Yes, the price of energy is going to rise in North Carolina, I’m sorry to say. The sad part is the cause. It’s not a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico or a war in the Mideast. It’s because our meddling state legislators have passed a bill to “Promote Renewable Energy/Baseload Generation“.
Now, if the bill said something like “It’s the sense of the NC Legislature that energy produced from renewable resources is a Good Thing, and we’d like to see more of it” I could live with it as just another waste of time on the part of our elected officials. (Official whats is another post entirely.) Unfortunately, they’ve decided to impose the requirement that all NC power utilities must generate 12.5% of their power from renewable sources by 2021.
Sure, 2021 is a long time off, and sure, they will allow utilities can take efficiency measures by customers into the total amount. However, studies show that electricity produced by renewable means costs as much as twice what we pay now. Yes, twice. The only way to make it economically competitive is to subsidize it, which is what many governments do.
And I guess we can ignore the pollution caused by the mining, smelting, transportation and manufacturing of all these wind turbines and solar panels. Or the lovely views of acres of solar panels and those unsightly wind farms. (Unless, of course, you’re rich and powerful and a US Senator.)
Meddling fools, the lot of them. Bring on the nuclear power plants, instead.
