Electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket

The title? Spoken by our fearless leader in 2009: At the end of this year, the other shoe will drop and what was a stiff increase in prices will become even stiffer. From Bloomberg:

Credits to Spur Renewable Energy Sources Seen Set to End: Taxes
Tax credits for the production of wind power and other renewable energy sources face expiration at year�s end amid few signs Congress will decide to continue them, tax lobbyists and other analysts say.

Failure to extend the 16 tax credits could stymie the development of wind power and the other renewables by undercutting incentives to invest in them, Bloomberg BNA reported.

Some specifics:

In addition to the 2.3 cent-per-kilowatt-hour tax credit for wind, geothermal and closed-loop biomass, other expiring energy incentives include a $1 per-gallon credit for biodiesel producers, a $1.01 per gallon credit for cellulosic ethanol and multiple credits for energy-efficient homes and appliances.

This is going to hit people at the gas pump, their electric bill, the cost of appliances, etc... And of course, one of the affected industries had this to say:

The wind industry, he said, says of the credit, ��If we just had two more years or three more years, we�ll be fine, we�re almost there,�� Lankford said. �What is a reasonable time for it to continue.�

Yeah, really... Wind power is one of the stupidest ideas ever. It is not baseload and you have to have backup generators to cover when the wind stops blowing. Because it takes up to 30 minutes to bring a generator of that size online, the generators have to be running on hot standby -- they are not feeding the grid but they are still running and consuming some fuel. But there is hope -- from Environment & Energy Publishing:

Justices to consider review of EPA greenhouse gas rules
In what could become a marquee environmental case of the Supreme Court's next term, the justices on Monday are expected to consider reviewing a lower court ruling that upheld U.S. EPA's regulations to reduce heat-trapping gases.

Nine petitions are asking the court to reverse aspects of an appellate court's June 2012 ruling that backed EPA's first rules following the Supreme Court's landmark Massachusetts v. EPA decision, which instructed the agency to regulate greenhouse gases as harmful pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

Some prominent environmental lawyers believe the court will grant certiorari to -- or agree to review -- some part of the petitions. The decision could come as early as Tuesday, less than two weeks after the Obama administration proposed regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions at new power plants.

Keeping fingers crossed...