Bob...have you seen what electricity is going for these days?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/05/22/obamas-war-on-coal-hits-your-electric-bill/
Obama promised electricity rates under his plan would necessarily skyrocket and that he would make it impossible for oil refineries to operate. Congress shot down his first attempt at a cap and trade plan, but that has not slowed his efforts using the EPA as his hammer.
The first auction of electricity for 2015 that takes into account all of the new EPA regulations and mandates was held in May of this year by PJM Interconnection. The results were shocking. “The market-clearing price for new 2015 capacity – almost all natural gas – was $136 per megawatt. That’s eight times higher than the price for 2012, which was just $16 per megawatt.
In the mid-Atlantic area covering New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and DC the new price is $167 per megawatt. For the northern Ohio territory served by FirstEnergy, the price is a shocking $357 per megawatt”.
The reason for the dramatic jump is simple. The government is creating artificially high prices through regulations. Andy Ott of PJM Interconnection explains, “Capacity prices were higher than last year's because of retirements of existing coal-fired generation resulting largely from environmental regulations which go into effect in 2015. Northern Ohio is suffering from more forced coal-plant retirements than the rest of the region, hence the even higher price. These are not computer models or projections or estimates. These are the actual prices that electric distributors have agreed to pay for new capacity. The costs will be passed on to consumers at the retail level.”
