More on the climate change bill...
Via this post on Environmental Economics... Texas commissioned a study on the economic impacts of the bill as it stands at the moment. It's all there for you to read, but the basics of their conclusions are presented succinctly in the executive summary. This study doesn't include any costs from upgrades to systems that might be required, or other costs that might cause power to rise (here in Louisville, LG&E wants to raise rates to help pay for the work done in the wind storm and ice storm...).
In their reference case, the price of natural gas remains steady, as does the amount of available renewable energy. At this rate, carbon allowances will cost $40-60 per ton, passing on an average cost of approximately $27/month to the customer (obviously, this scales with energy use).
If the cost of natural gas rises, and there's no new renewable energy, well, they don't give a customer number, but since the increase in wholesale power costs is about 2x the one at $27/mo, I don't think an estimate of $45/month would be too far out of line. ($64/month would of course be 2x exactly, but I'm trying to be conservative.)
Since increased cost results in less demand (to a certain point), if demand is reduced by 10%, they predict $17/month.
Also, keep in mind through all this that natural gas releases less carbon dioxide than coal burning does. If you live in a coal burning region, your costs are likely to be higher.
Never having owned a house, I don't know what kind of electric bills a homeowner expects. I do know that my electric bill (which includes air conditioning but not heat), for a three bedroom apartment running a giant TV, consoles, and 3-4 computers, as well as an electric stove/range, has been between $42 and $62 (average $56) in the past 4 months, the only time I have records for here with me at work. It is higher in the summer because of the A/C. Using those average numbers for the sake of argument (although as an apt., not a house, we'd probably be a little lower), that averages out to a 53% rise in the cost of energy for us, with a range between 27% and 107%... or in dollars, $59-$107 with an average of $86, an average increase of $1028 over the course of a year.
I know that's very rough math, and I'm probably overestimating our share, but still! That's a not-inconsiderable chunk of change.
In their reference case, the price of natural gas remains steady, as does the amount of available renewable energy. At this rate, carbon allowances will cost $40-60 per ton, passing on an average cost of approximately $27/month to the customer (obviously, this scales with energy use).
If the cost of natural gas rises, and there's no new renewable energy, well, they don't give a customer number, but since the increase in wholesale power costs is about 2x the one at $27/mo, I don't think an estimate of $45/month would be too far out of line. ($64/month would of course be 2x exactly, but I'm trying to be conservative.)
Since increased cost results in less demand (to a certain point), if demand is reduced by 10%, they predict $17/month.
Also, keep in mind through all this that natural gas releases less carbon dioxide than coal burning does. If you live in a coal burning region, your costs are likely to be higher.
Never having owned a house, I don't know what kind of electric bills a homeowner expects. I do know that my electric bill (which includes air conditioning but not heat), for a three bedroom apartment running a giant TV, consoles, and 3-4 computers, as well as an electric stove/range, has been between $42 and $62 (average $56) in the past 4 months, the only time I have records for here with me at work. It is higher in the summer because of the A/C. Using those average numbers for the sake of argument (although as an apt., not a house, we'd probably be a little lower), that averages out to a 53% rise in the cost of energy for us, with a range between 27% and 107%... or in dollars, $59-$107 with an average of $86, an average increase of $1028 over the course of a year.
I know that's very rough math, and I'm probably overestimating our share, but still! That's a not-inconsiderable chunk of change.