Typically, the average individual pays little attention when the EPA announces it’s preparing to release new energy regulations as it did last month. Figures on ppb (parts per billion), job equivalents, compliance costs, and the effect on gdp (gross domestic product) are lost on most of us.
I have a hunch, however, that the two accompanying headlines appearing in the past two days just might get their attention. When the cost of alternate energy production hits homeowners, they’ll begin to question the bill of goods promoted by big government.
“Thirty years and billions of dollars later, the wind industry is still saying it needs taxpayer support,” according to the Wall Street Journal, as economic viability is still years off. Wind energy lobbyists are seeking a renewal of the production tax credit, where taxpayers have, probably unbeknownst to them, contributed $7.3 billion over the past seven years. I’m sure the wind power generator manufacturers and wind producers appreciate how gullible we are.
While the second headline covers a possible rate hike for solar users in the Phoenix area, it may well be under consideration in other parts of the country. Solar power, too, has benefited from tax credits, and while it has seen growth over the past few years, it isn’t likely that it will provide 10 percent of U.S. electricity by 2030.
One of the solar BrightSource boiler towers said to be incinerating birds in flight. (exrtremetech)
Environmentalists, with the help of the EPA, flood the media with data on the air quality danger of fossil fuels. Little has been written about the massive BrightSource solar complex in the Mojave Desert, which has reportedly resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of birds each year. BrightSource’s three boiler towers apparently act like death rays and instantly ignite birds in flight. Of course, little concern has been voiced over the toll wind farms have taken on the Eagle population.
Now we are being asked to foot the bill for another big government scam, climate control. The big government emperor, recently pledged $3 billion of our taxes to support it. In effect, he’s promoting more expensive energy built on fewer jobs, with continued support of the United Nations global climate change pact.
Not long ago, some energy watchers predicted a federal takeover of electricity generation. ObamaPower? I don’t see that as a possibility in the next two years and it certainly would not fly under the GOP.
In the meantime, if you like solar and wind, you will be able to keep it as long as you’re willing to foot the bill.
