It’s reported that the Federal Government paid the energy bills for 12,000 dead people and 750 convicts. Through the low-income subsidy program, the government once again demonstrates how inept they are at doing anything. Your tax dollars that were earmarked for folks who don’t work actually got to people who aren’t alive, or to someone smarter than a government worker, a worker who is barely alive. Doesn’t this make you want to jump in and support the Obama plan to have the government do everything? If I haven’t convinced you yet, read the next energy mess.
Obama was pitching a $5 billion expansion of tax credits for clean-energy manufacturing while campaigning in Nevada for Harry Reid. Obama says it will create 40,000 jobs nationwide. It’s never a plan that says we will get this amount of energy at this price for $5 billion. Just, how many jobs it will create.
Here’s how it works in practice. Five suburban communities in Chicago land got sucked into one of these great ideas. Since most community leaders are so dedicated to fixing climate change, they are easy marks for these scams. Naperville, Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles, and Winnetka jumped into a 28 year contract for coal-fired, power.
The Prairie State Energy Campus sold them on this opportunity to lock in cheap energy long-term. The new plant was designed by Peabody Energy to burn their nearby coal. They bought based on a cost of $2 billion and a promise to produce enough electricity to power 2 million homes. The cost is now $4.4 billion and it’s not completed yet. Peabody kept only 5% of the equity. (smarter than a government worker)
An estimate was done that projects the power costs to residents of these communities to be $63.40 a megawatt hour in 2013, up 30 percent from 2007.
That estimate was done before the EPA unleashed it’s latest attack on coal power plants. Bottom line, that will add another 20% in cost to buy credits to cover the carbon emissions.
What will happen in these communities? People will move out and people won’t move in. With a locked-in power rate 50% higher than neighboring communities it’s like a big tax increase.
Who will take the fall for this? Nobody. The green dreamers who decided this was a smart idea won’t run again. Peabody will sell the coal. Only the poor people in these communities who thought they were so green will now find out green isn’t free. They will have to cut things in the budget to pay the power bill. They may not be able to sell their house or will have to sell for less, since the word will get out on the power bills in these communities.
It’s only the tip of the iceberg, with another $5 billion from Obama, more great ideas like the Peabody plant will be evoked. More green dreamers will buy into the ideas. More costs will skyrocket since none of the outputs will be competitive with current energy costs. Someone will keep subsidizing it. Probably the Feds. It will be the gift that keeps on giving, you pay the tax credits to get the idea off the ground, then you pay the subsidies that citizens can’t afford. Aren’t you so lucky to be so green? Just remember, you are helping Obama save the planet.
