Solar and wind bills, subsidies, mandates etc., brought to us by layer upon layer of dysfunctional agenda-driven government will create never seen before burdens on Mainers. These burdens will have the greatest effect on the folks who can least afford it.
Listen to today's important 14 minute WVOM audio for James LaBrecque's five year prediction of where electricity costs are headed. While each new bill, subsidy, mandate, etc. is always sold to Mainers as representing a supposed small cost (or a lie that costs will drop), the cumulative effect of these cost increases will have devastating effects on the state's economy. Maine already limps along as a high tax state with above average energy costs and a cold climate. Our representatives should be doing everything in their power to reduce energy costs and make us more competitive. Instead, at every turn, they are strangling us with costly burdensome policy that attacks the middle class and lines the pockets of scheming insiders.
Todays radio show and a few from the past.
Today
https://www.wvomfm.com/episode/ghrt-rewind-12-18-labrecque-5-year-p...
Last week
https://www.wvomfm.com/episode/ghrt-rewind-12-11-labrecque-solar-fa...
Part A
https://www.wvomfm.com/episode/ghrt-rewind-12-04-fact-check-solar-p...
Part B
https://www.wvomfm.com/episode/ghrt-rewind-12-04-fact-check-solar-p...
Week of 09-24-19
https://www.wvomfm.com/episode/ghrt-rewind-09-24-labrecque-mills-ca...
8 Reasons why the Green New Deal won’t happen
https://www.wvomfm.com/episode/ghrt-rewind-11-20-labrecque-top-8-re...
https://www.wvomfm.com/episode/ghrt-rewind-11-06-labrecque-blaine-h...
Comment
That is a lot of rah rah on top of expensive wind and solar in New England.
https://www.rechargenews.com/transition/liquid-air-storage-offers-c...
Comments on Below Table
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/cost-shifting-is-the-na...
Indirect subsidies are due to loan interest deduction and depreciation deductions from taxable incomes.
Direct subsidies are due to up front grants, waiving of state sales taxes, and/or local property (municipal and school) taxes. See URL.
An owner of ridgeline wind would have to sell his output at 18.8 c/kWh, if the owner were not getting the benefits of cost shifting and upfront cash grants and subsidies.
That owner could sell his output at 16.4 c/kWh, if his costs were reduced due to cost shifting.
He could sell his output at 9 c/kWh, if on top of the cost shifting he also received various subsidies. The same rationale holds for solar. See table.
In NE construction costs of ridgeline wind and offshore wind are high/MW, and the capacity factor of wind is about 0.285 and of solar about 0.14. Thus, NE wind and solar have high prices/MWh. See table.
In US areas, such as the Great Plains, Texas Panhandle and Southwest, with much lower construction costs/MW and much better sun and wind conditions than New England, wind and solar electricity prices/MWh are less.
Those lower prices often are mentioned, without mentioning other factors, by the pro-RE media and financial consultants, such as Bloomberg, etc., which surely deceives the lay public
Future electricity cost/MWh, due to the planned build-out of NE offshore wind added to the planned build-out of NE onshore wind, likely would not significantly change, because of the high costs of grid extensions and upgrades to connect the wind plants and to provide significantly increased connections to the New York and Canadian grids.
NOTE: For the past 20 years, Germany and Denmark have been increasing their connections to nearby grids, because of their increased wind and solar.
The subsidy percentages in below table are from a cost analysis of NE wind and solar in this article. See URL.
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/excessive-subsidies-for...
Values for 2018 are represented in below table.
NE Wind/Solar |
NE Wind |
% |
NE Solar |
% |
||
Ridgeline |
Large-scale |
|||||
c/kWh |
c/kWh |
|||||
Price to utility |
No direct/indirect subsidies |
No cost shifting |
18.8 |
100 |
23.5 |
100 |
Less cost shifting |
2.4 |
13 |
2.1 |
9 |
||
Price to utility |
No direct/indirect subsidies |
With cost shifting |
16.4 |
87 |
21.4 |
91 |
Less subsidy, wind |
45% of 16.4 |
7.4 |
39 |
|||
Less subsidy, solar |
45% of 21.4 |
9.6 |
41 |
|||
Price to utility* |
With direct/indirect subsidies |
With cost shifting |
9.0 |
48 |
11.8 |
50 |
Steal from the poor, give to the rich
Maine has a history of poor business climate issues lead by high taxes, high transportation and energy costs. Mills' recently announced 10 year plan fails on all levels to addresses the state's competitive deficiencies. With the democrats in full control for the forseeable future, I see us falling into the death spiral of states like Illinois, California and New York. More people will leave, business growth will falter, taxes and energy costs will continue to rise.
Arthur - I would add that none of this abuse happens without the incessant cheer leading of the Maine media and the overall mainstream media. Watchdogs have become propagandists. People are waking up though.
Why utilize energy common sense as spoken by LaBrecque, when legislative graft , subsidy abuse and energy stupidity is serving its elite ruling class very well, to the detriment of the general population.
There are reasons Maine is behind the 8 Ball economically.
Too few in Maine seem to care perhaps, and do not demand representation of their best interests.
Elites are ruining Maine.
U.S. Sen Angus King
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.
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-- Mahatma Gandhi
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Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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