Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Back in 2009, Obama said that his energy plan will cause energy bills to skyrocket.
In 2015, Obama says his energy plan will save you money (from 14:45)
The following is a condensed version of the relevant parts of the speeches (note the full 2015 speech contains additional material of interest, such as Obama’s comments about the impact of his new plan on poor people);
What has changed since 2009, other than a cap and trade system being replaced with straight out energy regulation? The new plan seems to call for the same expensive power plant changes, which Obama said would cause energy bills to skyrocket, when he spoke back in 2009.
What do you think? Are you reassured by President Obama’s statement, that you will save money on your energy bills, under President Obama’s 2015 clean energy plan?
Well I guess Nikita Khrushchev got it down right.
michael
We will Barry you!
http://i49.tinypic.com/mt4a40.jpg
If the “Fundamental Transformation” manages to reduce the US back to the current level of some of the countries that appear to be in favor in DC now, electric bills for many people could well decrease. You can’t spend money on what you can’t get.
If you like your power plant you can keep your power plant.
Report: Obama’s Climate Plan Will Shrink Coal Industry By 48 Percent
http://freebeacon.com/issues/report-obamas-climate-plan-will-shrink-coal-industry-by-48-percent/
“President Barack Obama’s plan targeting coal-burning power plants will cost a quarter of a million jobs and shrink the coal industry by nearly half, according to a new report by the American Action Forum (AAF).”
CO2 reductions to solve Climate change? Wrong solution for the world. A Limerick.
Renewable energy: – Clean.
The world is so dirty and mean.
Never mind the expense
and it doesn’t make sense.
CO2 is what makes the world green.
The White House Aug 3 announced a target of 32% reduction in CO2 emission from U.S. power plants by 2030. This is a target that no existing Coal fired power plant can meet, only natural gas fired power plants. He also proposed a 70% reduction in emissions other than CO2, which has its merits.
Obama may yet succeed in his campaign promise: “Under my plan the electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket.”
more… http://lenbilen.com/2015/08/03/co2-reductions-to-solve-climate-change-wrong-solution-for-the-world-a-limerick/
He said in 2009 that “prices would necessarily skyrocket.” But we’re going to be soooooo energy efficient and use sooooooo much less energy while saving soooooooo much money in health care costs and lives that it will more than balance-out and save us money.
Long term both Obamacare and Obamaclimatecontrol will save you money. Rationing will eliminate the ability to buy either medical care or electric power except by the rich and powerful. Connected people will have ration cards issued the rest will do without. Eventually the old and infirm will die off from the cold or lack of medical care, solving the insolvancy of Social Security and Medicare/Medicade. The reduced population will put less demand on rationed resources and pressure on the environment. Mandated vegetarian diets, reduced living accomidations and only public transportation will further reduce resource demands; except for the ruling class. Welcome to the new age of Fudalism!
On the way to 1 billion?
To answer Eric Worrall’s two-part question “What do you think? Are you reassured by President Obama’s statement, that you will save money on your energy bills, under President Obama’s 2015 clean energy plan?,”
My answer is (1) I don;t think much of it, and (2) No,No, No (It wont save money one energy and other bills).
I am aware of the energy supply reduction and the energy demand reduction that the greenies favor. But if the demand gets restricted more than the supply does, then energy prices will fall according to the classic and still-existing law of supply and demand, or at least continue to be affordable to working class folks.
This is why I favor standards and mandates for energy efficiency of appliances, new homes and buildings, and motor vehicles of kinds used mostly for commuting – and business use while having something like 75% of its mileage being used to haul less than half a ton of cargo, and ballast (including tools flunking some standard of being tools rather than ballast) not being qualified as cargo.
I favor reduction of energy demand for 4 main reasons:
1:) Americans get to pay less for energy (see below), and America gets its balance of trade more in its favor.
2:) Reducing need to construct power plants or to improve the already-sometimes-stressed grid reduces cost of upgrading electricity generating, transmission and distribution. The savings get passed on to consumers, even if the unit price of electrical energy increases due to US state regulations guaranteeing some level of profitability to established electrical energy utilities and their investors. If everyone equally decreases their electricity consumption by 25%, their inflation-adjusted electric bills would decrease by maybe 15%.
3:) Reducing need to construct new power plants or transmission lines means reducing caseloads in courts where environmentalists sue to stop or add roadblocks to construction. The cost of these court cases and the cost of added interest incurred on unused borrowed money gets passed on to the ratepayers.
4:) Reducing future need for power plants reduces future pollution, even by gases/vapors other than CO2. Such as sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbon leakage (including methane) into the atmosphere while hydrocarbon fuel is on the way from in-earth to being burned. Hydrocarbons in the atmosphere are not only greenhouse gases, but also they are an ingredient for production of surface-level ozone – the main lung irritant in modern air pollution achieving “unhealthful” level in USA.
