As soon as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 passed both chambers in Washington, D.C., proponents began to refer to the 700+ page leviathan as a “Climate Change Bill.” Why the sudden shift? In reality, this is an installment on Biden’s failed “Build Back Better” plan, as well as the progressives’ Green New Deal. We do not have a majority of American voters supporting the Green New Deal, so Washington powerbrokers hid that part from us. In plain sight. All we had to do was look below the headlines.
Our failure to perform individual due diligence will now result in more inflation (at least in the early years), higher taxes (when the Trump tax cuts expire in 2026), and higher energy costs, due to increased costs of wind and solar power generation. Yet, we are promised individual energy savings as the transition takes place. What slight-of-tongue sorcery supports that concept?
In a nutshell, costs of generating wind and solar power are estimated by the sorcerers using LCOE, or Levelized Cost of Energy, which includes complete costs for equipment, operation, and maintenance. It also assumes 24/7/365 production on all installations. All day, all night, all weather. However, the wind doesn’t always blow on windmills’ blades, and the sun doesn’t always shine on photovoltaic cells. The annual utilization of these assets is always less than 100%. Actual kilowatt-hour costs must be adjusted for capacity utilization, estimated at 40% for wind, and 30% for solar.
All-in costs, or LCOE, must then be applied to far fewer operational hours (and hence kilowatts) per year, raising actual per-kilowatt costs to consumers. Once the adjustment has taken place, suddenly wind and solar are dramatically more expensive than fossil-fuel power. There go the savings, and the “Big Lie” is left exposed. None of this even considers the necessary cost of duplicating the new capacity of wind and solar, so that fossil fuel systems can be activated during periods of no wind and no sun.
Far too often, within the halls of Congress (and in the supportive media), misleading names are assigned to legislation in order to obfuscate the true meaning and intent of the proposal. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is a classic illustration. Even worse, false naming obscures the crafty “estimating” of costs and savings within provisions of the legislation. Understated financial costs and embellished benefits are used to placate the electorate and reduce dissent.
For an excellent explanation of true costs of wind and solar energy, go to https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/06/25/the-real-cost-of-wind-and-solar/.
We’ve been had.
Van Wie Financial is fee-only. For a reason.
