Commentary
“Look, the Inflation Reduction Act is the most significant investment ever to tackle the climate crisis, lowering utility bills, creating American jobs, and leading the world to a clean energy future.” – President Biden, February 7, 2023
“For working families, we have reduced heating and electrical bills so folks have more money in their pockets ….” – Vice President Harris, February 22, 2023
Yet, the headline on my morning paper this week read, “APS customers’ bills will soon increase.” While rather insignificant, billed merely as an “adjustment” to cover the high gas prices APS has paid to fuel its power plants, we know what’s ahead, even though APS’s electricity rate is currently 35 percent lower than the national average.
Arizona Public Service (APS) is one of the utilities I’ve written about that has been aggressively shutting down coal-fired power stations despite the slow progress of solar and wind power generation. The utility still benefits from fossil fuel to produce electricity, and strictly solar and wind generation isn’t expected any time soon.
“Could anybody possibly be stupid enough to believe that wind and solar generators can provide reliable electricity to consumers that is cheaper than electricity generated by fossil fuels?” – Frank Menton, Global Warming Policy Foundation
Supporters of the Green New Deal see it differently.
“It now, unequivocally, costs less to build new renewable energy projects than to operate existing coal plants.” – Blomberg News, January 30, 2023; “Renewables are now significantly undercutting fossil fuels as the world’s cheapest source of energy.” – World Economic Forum, July 5, 2021; and “Renewables would provide cheaper energy than 99 percent of US coal plants and catalyze a just energy transition.” – Utility Dive, February 9, 2023.
Their comments are based on reports prepared by analysts who have no conception of what it would take to turn solar and wind’s intermittent and unreliable supply into a continuous, dependable supply of energy. Power when the consumer wants it.
I recently wrote about the rising electricity rates in Germany, noting that its electricity rates are in the range of triple the U.S. average. Reportedly, its conceivable that Germany’s consumer electricity rate could reach four to five times the U.S. average, “assuming that the U.S. does not go down the same path and drive rates up.”
Higher rates in the U.S. are certainly possible. Like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, President Biden believes that a country’s economic success hinges on government-directed, taxpayer-subsidized energy transition.
In a March 9, 2023 fact sheet produced by the White House: “President Biden’s Budget Lowers Energy Costs, Combats the Climate Crisis, and Advances Environmental Justice,” it remarks that in the first two years since taking office, the president’s leadership to tackle the climate crisis has boosted U. S. manufacturing and deployment of cost-cutting clean energy technologies.
The White House would have us believe that Biden’s budget “will cut energy bills for American families so they pay less each month.” Don’t hold your breath.
Yes, I know, former President Trump did his share of lying. As it is said, all politicians lie. However, while Trump has one of the best records of policy accomplishments of any first-term president, Biden not only reversed them in a personal vendetta, he put America on an expensive climate hoax path that will be difficult to correct in 2024.
May God continue to bless the United States of America
