The recent letter from Kevin Brinegar, president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, regarding the nation’s recent inflation woes, states “The rush to implement green energy policies is also to blame.” In my view, this is incorrect.
Biden’s premier green energy policies are in the Build Back Better Act, which has not passed. If it did pass, it would reduce energy costs — up to $500 annually per household, per Rhodium Group, or $9B annually all utility customers, per RMI. Moody’s and Goldman Sachs agree that passing BBB would make the economy stronger.
Climate change — primarily caused by burning fossil fuels — is behind more frequent and intense floods, droughts and heatwaves. These in turn drive inflation, especially for food, lumber and home insurance. Beyond that, fossil fuels are finite, and they are becoming harder to retrieve, making them less economical as we put more and more energy into extraction. Fossil fuel prices are subject to volatile global marketplaces and even the whims of dictators, as we have recently seen with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Prices have shot up despite the United States becoming the top exporter of liquefied natural gas, and its producing more oil now than at any point before 2018.
Meanwhile, clean energy is becoming more economical. Building new wind and solar is cheaper than running existing coal plants. New electric cars are cheaper to own than comparable internal combustion cars. In Illinois, nuclear power plants are saving customers money as natural gas prices rise. And this is all before reckoning with the massive health costs of fossil fuels.
In conclusion, to support the American economy, fight inflation, and set us on a course for a healthy, prosperous and lasting future, I would urge the Chamber to support more green energy policy.
John Smillie
Crawfordsville
