{"id":97,"date":"2023-12-10T17:56:45","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T17:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/?p=97"},"modified":"2023-12-10T17:56:45","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T17:56:45","slug":"green-energy-subsidies-waste-of-money-and-raise-costs-for-consumers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/green-energy-subsidies-waste-of-money-and-raise-costs-for-consumers\/","title":{"rendered":"GREEN ENERGY SUBSIDIES-WASTE OF MONEY AND RAISE COSTS FOR CONSUMERS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crippling Economic Costs of Green Energy Subsidies TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The green energy subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act<\/a>\u00a0(IRA) have been justified by the Biden Administration as a booster of U.S. economic growth and jobs.\u00a0 But when the subsidies are tallied and the overall impacts evaluated, the IRA is a job and economic growth killer.<\/p>\n

Under the IRA, the lion\u2019s share of subsidies will be paid to wind and solar developers.\u00a0 The subsidies will not expire until electric industry carbon emissions fall by at least 75% below 2005 levels, after which they will gradually decrease. \u00a0Even the most optimistic forecasts prepared by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that this will not occur until at least\u00a02046<\/a>.\u00a0 Thus, the subsidies for wind and solar will continue unabated for decades.\u00a0 In total, the subsidies will far exceed what the U.S. government spent in today\u2019s dollars to combat the Great Depression.<\/p>\n

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The single largest subsidy is the federal investment tax credit (ITC). \u00a0Most wind and solar projects will be able to claim a minimum 30% ITC, plus be eligible for an additional 10% credit if the projects rely on domestic manufacturing for components.<\/p>\n

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The EIA\u2019s optimistic forecast\u00a0projects<\/a>\u00a0about 900,000 megawatts (MW) of solar photovoltaics, 350,000 MW of onshore wind turbines, and 24,000 MW of offshore wind by 2046.\u00a0 If all of this generation is built, it will result in direct ITC subsidies totaling between $500 billion and $1 trillion, depending on construction costs.\u00a0 The greater the costs, the larger the subsidies.\u00a0 Although wind and solar proponents still claim costs are falling, the reality is the opposite.\u00a0\u00a0 Offshore wind developers, especially, are clamoring to renegotiate contracts they signed previously, including guaranteed price adjustments for increasing costs, and relaxing the domestic content requirement so they can claim the additional 10% ITC.<\/p>\n

Despite spiraling deficits \u2013 almost\u00a0$2 trillion<\/a>\u00a0in the fiscal year that ended this past October \u2013 green energy subsidies will be financed with still more government debt.\u00a0 With the increase in interest rates to normal levels, financing costs will soar, adding an estimated $500 to $800 billion to the bill costs, almost as much as the subsidies themselves.<\/p>\n

The envisioned spending and subsidies for green energy, several hundred billion dollars annually just for wind and solar generation, will distort energy markets.\u00a0 First, they will crowd out more productive private investment in the energy sector and reduce the resources available for more efficient forms of generation, especially small modular reactors.\u00a0 Second, as the deficit increases further, higher interest rates will crowd out private investment in more productive private sectors of the economy.<\/p>\n

Along with the Administration\u2019s push to \u201celectrify\u201d the economy, such as higher vehicle mileage standards that act as a\u00a0de facto<\/em>\u00a0mandate for electric vehicles and proposed bans on natural gas appliances, the result, as has been experienced in Europe, will be soaring electricity prices. \u00a0Those higher prices will reduce economic growth and employment, far more so than the green energy investments can boost it. \u00a0Although the subsidies will benefit wind and solar developers, but the overall economic impacts for the country will be crippling.<\/p>\n

One gauge of the adverse economic impacts of green subsidies is the cost to taxpayers to create the promised thousands of green energy jobs, especially for offshore wind.\u00a0 Using offshore wind developers\u2019 claimed employment impacts, the average subsidy for each green job created will be over $2 million\u00a0per year<\/em>.\u00a0 Forcing taxpayers to pay millions of dollars each year for each job created, while claiming that doing so will bolster the U.S. economy, is\u00a0Alice in Wonderland<\/em>\u00a0economics.<\/p>\n

Politicians who promote green energy and their own short-term self-interests may prefer to ignore basic economic realities, but those economic realities will have their revenge. \u00a0Eventually, the profligate spending on low-value green energy will collapse under its economic weight, having inflicted much socioeconomic damage.<\/p>\n

Sadly, this is not an experiment that the U.S. needs to undertake; European experience and basic economics tell us all we need to know.\u00a0 The costs of keeping homes supplied with energy have increased significantly for homeowners wherever this ill-fated experiment was tried. But as the lyrics from the old song begin, \u201cfools rush in \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Is there anything the government does well to truly help its citizens? NO.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crippling Economic Costs of Green Energy Subsidies TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY! The green energy subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act\u00a0(IRA) have been justified by the Biden Administration as a booster of U.S. economic growth and jobs.\u00a0 But when the subsidies are tallied and the overall impacts evaluated, the IRA is a job and economic growth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions\/102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}