OT: Why Are Utilities So Expensive

avatar for Papi_Chulo
Papi_Chulo
Miami, FL (or the nearest big-booty club)
In the latest video from PragerU, Charles McConnell, former Assistant Secretary of Energy in the Obama Administration, addresses a question on many Americans’ minds: Why are utilities so expensive?

Though the price of natural gas has fallen by 43% and coal prices have dropped 11% since 2010, the price of electricity for residential users in the United States rose by 13% during the same period, McConnell notes. “Why does your electricity bill keep going up when the cost of producing electricity keeps going down?” he asks.

This is because, McConnell says, a portion of the substantial money that should have been saved instead “went to subsidize renewable energy,” with wind and solar being far more expensive than advertised.

“Perhaps if renewable energy was what made our air cleaner or what caused the dramatic reductions in CO2 over the last decade, you could say it was worth it,” McConnell argues. “But our air was already becoming dramatically cleaner long before wind and solar were identified as ‘environmentally critical.’ Emissions of harmful pollutants have decreased 77% in the US since 1970. And that had nothing to do with wind and solar. It was almost entirely due to the switch from coal to natural gas.”

Given that “we’re getting no cost savings from wind and solar and minimal benefits in terms of cleaner air or reductions in CO2,” McConnell then questions our continued obsession with these forms of power by exploring the three main parts of our electricity bills: generation cost, transmission cost and taxes and fees.

McConnell estimates that the cost of generating and reliably maintaining electricity “comprises about 50% of your power bill.” While “fossil fueled electricity is inexpensive, and the fuel can be stored or sourced on site,” making it available when needed, “wind and solar generate electricity based on the mood of Mother Nature,” providing us with the “intermittency problem.”

McConnell then describes what this means in practical terms, saying that wind and solar farms usually require fossil fuel facilities to make up for their intermittent energy supply, and “all that wasted money is reflected in your electricity bill.”

The cost to transmit electricity is “determined by the distance between the power plant and your home or business,” he explains. “This is one of the reasons fossil fuel and nuclear plants are ideally suited to power our large, dense cities and industries,” McConnell states. “They require little land space and can be situated near or within population centers, so they need relatively few transmission lines. But wind and solar resources require large tracts of land and are therefore usually placed in remote locations.”

Such remoteness introduces the requirement for expensive new infrastructure. For example, Texas “has already spent over $7 billion in new transmission lines to bring distant wind power to cities in the east and south,” and with further expenditure required, Texans are “already seeing those costs in their energy bills.”

Finally, McConnell looks at taxes and fees. “Most taxes are plainly stated on your power bill. State taxes, city and county taxes. Plus, a bewildering assortment of fees. Those are bad enough,” McConnell says. “But what you won’t see on your electricity bill are the Federal and, in many places, state taxes that you pay to subsidize wind and solar generation.”

“Federal subsidies alone for the wind and solar industries totaled more than $70 billion from 2010 to 2019. Most state governments kick in their own incentives. The subsidies for wind and solar are in a class by themselves and have been for decades,” McConnell warns. “We are not incentivizing new technology but are artificially supporting an industry. Take away the subsidies and very likely that industry does not exist.”

After explaining these three parts — the generation costs, the transmission costs, the taxes and fees — when they’re added together, “you’re paying a lot more than you should.”

While some can afford it, many can’t.

“An electricity bill is a regressive expense, meaning it takes up a lot bigger chunk of the budget of a lower middle-class family than it does an upper middle-class one,” McConnell explains. “Many poor families devote more than 10% of their income after food, rent, and transportation to electricity, while the those further up the income scale spend only a few percent. A third of American households report having difficulty paying their electricity bills and 7 million families face the choice between putting food on the table or keeping their home warm during the cold winter months.”

McConnell concludes by suggesting that we consider the families struggling with these rising costs, instead of focusing on “expensive, inefficient wind and solar energy.”

“Yes, the wind and the sun are free,” McConnell says. “But wind and solar power are anything but.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/prageru-w…

22 comments

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avatar for misterorange
misterorange
4 years ago
Don't worry. Biden and Kerry are gonna retrain all the out-of-work Keystone Pipeline employees to manufacture solar panels. They're going to be very high-paying jobs, but at the same time the panels will be extremely cost competitive with the Chinese imports, with the net effect of boosting our economy.

