A utility watchdog in California confirms what I’ve been saying. California’s manic push for renewables will cost consumers huge amounts of money. Yes, I favor renewable energy. But this is crony capitalism. Deep pocket investors (including Google) are building huge solar and wind projects and the California public will be forced by the new laws to buy that power, regardless of cost.
Dozens of renewable energy plants being built to meet California’s tough global warming laws are so overpriced they will increase consumers’ energy bills for decades, according to the independent watchdog arm of the state’s utility regulator.
The proposed Abengoa solar thermal plant is $1.25 billion over market price, said the watchdog. Yet the Commission President rammed it through anyway, cost and taxpayers be damned.
Commission President Michael Peevey, who pushed to approve the Abengoa contract with no modifications, said the Mojave solar plant’s benefits could not be measured by cost alone.
What complete rubbish. Of course cost should be a primary consideration. That it isn’t simply reeks of a captured regulatory agency doing the bidding of those looking to gouge the public.