Coming Home To Roost - The Other Shoe Drops

I posted earlier about New England’s energy growing energy deficit and possible rolling blackouts due to the fragility of the electrical grid because of decreasing generation capacity and a shortage of natural gas. There’s also the other side-effects of now making themselves felt: Skyrocketing electrical and natural gas prices that have increased at well above what we usually see this time of year.

Granite Staters report higher costs on their utility bills than normal as winter begins.

Liberty gas customer Michael Cammarata said he paid 55 cents a therm for natural gas this time last year. In 2021, he was charged $1.10.

"It is coming up with a 100% increase, just astounding. It boggles the mind," Cammarata said. "Finally, the retirement status hits you square in the head. Your income stays the same, and everything else is going up."

--snip--

Electricity bills are rising, as well, according to Until media relations manager Alec O'Meara.

"There are really two parts of the utility bill," O'Meara said. "There is the distribution piece which is effectively your local utility."

O'Meara said that part includes everything from staff to trucks.

Second is the supply part of the bill, "and that changes every six months and it ties to the market cost of the electricity itself," O'Meara said.

One factor that makes this even worse is that a lot of this is self-inflicted. Activists fought tooth and nail against projects that would have relieved both the energy deficit and helped keep the cost of energy in check.

There were two Hydro Quebec power line projects that would have brought abundant, cheap, and clean electricity into New England. One, the Northern Pass project, was canceled after opposition in the North Country of New Hampshire found support in Concord. The second, the Central Maine Power project that was seen as an alternative to the canceled Northern Pass project that would have brought that electricity through Maine is now in jeopardy after a state ballot made some aspects of the project illegal after the fact.

Another project that would have brought enough natural gas into New England from Pennsylvania to meet the region’s needs suffered a similar fate. The proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline would have brought cheap domestic natural gas into New England. But again the activists fought it and killed the project. Instead we have to import expensive natural gas from overseas from unreliable sources.

And people are wondering why their electricity and natural gas bills have doubled? The answer to that question is easy: The know-nothing activists figured they knew better what was needed than everyone else and made sure they got what they wanted. And now their ‘chickens’ have come home to roost and we’re all paying the price for it.

Gee. Thanks.

NOT.