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New York state power: Energy gamble may mean lights out

On June 24, New York came frighteningly close to a blackout. A brutal heatwave forced air conditioners into overdrive, and the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) declared an “Energy Warning.” That’s not a minor notice, it means our grid reserves were so low that officials were preparing for the possibility of cutting power to homes and businesses to avoid a total collapse. This is yet another wake-up call. As Zilvinas Silenas of the Empire Center recently warned in A Warning for New York’s Energy Policy, our state’s power grid is under mounting strain because Albany ...

Trump’s tariffs attempting to level playing field

Local commentators recently claimed that President Donald Trump’s general 10% tariff constituted a sales tax on consumers. That would be true if tariffs directly affected consumers, but the point of a tariff is to affect the behavior of producers and governments, not consumers. Trump’s retaliatory tariffs are bargaining chips to level the playing field for Middle America after years of being sold-out and de-industrialized by politicians who “fine-tuned” the tariff structure to benefit Wall Street Billionaires. Some commentators hilariously claim Trump’s tariffs are ...

America’s ‘number one problem’

CHAUTAUQUA — Let’s pick up where we left off 13 weeks ago. “When this columnist was in elementary school, it was common for children from Christian families to ask each other where they went to church. “Almost all such children and their families did so regularly, not just when the church had poinsettias or Easter lilies. ... “It’s no secret that many American Christians have pulled up their own such anchors. ... “Attendance drops because people for many reasons drift away from organized Christianity.” ­­——— Another building block of Western ...

Facing the cold hard facts

We can thank Ben Franklin for teaching us about the two certainties in this life: death and taxes. Those facts haven’t changed since 1776. Or ever. The other certainty is that we all have to deal with both. There’s no escaping the tax man. But a lot of people just aren’t comfortable with the subject of death. Their attitude is “someday.” And I just don’t understand that. I spent many years as a Hospice volunteer followed by a dozen years on their board. Hospice training taught me a lot about coping with the end of life. I needed and relied on that knowledge in the process ...

Good neighbors are allowed to disagree

I want to begin by stating that Tim Hortons brews the best coffee in the world, that while I am not much of a beer drinker when I do partake of Beer Labatt’s Blue is my choice, and that after baseball, hockey is my favorite sport. Having said that, it should be noted that throughout history while Canada is our good neighbor to the north, rough periods appeared in our relationship, much as occurs in a good marriage or a solid long term friendship. For instance, back in the Eighteenth Century after colonial troops from the thirteen original colonies did yeoman’s work in defeating ...

Federal act upends energy efforts

It is anticipated that President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) will raise clean energy project costs by 10–20%, increase the risk of grid shortfalls and raise electricity prices up to 60%. This is due to the elimination and acceleration of many clean energy incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed into law by President Biden in 2022. Under the OBBBA, key tax credits for electric vehicles, residential/commercial solar, and battery storage will be phased out between 2025-2027. The rollbacks in the OBBBA would pose immediate planning and financial ...