Pretty soon we'll all be rolling in so much dough you won't even notice the extra cost of electricity.
avatar for CJKent_band
CJKent_band
4 years ago
"To him that hath, more shall be given; and from him that hath not, the little that he hath shall be taken away."

The rich have become richer, and the poor have become poorer; and the vessel of the State is driven between the Scylla and Charybdis of anarchy and despotism.

“America sucks and needs to be dismantled.”

~ Papi_Chulo, TUSCL, August 14, 2020
~ White (Cuban) guy residing in Miami, FL

^ Sad but so true Papi.

~ Warrior15, TUSCL, August 14, 2020
~ Just a Monger looking for some Action.
avatar for CJKent_band
CJKent_band
4 years ago
@Papi_Chulo

To answer the question:

Why are utilities so expensive?

“Concentration of wealth leads naturally to concentration of power, which in turn translates to legislation favoring the interests of the rich and powerful and thereby increasing even further the concentration of power and wealth.”

Various political measures, such as fiscal policy, deregulation, and rules for corporate governance are designed to increase the concentration of wealth and power.

It is a vicious cycle in constant progress.

The state is there to provide security and support to the interests of the privileged and powerful sectors in society while the rest of the population is left to experience the brutal reality of capitalism.

“Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.”
avatar for Muddy
Muddy
4 years ago
Yeah I watch that PragerU stuff it’s well done
avatar for doctorevil
doctorevil
4 years ago
It doesn't matter how expensive electricity is. It's a human right. The government should provide it to everyone for free. Well, to people of color anyway. And LGBT people. And illegal aliens. OK, everyone except white people.
avatar for Nidan111
Nidan111
4 years ago
Ahh. Fuck it. Just erect solar panels, get a generator for bad sun weeks, collect your rainwater and tell the GOOBERMENT and Utility Companies to FUCK OFF!
avatar for Uprightcitizen
Uprightcitizen
4 years ago
@Papi for those in the the business this is all academic. The electric utility grid has a socialized cost model which has been in place since the early century. For those that get triggered by the word socialized it was made that way or those in the rural and poor areas would never have gotten electricity to begin with. Also, 20 year ROI's are common in the biz and no business in their right mind would take that risk without certain gaurentees of regulated return. Soo everyone pays their fair share based on usage regardless of their economic class and everyone gets served (nothing socialist about paying your fair share).

You seem to be pointing to the irony of left leaning agendas trying to help the poor while increasing their financial burden because of the push for renewable energy. Hmmm...perhaps we should justalso remove all that expensive fossil fuel exhaust treatment too. How about the environmental abatement for mercury, asbestos and environmental disruption from these fossil plants. Oh, btw the poor often live near these plants and most at risk from those effects.

But there is definateky a fallacy that 100% can come from renewable energy. We will always need concentrated base load generation (when the wind ain't blowing and the sun ain't shining) Nuclear and mass storage is the logical solution. Natural gas is a stop gap. Coal is a dying a long slow death.

avatar for shadowcat
shadowcat
4 years ago
We need to raise gasoline taxes to make up for the lost revenue from hybrid and all electric automobiles.
avatar for shailynn
shailynn
4 years ago
This is interesting - anyone care to mention what area of the country they live in and what their energy bills are? Things to think about would be square footage of your home and what it is heated and cooled with.

I was shocked at my electrical bill this summer. It hit almost $250 in July, but then again it was ridiculously hot this summer with no rain relief (in my area) and I was home all summer when I'm usually traveling a lot. In comparison it can be as low as $80 in the winter (gas furnace, yes furnace, fuck those heat pumps).
avatar for Icee Loco (asshole)
Icee Loco (asshole)
4 years ago
Corporate monopolies and greed...
avatar for twentyfive
twentyfive
4 years ago
You can put solar panels on your roof and buy a back up battery to store power to use when the sun isn't shining, but it takes on average 7.4 years to recoup the cost of the setup and installation, and by then your system will probably need some repairs or updating, so you might as well just pay the cost it's easier and overall cheaper, especially when you consider the cost of money.
Or you can bitch about it and live off the grid, but I bet you wont like it.
avatar for Mate27
Mate27
4 years ago
This reminds me of a very popular highliter stripper who thought she was intelligent by stating water should be free, not treated like a commodity because it rains and you can go the lake or ocean and swim in it. I asked her who is going to maintain the infrastructure to get it to your apartment so you can take a bath or flush your toilet, and spend their hard working days doing the maintaining for free? She shrugged her shoulders and said,”you got a good point.”

