Illinois to Push for "Low Carbon Standard" : Customer Loses Again

What's new here? That the federal or state government is demanding to take control of energy resources in Illinois, forcing other companies to conform or die is just more of the same, government picking winners and losers. This is progressive socialism, nothing new here.

The carbon scam causing gas house gases to harm the planet, climate change or global warming, is and always has been a fraud from the beginning of the Obama administration. That one company is favored to control all others in this case is text book ideology for socialism. Free market forces can not have a hand in deciding outcomes for prosperity. Only government can decide winners and losers.

Little wonder out country is in decline.

The Exelon Bailout
Source: Matthew Glans, "Research & Commentary: The Exelon Bailout," Heritage Foundation, June 26, 2015.

June 29, 2015

Over the past year, the Exelon Corporation, which owns ComEd, the largest provider of electricity in Illinois, has been pushing state legislators to create a "low carbon portfolio standard" (LCPS). LCPS would mandate electric utilities purchase low-carbon energy credits to match 70 percent of the electricity used in their distribution systems from qualified sources, including solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, tidal, wave and clean coal. This bill would benefit Exelon, but not those who use electric power.

• Crain's Chicago Business noted the mandate would charge ratepayers $300 million annually, while making it both technologically and financially difficult for other wind and solar bidders to compete. Illinois currently has a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) mandating 25 percent of power distribution be composed of renewable energy (not including nuclear) by 2025. The new mandate would include nuclear energy as a qualifying power source. 
• Under the new mandate, utilities falling short of the 70 percent mark would be required to buy credits to bridge the difference. Price increases would also be capped at 2.015 percent per year compared to 2009 rates. 

The ideal policy approach for Illinois would be to repeal the RPS altogether. Short of that, the state could take smaller steps to help make its electricity less expensive and more competitive.

• Illinois should broaden the RPS standard to include all next-generation energy technologies, including nuclear, combined cycle natural gas, and geothermal. This is part of what Exelon wants - to include nuclear power in the renewable standard - but does not give the company a subsidy at the expense of other power sources, such as coal.
• The state should make the program more flexible by adjusting the targets and deadlines to reflect the real potential for renewable energy in Illinois and available technology. Finally, the state should make the program voluntary. These reforms would allow utilities and consumers to adapt to new technologies. 

The proposed mandate would benefit one energy company at the expense of others. The government should not decide winners and losers in any market.