Electricity prices soar as government regulation surges

The Cost Of Green: In the midst of an unparalleled energy boom, U.S. electricity prices have skyrocketed to new highs. This paradox is a result not of the free market, but of runaway government "green" regulation.

Unnoticed by virtually everyone except the sharp-eyed folks at CNSNews.com, new federal data show that electricity prices have never been higher.

In November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Electricity Price Index hit 202.284, an all-time record and nearly 20% higher than just six years ago.

This might strike some as strange, given the private-sector shale-fracking boom going on in the Midwest, Northeast and Texas, which has led to soaring new domestic supplies of natural gas and oil.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, as recently as 2008 the U.S. produced 2.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. Today, it's 12.3 billion cubic feet and growing fast — truly astounding growth.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is on the verge of producing more oil than it ever has, and domestic sources now outstrip foreign ones. Thanks to fracking, more's on the way.

But as energy booms, electricity prices are going up.

Is it just another case of greedy energy companies and utilities sticking it to consumers? Hardly. You might hear that from your local Democratic politician, but it ain't so.

What's really at work here is simple: Through unnecessary regulations, government has destroyed another working market, telling us what kind of energy to use regardless of cost — based solely on the green movement's moral beliefs about what kinds of energy are "good."

Electricity is now one of the most regulated goods in the U.S. Thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency's sweeping powers to regulate C02 — a power we can't find anywhere in the Constitution — electricity is becoming a very expensive commodity.

And it's about to get even more so. According to the Institute for Energy Research, EPA rules put in place to please environmentalists will remove 34,705 megawatts of coal-based energy capacity off our market.

Think about it: That's equal to about 10% of what we now produce with coal being removed from the grid.

The EPA's new rules issued in September are a de facto ban on all new coal-fired plants. This despite the fact coal accounts for a third of all electricity in the U.S., due to its cheap cost and plentiful supply — and despite the fact C02 levels are falling in the U.S., not rising.

Still, the demonization of coal and other fossil fuels means utilities must shut coal-fired plants and replace them with pricier energy sources — like wind and solar.

And you foot the bill, as recent electricity prices show. Consider it a massive, hidden energy tax levied on every American and every business, killing jobs and output.

Angry? Hey, don't curse your local utility. Just thank the green movement and President Obama. As with the ObamaCare debacle, another job well done.