Future Utility Costs -- What Can You Expect?

“Electricity is consuming a greater share of Americans' after-tax income than at any time since 1996,” reported Dennis Cauchon in USA TODAY earlier this month. Go to:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/story/2011-12-13/electric-bills/51840042/1

If we attempt to project what the rate of increase in our utility bills may be in the long run, I make several directional comments:
• Rates are not likely to go down in the future. We can only realistically expect them to go up.
• We might expect a 2% to 5% increase on the low side to account for the inflation rate of electric, gas, and propane costs.
• However, if we accept the projections as published by USA Today, we might expect a 5% to 10% or exponential increase in our future utility expenses.

Looking at some of the variables, we see that the big rivers have already been dammed and that the cheap or “easy-to-get-to” oil and gas have been pumped and consumed. Future coal, and fuel extracted from tar sands are still more expensive to mine, transport and burn.

Recently, CNBC’s “60 Minutes” featured a documentary on “Clean Coal.” The truth is that there is no such thing as clean coal! Coal combustion may be “cleaner” but the phrase “Clean Coal” is false advertising and very misleading to the consumer, politicians and others. This documentary clearly explained the facts, logistics, our addiction to fossil fuels and current and future problems related to exhausting billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the air.

In the meantime, for the best return on your investment (ROI), I suggest you focus on greater efficiency. Change your light bulbs if you haven’t already; add insulation; open and close your shades and curtains to control heat gain and loss through your windows, and install a solar water heater and solar electric system to generate your own on-site electricity. Then, expenses of building and operating new coal generation plants will not have to be incurred, and oil extracted from tar sands will not be needed at all!

What a good way to start and finish 2012!