Free Republic

California’s electricity woes result from man-made climate policies, not from climate change.. ... Solar and wind power have rapidly expanded thanks to rich government subsidies along with the state’s renewables mandate. These have made it harder for baseload gas and nuclear generators that run around the clock to make money. Many have shut down, and the result is that the state often lacks sufficient power when the sun goes down. ... The state must therefore rely on imports from other states ... But these imports are becoming less dependable since California’s neighbors are also losing base-load generators owing to their...

Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute, calls Xcel Energy the "corporate antichrist of Colorado,” and he blames state government and the Colorado Public Utilities Commission for helping the company achieve that title by giving it a virtual monopoly in metro Denver. The devil's in the details. The PUC was established in 1913 to regulate electric street lights and telephones, among other utilities, replacing what had been the Railroad Commission. In the decades since, it's evolved into its current configuration. Headed by director Doug Dean, a former lawmaker, the PUC has three commissioners appointed by the governor to four-year terms:...

A prominent environmental activist took the unusual road of not only blaming rising electricity costs squarely on renewable sources, but also for deriding the mainstream media for ignoring the connection. Michael Shellenberger, the president and founder of Environmental Progress, explained in a Forbes blog post Monday how the unreliability of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, is the main reason why electricity bills around the world have been getting higher. Despite renewable energy technology slowly becoming more affordable, Shellenberger notes, electricity costs are still rising because of the unpredictable nature of wind and solar. Both sources produce excess...

Households in New England paid electricity prices last month that were 47 percent higher than the national average.. Consumer energy information released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for its Boston region showed the area's households paid an average of 19.5 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity, compared to the national average of 13.3 cents. The region includes Hampden and Worcester counties as well as Greater Boston and parts of New Hampshire, Connecticut and Maine. The figures came out one day after energy utility Eversource proposed a 10 percent increase in its electricity distribution rates beginning early next year. The...

The cost of electricity for Colorado residents skyrocketed 63 percent between 2001 and 2014, far outpacing median income in the state at just 24 percent over the same time period ... Retail residential electricity rates increased from 7.47 cents per kilowatthour in 2001 to 12.18 cents per kilowatthour by 2014, a 63.1 percent hike. Coloradans median income, however, went up just 24.1 percent, from $49,397 to $61,303. Median income in Colorado actually declined between 2008 and 2012. ... Not to mention the state's many business owners, including small business owners, who face the same hikes in energy costs that could...

A study commissioned by the National Black Chamber of Commerce, which represents 2.1 million black-owned businesses in the United States, found that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan would increase black poverty by 23 percent and cause the loss of 7 million jobs for black Americans by 2035. The study also found that the EPA' plan would increase Hispanic poverty by 26 percent and cause the loss of 12 million jobs for Hispanic Americans by 2035. The EPA proposed the Clean Power Plan on June 2, 2014 to cut carbon emissions from power plants. ... There was a...

There is never a good time for bad public policy. For few policies is this more evident than renewable energy mandates (REM), variously known as renewable portfolio standards, alternative energy standards and renewable energy standards. The first renewable energy mandate was adopted in 1983, but most states did not impose these mandates until the 2000s. Though the details vary from state to state, in general, renewable energy mandates require utilities to provide a certain percentage of the electric power they supply from “renewable” sources, notably wind and solar, with the required percentages rising over time. At the height of the...

Electricity prices are on the rise across the country, according to federal government data. The average price has risen more than 3 percent since the same time last year — the highest year-over-year growth for the first half of the year since 2009. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, residential electricity prices — what households pay to keep the lights on — averaged 12.3 cents per kilowatt hour for the first half of this year. This is 3.2 percent above the average price this time last year. New England, however, saw prices rise significantly more than the national average....

For the first time ever, the average price for a kilowatthour (KWH) of electricity in the United States has broken through the 14-cent mark, climbing to a record 14.3 cents in June. ... Back in June 1984, the seasonally adjusted price index for electricity was 103.9—less than half what it was in June 2014. Electricity prices have not always risen in the United States. The BLS has published an annual electricity price index dating back to 1913. It shows that from that year through 1947, the price of electricity in the United States generally trended down, with the index dropping...

Jun. 19, 2014 - 5:57 - Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray on the impact of regulations on the energy industry.