Multiple American utility companies are increasingly switching to forms of “green” energy as alternatives to traditional natural gas and fossil fuels, a trend that is likely to increase costs for consumers.
According to the Daily Caller, energy companies are set to spend up to $140 billion investing in such alternatives in the years 2022 and 2023, including accommodations for electric vehicles and building renewable energy projects. These numbers, reported by the Edison Electric Institute, constitute the highest amounts that companies have spent on such green investments in the last 20 years.
One such example is National Grid, an energy supplier that serves New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The company on Tuesday announced its latest initiatives to work towards “achieving a net zero future,” investing further in such fuel sources as wind, solar, and hydropower. The largest energy utility in the country, California-based Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), similarly announced its own “net-zero” plan, which aims to achieve nationwide carbon neutrality by 2050.
But studies have shown that companies switching to more unreliable alternatives will raise prices for consumers, starting with an estimated three percent increase in energy bills on an annual basis. In just the year 2021 alone, the average residential energy bill increased by 4.3percent, marking the largest increase in a single year since 2008.
“You’re forcing more and more demand for electricity because the environmentalists want everything to be electric,” said Dan Kish, a senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research. “Yet, the sources you’re allowing to be used to make the electricity are getting more expensive.”
The various announcements by several energy companies follow heavy pressure from the Biden Administration to shift the United States completely off of fossil fuels within the next few decades. Biden has claimed that the administration’s “green energy” policies will reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent by the year 2030, and see the implementation of a completely carbon-free electricity grid by 2035. To this end, Biden immediately canceled all oil and gas leases on federal lands shortly after taking office, a move that directly led to the massive spike in gas prices earlier this year.