Monique Chartier: RI Officials Must Lift Mandate for Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Energy Sources

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Guest MINDSETTER ™ Monique Chartier

 

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One of Rhode Island's biggest energy challenges is high electric rates. This can be traced largely to an inadequate fuel supply, especially in the winter, for electric generating plants. Now that the EPA has effectively regulated coal and oil out of the picture, a move that many view as quixotic and premature, electric generation for Rhode Island and other New England states is largely dependent upon natural gas. But the supply of natural gas to the region has been inadequate, particularly in the winter, when demand rises for heat.  Supply and demand forces inevitably kicked in: the supply of natural gas hasn't been enough to meet demand. So the price naturally rose. Now all ratepayers are paying a much higher price, unnecessarily, for electricity and heat, adding to Rhode Island's already high cost of living.

Exacerbating the state's high electric rates is a mandate by the General Assembly that, by 2020, 16% of the state's electricity must be generated by "eligible renewable energy resources." Everyone is pulling for the discovery or invention of a renewable energy source that is inexpensive, reliable and widely available. But it simply hasn't arrived yet.  Not only are renewables extremely expensive and unreliable, the ability to store their power, a vital component of the transition to a wider use of renewable energy, is very limited.

Deepwater Wind has become Exhibit A of the huge drawback - a very high price to the ratepayer - of renewable energy.  At 18 cents per kilowatt-hour, Rhode Island already has the fourth highest retail electric rate in the continental US.  Yet the cost of Deepwater Wind's electricity will START well above that, at 24.4 cents per kilowatt-hour, and will increase EACH YEAR by 3.5% for twenty years.  Many, many Rhode Island ratepayers are understandably questioning the wisdom of this project.  Far from being a noble achievement, as some view this boutique generating project, prior state officials have only succeeded in heaping yet another burden onto Rhode Island residents and businesses by compelling us all to purchase Deepwater's very pricey electricity.

Funding for the other renewable energy source, solar, similarly comes at the expense of Rhode Island ratepayers and taxpayers.  Solar projects, depending upon size and location, can receive tax credits and can be funded in part by grants drawn from a surcharge on everyone's electric bill.  So ratepayers are effectively being compelled to pay their own electric bill PLUS part of the cost of someone else's electricity!

Advocates have assured us that it's only a matter of time before the price of renewable energy comes down.  Why, it will be just like other technologies, they've been saying: expensive at first but then the price will drop to a reasonable level.  But let's stop and review.  Wind and solar have been around since the 1980's.  While the price of all kinds of other high-priced technology and gadgets from that era - personal computers, CD players, big screen televisions - dropped dramatically to an affordable, competitive level, the price of wind and solar did not follow suit.

A generating plant powered by natural gas has been proposed for Burrillville.  This is cautiously good news.  Far more important is the pending expansion of the Algonquin gas pipeline, which will hopefully ease supply issues and facilitate lower electric and heating prices.  Equally important is a realization by our elected officials of the very high cost born by Rhode Islanders when the purchase of technologically immature energy sources is mandated.  Our elected officials need to reverse course away from policies that contribute to Rhode Island's too-high cost of living without an environmental benefit that corresponds to the high price tag.

We are all standing by to greet, with champagne and cheers, the discovery of an affordable, reliable, widely available renewable energy source.  But mandating the use of the current (outdated?) generation of very expensive renewables will not usher in the discovery of this much-desired but still elusive affordable, reliable renewable energy source.  Until renewable energy can stand on its own, without subsidies or mandates, it needs to be taken off the grid by our elected officials.

Monique Chartier is Communications Director for Rhode Island Taxpayers, which advocates for honest, effective and fiscally sound government on behalf of Rhode Island individual and business taxpayers.

 

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