Monday, March 18, 2024

The Strange Numbers Of American Capitalism

 

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Americans For Tax Fairness

Eighteen of the 35 companies on this list operate in the energy sector, at least in part as regulated utilities. Although their executives can normally only make decisions that are endorsed or guided by government regulators, they are among the highest paid executives in the world.

Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good gets $14.5M in 2020 compensation - Bizwomenbizjournals.com

Lynn J. Good, CEO of Duke Energy, received   $21,008,835 in total compensation in 2023.

Ben G. S. Fowke III, retired CEO of Xcel Energy, is now the interim CEO of American Electrical Power, probably making more than he did before.

 Who is FirstEnergy's new CEO and what are plans to move past scandal?beaconjournal.com

Brian Tierney is the CEO of First Energy, an Akron, Ohio fully regulated utility. His compensation package is described by the Akron Beacon-Journal :

"According to the company's latest 8-K filed Monday, Tierney's compensation package, approved by the board on March 22, includes an annual base salary of $1.5 million, which will be reviewed annually, and a hiring bonus equal to $1.5 million.

He's also expected to be eligible to participate in the company’s executive relocation program, executive deferred compensation plan, 401(k) plan, vacation and paid time off program, and standard health and welfare benefits.

In addition, his compensation package includes the potential for millions of dollars in cash and stock incentive awards based on the company's performance under his leadership."


Saturday, March 16, 2024

Feds Approve Gas Power House in Superior, WI But . . . .

 MCEA's Healthy Communities Director on why MN needs a law to protect ...

mncenter.org 

Evan Mulholland is the Healthy Communities Program Director for the Minnesota Center For Environmental Advocacy

According to the MCEA website:   Evan holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Brandeis University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an LL.M. in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School.  Prior to working at MCEA, Evan was a Assistant Attorney General at the New Hampshire Department of Justice and served as Compliance Bureau Chief of the Air Resources Division at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.

 

The federal government has approved the siting of a new combined cycle power plant in Superior, WI., the Nemadji Trail Energy Center. The $700 million project of Minnesota Power and Light, Basin Electric Power Cooperative and Dairyland Power Cooperative will result in a 625 megawatt gas power plant that's intended to provide necessary buffering and stability to the power grid with the addition of renewable power from other sources, if it ever gets built.

Planning for the project began seven years ago but permitting and lawfare have prevented a single spade of earth being turned over or the welding of one pipe joint. Much of this delay and probably more will be the task of MCEA figure Evan Mulholland, pictured above. He is a member of a class of legalists whose specialty is the obstruction of progress in the name of environmental stasis, a post-modern occupation. No such concerns were present during the construction of the railroads, inter-state highways or the electrical transmission system that insures almost continuous service to any American that cares to use it. Times have changed.

Nemadji Trail Energy Center Update: Local resistance to the new power house is being described by the local news media. A rally is planned for outside the Douglas County courthouse on March 19.

 

Strange Doings in Electricity Transmission

It's possible to make money on moving electricity without actually doing anything but planning to do so. An example is the PATH project, a 290 mile transmission line that was never approved by the states involved or constructed that cost consumers $250 million. 

Monday, March 11, 2024

Responsible Decision Making

Elke Weber is a professor at Princeton University's Center for Policy and Research on the Environment.

Professor Weber's specialty has been identifying the psychology of decision-making in the assessment of risk by individuals and groups, especially in response to climate change.

Her organization is tasked with discovering why the unwashed masses take little interest in the prospect of a changing climate or actually disbelieve the theory and how to change their minds.

 Elke U. Weber - Photos Elke Weber

elke-u-weber.com 

A major figure in American psychology, the lady professor is a Phd from Harvard, a member of the National Academy of Science, and has been president of the  President of the Society for Neuroeconomics, the Society for Mathematical Psychology, and the Society for Judgement and Decision Making. We don't know how much she actually knows about atmospheric chemistry and physics but her specialty is no longer psychology, a term that has gone out of fashion and been replaced by "behavorial science". 

 

A Builder of Renewable Energy Projects

A few quotes from an article by Jennifer Hiller in the March 11, Wall Street Journal on Michael Polsky and his company, Invenergy:

    "Sean Klimczak, global head of infrastructure at Blackstone, which invested $4 billion in Invenergy's renewables business since 2021, estimates Invenergy has a pipeline of projects valued at about $150 billion."

    "Invenergy has built roughly one in every 10 US wind or solar projects and has one of the largest solar farms operating and under construction in the U.S., unfolding across 18,000 acres in Texas."

    "Polsky's wind projects were hugely profitable, but he was only partially right about renewables being easier to build. Invenergy is still fighting with communities nearly everywhere it goes ...." 

'We won't pay any ransom': notorious hacker gang targets US renewable ...

rechargenews.com

  

Saturday, March 9, 2024

University Millionaires

New hire as president of the University of Minnesota, Rebecca Cunningham, has been given an employment contract of $975,000 in annual salary with a provision of at least a 3.5% raise annually plus retirement benefits of $120,000 each year. One couldn't expect someone receiving a salary of a million dollars a year to squirrel away some of that for their golden years.

The lady has been a fixture in various administrative positions at the University of Michigan and now receives a salary that eclipses that of the state governor and all but a handful of local business titans.

 

twincitiespioneerpress 

Perhaps "fixture" is the best term for the new president, whose actual duties are similar to that of a chrome female statuette on the hood of a '50s sedan. Many smaller, dirtier parts allow the car to function as designed but the most obvious part is the first thing seen, which has no effect on the car's operation.

goodspeedusa.com

This isn't an isolated incident. University presidents all receive huge compensation packages, ostensibly because they're able to cajole wealthy alumni into donating vast sums to the school or local business nabobs into financing esoteric research programs. This may or may not be true but aren't potential donors already inclined to contribute to a certain school with which they have some familiarity? Would they be less likely to make a significant gift to a school with a less well-paid boss? 

What are their actual day-to-day duties? Do they roam the campus, auditing classes to see if the profs, or more likely TAs, are arriving for class on time and delivering a lecture that can be easily understood by English-speaking students whose tuition has risen steeply through the years. The president probably won't run onto the field leading the Gopher football squad into battle against the hated Wisconsin Badgers since she makes only a fraction of the $6 million dollars a year that football coach PJ Fleck does.