Mugged By Reality: Green Energy Turns Into Nightmare In Georgetown, Texas

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Georgetown, Texas was pitched by Green New Deal ideologues on becoming a totally green city by running on 100% renewable energy. As energy prices quickly went through the roof, the city is in full retreat and left with a huge bill that it cannot pay. ⁃ TN Editor
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Georgetown, Texas – population 75,000 – was to be the new poster child of the green movement.

Environmental interest in Georgetown’s big push to generate all of its electricity from wind and solar power was amplified by three factors: the town and its mayor were nominally Republican; Georgetown is in an oil- and natural gas-rich state; and that state is deep-red Texas.

Former Vice President Al Gore and other climate change luminaries feted Georgetown Mayor Dale Ross, and Ross was featured prominently at renewable energy conventions.

Last October, while the green dream was still in full flower, the city applied for a $1 million grant from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s nonprofit, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and won it.

Ostensibly to be used for energy storage innovation in batteries, the grant’s only real requirement was that the city serve as a public relations platform in Bloomberg’s push to convince Americas to abandon affordable fossil fuels and switch to more costly renewable energy.

Trouble started when politicians’ promise of cheaper renewable energy was mugged by reality.

Georgetown’s electric bills went up as more wind and solar power displaced cheaper natural gas in the power portfolio of the Georgetown’s municipal utility. Politicians scrambled for cover. And the bloom came off Georgetown’s renewable rose.

Now, largely embarrassed members of the City Council are trying to figure out how to unwind the renewable mess they and their predecessors voted themselves into.

With their municipal utility facing a $7 million shortfall – money that has to be made up by the city residents through higher electricity costs – the City Council voted 5-1 in July to instruct the staff to figure out how to wriggle out of the Bloomberg PR deal.

On Aug. 13 the Council voted 5-0 to officially kill the deal. The city is also raising property taxes.

The Council member who asked for the vote said he wasn’t opposed to renewable energy, but that in light of the city utility’s deficit, the city should focus on the basics, rather than “doing experiments.”

Indeed, there’s not a single city in the contiguous 48 states that runs solely on wind and solar power. The reason is simple: electricity gets to cities via a grid, and that grid draws its energy from a variety of sources – mostly natural gas.
https://www.technocracy.news/mugged-by-reality-green-energy-turns-into-nightmare-in-georgetown-texas/

Welcome to what the Green New Deal has in store.

[Wingnut]

So lets take the political finger pointing out of this and get to the truth.
To cut to the chase, the Georgetown city council bought the hype that the city could go 100% "green energy" and save the citizens money on their electric bills. Just sign on the bottom line for an energy contract of several years and all will be good. Yes, the contract price was a bit high, but the excess capacity can be sold back onto the grid at non-green market price. Everybody makes money, right?

Wrong. Price of oil/gas drops (contract was signed when oil/gas was high), but the city is under contract. Difference has to be covered by citizen consumers. Electric bills skyrocket (Georgetown bills far and away the highest in the area) and the good folks of Georgetown are ready to string up the city council in the town square.

Think about the ARM's of the early 80's and you get the picture. The city council didn't understand the "what if", and a lot of Austin's greenies have moved out of the high cost of living Austin, moved to Georgetown (just a few miles north but in a different county) jumped on the renewable energy band wagon and have begun screwing up another economic area with their green ideas (not bad ideas) without considering what would happen if non-renewable energy costs dropped.

[PeteS in CA]

Solar energy has two problems:

* Night;

* Clouds.

Wind energy has two problems:

* Days that are too calm;

* Days where the wind is too strong for safe operation.

Bird fryers and bird choppers, even together, are no suitable for baseload power. Fryer and chopper farms also take up enormous acreage, and back-up batteries make that problem worse.

The above was true in Carter's Administration when large amounts of $$ was flushed down the drain (remember the enviro-howls when Reagan took the solar panels of the WH roof?). The same is true now, and existing fryer and chopper farms cannot operate without large government subsidies and mandated buying programs. IOW, 40+ years of progress has not brought us  anywhere near fryer and chopper farms being able to supply economically viable baseload power.

[rangerrebew]

Chuck DeVore: 'Green New Deal' preview? Texas town's lofty environmentalism leaves residents with a nightmare

By Chuck DeVore | Fox News



It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Georgetown, Texas – population 75,000 – was to be the new poster child of the green movement.

Environmental interest in Georgetown’s big push to generate all of its electricity from wind and solar power was amplified by three factors: the town and its mayor were nominally Republican; Georgetown is in an oil- and natural gas-rich state; and that state is deep-red Texas.

Former Vice President Al Gore and other climate change luminaries feted Georgetown Mayor Dale Ross, and Ross was featured prominently at renewable energy conventions.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/green-new-deal-preview-texas-town-environmentalism-chuck-devore

[PeteS in CA]

On the side, I was wondering why Chuck DeVore's name seemed familiar. He was an Assembly member from Orange County, CA. In 2010 he was in the R primary to run against Babs Bouncer *. I think I voted for him, but unfortunately Carly Fiorina won the primary and then lost to Babs Bouncer. I don't know that DeVore would have done better, but at least I would not have held my nose while voting against Babs.

* Refresh your memory on the House Bank Scandal.