As I stated she was a popular stripper visited by many PLs, and at follow up visits bring up the same concept of free water. It made her quite discouraged when I called her out on her repeating the topic’s fallacy. She couldn’t grasp the concept that all the pipes/plumbing and staffing municipalities was a necessary cost to protect clean water supplies, and suggested she find other topics to discuss and to avoid her debate on free water.

Very pretty girl, but so thick headed she wasn’t prone to learning new ideas. I think she aged out and found an old dude to help her supplement her lifestyle. She needed a sugar daddy to pay her bills.
avatar for skibum609
skibum609
4 years ago
My electric bill was $383.00 last month. Electric hot water; cooking; laundry and heat. Electricity is socialism, which eventually kills the host. If Europe hadn't been rebuilt free of charge after ww2 and defended for free by us afterwards they would have no socialism at all, as socialism survives only as long as there is other capitalists willing to support them. Without capitalists every socialist nation would be either china or venzuela. Imagine the next generation of leaders like AOC, the whiniest, weakest sad sack of shit Democrat ever and she is your new leader.
avatar for Mate27
Mate27
4 years ago
^^^ which addresses my point about the stripper who wanted free stuff. It’s just unsustainable. So are hot chicks looking to be taken care of; they have a very short shelf life. Socialism is a spiral of death.
avatar for Mate27
Mate27
4 years ago
By the way, I average $135 monthly for my electricity with 2000 sq ft home and 4 people living in the household. My gas bill averages $35 monthly. Not sure but I consider that extremely affordable, and we live comfortably.
avatar for Longball300
Longball300
4 years ago
Apparently some folks actually see the sun more than once a month where they live this time of year.... oh, and it hasn't been very windy round here either.
avatar for Cashman1234
Cashman1234
4 years ago
There isn’t much competition in the energy sector - as they are largely monopolies. Efficiency isn’t part of a monopoly business plan.

I worked for AT&T immediately after divestiture. They shed thousands of jobs through layoffs - and thought they became efficient. Then they had to shed more and more employees - and they still weren’t efficient. They had become too reliant on the easy ways to raise money - by raising rates - as there was no competition. Utilities are the same - and the only way to induce efficiency is to drop the monopoly and allow competitors to set prices.
avatar for Jascoi
Jascoi
4 years ago
what gets me (besides the cost of energy) is the cost of wastewater sewer services. my cabin costs about $55 a month regardless if i am there or not. so cost probably averages $2 or 3 per flush. shit man. and trash service... ongoing cost all the time even when i’m not there.
avatar for Papi_Chulo
Papi_Chulo
4 years ago
There's an international consortium that has been trying to develop a nuclear fusion reactor that will mimic the energy of the sun - seems like a moon-shot - they've been at it for a good # of years and it's estimated to cost $65-billion (if it doesn't go higher) - below is a video of this megaproject if stuff like this interests you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCpWPJrH…

avatar for rickdugan
rickdugan
4 years ago
When I lived in the northeast 10 years ago I was paying $500 per month JUST for electricity. That was on top of filling up the oil tank several times during the winter. Now in FL I pay 40-50% of that, depending upon the month, which includes all my cooling and heating needs.

What utilities charge for electricity in many of the blue states is already downright criminal, especially for lower income people who have to shell out a measurable percentage of their take home pay just to keep the lights on.
avatar for casino
casino
4 years ago
This is the dumbest shit i've ever read in my life. First PragerU is some seriously radical racist shit. Second, utilities request rate increases from governments and it has nothing to do with renewable energy. utilities request higher rates to increase capacity and build new generation plants. Why did gas never drop below a dollar a barrel when oil went negative last year? Because the public gets fucked thats why.
avatar for rickdugan
rickdugan
4 years ago
===> "Second, utilities request rate increases from governments and it has nothing to do with renewable energy. utilities request higher rates to increase capacity and build new generation plants."

I'll give you credit here - at least when you decide to post stupid you go big. Go big or go home I always say. Of course the cost of renewables is factored into the rates approved by government entities. Rates are set based upon the total cost of providing electricity and if you are in a state with a 33% renewables mandate, producing enough electricity is going to be more expensive. Duh.


===> "Why did gas never drop below a dollar a barrel when oil went negative last year? Because the public gets fucked thats why."

Or because it still costs money to refine and transport? Seriously dude I've always suspected that the only people left in California are left wing nuts and dipshits and you're certainly not disabusing anyone here of that notion.
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