The Escalante Power Station near Prewitt, NM pumped out voltage from 1984 until 2020 when its near-by coal supply ran out. It quickly became a candidate for alternative forms of energy production and is now going through the motions of becoming the first-of -its- kind power house to reduce natural gas to its atomic constituents and use the hydrogen to produce the heat that produces the steam that turns the turbines that generate the electricity that powers televisions sets and AV chargers.
Of course, none of this would be possible without the Whig technique of getting the taxpayer to finance the development of profitable infrastructure, in this case the Inflation Reduction Act, and federal subsidies as high as the mountains and wide as the sky. Newpoint CEO Wiley Rhodes says Escalante will need almost 80 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day and that, from an economic perspective, these tax credits are vital to make the project work.
In a free market, the project wouldn't be viable. What would be viable would be the conversion of a coal-fired power producer to a plant that would directly convert the 80 billion cubic feet of gas to electricity, like a typical power house. But that wouldn't involve giant federal subsidies and tax credits.
While Blackstone, subsidiary Tall Grass Energy and Newpoint Companies and political cheerleader Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham tout the pluses of the project, the interested observers, mainly the local native Americans, are skeptical and remember the many minuses in past resource exploitation in the area and on their property.
brianleddyphoto.photoshelter.com
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