If you want to know why the price of electricity is up 41%, this is why

 Obama/Biden built that.

Insurance companies got rich because of Obamacare rules, now electric utilities are poised to get rich because of Biden climate rules

 Utilities are shutting down "dirty" capacity without adequately replacing it. The law of supply and demand means only one thing: higher prices. OK, two: blackouts.

Meanwhile, tax credits under Biden's phony Inflation Reduction Act are masking the true costs of renewables.

From a Wall Street Journal op-ed "The Coming Electricity Crisis: Artificial-intelligence data centers and climate rules are pushing the power grid to what could become a breaking point" here :

Obama Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz last week predicted that utilities will ultimately have to rely more on gas, coal and nuclear plants to support surging demand. “We’re not going to build 100 gigawatts of new renewables in a few years,” he said. No kidding.

The problem is that utilities are rapidly retiring fossil-fuel and nuclear plants. “We are subtracting dispatchable [fossil fuel] resources at a pace that’s not sustainable, and we can’t build dispatchable resources to replace the dispatchable resources we’re shutting down,” Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Mark Christie warned this month.

About 20 gigawatts of fossil-fuel power are scheduled to retire over the next two years—enough to power 15 million homes—including a large natural-gas plant in Massachusetts that serves as a crucial source of electricity in cold snaps. PJM’s external market monitor last week warned that up to 30% of the region’s installed capacity is at risk of retiring by 2030.

Some plants are nearing the end of their useful life-spans, but an onslaught of costly regulation is the bigger cause. A soon-to-be-finalized Environmental Protection Agency rule would require natural-gas plants to install expensive and unproven carbon capture technology.

The PJM report cites “the role of states and the federal government in subsidizing resources and in environmental regulation.” It added: “The simple fact is that the sources of new capacity that could fully replace the retiring capacity have not been clearly identified.”

Meantime, the Inflation Reduction Act’s huge renewable subsidies make it harder for fossil-fuel and nuclear plants to compete in wholesale power markets. The cost of producing power from solar and wind is roughly the same as from natural gas. But IRA tax credits can offset up to 50% of the cost of renewable operators. 

Baseload plants can’t turn a profit operating only when needed to back up renewables, so they are closing. This was the main culprit for Texas’s week-long power outage in February 2021 and the eastern U.S.’s rolling blackouts during Christmas 2022.

I found the source for Trump's well-founded fear of an auto industry bloodbath

 CNBC reports today:

Why a small China-made EV has global auto execs and politicians on edge :

There’s fear among global automakers that Chinese rivals like the Warren Buffett-backed BYD could flood their markets, undercutting domestic production and vehicle prices to the detriment of their own auto industries.

“The introduction of cheap Chinese autos — which are so inexpensive because they are backed with the power and funding of the Chinese government — to the American market could end up being an extinction-level event for the U.S. auto sector,” the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a U.S. manufacturing advocacy group, said in a report last month.

BYD sold 1.57 million battery EVs last year, up from just 130,970 all-electric vehicles in 2020. That sales growth was enough to surpass Tesla to become the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles in late 2023. 

The rise of BYD and other Chinese automakers led Tesla CEO Elon Musk in January to warn that Chinese automakers will “demolish” global rivals without trade barriers. ...

The company has quickly rolled out new and updated products. It’s also rapidly established manufacturing, as it has its eyes set on factories in Thailand, Brazil, Indonesia, Hungary, Uzbekistan and, potentially, Mexico. ...

Former President Donald Trump – the front-runner among Republicans in the 2024 presidential race – on Saturday suggested instituting a 100% tariff on cars made in Mexico by Chinese companies, should he be elected to a second term.

Biden deals bloodbath blow to auto industry, EPA finalizes rule requiring 67% of new cars and trucks sold to be electric by 2032

 The administration forged ahead with its plan despite pleas from thousands of car dealerships across the country, warnings from industry leaders and major manufacturers slashing production. Demand in recent years has failed to meet growth expectations. ...

“This rule is delusional,” the senators said. “This is the Biden administration’s attempt to get rid of the internal combustion engine without congressional authority.” Sen. Joe Manchin III, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, was ready to side with Republicans. He called the rule “reckless and ill-informed.” “The federal government has no authority and no right to mandate what type of car or truck Americans can purchase for their everyday lives,” said Mr. Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee.

At the current pace of sales growth of all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, the U.S. would take decades to meet the administration’s 2032 goal. ...

The EPA wants 67% of all new light-duty vehicles and up to 32% of medium-duty vehicles to be electric by 2032. That includes a mixture of all-electric, plug-in electric hybrids and battery electric hybrids.

