Tom Shepstone of Shepstone Management Company and publisher of the Substack page - Energy Security Freedom - joins Jason Spiess to discuss the Top Five News Stories of the Week.
EV Cargo Ship Sinks… Again
A cargo ship transporting 3,000 cars was abandoned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday after a massive fire broke out. As of Friday, the ship was still burning. The blaze may have been fueled by the vehicles’ lithium-ion batteries, which are notoriously difficult to extinguish once ignited.
The ship, named Morning Midas, was reportedly carrying 3,000 cars on a journey from Yantai, China to Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico. Of those vehicles, about 750 were fully electric or partial hybrids, powered at least in part by large lithium‑ion batteries that can short‑circuit and ignite extremely hot fires. Although the exact cause has yet to be determined, the Morning Midas crew reported smoke rising from the deck around midnight on Tuesday.
Click here for Tom’s Substack Page
New York’s State of Mind… Is Planning To Fail
“My friend, Roger Caiazza, who's from Syracuse area, and he's a retired meteorologist,” Shepstone said. “And he did a lot of planning with regard to energy programs with, you know, carbon credits and things like that.”
Shepstone continues.
“And he's written a post this morning, I think, that's pretty interesting and he uses the words planning to fail, which is what New York is doing,” Shepstone said. “And the big item in there, in that story, is the fact that they are retiring so many fossil fuel plants and nuclear plants, too.”
Shepstone said they are basically retiring twice the amount of electricity than what is being added by wind and solar.
“New York is planning to fail,” Shepstone said.
Click here for Tom’s Substack Page
Solar Scams
A subsidiary of Sunnova Energy, a solar solutions provider in decline, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of Texas. Sunnova TEP Developer LLC, one of about 40 subsidiaries listed under the Sunnova Energy banner, made the filing on June 1.
Sunnova mostly operates as a residential solar and storage system integrator throughout the United States. The company works with local solar installation companies to offer customers solar through third-party ownership (TPO) contracts. Customers lease their solar projects from Sunnova.
The TPO market has experienced a turbulent last few quarters due to high interest rates, and residential solar companies have felt the pinch. SunPower filed for bankruptcy in August 2024, and Sunrun has increased its focus on energy storage and ancillary EV services to weather the solarcoaster. Sunnova laid off 15% of its workforce in February 2025 to save $35 million but is still in a freefall. This week, there have been unconfirmed reports on LinkedIn of further layoffs at the company.
Click here for Tom’s Substack Page
Grifting In Texas
“I said Texas is getting fat and lazy because they've been so successful and that they feel they can live off their earnings from the past, their legacy earnings,” Shepstone said. “And so they're actually, they are not, even though they've had the a couple of blackouts and ice storms and all this kind of stuff that have seriously affected their grid.
Shepstone added context to the claim with grid issues and energy subsidies increasing.
“And they've got a program to try to back up the grid with natural gas and all that. Despite all that the state legislature is now proposing to continue subsidizing the solar and wind facilities,” Shepstone said. “And it's just ludicrous. I mean, they shouldn't be giving the solar and wind a dime under the circumstances.”
Although Shepstone doens’t believe in government intervention in the marketplace, he makes a suggestion to transfer the dollars from one area to another.
“Every dime should be going into, well, frankly, I'm totally in favor of free market. I don't believe in subsidies of any kind,” Shepstone said. “But putting that aside, if they're going to put money in anything, it should be put into natural gas, coal and nuclear.”
Click here for Tom’s Substack Page
John Cadogan Car Reviews
“There are 12 million cars on Australian roads. We drive more than 200 billion kilometres every year. We burn 30 billion litres of fuel. Carmakers sell more than a million vehicles every year in Australia - the most competitive automotive marketplace on earth. Yet buying a car is one of the least pleasant consumer experiences. Almost everyone who does it feels violated. Look around you: the roads are choked, and the motorist is the quintessential golden goose. The car liberates you and binds you - just try living without one. If you find any or all of that confusing or confronting, or both, you are not alone. And you've come to the right place.” - John Cadogan
Shepstone describes a recent program of Cadogan.
“He goes through and he just tears it apart with incredible wit,” Shepstone said. “He’s very funny, but the video I am referring to was about the morality involved.”
Click here for Tom’s Substack Page
Tom Shepstone is the owner of Shepstone Management Company, Inc. a planning and research consulting firm located in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
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