Young Research & Publishing Inc.

Investment Research Since 1978

Disclosure

  • About Us
    • Contributors
    • Archives
    • Dick Young’s Safe America
    • The Final Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
    • Dick Young’s Research Key: Anecdotal Evidence Gathering
    • Crisis at Vanguard
  • Investment Analysis
    • Bonds
    • Currencies and Gold
    • Dividend Investing
    • ETFs & Funds
    • Investment Strategy
    • Retirement Investing
    • Stocks
    • The Efficient Frontier
  • Investment Counsel
  • Dynamic Maximizers®
  • Retirement Compounders®
  • Free Email Signup

Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport, Now What?

September 30, 2019 By E.J. Smith

By curraheeshutter @ Shutterstock.com

  • Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport: 80% back on the Grid
  • Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport Day 5 (and 5 to go)
  • Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport Day 4
  • Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport

Now that Newport, RI is back on the natural gas grid, I want to share with you a conversation I had with an owner of a successful natural gas operation. He said that the problem basically comes down to the fact that the green movement is spending the money and has politicians in its back-pocket. The utilities aren’t spending the money for political messaging.

As a result, what consumers end up with is a grid that’s woefully antiquated, as was witnessed firsthand last week in Newport, RI.

It’s too easy for elected officials to follow a Pied Piper like Al Gore and an aggressive, well-funded green movement at the expense of the silent majority who need reliability, not dreams.

Here’s yet another story of Al Gore sticking taxpayers with the energy bill:

Political leaders in a college town in central Texas won wide praise from former Vice President Al Gore and the larger Green Movement when they decided to go “100 percent renewable” seven years ago. Now, however, they are on the defensive over electricity costs that have their residents paying more than $1,000 per household in higher electricity charges over the last four years.

That’s right – $1,219 per household in higher electricity costs for the 71,000 residents of Georgetown, Texas, all thanks to the decision of its Republican mayor, Dale Ross, to launch a bold plan to shift the city’s municipal utility to 100 percent renewable power in 2012 when he was on the city council.

In short order, Ross was elevated to celebrity status, appearing in scores of articles and videos, both at home and abroad. Al Gore made it a point to feature the Texas Republican mayor at renewable energy conferences as well. Ross was even featured in one of Gore’s documentaries.

But while Ross was being lauded far and wide, the residents of his town were paying a steep price. His decision to bet on renewables resulted in the city budget getting dinged by a total of $29.8 million in the four years from 2015 to 2018. Georgetown’s electric costs were $3.5 million over budget in 2015, ballooning to $6.3 million in 2016, the same year the mayor locked his municipal utility into 20- and 25-year wind and solar energy contracts to make good on his 100 percent renewable pledge.

By 2017, the mayor’s green gamble was undercut by the cheap natural gas prices brought about by the revolution in high-tech fracking. Power that year cost the city’s budget $9.5 million more than expected, rising to $10.5 million last year, according to budget documents reported by The Williamson County Sun.

Whether Mayor Ross and his colleagues on the Georgetown City Council were motivated by good intentions, political machinations, or mere vanity is unknown. What is known is that Georgetown’s municipal utility, an integral part of the city budget, is hemorrhaging red ink thanks to those long term renewable energy contracts.

The deficits were triggered by the drop in natural gas prices—now the mainstay of the U.S. electric grid, having displaced coal—which caused the city to sell its surplus wind and solar power at a steep discount into Texas’ wholesale energy market. City leaders had to lock in a large excess of wind and solar power to be able to lend credibility to their 100 percent renewable claim, since wind and solar power can’t be relied on to keep the lights on 24/7/365. And, even with that surplus, there are times when Georgetown draws traditional fossil fuel power from the Texas grid, making the city’s “100 percent renewable” claim nothing more than spurious sloganeering.

That a city in Texas (which voted for President Trump) claimed to be “100 percent renewable” generated significant “man bites dog” notoriety. But as University of Houston energy expert Charles McConnell noted, “It’s not kind of misleading, it’s very misleading, and it is for political gain.”

Most Texas residents have the ability to choose their electricity provider in a competitive statewide market, leading to electricity prices that are among the lowest in the nation: 18 percent below the national average in 2018, and 48 percent below prices in green energy pacesetter California.

