U.S. foresees greater energy independence - The nation will be more energy independent in the future as it boosts its production of oil, natural gas and renewable power such as solar and wind, the U.S. government predicted Monday.

There are two things one has to weigh when reading this article:

1. Growing renewable energy, particularly wind and solar, do not burn fuels but the cost of installations are high on a per nameplate MW basis.  This cost is exacerbated by the low capacity factors of these technologies making the cost on a per MWh delivered basis quite high.  The costs touted for these renewables do not include the costs of building out long distance transmission lines needed to bring the energy from remote sites to load centers nor does it reflect the impacts of increased costs to all the rest of America of construction commodities caused by the inefficient use of building materials on a pound/MW or pound/MWh basis.  If renewables were cost effective they would not need the federal government to tax the rest of America to give them cash handouts in order to reach grid parity.  It does not matter whether one pays for the electricity all in their power bills or by a combination of power bills and taxes, the increased cost is still the increased cost.
2. US wind energy in many cases is most commonly, by a wide margin, available in the hours from around midnight to dawn--a time when demand is quite low.  This means wind energy is jacking around in electrical markets at a time of day usually the domain of base load power plants.  This discourages investors from putting money into new base load plants or emissions equipment for older base load plants.  In the ERCOT region where I live, it is discouraging the construction of any new power plants because it messes with the payout projections due to unpredictability and government infusion of money confiscated from other taxpayers.  When the wind dies, something is needed to fill in the power it is no longer producing.  Greenies may point out that solar will fill in the gap but it does not.  The power peaks are not coincident with the peak output of solar PV and the cost of solar PV on both a per nameplate MW and a per MWh delivered makes the cost of wind pale by comparison.  The net result is that older plants which should have been retired in favor of newer, more efficient, and less polluting plants will be kept in service and more low cost generation--ie simple cycle gas turbines--will be built.  Since coal plants do not ramp up and down very well, the older plants kept in service will be natural gas fueled.  The results of all this, I predict, will be neglible if any reduction in CO2 emissions, wastage of natural gas which is a prime fuel good for many things coal is not, and an increase in power costs. 

Why do renewable energy proponents push for carbon taxes?  It is not really because there should be a cost piled onto fossil power, it is a way to bring grid parity to the present state of renewable energy technologies so that it shifts the cost of renewables to the power bills of American citizens and businesses and they can claim grid parity for renewables without PTCs or cash grants.  Meanwhile the Chinese, for all their "renewables invesments" are building coal plants, nuclear plants, and hydro power at an astounding pace.  If you think hydro is green, talk with the people displaced by dam reservoirs--I mean, afterall, the animals displaced or drowned and the trees and plants innundated cannot talk.

For the present, we need to concentrate on developing our oil and gas, nuclear, and coal further to reduce dependence on foreign sources; improve the efficiency of fuel consumption thereby reducing carbon emissions by building new plants to replace older ones; reduce toxic emissions by building newer, emissions equipped plants; develop natural gas fueled vehicles; build new nuclear plants, particularly making use of small, modular reactors, with passive safety built in; and, finish the R&D work on renewables which should have been carried closer to conclusion before throwing taxpayer money at them to force adoption before they were ready.