Saturday, September 04, 2010
News on the No Energy Economy
One of the lasting legacies of my old friend Bill Ritter's tenure as Governor, besides the permanent lack of widespread oil and gas drilling, is the stupid mandate that within 10 years, a full 30% of Colorado's electricity production come from inferior, intermittent, stupendously expensive "green" generation, like wind generators and photovoltaic arrays. The Governor somehow got the idea that there would be cheap unicorns and pixie dust to power our energy needs. Unfortunately, not only are they not cheap, they don't, er, actually exist. So the local monopoly energy providers are shutting down perfectly good (and relatively cheap) coal powered boilers and purchasing power from sources many times more expensive (when they are actually producing electricity, which is seldom). Proving that there really is no such thing as a free lunch, the massive added cost will indeed be passed on to us, despite a cynical and dishonest so called 2% cap. The anticipated additional cost per Colorado customer is $2,800. Here are the details.
Money quote:
Up until 2007, Xcel was obligated to provide electricity at "least cost." Now, however, the Public Utilities Commission says that climate change — rather than affordability — is the "main driving force" behind resource planning. Xcel customers are poorer as a result, no matter how the politicians spin the costs of green energy.Thanks, Bill.
Labels: Pixie Dust Energy; Bill Ritter; Real Cost of Green
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 9:59 AM 
