Before there was "cash for clunkers," New Hampshire had credits for windmills.
Legislators have required that 25 percent of the state's power be "renewable" by 2025. Utilities get credits for "green" power they produce, or they can buy the credits from companies that create power from "renewable" sources. If they do neither, they have to pay a fine to the state. Proceeds from the fines subsidize energy conservation projects.
Sounds great. But like "cash for clunkers," there are problems. For example, the program already raised electric utility rates by $10.7 million earlier this year. Green power is more expensive. And then there are the windmills.
Noble Environmental Power's wind park in Coos County will put 33 wind turbines atop ridge lines. The turbines are 410 feet tall. There goes the view.
"Noble would not be building if they didn't have this scheme -- and I use scheme in the positive sense -- in place," Martin Murray, PSNH spokesman, told Union Leader reporter Paula Tracy. "Just from the sale of energy alone, (the Coos project) would not have been able to be built because the costs are too high. But with this, (the law) they have two products, the energy itself and the credits."
Granite Staters who hate the idea of windmills replacing pristine mountain ridges are being forced by their government to subsidize the project, and they are paying higher energy prices for the privilege.
Politicians often think it's easy to make the world as they wish it to be. Just pass a law! But mandates always have unintended consequences. In this case, higher energy costs were an intentional consequence. Legislators knew prices would rise. But scarring New Hampshire's mountaintops with gigantic wind farms? Few saw that coming. But now it's here, and it's only going to get worse in the next 16 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment