Real life Portlandia....Where did the lights go?

www.foxnews.com...

This is insane. Look I understand closing the older plants. The clean air act was poorly written allowing facilities to be grandfathered never having to upgrade pollution controls. Banning an entire sector of energy production without a plan to replace it is real life Portlandia.

The massive coal-fired plant in Boardman, Ore., is just four years away from being shut down for good – at that point, Oregon coal production will be no more, after the state became the first in the nation to completely ban coal power.

Having the title "the first" will only harm those near or just above the poverty line. Think the state has a plan for when the subsidies for wind expire or are not renewed?

"This is basically a wind mandate," said the Cascade Policy Institute's John Charles, while suggesting alternative energy sources won’t be able to meet the state’s needs. "There's no way wind can physically power the grid because days, weeks on end, wind produces zero."

Wait what???? The wind actually stops blowing sometime??? No way!

A major problem could be getting any new power to the grid. A U.S. Chamber of Commerce report, titled “Project No Project,” found 351 recent ventures that never got built -- 140 of the projects were for renewable power. Many were killed due to legal challenges from environmental groups.

I thought environmental groups liked wind power?

One example of this is playing out in Oregon, where renewable power has become more critical due to the coal ban. The 133-turbine, 399 MW Saddle Butte Wind Park proposed for a large piece of land in Eastern Oregon near Boardman has been under challenge for several years. The developer, fed up with the lengthy process, has stopped paying $30,000 in fees he owes the state.

Oh crap I guess they don't like electricty at all?

www.breitbart.com...

Last year, the wind power subsidy cost federal taxpayers $12 billion. This is more than double the historical average of $5 billion a year. The subsidy provides a direct payment to wind and solar producers, based on the amount of power they produce. For wind power, the subsidy is worth around $23 per megawatt of power, around half the wholesale price of electricity

So the for profit energy companies can pay you $22.00 mwhr to take their power and still make a profit. Coal, oil, and gas can't compete with that. Oh and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has mandated all regional operating authorities dispatch the most economically efficient power production first. So not only are your tax dollars paying for profit companies; they get paid again when they are dispatched by government entities.
A double dip cone anyone?

Warren Buffett, a big investor in wind power, admitted the industry’s reliance on the federal subsidy. “[O]n wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.”

Yeah because Warren Buffett needs your tax credits.

a reply to: shooterbrody

idiotic... the petrol industry still has the world by the nuts, doesn't it?

a reply to: shooterbrody

Seems these idiots want to "Darwin" themselves right out of existence.