My Manila Times columns for the week of February 17, 2025

THIS week was a bit of a mixed bag, which is mostly a function of having more topics to discuss than I have space to discuss them in. On a personal note, Monday the 17th would have been my late father's 82nd birthday, and Wednesday the 19th was my son David's, my youngest, 18th birthday. So I was in a bit of a wistful mood for most of the week. 

Tuesday, February 18, 2025: A dubious outcome from latest RE auction -- The Department of Energy recently held its third Green Energy Auction, and it was with obvious pride that it announced that the 4,000-odd megawatts up for grabs had been oversubscribed by bidders by nearly twice that amount. However, all but a few hundred MW of that capacity were in the form of bids to build pumped hydro energy storage systems -- the most expensive and least likely to ever be completed of any form of RE. I received a number of messages from business people both in and outside the energy industry, complimenting me on my sensible point of view; none of those, however, were from the DOE. 

Thursday, February 20, 2025: The unfriendly skies -- An attempt to inject some sense into the hysteria surrounding the unfortunate string of air accidents in the US. For the record, I do think flying will become a great deal less safe in the US due to the vindictive idiocy being carried out by Kleinfuehrer Musk and his puppet president Donnorhea, and I've suggested to several people that they change their travel plans in the months ahead. But I don't think the recent string of accidents can be attributed to them, really. The ones that may happen in the near future, however, are a different matter.

Sunday, February 23, 2025: Incentives should go both ways in new auto program -- Part one of a two-part discussion on the efforts of the Philippine auto parts manufacturing industry to gain some government support, particularly in view of an incentive package being prepared for automobile assemblers. If you're an automotive manufacturing geek -- as I was for quite a number of years in a past life -- you would probably find this interesting. Otherwise, it will likely come across as quite nerdy. But it is nevertheless an important economic issue here.