Why are American’s utility bills are going up? Doug Sheridan has some great points.

ENB Pub Note: This article was on Doug Sheridan’s LinkedIn post and his insights are spot on. Americans’ utility bills are delivering unpleasant surprises, with residential electricity prices rising at more than twice the rate of core inflation. California, Maine and New York have seen multi‑year rate hikes that would’ve been politically unthinkable a decade […]

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What Is the Reason for the 1000% Increase in Power costs to Consumers?

American electricity customers are facing sticker shock that goes far beyond ordinary inflation. In the nation’s largest grid region, PJM Interconnection—serving 65 million people across 13 states and Washington, D.C.—capacity prices have risen from roughly $29 per MW-day in the 2024/2025 auction to $270, then $329–$333 per MW-day in subsequent auctions. That is an increase […]

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What if 9 Substations were Targeted on the US Grid? Would Jon Wellinghoff’s Prediction of an 18-Month US Grid Blackout Happen?

The U.S. power grid faces a long-standing vulnerability that has resurfaced in recent discussions: a coordinated attack on a small number of critical substations could trigger a cascading nationwide blackout lasting months—or longer. This warning, originally highlighted by former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Jon Wellinghoff, stems from analysis following the 2013 Metcalf substation […]

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Texas ERCOT looks to complete Texas data center audit by December

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) aims to finish Governor Greg Abbott’s comprehensive verification and audit of data center and large-load projects by December 2026. The review, ordered on August 3, pauses advancement of new data center interconnections until projects demonstrate compliance with state law, Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) rules, and ERCOT […]

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West Texas Oil Producers Pushing Power Demand ‘To the Moon’

Oil and gas producers in the Permian Basin are driving electricity demand skyward in West Texas, even as technology companies race to site data centers in the world’s most prolific shale play. The dual surge—from electrifying drilling, fracturing, and production operations, plus hyperscale computing loads—is straining the regional grid and prompting warnings of potential reliability […]

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Texas data center pause puts 20% of US pipeline at risk of delay: BNEF

Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s directive pausing new data center interconnections to the ERCOT grid has placed nearly one-fifth of the entire U.S. data center development pipeline at risk of delays, according to analysis from BloombergNEF (BNEF). The move, announced August 3, 2026, requires a comprehensive audit of energy use, water consumption, financing, ownership, and community […]

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott has directed a halt on new data center connections to the ERCOT grid pending a comprehensive audit of their energy use, water consumption, financing, ownership, and community impacts.

This action, announced August 3, 2026, comes roughly three weeks after New York became the first state to impose a temporary statewide moratorium on new hyperscale data centers. It applies to projects seeking to interconnect with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) system and pauses related transmission planning work, including the “Batch Zero” study. […]

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