Fossil Fuels Plentiful, Yet Electricity Prices Rise

Being taken for morons by promoters of the global warming hoax has not been enough to decisively turn people against environmentalists. Maybe going broke and/or shivering in the dark will do the job, even in liberal New England:

The New York Times ran an interesting article a few days ago discussing the skyrocketing electricity prices residents of New England are being forced to pay even before the winter season begins.

The article identifies a resident of New Hampshire named John York who paid $376 to power his small printing business this past October. With no change in the amount of his work or his thermostat, his electricity bill climbed to $788 in November – an increase of 110 percent in just one month.

What the article reveals (perhaps unintentionally) are the likely consequences of heavy handed government policies and regulations that distort energy markets and threaten the supply of affordable and reliable energy for consumers.

New England is dependent on natural gas. There is plenty of it, but thanks to red tape there is not enough pipeline capacity to get it where it is needed.

[E]nvironmentalists have opposed any construction of new pipelines that would increase the region’s dependence on fossil fuels. Ironically, increasing the amount of electricity generated from natural gas is a significant component of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan and specifically EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan (“Building Block 2”). This lack of adequate pipeline infrastructure needed to comply with EPA’s plan is a concern cited by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) in a recent report.

Too bad Big Government doesn’t spare us the Soviet-style plans and just get out of the way so that people can build pipelines to keep the heat and lights on.

Furthermore, despite claims that renewable sources are now cost-competitive with (or even cheaper than) coal and natural gas, The New York Times piece goes on to explain that the Massachusetts Legislature this past August failed to approve a coordinated regional strategy consisting of new pipelines because “in part…cheap energy would flood in the market and thwart attempts to advance wind and solar projects.” In other words, the legislature decided to keep electricity prices artificially high so that renewable projects could compete with coal and natural gas. Notably, an increased reliance on renewables for electricity generation is also a key component of the Clean Power Plan (“Building Block 3”).

Obama did promise to make electricity prices skyrocket. He and his fellow moonbats are not about to let the worldwide collapse of oil and gas prices stop them.

On a tip from Wiggins. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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