Keystone Today

Energy costs and inflation are on the rise and experts are predicting that there could be rolling energy blackouts experienced throughout the country this summer.

According to a report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), in Pennsylvania, the average price for electricity each month has increased 10.94% between March 2021 and March 2022. The latest forecast in May predicts that residential electricity costs will continue to rise, with an expected increase of 3.9% between June and August compared with those months from last year.

Katie Tubb, a research fellow for energy and environmental issues at The Heritage Foundation, says that by appropriating terms such as “independence,” “clean,” and “innovation,” the Biden Administration is pushing for "advancing costly policies that ultimately will eliminate conventional fuels by regulatory fiat." Tubb adds that this "self-imposed energy scarcity" is exactly what Biden promised on his campaign trail back in 2019.

“Joe Biden claims to be all for ‘energy independence’,” Tubb wrote in a report on April 1 on The Heritage Foundation website. “As families and businesses face some of the highest energy prices in over a decade, the president has embraced the phrase as a banner over his own policies.”

Biden has been adamant about switching to renewable energy. One example is during a campaign event in Newcastle, N.H. in September 2021 where he said “I guarantee you we’re going to end fossil fuels.”

The Washington Post recently reported that the nation’s power grid is under stress at unprecedented levels, due to extreme weather and the shutting down of fossil fuel plants. Experts are warning that rolling blackouts that are common in states like California and Texas could be commonplace around the rest of the country as the summer goes on.

The National Review reported that experts, like Mid-continent Independent System Operator CEO John Bear, say that widespread blackouts will likely increase in Texas, the Midwest and the south. He said that the Biden Administration’s effort to make six energy grids decarbonized has presented problems. 

Biden has said that the long-term strategy is to decarbonize the U.S. economy by 2050. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) estimates that power prices in the Midwest could increase by 233% at the peak of the summer, as experts are estimating gas prices to continue to increase and average temperatures to be as much as 50 to 80% higher than normal, according to the National Review.

The National Review report added that Republican commissioners on the FERC have argued to slow the transition to renewable energy to make sure problems don’t occur. One of these was Mark Christie, who said “we’re headed for a reliability crisis. We’re just not ready yet.” However, Democrats on the commission have said that the energy transition is not the problem, but rather that the blackouts are due to power transmission issues.