The Democrats' green energy fiasco

 Power Line:

The Democrats’ $3.5 trillion spending spree is, in large part, about transforming America into a “green” nation. The centerpiece is the Clean Electricity Performance Program, which would require electricity providers to increase the amount of carbon-dioxide-free electricity sold on their systems by 4 percent every year, or pay penalties. The Democrats’ bill includes $150 billion that is earmarked to cover the cost of CEPP through 2031. (As part of the reconciliation package, CEPP’s funding is limited to a 10-year span, while the costs it imposes will live on.)

In fact, CEPP would be ruinously expensive, and would add trillions of dollars to the cost of the Democrats’ package. The $150 billion is barely a drop in the bucket.

Center of the American Experiment has developed a mathematical model that accurately calculates the cost of “green” energy measures. Unlike numbers thrown out by liberal advocates, this model includes all the costs of wind and solar energy, including transmission lines, reliable backup facilities, utility profits and property taxes, all large items that “green” advocates conveniently forget to mention. The American Experiment model is the only one that has this capability.

Today American Experiment released this paper by Isaac Orr and Mitch Rolling, which calculates the cost of CEPP in Arizona through 2052. The tab amounts to over $119 billion, for just one state. This would represent a 45% increase in Arizona’s electricity rates by 2031. And that assumes that the Palo Verde nuclear plant remains open; if it is closed, the cost rises dramatically. It is also noteworthy that the calculation assumes no increase in demand for electricity. If liberals succeed in their effort to impose electric vehicle requirements and otherwise to electrify more or less everything, the cost of CEPP will be vastly greater.

If one extrapolates that $119 billion in excess costs to all 50 states, it is evident that the Clean Electricity Performance Program would cost America’s electricity consumers–every one of us–trillions of dollars, and that the $150 billion included in the $3.5 trillion budget-buster doesn’t begin to cover the added expense.
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When it comes to energy, Democrats are not to be trusted.  They are more into magical thinking than hard calculations. 

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