Study: Solar subsidies = higher power bills (*Surprise!*)
We’ve got an army of lobbyists all over Jones Street lining pockets with cash to protect “alternative energy mandates.” We’ve got a guy in Charlotte with too much time and apparently money burning a hole in his pocket trying to turn the state and national GOP green.
Now comes word that there is a direct correlation between state subsidies for “green energy” and higher power bills:
States which offered substantial taxpayer support for green energy pay a lot more for electricity, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis.
The most notable examples of this trend were California and West Virginia. California had some of the nation’s highest power prices, paying 14.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, and had a whopping 183 policies offering support to green energy. In contrast, West Virginia had some of the nation’s cheapest power at 7.91 cents per kilowatt-hour and a mere 11 policies.
Statistical analysis run by The DCNF found a positive and statistically significant correlation existed between high electricity bills and states with numerous policies supporting green energy. States which offered rebates, buy-back programs, tax exemptions and direct cash subsidies to green energy were 64 percent more likely to have higher than average electric bills. For every additional pro-green energy policy in a state, the average price of electricity rose by about .01 cents per kilowatt-hour.[…]
The DCNF found the priciest power in America’s lower 48 was in New England, especially in Connecticut and New York which paid 15.7 and 15.4 cents per kilowatt-hour respectively.
Washington state and Wyoming had America’s cheapest electricity, paying 7.1 and 7.55 cents per kilowatt-hour respectively. States with access to easily developed hydropower resources, like Washington, tended to have fairly inexpensive power even if they had numerous pro-green energy policies.
California and Minnesota had 183 and 141 policies and incentives which offered assistance to green energy. New York, another major state with pricey power, had 92 policies. In general, the nation’s cheapest power was found in states which didn’t financially support green energy. States in New England are also subject to a voluntary cap-and-trade program which offers substantial financial support to wind and solar power, but only counts as one policy.
The subsidy cash isn’t just coming from the state governments, as all solar power receives a 30 percent tax credit from the federal government, which subsidizes solar power 326 times more than it subsidizes coal, oil and natural gas.
Most analysts agree rising residential electricity prices are also harmful to American households. Pricey power disproportionately hurts poorer families and other lower-income groups as the poor tend to spend a higher proportion of their incomes on “basic needs” like power, so any increase in prices hits them the hardest.
As essential goods like electricity becomes more expensive, the cost of producing goods and services that use electricity increases, effectively raising the price of almost everything. The higher prices are ultimately paid for by consumers, not industries.
What is always ignored in these pieces are the Long standing fossil fuel subsidies granted. $4.7 billion/year is spent just on US subsidies to fossil fuel production.
https://www.treasury.gov/open/Documents/USA%20FFSR%20progress%20report%20to%20G20%202014%20Final.pdf
Nonsense! These are the types of deductions for business costs that apply to any business. Businesses only pay taxes on their profits, not return of expenses they had to lay out for materials, services, and costs. You lefties either do not understand how business works or are being deliberately deceptive. Since this site comes from the corrupt and dishonest Obama administration (remember Gruber, remember the Iran deception, remember ”if you like your doctor . . .”), I would assume the latter applies to the website you link.
Further, you are changing the subject. This article is about STATE subsidies. You have not cited a single one of those. The NCDOR has estimated that the cost of state solar subsidies just to wind down the program under the so-called Safe Harbor bill is nearly a billion dollars, and that is to NC taxpayers alone. We would be so much better off with that money going to roads or schools than the insiders benefiting from the corrupt green energy subsidies.
I oppose outright subsidies to any energy production, but not normal business deductions for actual costs.
Thank you.
@JBP I would bet you think the unemployment rate is 4.9%? Are you aware there are over 94 million Americans not working?
This is exactly what we in the green energy movement want. Peons should not be able to afford air conditioning. We need to run up the electricity prices, and expensive solar and wind energy is the best way to do that. Look at the extremely high electricity prices Germany has achieved that way. We need to do the same here in America. As President Obama has said, his green energy policies ”will cause electric rates to necessarily skyrocket”..
The supporters of President Obama’s green energy crusade have made a major investment in buying politicians there in North Carolina. Our hard core environmental movement shelled out really big bucks to buy progressive GOP consultants Dee Stewart and Paul Shumaker, and that has given us an opening to owning other politicians, especially in the House, where Speaker Tim Moore has been in our pocket for a long time, and so have quite a few others like Jason Saine, Nelson Dollar, David Lewis, John Szoka,Charles Jeter, and Bill Brawley. We have even bought a few Seantors like Jerry Tillman and Andy Wells.
These Republicans don’t mind going against their own Republican platform in order to support President Obama’s green energy policies, Who needs our own Democrats when we can buy these progressive Republicans to advance President Obama’s agenda.
Correlation is not causation.
“In contrast, West Virginia had some of the nation’s cheapest power at 7.91 cents per kilowatt-hour and a mere 11 policies.”
And that happens to be where the coal is. But that couldn’t be why they have low prices, it’s because they have fewer policies…
What we have here are Special Interest Republicans, politicians straight out of the Richard Morgan – Jim Black – Marc Basnight playbook. They will prostitute themselves to any special interest that will put money in their pockets. They are as corrupt as the day is long. We need to cleanse our party of these crooked parasites.
Limited government Republicans need at least one scalp on our belts from these scoundrels this November. The GOP House establishment going after Justin Burr in the general election frees conservatives to do the same thing against Special Interest Republicans. Hopefully, someone like the Koch Brothers, who fully understand the green energy scam, could put some serious cash into such an effort. It would appear to me that the easiest scalp to take would be Nelson Dollar who is in a marginal district and has both a Democrat and Libertarian opponent. Dollar was also exposed for the Big Spender he is during his primary this year. What is needed is some independent expenditures to eviscerate Dollar and drive as much of his vote as possible to the Libertarian. If conservatives take Dollar’s scalp over this issue, it would likely get some attention from the other sellout Obama Republicans next session. It really does not matter so much who wins, but only that Dollar loses.
That ”renewable energy” raises electric rate in North Carolina is fact, not just theory. In its last rate increase imposed on North Carolinians, Duke Energy specifically cited the higher cost of renewable energy as a reason they were raising rates. These politicians, Democrat and liberal Republican, who support the green energy cabal are just evil and anti-consumer. They need to be removed from office as quickly as possible.