More.

The price of electricity is at a new record high level in the US of 17.3 cents per kWhr in January and February 2024: Up 27.2% under Joe Biden

Obama's war on coal has resulted in the elimination of electrical generation capacity equivalent to the entire nuclear power sector, and these idiots wonder how America ended up running out of electricity

Starting from 2012 and going through 2022, ~ 106 GW of coal-fired capacity was eliminated in the US.

Of the ~ 200 GW remaining, ~ 23% is scheduled to be eliminated through 2029.

Meanwhile China just builds and builds and builds new coal-fired capacity. It now has at least 1,109 GW of coal-fired capacity, five times more than the US.

You can't put bitcoin in your pocket like gold and silver, and gold doesn't require 150 terawatt-hours of electricity annually for its existence

Crock of shit this bitcoin is. Same for anything digital.

But crypto has a dirty little secret that is very relevant to the real world: it uses a lot of energy. How much energy? Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, currently consumes an estimated 150 terawatt-hours of electricity annually — more than the entire country of Argentina, population 45 million. Producing that energy emits some 65 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually — comparable to the emissions of Greece — making crypto a significant contributor to global air pollution and climate change.     

More.

 

Tesla will just have to install fossil-fuel-powered battery heaters to warm the batteries enough to charge in ARCTIC temperatures lol

 Tesla owners in freezing Chicago stuck in 'car graveyards' as vehicles won't charge

I mean, what could go wrong?

 

Contact your utility commission and complain about natural gas and electricity prices not coming down

 Utilities Get an Inflation Shock

Electricity and gas providers are encountering a pushback on rate increases:

 

Utilities get to pass through fuel prices, which means customers have been bearing the burden of higher natural-gas prices that surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On average, monthly electricity prices rose 13% in 2022 from a year earlier and 6% in the first 11 months of 2023, according to data from the Labor Department. ... Utility commissioners are either appointed by elected officials or elected themselves, which means they are sensitive to the financial pressures that ratepayers face. ... utilities were quick to ask for an increase on the allowed return on equity when market measures of capital cost rose yet slow to adjust rates when those measures declined.     

 

Has the natural gas portion of your utility bill dropped 60% like the price of natural gas in 2023 from 2022? Mine sure as hell has not.

Here are the average prices per year for Henry Hub natural gas:

2015: 2.62

2016: 2.52

2017: 2.99

2018: 3.15

2019: 2.56

2020: 2.03

2021: 3.89 +91.6%

2022: 6.45 +65.8%

2023: 2.53 -60.7%

That 92% jump in 2021 had nothing to do with Ukraine.

We're being gouged for green energy tomfoolery.

 

COMPLAIN, not to the utility, but to the utility commission. It's the only way.

 

In Michigan, go to:

 

https://www.michigan.gov/mpsc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In October 2023 it still costs 24% more to keep the lights on at home than it did on average for the four years 2017-2020

 

Dim bulb Jonathan Martin says Joe should heave Bidenomics into the dumpster just as broad inflation tanks from 3.7% yoy in September to 3.2% yoy in October

Perhaps the most overwhelming economic messaging advice I picked up from Democrats was for him to heave “Bidenomics” into the dumpster. Attempting to make voters believe something they don’t is folly. Attaching your name to that strategy borders on masochistic.

Here’s How Biden Can Turn It Around

Joe would be well on his way to re-election right now if he weren't shooting himself in the foot with his stupid green energy policies, which are keeping inflation from coming down harder than it already is.

That's what needs to go in the dumpster.

Joe Biden allocates $1.3 billion to supply 0.08% of 2022 electricity generation to three new projects by 2031 lololol

 What a hero.

Biden announces $1.3 billion to build new power lines, upgrade aging electric grid

The gas and electric utility Consumers Energy here in Michigan is price gouging under Green Energy Joe, yours probably is too

Compared to November 2020, my new budget plan payment for combined natural gas and electric for the coming winter will be 42% higher than it was three years ago, despite the fact that natural gas prices have normalized almost to the penny.

Electricity is up 25% since Green Energy Joe got elected and isn't coming down, but that can't account for it since I consume far less electricity than natural gas on an average basis. More than 65% of my energy consumption in kWh is from natural gas in the last year, as it is every year, less than 35% is from electricity.

A 25% increase to 35% of my old bill would result in a total payment today less than 9% higher. Instead it's 42% higher.

Remember that the utility uses natural gas to generate the electricity, too, and it's paying normal prices today for the gas, not the inflated prices of the recent past.

