ALBANY - The New York State Public Service Commission (Commission) today
announced it would hold public statement hearings on proposals by New York
State Electric & Gas Corporation (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric
Corporation (RG&E) to increase rates.
http://www.empirestatenews.net/News/20100422-7.html
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The slow squeeze of the Spanish corp. Iberdrola (owner of NYSEG and RG&E) on
NY rate payers has begun. The bright side is that there's no better way to
promote energy conservation than rate increases and, in the current green
energy frenzy, there's currently no better way to grease the wheel for such
rate increases than utility-scale wind turbines. The UK, which is about a
decade ahead of the US in windpower development, is currently subsidizing
wind energy at a rate of 12 Euros per month on average residential
electricity bills. The first offshore wind projects in the US are trying to
lock in 20+ cent/kW-h contracts.
I personally don't see how it is possible that utility-scale wind energy
will make a significant dent in the climate crisis. The US has ~1.5% wind
energy now and with a huge buildout we might get to 20-30% -- but that's
similar to the forecasted increase in electrical usage over the next 20
years. Wind was a well-intended initiative that now has a faith-based
inertia which is falling prey to large corporations like GE, BP, FPL, and
Iberdrola. The biggest contribution of utility-scale wind power to the
climate crisis perhaps will not be it's clean energy production -- but an
order of magnitude increase in US electric rates over the next 20 years.
I'd personally rather wholely bypass utility-scale wind energy and see such
an electric rate increase in the form of a tax that would raise funds for a
technological revolution in cheap home-scale electricity -- but that seems a
huge challenge politically and the window may have passed with 45+ wind
projects already underway in NY. So, I am all for corporate wind energy, but
not for the illusion painted by the big corps of a green planet -- rather,
as the most expedient means to increase electric rates in order to reduce
mass consumption.
Bill Evans
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