Kerby Anderson

On a rare occasion, the electricity to our house goes out. But will such outages be more frequent in the future? Is the solution more alternative energy sources or more fossil fuel plants?

Leaders in the Democratic party have attacked the recent Republican budget bill because it is phasing out subsidies for wind and solar power. They claim that this legislation will cause power shortages and higher electricity rates. However, the latest Energy Department study documents that just the opposite will occur.

The editors of the Wall Street Journal lament that the U.S. electrical grid is in trouble. The latest Energy Department report predicted power shortfalls by 2030. That is since existing power plants will be retired in the next five year, leaving a gap of 104 gigawatts of baseload power. But there is a second concern. As I have mentioned in previous commentaries, AI data centers (that are scheduled to go online) gobble up enormous amounts of electricity.

The problem goes back to a bill pushed by President Biden called the “Inflation Reduction Act.” But later he even admitted that it was really a Green New Deal bill with a title that sounded like it would help fight inflation. The bill gave generous subsidies for wind and solar power that distorted the costs. It became much more profitable to build those alternative sources of energy instead of building baseload gas plants.

What about the promise that these sources of power would reduce costs? I live in Texas and have seen residential power prices rise by 40 percent. And don’t forget that the wind doesn’t always blow, and the sun only shines in the daytime. As you can see, we need to change course immediately.