McCAUGHEY: Wind power lies are costing American ratepayers in Blue states

Red states have low electric rates. Blue states gouge residents and businesses with exorbitant rates. But even worse are the bald-faced lies blue-state politicians tell you to defend the gouging. 

Instead of admitting that expensive electricity is a deliberate choice, they lie, claiming wind and solar power are “affordable” and “reliable.” 

The shameless gaslighting was on full display last week, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration pausing offshore wind farm construction along the East Coast near Virginia, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island. 

The Trump administration claims that the huge installations obscure the detection of potential foreign adversaries that could threaten “East Coast population centres.” Trump paused construction until a solution, if any, could be devised. 

The minute the administration issued the pause, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont accused the Trump administration of “making things up.” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called it “B.S. ” 

Maybe. Admittedly, the Trump announcement was short on facts to back up its security pretext. But the possible deception on Trump’s side is mild compared with the lies spewed by Democrats in response. 

Hochul claimed wind power will “keep energy costs down” and “strengthen reliability.” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong’s office spuriously insisted wind power will save ratepayers “hundreds of millions of dollars.” 

Lamont claimed a “diverse energy supply” that includes wind will “lower utility costs for families.” 

Nonsense. In fact, worse than nonsense. Deliberate lying. 

State green mandates costing taxpayers

Each state has the authority to decide the mix of energy sources that go into its electric grid. Blue states have mandated ever-increasing reliance on wind, as well as solar, instead of fossil fuels, explains the Institute for Energy Research. 

New Yorkers pay, on average, 58% more for their electricity than the national average because of the green mandates state politicians have imposed and the power sources they exclude, such as natural gas fracking. 

Connecticut ratepayers are fleeced even more, paying nearly double the national average rate for electricity. 

Climate-driven politicians, almost all of them Democrats, should at least admit they’re making decisions based on ideology and, in many cases, pressure from the renewable energy lobby. Instead, they parrot falsehoods about “affordability” and “reliability.” 

Offshore wind power is at least twice as expensive per kilowatt as natural gas-generated electricity or almost any other source. 

Citing 70 countries around the world, Bjorn Lomborg concludes that “global evidence is clear: Adding more solar and wind to the energy supply pushes up the price of electricity.” 

Costly renewable energy not as reliable as they claim

How about “reliability,” the other word blue-state politicians repeat ad nauseam to defend renewable energy sources? 

Germany learned how unreliable renewables are. Germany installed massive solar and wind equipment to meet 70% of its grid’s needs. But on cloudy or nearly windless days, these renewables deliver a mere 4% — hardly “reliable.” Germany has had to maintain two generating systems at a massive cost. 

Germans pay 43 cents per kilowatt hour, more than twice what Canadians pay under similar climate conditions and with a reliance on fossil fuels. 

U.K. liberal politicians went all out for green energy, but many are now backtracking. Former prime minister Rishi Sunak paused the U.K.’s transition to net-zero carbon use. Scotland’s government abandoned its goal of a 75% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030. 

New England (and the rest of the U.S.) could learn something from old England. Renewables are budget-busters, burdening consumers and slowing economic growth. 

California’s increasing reliance on renewables — now up to 39% of the grid’s mix — explains why its residents and businesses pay the second-highest rates in the nation, behind Hawaii. That high cost is hobbling growth and causing “energy poverty” among low-income residents who can’t pay their electric bills. 

Electric bills were a hot-button issue in the recent New Jersey gubernatorial election. Bills had increased by double digits in the year leading up to the election, partly because outgoing governor Phil Murphy retired fossil fuel sources just when power demand was soaring. 

Democratic candidate Mikie Sherrill promised that investing in offshore wind would “lower energy costs for families,” a blatantly false statement. Republican Jack Ciattarelli pledged to ban offshore wind farms and pursue a more diverse, affordable energy mix. Sherrill’s fib won out. 

In blue states everywhere, Americans who are struggling to pay for electricity need to elect political leaders who will make affordability a priority. But to do that, voters need to hear the truth. So far, they’re getting a pack of lies about wind from windbag politicians like Sherrill, Hochul and Lamont. 

And no one is discussing the visual blight — seeing magnificent ocean landscapes destroyed by towering hardware across the horizon. If the Right were demanding lines of towering oil rigs across Long Island Sound or Nantucket Sound, the Left would be screaming bloody murder. 

Let’s hope Trump’s pause on offshore wind turbine construction elicits an honest discussion of wind power. On the facts, instead of the lies, wind power is a loser.  

 
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant-governor of New York State