No Donald… prices will NOT fall as less is used, they will increase. The government and energy companies require a certain level of income and will just charge more to make up the difference. In California, we are mandated to use less water, however as we use less, the utilities and the government bring in less and thus they have decided they NEED to charge more. Another example, if you drive a hybrid car to save money on gas… Guess what, you use less gas and the taxes and fees go up to make up for the shortfall. Same way for solar… as more people switch to solar on their home, the rates from the utilities go up, not down as your false logic dictates. Obama’s and the socialist/green energy plan are NOTHING but bad news for all the middle and working class/
That is both fuzzy-brained as well as wrong thinking, Donald. For starters, we do not need or want more government control, but rather less. It is about individual freedoms as well as state’s rights. Furthermore, reducing our demand for energy via “energy efficiency” measures only works up to a point, and afterwards is subject to the law of diminishing returns. The goal of “energy efficiency” is a false one, because what you wind up with are high-priced goods which usually don’t work as well, and thus are actually less efficient.
Who is your nominee for the biggest carbon-footprint attendee at the Climate Control Charades in Paris next November? How many business jets will fly there? Where will they park? How many limousines will transport them to their hotels, restaurants and the C3 venues? Who will have the largest entourage? Who will have the largest motorcade? Sorry, no prizes! It’s a foregone conclusion. What a legacy!
I searched for how Obama’s energy plan will save me money (up to $85 a year), and I couldn’t find an explanation anywhere. Replacing cheap coal with expensive renewables can only cost me more. So there are only two ways I can see how they might have come up with the estimate:
1) It is an estimate of how much will be saved in funeral costs from fewer people dying from “carbon polution.”
2) It is an estimate of how much the average person will save from power blackouts during times when there’s not enough power being generated to meet demands.
Of course, they must not have figured in the cost of replacing spoiled food or the cost of increased crime or the increase in funeral expenses of people dying from heat/cold/crime/lack-of-medication etc. during those blackouts.
You’ll save money because HE said so. And you’ll like it, you racist hater!
I am impressed by what the President has said.
He has truly achieved everything. Saving the planet whilst providing abundant cheap electricity for all
The new generation windfarms will pour out free electricity, even when the wind is not blowing, the vast new solar panels will work all through the night and in dull weather.
The reduction in CO2 will lower temperatures by 0.000? We will all be saved. The President, working closely with the Pope, will ensure the safe transfer of power to the UN who will wisely rule the whole globe (except possibly Russia, China, N. Korea and ISIS)
All Hail the Commander in Chief I say.
Sorry, must go, the nice man in the white coat has come to put me where I cant hurt myself.
The enthusiastic reception of the Obama plan by the BBC (or so I thought- I might be prejudiced) has provoked a more sober assessment at BishopHill
http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2015/8/4/a-dampish-squib.html
and some of the comments are of interest .
Assuming that I am not breaching any copyright rules I would like to copy part of what one commenter ,”dennisa” said, to illustrate the interlocking web of political and financial interests that lie behind the Obama plan:
“One of the main drivers of CO2 controls in the US has been former Clinton EPA head Carol Browner, she had formerly worked for Al Gore, before he became VP. She became director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy in the Obama administration in December, 2008, a post she left in 2010. She was previously a vice-president of Socialist International, a member of their Commission for a Sustainable World Society, a member of the Board of Directors of Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection and a member of the Board of Directors of John Podesta’s Center for American Progress.
Podesta was Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton from October 1998 until January 2001 and was co-chairman of the Obama-Biden transition team. That team contained 31 members who had previously worked in the Clinton Administration. Continuity is the name of the game and it will be the same again if Mrs Clinton becomes President, as Podesta is now running Hillary’s presidential bid.
Since leaving the government Browner is once again a Senior Fellow at Podesta’s CAP, of which Joe Romm’s Climate Progress is an offshoot. CAP is funded by billionaire donors such as George Soros, the Sandler Foundation and various corporates such as Walmart.
Browner handed over the reins to Lisa Jackson who actually delivered the Endangerment Finding, long in the making, which gave the EPA legal backing to control CO2 emissions. In 2009 she spoke at a youth activist gathering called “Power Shift”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1C7vMNQv2g.
She told the ecstatic crowd that “Our first steps on taking office were to resume the CO2 endangerment finding and to seek fuel efficiency standards to reduce carbon pollution. The Law says Greenhouse Gases are pollution.”
Lisa Jackson always seemed happier speaking to the UN than she did to Congress. She was a key speaker in the Twelfth Session of the “Global Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum” (GMGSF) which was held from 19-20 February 2011 prior to the 26th Session of the UNEP Governing Council/ Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC26/GMEF) which took place from 21-24 February 2011, in Nairobi, Kenya. At that forum she signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of the US with UNEP, part of which included a commitment to transitioning to a green economy, http://www2.epa.gov/international-cooperation/memorandum-understanding-mou-between-epa-and-united-nations-environment.”
Probably all the US readers here already knew that , but it was new to me as an outsider , and what is disturbing is that it will be used as a template for action in UK – if not already covered by our Climate change act – and elsewhere, except of course in China , India, Brazil, Russia, Japan, S Korea . etc.
