via Gregory Wrightstone & Gordon’s Tomb In RealClear Energy above July 22, 2022
As taxes on fossil fuel use are being debated in Pennsylvania and Virginia, an analysis shows the failure of efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the name of saving the planet.
According to a multi-state organization called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), Virginia has taxed electricity producers on the basis of the amount of carbon dioxide they emit when they burn fossil fuels – mainly coal and natural gas. Efforts to get the state to withdraw from the RGGI appear to have stalled. Pennsylvania officially joined the RGGI on July 1 and will begin collecting a carbon tax next year unless a challenger court or Republican takeover of the governor’s office this fall manages to reverse its participation. state.
In both states, opponents of the carbon tax have pointed out that the justifications for the RGGI have no scientific basis. Meaning, there is no climate emergency the Earth needs to save. And, in any case, the so-called solution offered by RGGI will make no difference in current or future weather. So far, such rational and common-sense expressions have not been enough to derail a program that promises higher electricity prices and job losses.
Maybe those powers should read a recent analysis by David Stevenson, director of the Delaware-based Caesar Rodney Institute’s Center for Energy & Environment: Increasing use of wind and solar power – climate alarmists’ preferred alternatives to with fossil fuels – has not been able to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the PJM Interconnection service According to Mr. Stevenson, during 2019-21, despite an additional $1 billion per year in electricity costs due to subsidies and taxes.
Mr. Stevenson wrote: “Wind and solar power generation are really poor technologies that no one can use without perpetual government mandate and huge subsidies and taxes. is adding $1 billion a year to the cost of electricity.” “They are also unreliable, non-recyclable, have a negative impact on the environment, have a shorter production life than alternative power sources, and take up a lot of space. If it doesn’t reduce carbon dioxide emissions why do we use wind and solar energy? “
Both Pennsylvania and Virginia are part of the PJM power grid, which serves 65 million people in 13 states – primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and extending into parts of the Midwest. This is the largest such regional grid, providing 22% of the country’s electricity.
Stevenson found: Although carbon dioxide emissions fell by 0.9% during the study period, the reduction could be 2.5% but for the inefficiencies of coal-fired plants. Subsidized wind and solar power facilities are commissioned before other sources but must be powered by fossil fuels, nuclear and hydro when wind and sunlight are not available. The efficiency of coal plants decreases as they have to rise and fall to adapt to changes in wind and solar, resulting in increased plant emissions.
Stevenson attributes the relatively small reduction in carbon dioxide emissions to the replacement of some coal-fired plants with lower-carbon natural gas.
“Reducing CO2 with wind and solar power will come at a heavy price. Taxpayers and electricity customers provide expensive subsidies totaling nearly $2 billion over 2020-21, or $1 billion a year,” he said.
The combined wind and solar power in PJM grew by about 30% between 2019-21, but still only about 4% of total production despite more than a decade of trusts and subsidies, Stevenson said. grant.
So pouring money into wind and solar has done little more than transferring wealth from taxpayers and consumers to the climate-industrial complex. Can Pennsylvanians and Virginians expect RGGI to do anything else?
Gregory Wrightstone is the CEO of CO2 Alliancea geologist, former IPCC reviewer and author of “The inconvenient truth: The science Al Gore doesn’t want you to know.“
Gordon Tomb is a Senior Advisor for CO2 Alliance, a senior fellow of the Commonwealth Foundation, and chief editor of “The inconvenient truth: The science Al Gore doesn’t want you to know.“
This commentary was first published by Real Clear Energy on July 22, 2022
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