Sarah Montalbano joined The Michael Dukes Show on August 3 to discuss Always On Energy Research’s Blue States, High Rates’ profile covering Alaska, along with the future of Alaska LNG. The hour-long conversation gets into what actually drives Alaska’s electricity rates, the status of the AK LNG project amid a special session, and more. Listen […]

Democratic lawmakers are reportedly upset about utility companies earning record-breaking profits—but did their policies contribute to them? We believe the answer is yes. Big Profits for Big Power Companies There is no question that utility profits are indeed soaring across the country. Our analysis, which examined the top 50 U.S. utilities using S&P Global Market Intelligence data and […]

On July 20th, 2026, Southwest Power Pool West (SPPW), the newest regional transmission organization (RTO) area in America, declared an Energy Emergency Alert 3, narrowly avoiding rolling blackouts. According to GridStatus, SPPW’s close call was caused by high demand, exceedingly low wind generation, a forced outage at a 250 MW coal unit, and reduced solar output. In all likelihood, SPPW […]

Pennsylvania legislators have prioritized electricity affordability this year. First, they exited the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the multistate carbon-tax compact. Then, with the newly passed state budget, they defeated Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Lightning Plan, which would have layered an additional in-state carbon tax and expanded Pennsylvania’s clean-energy mandate.  But Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS) remains on the books, unexamined for 20 years. […]

Battery storage has long been touted as the solution to wind and solar intermittency—or the variable nature of wind and solar electricity production. A recent report co-authored by Mitch Rolling and Jonathan Lesser, Ph.D., for the National Center of Energy Analytics (NCEA), put this to the test. The report, Batteries and the Grid: Hype, Hope, and Economic […]

As if to welcome the nation’s utility regulators to Minneapolis for the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC) summer meeting next week, MISO declared an Energy Emergency Alert Level 2 on Wednesday, July 15th, citing forced generation outages, above-normal temperatures, and higher-than-forecasted load. Interestingly, MISO did not mention that its wind resources, which constitute 33,687 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity and […]

Big Tech companies continue to hit new high scores with respect to their greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Despite the climate pledge Microsoft made in 2020 to be carbon-neutral by 2030, the company’s latest sustainability report shows that the company’s GHG emissions exceeded 21 million metric tons in fiscal year 2025, up 27 percent from the year before. […]

Isaac Orr, Vice President of Research at Always On Energy Research, joined Fox 5’s Good Day D.C. to discuss whether the electric grid can keep up with AI-driven data center growth. Orr said data centers are currently winning the race against new power plant construction, and that the fastest fix is to stop retiring coal […]

In President Donald Trump’s second term in office, the administration has sought to boost the coal industry’s fortunes by reducing regulatory and permitting hurdles, opening millions of acres for coal leasing, issuing 202(c) Emergency Orders to temporarily keep several coal plants from closing, and approving Department of Energy (DOE) funds for upgrades, extensions, and even new coal builds […]

When we started in the energy industry over a decade ago, it was very common to hear the claim that “renewables are the cheapest energy sources,” based on Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) metrics. Many advocates added, “even without subsidies!” These claims went largely uncontested for years, with journalists and the mainstream media seemingly eager to parrot common […]