Christmas Call from New York State's Governor

Long Beach Ed

Last night, Christmas Eve, at 8:45, I got a robo-call and email from my NYS Governor Kathy Hochul. She apologized and told me to turn down my thermostat five degrees or "switch to alternate heating fuel". She told me that the natural gas to my home "may be shut down on the holiday" if we don't comply to conserve fossil fuel which is in "short supply".

Does anyone else see the evil in this? New York has banned new gas pipelines, and new gas drilling against the advice of every fuel provider in the state. Who made this "shortage"?

It's long past time for anyone who still plans to stay in New York to stand up to this nonsense.

Kathy then apologized for "interfering with my holiday (sic) plans". This is sick stuff.

Merry Christmas. My propane backup's ready.

Canucker

I'm confused how a ban that starts in 2023 is affecting things 8 months after it was formally announced. Perhaps I'm missing something?

HVACNUT

More importantly, why did you post two threads on the same subject in 5 minutes?
Merry Christmas! Try to enjoy and reflect.

reggi

While at the other end of the spectrum PJM underestimated generation by the equivalent of 7-9 Million homes and called for consumers to turn down their thermostats and reduce electric use to avoid rolling blackouts....65 Million customers .. Countries largest grid operator.,
Coincidence?

https://paenvironmentdaily.blogspot.com/2022/12/update-pjm-interconnection-possibility.html?m=1

WMno57

She will give a storm briefing here at 10:30 AM EST.
https://www.governor.ny.gov/

hadeone

HVACNUT said:

More importantly, why did you post two threads on the same subject in 5 minutes?
Merry Christmas! Try to enjoy and reflect.

We spend all year worried about this and that.  You’re right, we shouldn’t forget to disconnect and live in the moment at least for the holidays.  

HomerJSmith

ha,ha,ha, and you live in NY. Do you remember the Covid lockdown???? As Will Rodgers said, "I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a democrat."

Long Beach Ed

HomerJSmith said:

ha,ha,ha, and you live in NY. Do you remember the Covid lockdown????

Not for long. Party of Chaos has ruined this place.

HomerJSmith

We do live in the moment, it's unavoidable. We think in the future and past, tho.

leonz

It is not evil,

it is simple physics, if they simply shut the gas off at the cross connection at the pumping station there would be a great deal of cold feet and many pilot lights that would go out.

We were told more than once to shut my parent's laundromat to customers during near zero and sub-zero weather as there was not enough transportation gas in the local Dominion 34-inch pipeline to feed the local utility customers.

The problem is almost the entire of volume of dekatherm's being pumped into the main pipelines from Louisianna and Texas is being used for heating and the transportation gas which is the excess gas in the main pipelines is being used for heating due to the cold.

We have become so dependent on the convenience of natural gas for home heating and industrial volumes of steam tonnage that voluntary decisions have to be made and at worst shutting down the delivery pipelines to the cities and their end users has to occur.

I use anthracite coal to fire my stoker boiler because suburban propain let me run out of fuel 4 times too many and I can just imagine how much they would stick me for propain as I would need two 1,000 gallon propain tanks for heat and domestic hot water as this old home is poorly insulated.

We would be better off making coal gas for the domestic market and LNG for export with the much cleaner western coals as we already have existing rail lines to make use of for coal delivery to a gasification plant to reduce any chance of shortages, but I do not see that happening any time soon.

My brothers tenants have to have supplemental electric heat because of thier massive heat pumps since they do not have steam heat.

No system is perfect especially air to air geothermal unless it is a drilled well below 15,000 feet in depth.

Sal Santamaura

Long Beach Ed said:

...Does anyone else see the evil in this?...

No.

WMno57

From National Grid's website.
https://www.nationalgridus.com/NY-Home/default?regionkey=nymetro&customertype=home

"Thank You! In response to extremely frigid temperatures driving increased gas demand, combined with equipment problems on interstate pipelines that challenged the ability of suppliers to deliver adequate amounts of gas throughout the Northeast, National Grid asked customers in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and on Long Island to voluntarily reduce natural gas usage on Christmas Eve. Our system is now operating well. The company would like to thank our customers for answering the call, and while you may return your thermostats to normal settings, we ask that you remain judicious and not place unnecessary load on our system with gas appliances such as fireplaces and clothes dryers between the hours of 6:00-10:00 pm and 6:00-10:00 am through Wednesday."

SlamDunk

I recieved one from Duke Energy. It made me feel good. Had candle light dinners with my wife two nights in a row and cuddled under blankets at night.

I can't speak to the decisions corporations and governments make but I can help my fellow man/ neighbor by reducing consumption to help keep the grid up. It is more than an inconvenience, It is a life safety issue for someone. It is unhelpful to whine about it.

ethicalpaul

Getting pretty political up in here

Mad Dog_2

All political parties and ideologies  should be very 😟 concerned.  Forcing and mandating radical policy changes before they can be reasonably phased in over time is strong-man banana 🍌 republic tactics.   Very single-minded and narrow thinking. I'm all for cutting edge technologies but they need to be pragmatic, cost-effective and well thought out to foresee actual consequence-of-action.  This will cripple our beloved heating industry and put alot of multi-generational outfits out of the work they have excelled at for most of their adult life.  I know lots of contractors that focused on oil to gas conversions that have been greatly affected. Almost overnight. Its Not cool-at all.  Mad Dog

Jamie Hall

Very well said, @Mad Dog_2 .

hot_rod

When you depend on unstable and violate countries and economies for a major portion of your energy, time is not always on your side. Europe is learning that lesson as we speak.

Hot_water_fan

Texas has none of the rules and still can’t get gas when it needs it. This fuel source, like all, has drawbacks. 

SlamDunk

ethicalpaul said:

Getting pretty political up in here

It started out being political.