Horowitz: How McCarthy debt deal will destroy our leverage for the rest of Biden’s term
Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute explains the problem with speeding up energy projects without first repealing the green scam as follows:
Besides paying higher electric bills, consumers are going to have to get used to more frequent and longer blackouts as a result of the Biden-McCarthy deal. The buildout of wind and solar installations based on federal subsidies and state mandates is already stressing the electric grid. To quote the first sentence of the National Electric Reliability Corporation’s recent press release: “NERC’s 2023 Summer Reliability Assessment warns that two-thirds of North America is at risk of energy shortfalls this summer during periods of extreme demand.”
True, the Biden-McCarthy deal does include some welcome permitting reforms that could speed up approval of some conventional as well as renewable energy projects, although nearly everyone quoted in the press has described the reforms as “modest.” The practical effects of permitting reform are not all good when combined with the subsidies. Speeding up wind and solar and other subsidized energy installations will increase federal subsidy handouts, thus increasing the federal deficit, while at the same time increasing energy costs, thus depressing overall economic output.