From the
New York Times.com - By
MATTHEW L. WALD and
TOM ZELLER Jr. - Michael Polsky’s wind farm company was doing so well in 2008 that banks were happy to lend millions for his effort to light up America with clean electricity. But two years later, Mr. Polsky has a product he is hard-pressed to sell. His company, Invenergy, had a contract to sell power to a utility in Virginia, but state regulators rejected the deal, citing the
recession and the lower prices of
natural gas and other fossil fuels. “The ratepayers of Virginia must be protected from costs for renewable energy that are unreasonably high,” the regulators said.
Wind power would have increased the monthly bill of a typical residential customer by 0.2 percent. Even as many politicians, environmentalists and consumers want renewable energy and reduced dependence on fossil fuels, a growing number of projects are being canceled or delayed because governments are unwilling to add even small amounts to consumers’ electricity bills.
Read more
Cost of Green Power Makes Projects Tougher Sell
From the New York Times.com - By MATTHEW L. WALD and TOM ZELLER Jr. - Michael Polsky’s wind farm company was doing so well in 2008 that banks were happy to lend millions for his effort to light up America with clean electricity. But two years later, Mr. Polsky has a product he is hard-pressed to sell. His company, Invenergy, had a contract to sell power to a utility in Virginia, but state regulators rejected the deal, citing the recession and the lower prices of natural gas and other fossil fuels. “The ratepayers of Virginia must be protected from costs for renewable energy that are unreasonably high,” the regulators said. Wind power would have increased the monthly bill of a typical residential customer by 0.2 percent. Even as many politicians, environmentalists and consumers want renewable energy and reduced dependence on fossil fuels, a growing number of projects are being canceled or delayed because governments are unwilling to add even small amounts to consumers’ electricity bills. Read more
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2 comments:
As The Capacity Factor noted on November 8th http://uvdiv.blogspot.com/2010/11/mendacious-propaganda-in-times.html , the NYT makes it sound as if the average ratepayer's bill is only going to go up 0.2 to 0.7%. Unfortunately, for a negligible amount of power, all the ratepayers chip in.
This is like the credit card fraud where the con men charge little amounts across a whole lot of credit cards, expecting that most people aren't going to notice, investigate or complain about a small charge.
Flash forward to 2020, when NM's Renewable Energy Standard is in full effect. 20% of the state's energy must come from "renewables" like wind, solar and biomass. Now these little nickel and dime additions to consumer's and business' electricity bills will have grown to tens of dollars, especially since these intermittent sources have to be backed up by natural gas. Here's Robert F Kennedy Jr. telling the Colorado Oil & Gas Assoc that solar & wind plants are really gas plants, so they should be supporting "renewable" energy. http://atomicinsights.blogspot.com/2010/11/robert-f-kennedy-jr-tells-colorado-oil.html
This puts NM citizens and lawmakers in a Catch-22, because so much of the state budget is funded by oil & gas taxes, and eastern NM's lifeblood is the oil & gas business.
A new factor in NG production, which according to renewable advocates like RFK Jr. and Amory Lovins is the best backup fuel supply, and drillers like T. Boone Pickens, is the dangers of fracking and what comes out of the ground besides NG.
See: http://www.theecologist.org/trial_investigations/687515/us_natural_gas_drilling_boom_linked_to_pollution_and_social_strife.html
and
http://atomicinsights.blogspot.com/2010/12/propublica-asks-more-than-year-ago-is.html
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