The Enormous Costs of Remaking the US Electric Power System

The climate alarmists are not only trying to argue that carbon dioxide is a pollutant and human-caused emissions should be controlled and reduced rather than the miracle molecule that makes life on Earth possible. They are also trying to get others to pay the extremely high costs of rebuilding and replacing the non-“renewable” plus hydro parts of the current electric power generating system.

They put forward the claim that it is necessary to avoid catastrophic increases in global temperatures, but never really consider the lack of actual benefits and the huge costs involved. Fossil fuel and nuclear electric generating units are generally built for many years of operation and are very expensive to replace or modify. Replacement should not be undertaken unless the operating costs of the replacement are less than the operating costs of the plant replaced since it can have huge effects on the cost and reliability of the electricity so vital to our civilization.

Unfortunately, the alarmists do not seem to understand electric power systems any better than they do climate. Yet many people fail to understand the expensive havoc that the alarmists can do to the economy and the electric supply system in particular. If the climate alarmists have their way on these issues the result may well be very expensive for our civilization, as it is already in some “green” Western European nations, some Canadian provinces, and South Australia. A recent study supports this. A more readable summary can be found here.

This study shows that rather than being less expensive because of “free” solar and wind “fuel,” alternative electric power systems emphasizing “renewable” power sources and deemphasizing fossil fuel, hydro, and nuclear plants would be much more expensive and much less reliable than the current system. The alternative would results in little or no reduction in electric sector carbon dioxide emissions because the carbon dioxide emissions profile of prematurely retired power supply resources is less than or equal to the emissions profile of the replacement power resources. Unfortunately, the alternative system closely resembles what the climate alarmists and state governments favoring climate alarmism now propose. Happily, the US Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to repeal their requirements for such alternative power systems (their so-called Clean Power Plan).

The objective of restructuring the electric power supply system should be to minimize the cost of electric power to users and maximize its reliability since there is no environmental advantage of wind and solar electric power sources (as discussed in numerous previous posts), and many environmental and economic disadvantages.