If I told you a new plan by the city government of Richmond, Virginia, to make electricity more expensive and less reliable was in the works would you be excited about it, or would you fight it?
Well that’s exactly what Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney is proposing to do, except he’s dressing it up as a 80 percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions over the next three decades.
The mayor’s plan to cut emissions by 80 percent extends out to the year 2050, meaning he’ll be long out of office once the true costs begin impact the people of Richmond. But the true costs of an unfeasible plan like this one will hurt minority and low income families every step of the way.
Nationwide, the bottom 20 percent of earners spend almost 10 percent of their income on electricity. Not only does this not take into account other forms of energy, such as the gas to go to work, it’s also more than seven times the proportion of income the top 20 percent pays.
Richmond, specifically, is one of the cities where a high proportion of low income families already pay more than $200 a month for electricity.
Because of this, the fees (which should more honestly be called taxes) will have a much more significant impact on the families who are already struggling to pay their power bills and keep their gas tanks full every month.
But it’s not just the taxes and fees tacked on to power bills that would deliver a blow to families’ bank accounts.
Rising energy costs make everyday goods more expensive to produce because it costs businesses more to keep the lights on or have energy-intensive factories. This added cost has to be balanced, and unfortunately, layoffs or reduced job creation are likely outcomes.
Reducing use of fossil fuels and replacing them with wind and solar energy has become a politically popular claim to make but is neither affordable nor based in reality. This is readily apparent when you realize that Virginians get over 60% of their electricity from fossil fuels while wind and solar provide only 5%.
A recent study taking a deep look at claims of whether renewables can totally replace traditional energy sources 100% found that it simply isn’t feasible.
“While many modelled scenarios have been published claiming to show that a 100% renewable electricity system is achievable,” the study’s authors wrote, “there is no empirical or historical evidence that demonstrates that such systems are in fact feasible.”
Even worse, the peer reviewed study found that trying to get up to that level would come at a huge cost not only to family and government budgets, but to other environmental and social priorities as well.
“The realization of 100% renewable electricity (and energy more broadly) appears diametrically opposed to other critical sustainability issues such as eradication of poverty, land conservation and reduced ecological footprints, reduction in air pollution, preservation of biodiversity, and social justice for indigenous people.”
Higher energy prices will be destructive for all segments of the population, but for Richmond’s African American community—of which Mayor Stoney is a member—the impact would be even worse.
Mayor Stoney’s plan might sound good to environmentalists and look in good in the eyes of the media, but Richmondites should be made well aware of its true costs.
Derrick Hollie is President of Reaching America, an educational non-profit organization developed to address complex social issues impacting the African American community. They work on issues related to education, energy, criminal justice reform, occupational licensing, and community relations.