There's no excuse for the extra cost I'm paying.

The utility is price gouging.

 

 

 

Overall inflation reversed course and ticked higher in August 2023 on a monthly jump in overall energy prices

 Overall inflation jumped up to 3.7% year-over-year and 0.6% month-over-month on a 5.6% jump in overall energy inflation month-over-month in August 2023.

Month-over-month, electricity was up 0.2%, gasoline was up 10.6%, piped utility gas was up 0.6%, fuel oil and other fuels were up 8.4%. Meanwhile food was up 0.2%.

Core inflation (overall inflation less food and energy) increased mom 0.3% and is still running 4.4% yoy.

Services inflation is still running high at 5.4% yoy, less rent of shelter at 3.1% yoy.

Shelter inflation rose mom 0.3% in both measures, and 7.2% yoy seasonally adjusted.

Going forward I expect inflation pressures to persist because of Biden administration green energy fantasies and hatred of fossil fuels combining with OPEC+ production cuts continuing indefinitely. 

Chris Christie credits Fed interest rate policy for denting government-spending-induced inflation but misses the role of collapsing energy prices

 Chris Christie is a smart guy with many of the right ideas about government spending, taxes, inflation, energy, and the environment.

But it's a real stretch to think that the timid interest rate increases of the Fed are responsible for this year's so-far moderating inflation indicators when it's falling energy prices since the winter which deserve the real credit. Christie himself admits that outrageous government spending hasn't been curbed at all.

His is a simple binary view which, while conventional and correct as far as it goes, doesn't get to the heart of the current matter. 

Low energy prices have always been and remain key to a successful economy, and it was the spike in natural gas cost inputs because of the Russia-Ukraine war which accelerated inflation globally, not just in the US.

Fed chair Jerome Powell was correct in June of 2021 to believe that inflation would be transitory for "weak supply" reasons, but the Fed rate increases didn't actually commence until the start of the war in Ukraine, which compounded those reasons with the cutoff of European natural gas supplies.

But since the winter the natural gas price is down 73% from peak, coal is down 70%, and gasoline is down too, but a comparatively modest 24%. 

Americans consumed in 2022 the energy equivalent of 26.9 billion kWh/day of natural gas, 13 billion kWh/day of gasoline, and 7.9 billion kWh/day of coal.

Natural gas is twice as important as gasoline in the overall American energy picture, primarily for heating, and as a substitute for coal in electricity generation.

Natural gas produced 4.6 billion kWh/day of electricity in 2022, the top source of electricity, vs. coal at 2.3 billion kWh/day and nuclear at 2.1 billion kWh/day.

Chris Christie is right though. We must "uncap" US oil and gas production and be energy independent.

Europe's natural gas storage, by the way, is presently 93% full as the war in Ukraine drags on. They are ready.

The US used 88.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day in 2022. We presently have about 35 days in storage.

Crude oil consumption in 2022 was about 20.3 million barrels per day. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is down to about 17 days of supply, from about 35 in 2011.

 

Watch CNBC’s full interview with GOP Presidential Candidate Chris Christie

Christie lets Fed off the hook for inflation, blames Trump and Biden for overspending

 

 

Permanently higher prices for the basics looks to be the future

 The simple egg is now 25% more expensive at Sam's Club compared with pre-Covid. I used to pay routinely $3.98 for two dozen like those shown below. Prices nationally have fallen only to the unusually high levels of 2015.

Whole chicken is up 23%, electricity 18%, and both appear to be stable or rising.

Avian flu is now only sporadic.

 

My local utility has repriced my fixed monthly payment for natural gas and electricity for the next year

 The new price is down 30% from last year's horrendous price.

The monthly payment will now resemble the high end of normal I experienced in the years prior to the Russia-Ukraine War.

Like a boot off my neck.

Experts say EV fires can take hours, rather than minutes, to extinguish

 

 For more than a century, first responders have quite easily extinguished vehicle engine fires by popping the hood and drowning the area in water. That playbook doesn’t work with EVs.

More.

Imagine being on an all electric airplane at 35,000 feet.

Electricity cost a lot less when Hitler was president, just a few short years ago

 

Inflation remains a big problem in today's Consumer Price Index data

Services inflation is driving inflation now, 7.6% year over year in February. In a primarily service economy that's deeply serious. Wage and salary increases have penetrated deeply into everything, driving up the cost of using the services those people provide.

Electricity inflation is running at 12.9% year over year. 

Food inflation is still running at 9.5% year over year.

Overall core inflation in this data is at 5.5% year over year, more than double than under Trump.