Twenty-four-cent wind power would more than double the electric bills of tens of millions of Americans. But Obama and the liberals don't care about what would amount to a gigantic new tax on families who are far from the millionaires the president claims he wants to hurt.
Twenty-four-cent wind power would more than double the electric bills of tens of millions of Americans. But Obama and the liberals don't care about what would amount to a gigantic new tax on families who are far from the millionaires the president claims he wants to hurt.
After years of controversy, the nation's first big offshore wind farm is being constructed off the coast of Massachusetts. But there's a problem. The company, Cape Wind, is having trouble finding customers to buy the power it will generate.
That has prompted all sorts of recriminations from the liberal "green" crowd. But there's a simple explanation why some utilities are shying away from Cape Wind: cost.
One utility has agreed to buy some of Cape Wind's output - at 24 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity.
That is more than twice what we West Virginians and others in states where coal provides most of our power pay. Appalachian Power, a part of American Electric Power, says it charges residential customers 9.7 cents per kilowatt …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]After years of controversy, the nation's first big offshore wind farm is being constructed off the coast of Massachusetts. But there's a problem. The company, Cape Wind, is having trouble finding customers to buy the power it will generate.
That has prompted all sorts of recriminations from the liberal "green" crowd. But there's a simple explanation why some utilities are shying away from Cape Wind: cost.
One utility has agreed to buy some of Cape Wind's output - at 24 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity.
That is more than twice what we West Virginians and others in states where coal provides most of our power pay. Appalachian Power, a part of American Electric Power, says it charges residential customers 9.7 cents per kilowatt hour. The national average is 11.6. cents.
More than 96 percent of the electricity used in our state comes from coal-fired power plants. That has been a key factor in holding electric bills down here.
The Cape Wind situation illustrates the problem with "green" energy: It is far more expensive than conventional sources of power. Cost is one reason why President Barack Obama and other liberals want to wreck the coal industry or, in his own words, make it so expensive to use coal that no one will want to do so.
Alternative energy is an economic train wreck already in the process of occurring.
The collapse of solar energy giant Solyndra, which simply couldn't make itself competitive despite wasting $528 million in federal funds, makes that clear.
Twenty-four-cent wind power would more than double the electric bills of tens of millions of Americans. But Obama and the liberals don't care about what would amount to a gigantic new tax on families who are far from the millionaires the president claims he wants to hurt.