Well, the wise old owl Mr. Trump, the most intelligent man in history, has solved another insoluble dilemma caused by Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and every Democrat since creation: the cost of electricity.
Or more correctly, the cause of the high cost of generating electricity.,
And it was so simple, renewable energy. Mr. Trump labeled it “The Scam of the Century.”
Now, when a man of Mr. Trump’s repute identifies something as the Scam of the Century, particularly something he says didn’t originate, orchestrate, or realize a profit from, one should take notice.
So let’s examine the realities, which are contradictory to Mr. Trump’s contention; therefore, they must, of course, be wrong.
Here’s a chart showing the levelized cost of renewable energy. This seems to show a downward trend in the cost per kilowatt hour.
Hmm, we must be reading that wrong.
Let’s look to other sources that might confirm Mr. Trump’s obviously superior position.
The average cost per MWh (megawatt hour or 1000 kilowatts) for various fuels
Standalone Solar $32.56
Geothermal $36.40
Onshore wind $36.93
Combined cycle $37.11
Natural Gas $90.00
In simpler terms from another readily available (and thus perceived as false and fake news contrary to our own genius),
“According to a 2023 analysis by Lazard, renewable energy sources are emerging as the most cost-effective options for electricity in the U. S. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for onshore wind and utility-scale solar PV stands at approximately $24/MWh, significantly lower than fossil fuel alternatives. A breakdown of the costs reveals solar, standalone at $32. 78/MWh, geothermal at $36. 40/MWh, and onshore wind at $36. 93/MWh. Combined cycle gas costs about $37. 11/MWh, while hybrid solar reaches $47. 67/MWh.”
It would seem something is amiss.
What Mr. Trump means, and we of inferior intellectual capacity failed to grasp, is the issue of reliability. If the wind ain’t blowin’ and the sun ain’t shinin’ what happens? Fossil fuels can burn at night, in the rain, anytime.
So perhaps it is the grid that’s the culprit.
Fossil fuel responds to demand, and in our aging grid infrastructure, it was the best choice until recently. The cost of commercial-level battery storage which would mitigate the need for constant, demand-based generation of electricity, has also risen in capability and fallen in cost.
Could it be that the increasing demand for gigantic data centers is putting a strain on the grid and driving up the cost? Perhaps not, or Mr. Trump would surely have mentioned it.
And yeah, yeah, that guy Biden funded that Infrastructure bill to modernize the grid, but who cares? We know they are the cause of all the world’s problems.
There is another thing Mr. Trump didn’t mention, and that is the environmental cost of fossil fuel.
Global warming is directly tied to increased extreme weather events and natural disasters. Climate-fueled natural disasters cost the US $165 billion in 2021. In the last five years, climate disasters have cost us a total of $595.5 billion. That’s one-quarter of the total disaster cost of the last 42 years.(https://www.arcadia.com/blog/true-cost-fossil-fuels)
And the last thing introducing confusion into Mr. Trump’s intent to cease support of renewables is this from Freddie Mac. Now, on the off-chance you are unfamiliar with Freddie Mac, it is a large entity that offers mortgages.
They are not Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, or on the menu for the Presidential diet. They are in the business to make money. And they contend, among other things, that climate change is making ocean waterfront homes uninsurable. Read the Freddie Mac Financial Stability report that has been warning about the risk of climate change to the US economy since 2016.
And this independent report documenting the same risk.
I looked for any reports from Trump University, but couldn’t find anything except settlement documents from some lawsuit.
The Scam of the Century may turn out to be just as we all expected, a scam, but one of an entirely different yet all too familiar nature.
The Writing of Joe Broadmeadow 