Have you noticed an increase in your utility bills?
Hopefully, you are not in the position of having to choose whether to heat or eat, as so many are, especially in Europe.
Part of the increased bill is the deteriorating value of the dollar (inflation). But there is an increasing component from replacing abundant, affordable energy with supposedly clean, green “renewables,” as shown in the graph.
How can this be? Aren’t sunbeams and breezes free? Of course, they are, but the technology needed to collect the energy and transmit it where it is needed is very costly. Promises to save money and create good jobs were false. The initial low costs depended on government (taxpayer) subsidies. Promoters such as Al Gore have gotten very rich. But when the subsidies run out, companies go bankrupt. Solyndra is only one example.
Solar panel start-up Solyndra was the first company to get government-backed loans from the 2009 stimulus bill—the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), collecting $535 million and receiving a $25 million tax break from California’s agency for alternative energy, according to Forbes. Auditors at OpentheBooks.com compiled a list of many others.
New York offshore wind projects are being scrapped, and Siemens, the world’s second-largest turbine manufacturer has been declared “uninvestible,” according to NetZero Watch. The idea of 66,000 MW of offshore wind capacity in the US and UK by 2030 has been called “an expensive fantasy.”
Medical organizations need to include the increased costs of energy in the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH).
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