Don't ever think for a moment that the wind is free. Don't ever think that it is just costly to construct a wind turbine and that after the installation the wind will spin it for free. You Will Pay!To the right is a quote from Barack Obama, video and text found here, where he states in 2008 that his policies would make energy prices “skyrocket” as the energy industry passed along the exorbitant costs of his plan. This his one campaign promise that he is absolutely following
through with. First, find your electricity rate by state here. As of April 2009 the average US rate is 11.59 cents per kWh. In 2001 according the Energy Information Administration statistics, here, the average household use almost 1,000 kWh per month which results in an average electric bill per household of $116 per month. Now here is something critical to our future discussion regarding how much you pay for electricity. Your residential bill only represents one third of your total electrical share of your total energy use. Electricity consumption is divided almost equally between residential, commercial and industrial. You pay your residential bill directly, but in actually your share is triple that amount. The other two thirds you pay for in good, services and taxes to government agencies who use electricity. Above is the chart showing the division in Pennsylvania for 2007. Go here and click on table 8. At the bottom of that link you can find a link for State Energy Profiles to find your own state. (however that link is not working right now).So in reality your electric bill is actually roughly three times $116 or $348 or $4176/year. That is no chump change! So when electrical rates go up by 10% you pay $11.60/mo in your own bill, but there is also another $23.20/mo that is passed on to in by higher prices and taxes. The understanding of the 1/3rd residential concept is vital to understanding the gravity of the situation when Obama states "your electricity rates will skyrocket".
edit: Did anyone catch an error to my 3x your residential electric bill logic? The error is that raising our industrial electricity rates will serve to force many companies overseas to China/India/Etc where they don't have these ridicuous energy policies!
