Boston Commoners Sold Out on Electricity by Boston Brahmins!
Jim Willis on NGL Pipelines
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)
[Editor’s Note: Boston is saddled with Brahmin politicians with zero interest in the plight of the common man in paying the electric bill as they play the phony climate game.]
Here’s a fact that mainstream media largely ignores: Households in the Boston area pay about 50% more for electricity than households across the nation. On average, Massachusetts residents spend about $276 a month on electricity. That is 37% higher than the national average. An op-ed appearing in the Washington Examiner says New Englanders need to get used to these high prices. High prices for electricity are here to stay (for New England)–at least well into the 2030s. Why? Lack of pipelines, blocked by New England politicians.
Boston Brahmin John Kerry with Klaus Schwab at World Economic Forum plotting how to raise electricity prices on other Bostonians and joined in that cause by his successor Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren, Maura Healey and a host of other Brahmins.
We’ve made this argument again and again–that a lack of pipelines from the Marcellus into New England is causing high prices for electricity and gas used for those who heat and cook with it. We spotted the op-ed below that does a masterful job of connecting the dots, laying the blame where it needs to be laid–at the feet of New England politicians (and the boneheads who keep electing them).
Households in the Boston area pay about 50% more for electricity than households across the nation. On average, Massachusetts residents spend about $276 a month on electricity. That is 37% higher than the national average.
Across New England, electricity prices are skyrocketing. Central Maine Power customers are experiencing a 50% increase in their electricity bills. The dramatic increases in the cost of electricity burden households across New England. The increases are especially onerous for lower-income households that spend more of their disposable income on essentials, heating, food, and transportation.
It wasn’t always so. As the current century unfolded, natural gas fueled just 15% of the region’s electricity. But with the development of the natural gas fields of the prolific Marcellus Shale basin in Pennsylvania, new natural gas pipelines and power plants were built connecting New England with the Marcellus Shale deposits. The new power plants were efficient.
As natural gas increased as a fuel source, there was a significant long-term decline in the emission of greenhouse gases. Relatively clean gas replaced carbon-heavy coal and oil.
Until recently, 2008 marked the historic peak in energy prices in New England. In fact, the energy market value of fuels consumed in New England reached record lows in 2016. Natural gas from the Marcellus Shale basin was cheap. Since 2016, however, matters have changed. New England politicians, including both senators from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, as well as newly elected Gov. Maura Healey, along with green energy advocates, have blocked the addition of new pipelines.
On very cold days, there is inadequate pipeline capacity to satisfy the energy needs of Massachusetts and the other states of New England. Massachusetts power companies are forced to burn oil or to import liquified natural gas, LNG, and burn that. Unfortunately, because of the Jones Act, which mandates that ships, including LNG tankers, that carry cargo from one U.S. port to another U.S. port must be U.S. flagged and crewed by Americans, it is not economical to ship LNG from the Gulf Coast to New England. U.S.-flagged ships are not competitive in the global shipping market. So New England power companies import LNG from Europe. In fact, as late as last year, New England imported LNG from Russia.
Progressive politicians prefer that New England households consume LNG from Russia and not relatively inexpensive natural gas from Pennsylvania, a few hundred miles from the western Massachusetts border. Progressives won’t admit the truth about sky-high electricity prices in New England. They blame greedy energy companies. That blame is an outright lie. Insufficient pipeline capacity is the cause, not corporate greed.
This past winter, when LNG prices soared because of the war in Ukraine, progressives wanted to violate one of the principles of free market economics, free trade, and ban exports of LNG. That was just a political talking point. Progressives know that even if LNG exports were banned, the Jones Act would still make it prohibitively expensive to import LNG from Texas. So, when it gets really cold, New England households pay through the nose.
Finally, progressives say the problem of high electricity prices will be solved as soon as more wind and solar power systems are deployed in New England. That is a misrepresentation. It often takes a decade or longer to approve new wind power systems in the U.S.
New England residents can look forward to sky-high electricity bills well into the 2030s.
James Rogan is a former U.S. foreign service officer who later worked in finance and law for 30 years. He writes a daily note on finance and the economy, politics, sociology, and criminal justice.
Editor’s Note: What a good analysis. Bostonians who have voted for these pompous virtue signaling elitists are paying the price in outrageous electric prices that are the direct result of the policies of the modern day Boston Brahmins’ actions to both further enrich and further empower themselves.
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