Arizona Repleals Wind & Solar Mandates, Wyoming Doubles Down

The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) has voted to pull back on the state’s targets because they are too costly and produce few benefits, according to the state board.

In February, the Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees the state’s utility services, voted 4-1 to direct staff to draft an order eliminating Arizona’s Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff (REST), which functions as the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). (JTN).

Arizona will now let the free market decide how electricity is produced. Government mandates are gone.

Most states, including Wyoming, have followed California’s lead in building more wind and solar.

But the real costs and lack of benefits are now causing hesitation in many states

Despite all of the wind and solar farms built, carbon intensity, a measure of carbon dioxide emissions per kilowatt hour generated, has remained unchanged since at least 2011.

At the same time the higher costs of wind and solar, along with their intermittent energy production have caused rates to climb for customers.

Wyoming electricity rates continue to climb, despite all of the new wind and solar projects, or more accurately, due to them, along with expensive projects like carbon sequestration.

Other states have expressed interest in following Arizona, but at the same time, they have set "zero emission" goals.

“We began the steps needed to repeal a rule that has cost ratepayers billions of dollars in out of market priced contracts. Mandates distort market signals and are not protective of ratepayers,” ACC Chairman Jim O’Connor said in a statement. According to the ACC, the renewable energy standards have added $2.3 billion to Arizona residents’ utility bills.

West Virginia repealed their RPS in 2015, and Montana repealed their RPS in 2021. Montana’s RPS targets had already been exceeded by the time it was repealed, and the legislature had no intention of setting new, more stringent targets. (JTN).

After using wind and solar for a long enough time it turns out that neither are the cheapest forms of energy as was promised.

The idea that wind and solar were cheaper was a flawed metric called levelized energy cost.

All the costs associated with maintaining a reliable electricity supply using energy sources that only produce electricity according to random weather patterns were not factored in.

There were hidden costs including overbuilding capacity, transmission lines, baseload backup, and energy storage.

Energy bills for consumers have not dropped, they have and are still going up.

“States with wind and solar mandates are finally starting to feel the sticker shock of the misguided policies they have enacted, but the result has been a bout of schizophrenic policies that gyrate between scaling back their green ambitions and doubling down on them,” Mitch Rolling and Isaac Orr, policy fellows for the Center of the American Experiment. (JTN).

Recent studies and observations show that wind and solar power fall short of several promises.

These energy farms never come close to delivering the amount of power promised and don't last as long as promised.

The claim was that a typical wind turbine would last 25 years

That turns out to have been a gross overestimate as most wind turbines only last around 10 years, average time.

This will significantly increase the operating costs of the wind farms.

It also creates a huge waste disposal issue that neither the industry nor regulators were ready to deal with.

Every plan was based on the original, overinflated promises.

As a result, massive wind graveyards are piling up.

Visit Sweetwater, Texas and you'll see two such examples of the trash left behind.

At the same time, the solar industry is witnessing solar farms aging faster than promised due mainly to their inverters.

A typical solar farm lasts only about 10.

Manufacturers of these inverters that were supposed to maintain them have gone out of business.

The conditions that shorten the lifespan of wind and solar farms are far worse in some Western states.

Many of these problems with the short lifespan of wind and solar come from being out in the extreme wind, rain, sun, heat, cold, and even hail storms that are typical in states like Wyoming.

What will they do when the money runs out?

And the money is going to run out.

The Biden administration continues its attempts to transition America away from organic fuels like coal, gas, and oil.

The Northern Arapaho Tribe and the city of Cheyenne have access to a $4.6 billion pot of federal money set aside by Congress in an effort to "reduce carbon emission."

In April of 2024, they will submit grant applications for energy and community projects.

“It could be huge,” Wyoming Outdoor Council Energy and Climate Associate Jonathan Williams told WyoFile. “It’s going to be great for economic diversification and jobs and a lot of potential things that could come into our state because of what they’re able to apply for now.”

 

But Governor Mark Gordon rejected the offer last fall, accusing the EPA of a

“bait-and-switch” by insisting on changes that would “turn Wyoming and other states’ planning efforts upside down into a mandate to prematurely shut down Wyoming’s ‘all-of-the-above’ energy development approach,” (WyoFile).

The problem is that the Federal Government doesn't have the money it is offering up. 

Currently, the nation is well over $35 trillion in debt.

When we include unfunded liabilities and more it's more like $214 trillion.

This debt situation is so bad Congress borrows massive amounts of money every day just to pay the interest on the nation's debt.

We will soon reach a stage when the federal government won't be able to keep up with interest payments.

The U.S. will spend $870 Billion on interest on the debt in 2024 alone.

Most of that $870 Billion will be BORROWED!

So the Federal Government will borrow almost a trillion dollars to pay the interest on the money it had already borrowed?

That is NOT SUSTAINABLE!

Simply put, the feds do not have an endless supply of money to fund wind and solar energy, electric cars, and net zero projects.

Coal, natural gas, petroleum, and the internal combustion engine have never needed subsidies. They are cheap, reliable, and profitable.

"Green" energy and electric cars have proved to be bad for the environment on many levels, not to mention expensive and unreliable.

It's been seen in America, and all over the world, that when subsidies dry up these industries go out of business.

So, what does the future hold for these industries when the money runs out?