CNN: “Trump Vowed to Halve Electricity Prices. But They’re Rising Twice as Fast as Inflation”
RFF Fellow Jesse Buchsbaum comments on the relationship between grid reliability issues and rising electricity prices.
“Another expensive problem on the supply side: Aging infrastructure that requires costly repairs and upgrades...
In California, which has suffered from a series of deadly wildfires, utilities have been forced to invest in expensive upgrades to lower the risk of fires.
‘Aging infrastructure and increased climate risk can threaten reliability if we don’t make necessary infrastructure investments. Those investments end up getting pushed onto consumers,’ said Jesse Buchsbaum, a fellow at the Resources for the Future, a nonpartisan research institution.
... Buchsbaum cautioned that taking projects offline can cause challenges for prices and reliability down the line.
‘There is an important role for renewables in achieving an affordable energy future– especially wind power,’ he said.”
