The President's War On Coal Is Hurting Most Those Who Can Least Afford It; No Wonder We Need To Raise The Minimum Wage; To Pay For The War On Coal -- Both The Campaign And The Consequences

Wow, this is incredible and exactly predictable.

CNS News is reporting (and I assume NBC, CBS, ABC, and Al Jezeera are not reporting):

The electricity price index soared to a new high in January 2014 with the largest month-to-month increase in almost four years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Meanwhile, data from the Energy Information Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy, indicates that electricity production in the United States has declined since 2007, when it hit its all-time peak.

To some extent it can be blamed on this severe winter, so it will be interesting to see how the entire calendar year 2014 compares to previous years.

Remember: coal-produced energy is the least expensive (excluding hydroelectricity). Nuclear is next. Then natural gas. Wind and solar are very expensive. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what will happen when president's war on the least expensive form of energy is succeeding, and the government, through tax credits and loan guarantees, continue to promote the most expensive form of electricity. Spain and Germany found out and are trying to stop the insanity.

This is really quite astounding. The president has put us on the road to New England (see tag at bottom of the blog).

There are three interesting things about electricity and the cost of electricity. It is not a progressive "expense." The rich pay the same price/kwh as the very poor.

The second thing, as part of their income, utility expenses for the poor take up a disproportionate share of their cost of living compared to the upper middle class and the wealthy.

Finally, electricity is not really in the "nice to have" category. It is pretty much something everyone requires, no matter how poor.

The president's war on coal is hurting most those who can least afford it.