The Electricity Bill is Only Going Up
Coal
isn’t cheap. The
health and environmental damages from coal are real as are their
costs. However, even without considering
the cost of the environmental and social “externalities” associated with
coal, building new coal plants is growing
increasingly expensive due to soaring construction and transportation
costs, the suspension of government loan programs, the cost of coal
itself and soon-to-be enacted climate change regulations. New coal plants will only be built if
investors are sure they will get their money back, meaning huge electricity
rate increases for the rest of us. As prices continue to rise, ordinary
citizens will bear the burden as those costs are passed on with rate increases. Many
say rates will rise well above their current average of 7-8 cents/kWh, and that
the implementation of unproven “clean coal” technology will would boost retail
prices to as much as 18 cents/kWh.
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OV Social
While costs on all plants go up, wind, solar thermal, tidal/river gens you don't have to pay for fuel so vastly lower long term life cycle costs.
I can build from scratch for under $2k in parts a solar thermal generator with biomass back up burner and a 10' wingenerator easily handling my home, business and electric car I drive energy needs. So RE really is affordable even for the poor and handy. Built as a product would cost about $6k in mass production and one wouldn't need any other than maintaining them costs.
All of this is on the web. Join a RE group that people do this to find out wha works and what's a scam. But easily doable.
jerryd
This argument is not only against coal, it is against every new kind of power plant, including renewables. All of them will only be built if there is some profit in it, and of course the electricity consumer has to pay for the electricity, including rate increases. Are you thinking that a power plant should be a charity?
This argument is D.O.A.