The short answer is no it can not possibly save you money. Here’s an “educated” guess as to how studies might show that it could. First the basic tricks: Grossly underestimate the cost of renewables and integrating them into the system and forecast continued cost improvements. Escalate costs associated with coal and existing infrastructure and the generation of coal energy. Ignore those places where you will pay more in order to subsidize your energy bill (taxes and costs of infrastructure in your own residence).
I think the big sleight of hand trick that they are using is “natural gas”. Natural gas should work to lower prices, but I suspect they are crediting the EPA Plan with the full benefits from natural gas. That is silly and dishonest. The comparison case should have just as much (or more) usage of natural gas as the EPA case.
Perhaps they are clever and have a few more, or else pure fabrications. But guaranteed tit took a lot of work to get to that savings.
Read comments of FERC Commissioner Clark calling this “the stuff of unicorns and leprechauns”. http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20150803-3028
I think the correct spelling of the world’s greatest dummy is O-BOMB-A.
“Are you reassured by President Obama’s statement, that you will save money on your energy bills, under President Obama’s 2015 clean energy plan?”
It is said that there is no such thing as a stupid question. But THAT is a stupid question.
Just for the record, the “skyrocket” remark during an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board took place not in 2009, but January 17, 2008, when Obama was still a Senator and had not yet secured the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. To its discredit, the Chronicle did not mention the remark in the several resulting stories. To its credit, it did embed a link to the entire interview in the first of those stories and it remains available on the paper’s web site. Regrettably, the statement was not reported anywhere I have been able to find until–literally–24 hours before voters went to the polls in November 2008. Would it have made the difference if widely reported earlier? Who knows? But if any of Obama’s rivals were aware of the thing early on, they grievously mishandled their opportunity.
Here in Ontario, Canada our premier is trying to figure out why industry is leaving the province.
It just MIGHT be due to the high price of electricity for industry. Costs are going through the roof, but there are times when we actually have excess energy. Do Ontarians get a benefit of this?
Of course not.
This energy gets sold, at a great price, to bordering states and provinces.
You know, those states and provinces which compete with Ontario industry.
I believe it is Communist China that bills the family for the bullet that they use to execute people.
Same principle.
We actually have plenty of electricity capacity in Ontario, but the ideologues insist on subsidizing more “green” energy, even cutting power from hydro stations when the swindlemills and subsidy farms are running – which is rarely..
Yopu can get real time and archived data about the Ontario electricity supply here http://www.ieso.ca/
It is a deliberate government policy to make electricity expensive. And the provincial government cronies are stashing the cash like crazy.
In 2009, Obama made a terrible mistake. He told the truth. Since then, he has learned the effectiveness of lying, and the complete lack of consequence he faces for it. He knows that he can say just about anything as long as he is eloquent in saying it, and the media lapdogs will just continue their impression of lobotomized bobble-head dolls.
Will his energy plan save us money? Money is saved only when resources are provided and used more efficiently. One cannot make anything less efficiently and have it be less expensive than the same product produce more efficiently. That is a law of economics and not even the first black president of the United States can override such a law.
Will his energy policy have any positive impact on climate? Of course not! But that doesn’t matter, does it? This is not about climate and never has been. If this great crusade had anything to do with climate, it would have fizzled out decades ago when the science became overwhelmingly unsupportive of a man-made global warming crisis.
So what is this about? Government power and control, my friend.
The US government was created with three branches. Only one of them was designed to write law. The other two were supposed to keep the law-writers in check, so that government power and control would not run amok. Today, all three branches are writing laws while the other two look on in nearly complete complicity. The US Constitution is a really good idea! Maybe we should try it!
I am taking these savings to the same bank I banked by Obamacare savings.
If you like your electricity, you can keep your electricity.
If you like your new, high-priced “green” electricity, you get to keep it.
And even if you don’t like it, you get to keep it.
Win-win.
It is like how he claimed you would save money on gas because of his car mileage regulations. The idea is you will use less energy, so you will save money even as the cost goes up.
He lied about Obamacare costs, he’s lying about this too.
As mpg goes up, so will fed and state gasoline taxes.
Obama is really upset that gas hasn’t hit $5 per gallon, but that gives money hungry politicians room to jack up the taxes to fund railroads to nowhere.
All I have to do is walk around the neighborhood to see that CO2 is not a problem. This Summer here in Kansas is amazingly green and lush compared to what it could be (despite plenty of 90 degree and even some 100 degree days).
This might actually be coinciding by the studies that found a skyrocketing rate of photosynthesis on hot days when CO2 levels rise, and there’s almost no doubt a major CO2 burp going on right now into the atmosphere as per the ongoing El Nino.
There’s also been indications that record harvests for corn and other fall crops may be on the way as well, the farmers would’ve been looking forward to cash out big time if not for plunging prices.
The best thing really is to keep the CO2 emissions going, ideally until the current levels get to around 1000-1500 PPM. Then we formally switch to clean energy as the benefits for plants will be maxed out.
Adam,
I believe you are correct about boosting CO2. It will be vital to support population increase and boost poor countries caloric intake to a reasonable level.
The only situation that could reduce the increased food production is a long cold spell, which is out of our hands.
Will impeaching Obama save you money?
Yes