PPH - New England states’ renewable energy push blasted as too costly by free-market advocates

New England states’ renewable energy push blasted as too costly by free-market advocates

Clean energy supporters and environmentalists pushed back, calling the conservative groups' conclusions inaccurate and misleading.

Posted November 20

Stephen Singer

Portland Press Herald

EXCERPTS

Conservative think tanks in New England are taking aim at state energy policies that promote zero-carbon energy to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“The Staggering Costs of New England’s Green Energy Policies,” a report released Tuesday by the Denver-based organization Always On Energy Research, and signed onto by free-market advocacy groups in New England, says ratepayers’ bills will double, to $4,610 by 2050, as a result of state policies, or “mandates,” to promote green energy.

Decarbonization plans calling for construction of offshore and onshore wind, solar arrays, battery storage and transmission projects will cost hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 26 years, the report says. The authors of the study say their analysis does not include a calculation of cost savings in New Hampshire for continued use of natural gas.

Environmental advocates blasted the report, calling it inaccurate and misleading. The Acadia Center, a climate and clean energy advocacy group, said the report “overlooks enormous costs borne by ratepayers under today’s fossil grid.”

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The report, backed by conservative think tanks, including the Maine Policy Institute, says more than doubling the amount of power from renewable energy cited in an October study by ISO-New England, the region’s grid operator, would provide electricity more reliably, but would be cost prohibitive. It said it would cost New England ratepayers $815 billion through 2050, excluding the impact of federal subsidies...............................

............................Electricity prices in New England have increased by more than one-third since 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The average retail price rose to 28.73 cents a kilowatt-hour last year from 21.25 cents in 2020. Numerous reasons include the price of natural gas, which is a main resource used by generators, gas pipeline constraints such as limited capacity and state clean energy policies.

The Acadia Center acknowledged the costs of shifting to zero-carbon energy. “Let’s be candid: There will be significant costs from the energy transition (and significant benefits as well),” it said...........................

............................Emily K. Green, acting vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation Maine called the report “unscientific and wildly inaccurate.”

“It is also at odds with the Maine Governor’s Energy Office findings that a clean energy pathway can result in overall energy supply costs remaining generally stable,” she said.

The full article can be read at                                               

https://www.pressherald.com/2024/11/20/new-england-states-renewable...

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