But Texas’ electricity market excludes municipal utilities like Georgetown’s from competition, leaving consumers without choice and allowing political decisions – rather than market forces – to determine the mix of electricity suppliers.

Georgetown is now trying to renegotiate its costly long-term wind and solar energy contracts—this, after the city council agreed to skimp on needed electric infrastructure investment to make up their budgetary shortfall.

Mayor Ross had previously reveled in trolling President Trump, boasting to a German TV show that, “I make decisions based on facts… unlike the president,” then opining that “It was a huge mistake to withdraw from the Paris climate accords…”

One wonders what Mayor Ross thinks about the ongoing unrest in France, initially sparked by a climate change fuel tax hike that has since been rescinded, under pressure, by President Macron.

The mayor, who not long ago was approaching ubiquitous status with the media, could not be found by the local press to comment on his city’s budget-busting power deficit, declining to comment by both phone and email.

Meanwhile, Texas legislators – who are unlikely to wind up on German TV – have the power to introduce a  bill with the potential to free Georgetown’s ratepayers from the city’s electric monopoly, giving them the same ability to shop around for electricity now enjoyed by some 20 million of their fellow Texans.

Wonder what Al Gore will have to say about that?

Read more here.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy. 

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

You Might Also Like:

  • Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport
  • Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport (Report Issued)
  • Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport: 80% back on the Grid
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
E.J. Smith
E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris.

Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com
Latest posts by E.J. Smith (see all)
  • Your Survival Guy: “Life on Main Street Hasn’t Been This Hard in a While” - May 27, 2022
  • If You Have a Plan, I Believe You’ll Get to Where You Want to Go - May 26, 2022
  • Nowadays, Everyone Is Getting Some Dividend Religion - May 25, 2022

Search Young Research

Most Popular

  • MARKET TURNING: Canada's Housing Market Turmoil
  • BUY THE DIPS? Can You Catch a Ginsu Knife?
  • Watch Out for Your Worst Enemy
  • How Can the Fed Prevent Stagflation?
  • Job Market Survival Advice for Graduates and for Those YOU Love
  • Now You Can Own Your Vacation and It Doesn’t Have to Be a Time Share
  • BULLWHIPPED? Inventory Overhang Could Slow Growth in Certain Sectors
  • The Power of a Compound Interest Table
  • Big Banks Adopting Blockchain for Short-Term Trading
  • Vanguard Wellesley (VWINX) vs. Wellington (VWELX): Which Fund is Best?

Don’t Miss

Default Risk Among the Many Concerns with Annuities

Risk and Reward: An Efficient Frontier

How to be a Billionaire: Proven Strategies from the Titans of Wealth

Could this Be the Vanguard GNMA Winning Edge?

Cryptocosm and Life After Google

Warning: Avoid Mutual Fund Year End Distributions

Is Gold a Good Long-term Investment?

How to Invest in Gold

Vanguard Wellington (VWELX): The Original Balanced Fund

What is the Best Gold ETF for Investing and Trading?

Procter & Gamble (PG) Stock: The Only True Dividend King

The Dividend King of the North

You’ll Love This if You’re Dreaming of an Active Retirement Life

RSS The Latest at Richardcyoung.com

  • KRISTALLNACHT: How Well Intentioned Gun Registries Become Tools of Evil
  • Your Survival Guy: “Life on Main Street Hasn’t Been This Hard in a While”
  • Is America About to Lose Its Investments in Colombia?
  • POWER MOVE? Did Viktor Orban Just Seize Control of Hungary?
  • Americans Are Abandoning ESPN and Woke Professional Sports Leagues
  • If You Have a Plan, I Believe You’ll Get to Where You Want to Go
  • President Joe Biden’s Good Question
  • Georgia Proves All Politics Are Local
  • VIDEO: DeSantis: America “Cannot Have a Ministry of Truth”
  • Can America Cut It’s Spending in Half? YES! It’s Been Done Before

About Us

  • About Young Research
  • Archives
  • Contributors

Our Partners

  • Richard C. Young & Co.
  • Richardcyoung.com

Copyright © 2022 | Terms & Conditions

 

Loading Comments...
 

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.