I came across this in the Chicago Tribune today. Apparently, due to new EPA regulations on power generation, we can expect our electrical bills to go up between 40% and 60% in the next three years. Yikes.
This increase will come as a direct result of this administration's actions on the regulatory front. While these actions are probably popular among the faithful here, their impact will be enormously regressive. As plants close down and enormous amounts of money are poured by power companies into upgrading others the costs will be passed on to consumers. Gas prices will likely still be in the $3-4/gallon range, if not higher. The expense of energy will ripple through the economy. Other industries, faced with higher energy rates, will likely have to lay off workers.
The story indicates that
In 2014 those so-called capacity costs are expected to add approximately $2.7 million over the previous year to electricity bills in Chicago Public Schools, $3.3 million for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and $5.4 million to the city of Chicago
If Chicago is anything like Cleveland, the schools don't have any room in the budget for an additional $2.7 million in costs. More teacher layoffs would result.
The problem is that for all their promise, renewables cannot make up the difference in that time frame, if ever. As these coal plants shut down, there will be little there to replace them. Higher prices, more blackouts, especially during peak usage times such as summer heat waves, etc. will be only a few of the immediate consequences. Certainly people/businesses will make more efforts to conserve, but with increases of 40-60%, it's still gonna hurt bad.
The fact seems to be that for all the good that is intended, the unintended costs of these regulations could in fact kill a recovery that hopefully is gaining some steam by 2014. Perhaps the EPA should delay their implementation until such time as the economy can handle it. Otherwise, this could be a pretty hard-to-defend political burden on the economy at a time when the focus of the electorate is on jobs and economic recovery, not on the environment.