By Steve Thurston 

How much of my $150 month electric bill is going toward fighting global warming?

As Don Keelan pointed out in a recent piece in the Vermont Daily Chronicle there is a line item on the Green Mountain Power bill called the “energy efficiency charge”. This pays for Efficiency Vermont, a non-profit that spends a portion of its revenues on subsidies for light bulbs, heat pump water heaters, home energy audits and other items that reduce energy consumption.

But there are other costs hidden in our electric bills, the hidden costs of subsidizing your neighbor’s solar panels, the added cost imposed by RGGI mandated carbon allowances, the added cost of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), the costs of transmission upgrades to get renewable energy connected to the grid and the costs of capacity payments to reliable generators to provide instantaneous backup for intermittent renewables.

According to Grok these items account for the following in the average $150 monthly Green Mountain Power electric bill:

These costs are imposed by acts of the legislature over the past twenty years to address climate change and add up to approximately $2.0–$2.8 billion in gross charges to Vermont ratepayers over the past 20 years (roughly 2006–2025).

(These figures are estimates based on statewide averages and recent data; actual amounts vary by utility (e.g., Green Mountain Power vs. others), usage, and year.)

According to IEA reports the world consumes more of every type of energy every year. Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas provide 86% of primary energy consumed and these sources continue to break records.

The contention of policy makers that Vermont is doing something to solve global warming, as the self contradictory Global Warming Solutions Act requires, is turning out to be a very expensive trip down a cul de sac of energy poverty. Vermont has the 10th highest in the nation electricity costs. Let’s turn this rig around.

It’s high time the legislature focuses its attention on the plethora of serious economic issues vexing the state for which solutions have been very elusive and as Don Keelan advises “declare victory” on the war on the climate.

The author is an Addison County resident