One enduring aspect that is too often ignored in the globalists’ decadent attempts to deliver a debt-subsidised energy transition is that the rising costs of energy in all its forms are a feature, not a flaw, of the overall plan.

From the perspective of the authoritarian central planners behind this project, constantly rising energy costs make perfect sense for a variety of reasons.

• Rising prices for electricity generation and transportation fuels could make “clean” energy alternatives more competitive in the marketplace.
• Rising energy costs should lead to reduced energy use by individuals who cannot afford to pay the bills.
• Less energy use would mean less carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, finally allowing central planners to claim “victory.”

Nowhere has this principle been more vigorously enforced than in Germany, where governments deliberately and sharply raise the price of all forms of energy as a means of encouraging the hapless masses to behave as social planners want them to. Germany is now paying a huge economic price as commercial and industrial electricity users flee to China and other countries less consumed by the climate alarm frenzy.

The most obvious example in the United States is California, whose state government appears to be copying most of the horrific mistakes made by Germany, with the result that Highest cost All Forms of Energy In the US, for those in the Golden State who have not yet fled to Texas or Florida, the situation has become so taxing that even Bloomberg's energy transition advocates are starting to take notice. To be fair, Bloomberg's news division is heavily invested in a climate alarmist rhetoric, but it has hired several columnists who bring a more balanced approach.

One of them is Liam Denning, a former writer for The Wall Street Journal. Excellent analysis This week, he detailed some of the ways state policymakers continue to heap insults on utility ratepayers, and one example he points to is PG&E's project to bury 10,000 miles of utility lines underground in Northern California as a wildfire prevention measure.

Denning said: Professor Meredith Foley, University of California, Berkeley The report found that the undergrounding mandate has led to a 16.5% increase in California's average utility bill this year. “Politically, it's easier to embed a fee in electric bills than to raise taxes,” Denning said. Most wildfires are caused by arson or natural disasters, not overhead power lines, so this is a better way to cover the costs of efforts to reduce wildfires. Worse, by loading the costs onto customers' utility bills, rather than covering the costs through a generally applicable progressive tax increase, it ultimately becomes a regressive form of taxation that hits hardest those least able to afford it.

But what needs to be understood here is that tactics to obscure the real reasons for the rapid rise in energy costs in all forms are crucial to the sustainability of any subsidy-funded transition effort. For example, transition advocates will always argue that wind power is probably the lowest-cost form of energy. But those same people will never acknowledge that the billions of dollars in state and federal subsidies pumped into the Northeast offshore wind sector, which is not yet producing enough electricity, have already resulted in: Soar utility bills For affected state residents and businesses.

If voters truly understood how the climate alarmism religion is affecting the cost of living for them, they would immediately seek to punish the policymakers and regulators behind it. That's the first thing to understand about all of this.

The second thing to understand is that all of the huge costs incurred by these irrational energy policies that you and I find unacceptable are, in the eyes of the central planners, a success story to be celebrated. Again, rising costs are a feature, not a flaw, of a comprehensive energy transition plan. Once you accept this reality, everything they do makes perfect sense.

David Blackmon is a Texas-based energy writer and consultant who worked in the oil and gas industry for 40 years and specializes in public policy and communications.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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