A journey upward....

"Oh this all sounds so good, so Utopia like. But who is going to pay for all this crap? Well, as the song goes, 'look in the mirror boy...'"

Here we go again. The journey upward. What is upward? The price of most everything of course. Only this time it is going to be a whopper. It seems that our local electric company (Xcel Energy) has withered under the unending pressure from both the federal EPA and our local thugs. To lower their "carbon footprint" by 2030, our Xcel Energy is going to "invest" in more solar and wind. In addition, it will retrofit part of the SHERCO Plant to run on natural gas instead of coal.

Now SHERCO has just paid quite of bit of money to upgrade and fix the newest unit to the complex, unit 3. This unit which was built in the late 1980's, recently suffered some damage due to a malfunction and resulting fire. It cost about $200,000,000 just to get back on line. Where did the cost for that repair go? Check out your electric bill. I don't know about yours, but mine keeps going up. And up. And up. 

Today all three units at the plant are working fine, thank you. In the paper today, it was reported a decision has been made to completely retire units 1 and 2 to the power plant. Retire them and replace them with natural gas unit(s). How much will this cost? Experts say a billion plus. And who is going to pay for this? Us. Jobs will be lost both at the source where we buy our coal as well as at the power plant.

How are we going to get this massive amount of natural gas to SHERCO? Do we have the right kind of pipeline to accomplish that transfer? Or are we going to use risky rail service? Or do we have to build a new pipeline? Seems like every pipeline upgrade is being tied up in court these days. (Hello, Sandpiper Pipeline?)

Finally, a decision has been made by Xcel Energy to increase the amount of "investment" in more wind and solar. All this within a decade. What a fool's errand. I have stated my position before - I think there will eventually be a cost effective future for solar. But wind - never. Way too many problems. And right now, both are just sinkholes for costs. But who cares? The progressives think they are trendy and cool - even if they don't work efficiently.

So the stage has now been set. Get ready, because here it comes. By the way, the greenest of the greenies are not going to be satisfied with a natural gas solution for SHERCO. I am sure they are already planning their next move. And the nuke plant in Monticello is probably also in their sights.

Until we relegated to reading our Gutenberg Bible by the light of the fire in the hearth, many greenies will not be satisfied. Until then, just keep your checkbook handy. The postman will be coming with bills the size of Mount Everest...