Energy Costs to Sky Rocket -

A very interesting article on energy costs from our local cooperative, Wisconsin Energy Cooperative, detailing what we must look for before we decide what to do about global warming.

In my view, green house gas build up from CO2 is mostly hog wash, but take a minute and decide for your self what this all means for our future energy bills. That there is Climate change is mostly agreed upon, but just what is the cause is very debatable.

I have posted on this very subject in the near past but find it most interesting how the power companies are trying to approach the subject as rationally as possible when our politicians are not.

I hope cool heads will prevail - keep the faith, the battle is joined!


America’s Perfect Storm

Can We Keep Up with Rising Energy Costs?

According to ABC News and other recent polls, the American public is generally aware of climate change and proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They are unclear, however, about what needs to be done, who should do it, and what it will cost.

Resoundingly though, consumers say they don’t want to get stuck with a big price tag to pay for climate change solutions.

Ways of curbing greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, involve energy efficiency, new technologies (such as finding ways to store carbon dioxide emissions produced by coal- and natural gas-fired power plants), nuclear power, and renewable energy resources. But what will these solutions cost?

According to a The Washington Post article, electricity bills could rise by 25 to 33 percent just to “stimulate and pay for new technologies.”

Increases Loom

“All of this presents a huge challenge for electric utilities, especially electric cooperatives,” says Glenn English, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), representing the nation’s 900-plus not-for-profit, consumer-owned electric co-ops. “Electricity demand is increasing because of growth, and we need to build more generating plants and transmission lines to meet this growing demand.”


According to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation—which oversees reliability of the bulk power system covering the U.S. and most of Canada—demand for electricity will increase 18 percent over the next 10 years, although the electric industry’s capacity to generate power will increase by only 8.5 percent.

A longer-term forecast by the U.S. Department of Energy predicts that demand for electricity will increase by 40 percent during the next 25 years. Clearly, the country could face brownouts and blackouts unless additional power plants are brought into service.
“With a shortage of electric capacity, huge increases in demand for power, and the cost of climate change, we have the making of a perfect storm,” says English.


Big-Ticket Item

Based on calculations by Charles River Associates, a utility analysis firm, climate change proposals currently circulating in Congress, if passed, could result in a 50- to 80-percent increase in wholesale power costs by the year 2020. Translate that into retail rates and electricity bills could climb by 25 to 40 percent.


“When it comes to climate change, Congress will legislate and state and local governments are already moving forward,” says NRECA Vice President of Environmental Issues Kirk Johnson. “With carbon constraints in our future, it’s essential that lawmakers and elected representatives understand the financial repercussions their political actions could cost Americans.”

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal observed this past summer that the cost issue needs to be considered. If climate change legislation is not handled intelligently and carefully given these accumulating factors, electric bills could double or even triple, based on the best available estimates.


The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a non-profit utility-sponsored consortium whose members include electric co-ops, has developed a seven-part plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions based on technological solutions including energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage, and renewable sources. Although ambitious, the EPRI model would cut carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels (45 percent) by 2030.

Efficiency, Renewables, New Tech


Energy efficiency— reducing the amount of power needed—remains one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. However, energy efficiency alone can’t indefinitely postpone the need to build new power plants or meet climate-change targets, says EPRI, noting that efficiency improvements will reduce electric demand just 9 percent over the next 22 years

Renewable energy and nuclear power development are greatly impacted by massive global price increases for raw materials like nickel, copper, steel, and concrete, all of which raise construction costs for new generating plants. And renewable energy sources, like wind turbines, require transmission lines to move any power generated. At present, the nation’s electric grid is not equipped to do so.


With 50 percent of the nation’s power supply produced by burning coal, research and development of carbon capture and storage technology becomes crucial for keeping coal-fired power plants viable—and the lights on, according to EPRI. The institute’s best guess, however, is that affordable carbon capture and storage technology could hit the market as early as 2020, but that’s only if the federal government embarks on a massive $30 billion research and development program (bigger than putting a man on the moon).

Since no single “silver bullet” solution for tackling climate change exists, electric co-ops are working closely with policymakers to seek long-term, practical, and affordable remedies to the nation’s energy challenges.—

National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, with source material from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, EPRI, Department of Energy, Charles River Associates, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal