New Media
New report warns of ‘grave risks’ at Portland’s critical energy infrastructure hub
The researchers pointed to recent concerns over the increase in destructive urban wildfires, including the August Spokane County Wildfire that destroyed more than 600 structures in Washington State.
“Portland shares many of the same vulnerabilities as Spokane and Los Angeles, not least of which is that the city’s largest Wildfire Hazard Zone sits adjacent to the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub,” the report continued.
New report warns of ‘grave risks’ at Portland’s critical energy infrastructure hub
A new report from McCullough Research laid out the impacts of keeping the current location. Cited as the most concerning to the researchers are the looming climate challenges.
“The grave risks posed by urban wildfires, floods, droughts, or a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake must take priority here,” the report said.
$6 billion power line from Canada to NYC flowing below capacity, experts say
Robert McCullough, an energy expert who analyzed the deliveries, found that in August the transmission line was operating, on average, at 24% capacity.
”It’s time for a thorough review of this contract and the expectations over the next six months, because not only does it look like New Yorkers are not getting what they were promised, but they’re likely to get considerably less,” said McCullough, principal at McCullough Research.
New Articles
New England Clean Energy Connect: Hydro-Québec’s resource position and planning history
Hydro-Québec’s March 2022 Strategic Plan for 2022-2026 identified an approaching load-resource balance problem: capacity balance by 2026 and energy balance by 2027. The plan projected $25 billion of new investment by 2026.
The following year, Hydro-Québec’s Action Plan 2035 made the scale of the challenge more explicit. It projected incremental needs of approximately 60 terawatt hours and 8,000 to 9,000 megawatts by 2035, at an estimated additional cost of $200 billion.
These planning documents demonstrate that the system’s tight position was foreseeable. They also show why a 20-year export agreement that assumes dependable availability from existing hydroelectric resources required clearer provisions governing priority of service and curtailment during drought or capacity shortfalls.
Reviewing the New England Clean Energy Connect litigation filings
On Sept. 8, 2026, the parties to the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) agreements filed federal complaints concerning Hydro- Québec’s interruption of deliveries to Massachusetts during the first two months of the 20-year agreement.
The underlying commercial dispute is largely over the treatment of damages and whether amounts owed by Hydro-Québec may be netted against payments due from the Massachusetts buyers. The more consequential issue is whether the agreement can be performed reliably under current conditions: a prolonged drought, low hydroelectric reservoir levels, a tight Hydro-Québec capacity balance, growing Quebec load, and a contract that does not clearly allocate delivery priority when supplies are constrained.
A bird’s chirp: Donald Trump’s most recent Canadian tariff
The argument that Canadian retaliatory tariffs, adopted in response to illegal U.S. tariffs, must be punished with further tariffs based on an ambiguously drafted law from 1930 is tangled at best. At worst, it seems condemned to costly failure — costly not to Canada, but to the United States.
New Reports
A Modest Proposal for Portland’s CEI Hub
Whether the products being handled are petroleum-based fuels and fuel precursors or renewable fuel products and feedstocks, the energy contained in those fuels is what pro-vides their economic benefits on the one hand, and poses their risk of conflagration on the other. Both petroleum and renewable fuels should be subject to the same regulations when being handled in bulk at CEI Hub terminals.
Our priorities must be to first address climate impacts, then safety, and finally emissions and air quality. Veering from the priority issues to add to exports of petroleum products is simply a detour.
Reviewing the NECEC Litigation Filings
On September 8, 2026, both parties to the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) agreements filed complaints in federal court. The complaints concern Hydro-Quebec’s interruption of deliveries of energy to Massachusetts during the first two months of the twenty-year length of the NECEC Agreement.
While the contract amounts are large, comprising 1,090 MWh/hour – approximately equivalent to the output of a nuclear plant – the dispute in the complaints is basically a debate over “netting” damages from the U.S. buyers’ payments to Hydro-Quebec.
Of more interest is the viability of the Agreement in light of global warming, Hydro-Quebec’s precarious load resource balance, and the simmering trade war with the United States.
What Really Drives California Gas Prices: Global Oil and Refinery Profits, Not Climate Policy
The West Coast of the U.S. has a highly concentrated supply system with serious concerns about market power and collusion in pricing. Statistical evidence indicates that California oil refiners actually increase their profit margins when global oil prices increase. Contrary to claims that the cost increases reflect California’s environmental programs, these are not correlated with gasoline prices. The reality is that gas prices are most impacted by global market dynamics, and dependence on petroleum for transportation is an expensive option in an uncertain world.
Per Chevron’s statements that it may close refineries in response to reduced imports of refined fuels, the data they cite are questionable, at best. California both imports and exports gasoline – frequently exporting more than it imports.