written 3 September 2023
published 10 September 2023
Last week, Louisiana wildfires became largest in state history, and Greece has the largest fires in the EU. 6 inches of rain flooded parts of West Virginia. Hurricane Idalia intensified from category 1 to category 4 (briefly) within 24 hours, before making landfall. Heat in Texas pushed electricity prices to $1.599/kilowatt hour, compared to long term average of $0.066/kilowatt hour. Exxon, which actively works to undermine climate change efforts, declared climate will warm over 2°C by 2050, a level never previously experienced by humanity, yet called for more oil and gas investment.
The climate crisis has been known about for 50 years, but fossil fuel companies poured billions of dollars into denying the truth, confusing the populace, and buying compliant politicians, effectively stalling functional response. Consequently, the crisis has built to the point that gradual changes are no longer sufficient. As we have seen in Texas, the result is rising prices.
In Mendocino county, three companies provide electricity. Within Ukiah City limits, publicly owned Ukiah Electric has a residential retail rate of $0.185/kilowatt hour, the cheapest in the county, and 80 percent is non carbon. The next cheapest is provided by Sonoma Clean Power (SCP), at a retail rate of $0.29/kilowatt hour, with 91 percent non carbon power, servicing 80 percent of the rest of Mendocino county. The most expensive power is provided by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), with a retail rate of $0.31/kilowatt hour. PG&E claims their power is 96 percent non carbon, but 40 percent is nuclear generated, which is not renewable power.
Each company offers a 100 percent renewable power option, for an additional premium. Ukiah Electric charges an extra $0.02/kilowatt hour (11 percent), Sonoma Clean Power's EverGreen charges an extra $0.025/kilowatt hour (8.6 percent), and PG&E Solar Choice Program adds $0.09/kilowatt hour (29 percent). If you want to leave a habitable planet for our children, then you have the option of 100 percent renewable power for a modest fee increase, except for PG&E customers, who could change over to SCP and sign up for the EverGreen option.
But some people are concerned that even a 10 percent increase is too much. To them I would ask that they consider the cost of NOT making the shift, by including the "externalized" costs of continued burning of fossil fuels. These are actual expenses already being paid by society, but not included in the costs of producing electricity. This is fraudulent accounting, but standard in our economy.
One example is the cost of damages caused by a steadily heating planet. The hurricane Idalia in Florida was one of several recent storms that "rapidly intensified" as a result of very warm ocean water in the Gulf. This gave folks on land less time to prepare for, or evacuate from, the magnitude of storm that hit them. The storm was large, very wet, and drove a significant storm surge, causing between $10B and $20B in damages that will be paid by insurance companies, federal and state disaster aid, or bourn by the uninsured home and business owners. Last year climate damages added up to $170B in the US, and the total keeps increasing every year as the crisis builds.
Those damage estimates seriously under report the complete economic impact. It can take years to fully replace everything that is destroyed, which consumes money, time, and resources that would otherwise be supporting and expanding the economy. Some people never recover, further hurting the community.
The International Monetary Fund recently reported that fossil fuels annually received $1.3T in explicit global subsidies, rising to $7T when implicit support is included, such as undercharging for air pollution and other unaccounted adverse climate impacts. The US is a quarter of the global economy, so our share would be $1.75T, and when damage costs are added, almost $2T. The population of Ukiah is 16,000, with about 6,000 homes. On a per capita basis, our city's share of that annual bill is about $94M, or about $1,300 per month per household!
Since most of Mendocino county carbon footprint comes transportation and heating, shifting away from those energy sources is more expensive that shifting all of our electricity to renewables. But let's at least begin.
To sign up for Ukiah's program of 100 percent renewable power call 707-463-6747, and ask for Lori. To sign up for Sonoma Clean Power's EverGreen program, call 855-202-2139. Our children will thank you.
