RGGI headquarters in NY | Wikipedia In a recent post, I wrote about 10 Reasons Virginia Power Bills Are Going Up, and Data Centers Are Just One. The point was simple. Data centers are part of the story. They are not the whole story. Virginia’s …

The energy didn't disappear. It moved. | OpenAI If you listened to EP #159, you heard the news: a large swath of cement manufacturers including ones in are making Type I/II cement available again. The market spoke. Contractors complained. Ready-…

I was driving home from work the other day and was almost to the entrance of my neighborhood. The right lane was coned off, and there were four or five Dominion trucks lined up. Crews were setting new power poles. Nothing dramatic. No press con…

What a load of GOB | Credit Cardinal News "The economy is a derivative of energy." - Doomberg I am part of the 7x24 Central Virginia Exchange Education Committee. It's a committee that is part of 7x24, a networking group for the data cente…

"Wind extinguishes a candle and energizes fire. Likewise with randomness, uncertainty, chaos: you want to use them, not hide from them." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb If you live in the U.S., Australia looks like the place that should have this f…

"One resists the invasion of armies; one does not resist the invasion of ideas."  – Victor Hugo The Iran war isn’t just another geopolitical headline. It’s an energy reset. And if you’re in concrete, you’re already feeling it whether you …

“Whether one is a conservative or a radical, a protectionist or a free trader, a cosmopolitan or a nationalist, a churchman or a heathen, it is useful to know the causes and consequences of economic phenomena.”— George J. Stigler Sometimes t…

“Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.”- H. L. Mencken Virginia keeps pouring concrete for data centers like the pace is normal. It isn’t. Ever…

Keep your eye on the prize. (Adobe) You’ve probably seen the dumb version of this story already. “Trump wants cheap oil.” “Exxon won’t touch Venezuela.” “Guyana hit the jackpot.” “Russia and China are involved.” All true-ish. Also not useful. He…

When the lights get expensive, everything else follows. For the last few years, Europe has been trying to run an industrial economy on wishful thinking. It looked fine in speeches. It looked even better in press releases. Then the bill showed up.…

Buckeyes for the win! (Adobe) Data centers are the new “economic development win” that shows up in a press release before anyone asks the obvious question. Where’s the power coming from? And who’s paying to build the system that makes it possi…

Proven technology. Georgia Power. The Trump Media + TAE Fusion Power merger still reads like a deal someone dreamed up in the airport bar during a 3-hour delay. A social media company with meme-stock metabolism merges with a f…

Fire 'em back up. (Adobe) Every now and then something crosses my screen that stops me mid-scroll. This week it was an argument that coal fly ash might help break China’s chokehold on rare earth elements.  It is not a bad thought. There is real…

Follow the Line. Follow the Money. If you’ve been following the Type IL situation the last few years, you’ve heard every excuse under the sun about why Portland limestone cement suddenly became the “future” of American concrete. We’ve been told it’…

Pipe dream. (Adobe) Every once in a while, the cement industry drops a headline so painfully obvious you wonder if anyone has been awake for the last decade.   This week’s gem?   Europe is sounding the alarm that cement prices could triple by 205…

Progress. (Adobe) Dominion Energy just filed its 2025 Renewable Portfolio Standard plan with the Virginia State Corporation Commission. It’s their roadmap for meeting Virginia’s renewable energy mandates under the Clean Economy Act.If you read thro…

Changing of the guard. (Adobe) Back in July, we covered the U.S. Department of Energy report A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate. It didn’t get nearly the attention it deserves. The report—written by John C…

A rare glimpse of the Creative Minds of Cement in their natural habitat - a castle. (OpenAI) It was a crisp autumn morning in late 2021 when the tolling of bells echoed through the vaulted halls of Castle Valkenhorst, perched high on a European …

By Victor Gillam - https://pixels.com/featured/monroe-doctrine-1896-granger.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82247860 I read an article from Doomberg, one of my favorite geopolitical writers, and it got me thinki…

Cement plant at Lime, Oregon (Credit: Middlebury College) The EPA is trying to roll back the 2009 Endangerment Finding for motor vehicles. I haven’t heard anyone else say it, but I think there’s a chance that move could spill over into cement. The …

The EPA is moving to roll back the 2009 Endangerment Finding — at least for motor vehicles — and with it, scrap the CO₂ limits that were supposed to tighten the screws on model years 2027 through 2032. If this happens, automakers won’t have to hi…

Three Gorges Dam | Doomberg I was recently catching up on my favorite Substacker Doomberg's insightful piece titled "Five Dams in Tibet," discussing China's colossal Medog hydroelectric project. Scrolling through the comments, I stumbled upon a sta…

I’ve never been a flag-waving cheerleader for American imperialism. In fact, I used to be pretty disgusted with how we tried to run the world. But lately, I’ve changed my mind—not because we got better, but because I finally got a good look at wh…

Fort Monroe, Virginia - Oldest Military Base | Source: Visit Hampton Virginia The latest spending bill—officially called the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act"—just landed, and while everyone's busy debating tax cuts and defense budgets, we're looking at…