Pirate's Cove

It’s very easy to say “we need to do something” when it comes to the scam. And then vote for politicians who will enact legislation without consideration of the outcomes. It’s hard when those outcomes are less than optimal

Democrats pushed climate action. Then utility bills skyrocketed.

California Democrats proudly authored nation-leading clean energy goals that forced the automobile industry to go electric and shaped global climate policy.

Then the bill came due.

There is intensifying political pressure on state lawmakers to do something about utility bills that have shot up by as much as 127 percent over the last decade. Climate spending — from wildfire prevention to building out transmission capacity and paying for renewables — is partly to blame.

“Californians are fed up,” said Democratic state Assemblymember Marc Berman at a recent news conference in Sacramento. “My constituents are pissed off. I know because they told me over and over again at every community coffee that I had in the fall and in the winter. Their rates keep going up.”

Why are they pissed off? Why do they want something done? They literally voted for this. They supported this in polls and demonstrations. They got what they asked for. And that’s what the politicians should tell them. There’s a price to pay for all this climate cult action. Suck it up and deal with it. If the politicians did say that the Useful Idiots would still vote Democrat.

Lawmakers there and in other Democratic states with nation-leading climate objectives — like New York and Massachusetts — are scrambling to make their transitions from fossil fuels affordable before they face an all-out ratepayer revolt. The problem is more pressing in an election year when Republicans say Democrats don’t pay enough attention to Californians’ ability to afford the high costs of daily life.

In California, the latest flashpoint is a proposal to restructure utility bills to make them more like the state’s progressive tax system, where the wealthy pay the most. Nearly every Democratic state lawmaker voted for the proposal two years ago, but now at least 20 are supporting legislation to repeal it, citing its potential impacts on middle- and high-income households.

Well, you just had to know that the action wouldn’t be something that would make energy more affordable (and reliable and dependable): nope, it’s a typical Democrat scam, which will cause more wealthy to leave the state, taking their money with them. And companies. And jobs. And those that do not leave will simply pass the costs onto consumers.

Last year’s state budget in New York included $200 million to assist households making under $75,000 with utility bills. Some Democratic lawmakers are also pushing a measure this session to enshrine into law the state’s policy goal of capping utility costs at 6 percent of income for struggling households.

Where’s the money coming from? Someone has to pay for it. $75K isn’t exactly poverty level.

“Absolutely high rates can threaten the energy transition, and we should be very concerned,” said Matt Baker, director of the California Public Utilities Commission’s Public Advocates Office. “The energy transition depends on public support, and we have to do whatever we can to maintain that public support. That means doing it in the least-cost manner.”

So, up-front bribery with the increased costs on the backend. Have any of them taken an Economics class?

Those costs are expected to keep growing to accommodate the shift to renewables. The utility Southern California Edison estimates that, all told, the costs of generating, storing and transmitting all the renewable energy California needs could be $250 billion by 2045.

If memory serves, the climate cult told us that the switch to “green” energy would save money. No? But, again, the residents of the People’s Republik Of California voted for this: let them deal with the fallout.