Editorial: Surging prices for electricity – Opinion – providencejournal.com

Some politicians have been critical of National Grid for a proposed 19 percent increase in the electric bill for the typical residential user starting Oct. 1. It’s a frightening number, to be sure. The irony is, politicians have a greater influence over that number than the energy distribution company.

The proposed 19 percent — painful to Rhode Islanders and their economy, if approved by the state — is not a profit center for National Grid. It is the pass-through cost of energy. It gains the company nothing other than angry customers.

“This is essentially the outcome of market forces at the regional level,” said Macky McCleary, administrator of the Rhode Island Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, which acts as an advocate for ratepayers.

Timothy Horan, president of National Grid in Rhode Island, called the increase in energy costs a “major concern.”

The cost of energy rises as the bitterly cold weather approaches and demand for natural gas spikes. Natural gas has become increasingly important to New England, as power plants that run on coal, oil and nuclear energy have been shut down, and more homes have turned to natural gas for heating. More than 50 percent of New England’s electricity generation is now fueled by natural gas.

That is generally very good for our environment — since burning natural gas pollutes far less than burning coal and oil. But it has placed a premium on natural gas in the winter, which must at times be purchased at some of the highest spot prices in the world. Alternative sources of energy, notably wind and solar power, remain more expensive and are not reliable when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining.

Very cheap natural gas can be found a few hundred miles away, but politicians have been unwilling to create the pipeline capacity to get it to New England in the volume needed. Some environmentalists — opposing any use of fossil fuels, even though we are decades away from being able to keep our society going solely on renewables — have been able to thwart pipeline projects, both in New England and through New York State, the vital link to Pennsylvania’s natural gas fields.

Thus, in the winter, natural gas often must be shipped in on ocean tankers in liquefied form, vastly more expensive than through a pipeline.

At the same time, BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone) and opponents of any use of fossil fuels have protested the construction of newer, far more efficient plants. Opposition to Invenergy’s proposed state-of-the-art Clear River Energy Center in Burrillville is a case in point.

Even attempts to bring hydro-power from Canada down through New England have run into fierce resistance.

What can be done? Unless politicians in the Northeast commit themselves to getting natural gas here more cheaply and burning it at more efficient new power plants, it looks like sky-high electric bills will be a permanent fixture of future winters.

Since there are few other options, Mr. Horan urged his company’s 497,000 electric customers to try to reduce usage through greater efficiency, by replacing incandescent light bulbs, for example, and installing more efficient home equipment.

But a real break in prices could only come from reform of our region’s energy policies. Politicians would have to roll up their sleeves and make changes, instead of merely making noise about the high cost of energy.

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