Some not altogether surprising news reported by The Daily Caller. While EPA rules and regulations are shutting down hundreds of coal-fired plants, replacing such power sources with wind farms and natural gas fired plants will ratchet up the cost to three times the amount for America consumers. This the result of a new study conducted by the Institute for Energy Research (IER).

The IER study states that replacing coal-fired plants with wind farms will cost consumers three times as much while replacing nuclear with wind power will cost four times more. Consumers would have to pay two times as much with natural gas power replacing coal. Presently government research hasn’t been conducted to show how much replacing coal with renewables like wind and natural gas with cost consumers.

The reason why prices increase, the manuscript says, is that infrastructure and and equity investment and replacement capacity are assumed by consumers. The capacity of existing hydroelectric, coal and nuclear plants have already paid off their debts and have lower fixed costs than if they were to be replaced by wind or natural gas. In its research, the study points out, the Energy Information Administration has used statistics from green energy proponents making the case that renewables are cheaper. However, the reality is they are not. The one sentence in the report that should be of concern and was quoted by The Daily Caller is:

An unprecedented amount of generating capacity is set to close due to ongoing renewables policies, undervalued capacity markets, currently low natural gas prices, and additional environmental regulations.

In other words, the amount of coal-fired plants being shut down in order to make way for renewable energy sources to replace them is huge. If the existing plants remained in place they could generate enough affordable and efficient energy capacity for years to come. Environmentalists who propose intentionally avoid fact like what is pointed out in the IER study because at their core they are anti-industry and anti-civilization. If we want abundant sources of energy at lower cost, the solution is not replacing fossil fuels but enhancing our access to them for our use.

It is time to reject the hype climate alarmists and environmentalists make along with their call to restrict carbon-based energy use. The green chicken littles and politicians claiming the sky is falling because of human caused global warming are using studies that match the environmentalist narrative as an excuse to rob us of our ability to live affordably and comfortably.