was released. The name of the study is “Levelized Costs of New Generation Resources.”
Here is some of what I gleaned from the Outlook.
There are twenty-five electricity generating regions throughout the United States. Each of these regions has its own set of electricity generating costs for each type of electricity generation that is present in the region.
One cost assessment method is to equally average the twenty-five different sets of costs.
Another levelizing model is to weight the methodology to emphasize the lower cost values of those regions that are best suited for certain forms of electricity generation.
Building a dam in mountainous regions might provide hydro-electricity generation at a lower cost than might building a dam in a less hilly region. Building a hydroelectric dam in West Texas might be a waste of money. But building a solar farm in West Texas where land is cheap and sunlight plentiful might be more cost effective than building a solar farm in Alaska.
The agency uses a standardized economic model named “National Energy Modeling System.”
The parameters are straightforward. The model assumes the application for a permit in 2025 and the completion of the project in 2030. Land costs are considered, as are existing government subsidies. Anticipated fuel costs are factored, admitting the volatility of fossil fuel prices.
Each plant is expected to produce electricity for 30 years, a time long enough to provide a cost recovery system to amortize the construction costs. Thus, the study uses a “specified cost recovery period” of thirty-five years.
The agency studies hundreds of operating power plants all over the country to give legitimacy to the data used in the models.
Here are the averaged levelized costs of energy per megawatt (MW) produced, spread over 35 years:
Offshore wind: $89.16.
Advanced nuclear: $81.45.
Biomass: $80.85.
Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT): $64.55
Hydroelectric: $58.54.
Photo-voltaic (solar), with battery storage: $53.54.
Geothermal: $37.38.
Photo-voltaic: $31.86.
Onshore wind: $29.58.
Here are the weighted average levelized costs of energy per MW produced, set out thirty-five years in the future:
CCGT: $67.09.
Hydroelectric: $54.40.
Geothermal: $37.82.
Photo-voltaic: $26.06.
Onshore wind: $18.90.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Lazard is a private company that has its own methodology to produce a levelized cost of energy assessment.
Like any accepted methodology used to project future long-term costs, certain assumptions must be employed.
No one can tell what natural gas will cost next month, much less 35 years from today. But wind and sunlight will always be free. And, historically, manufacturing costs for solar panels and for windmills has been dropping precipitously for some time. Solar panels efficiencies continue to rise and turbine blade designs continue to evolve.
As for coal, no one has applied to build a new American coal-fired power plant since 2008 and the last new American coal-fired power plant began generating electricity in 2012.
I cannot prove why the EIA decided to stop assessing coal-fired power plants for its Outlook, but I can infer the reason. Coal is just too expensive compared to other forms of electricity generation and it is a waste of time and money to continue to study coal.
The political argument for coal will remain so long as the gullibly stupid among us continue to accept the lie that coal is king. The economic argument for coal was lost a long time ago.
The current administration scheduled two much-hyped lease auctions on federal land for the right to mine power plant-quality coal, one in Montana and the other in Wyoming. Each auction drew the same one bidder and each bid was for less than one penny per ton of coal. The administration invalidated both bids and said the auctions would be rescheduled. I checked. They haven’t been rescheduled.
Ray W. says
A news outlet named Gadget Review writes that the Trump administration just issued an order permitting the most polluting American power plants in certain regions to operate a full capacity. Due to the staying power of winter storm Ferm, power plants that seldom operate except during extreme weather events will be expected to run for as many as seven straight days without regard to pollution emitted.
With 12% of the nation’s natural production capacity still offline from the freeze, the outlet reports that there may be a supply squeeze coming to the natural gas marketplace.
Make of this what you will.