近几个月来，美国各地的电力公司客户纷纷表示.S. 当他们打开每月的电费账单时是否被吓了一跳. The high costs they are experiencing are largely the result of years of unsound government energy policies, 它们切断了为可靠能源提供燃料的选择. U.S. electricity producers have been forced to depend more on natural gas and must compete against foreign nations for our domestic natural gas supplies. 这些国家愿意支付比美国高出1000%的费用.S. 消费者已经习惯了付费. Some, 特别是俄罗斯, have taken advantage of the situation to weaponize energy to advance their radical interests.
U.S. policy-makers have enthusiastically incentivized solar and wind generators, regardless of how well the operating characteristics of those technologies match up with U.S. energy needs. But when those solar and wind resources do not perform—an occurrence as predictable as the sun setting and the seasons changing—energy producers must turn to reliable 24/7/365 thermal energy resources. For large-scale energy production, that means natural gas, coal and nuclear. But, facing ever-stricter regulations and price competition from heavily subsidized renewable resources, 越来越多的燃煤电厂和核电站被迫退役.
到2020年，美国将实现经济增长.S. added 27.6千兆瓦(GW)的太阳能和风能资源.6 GW of natural gas; virtually no coal or nuclear resources were added. In fact, 在过去十年中, 煤炭产能累计关闭95吉瓦, 还有12个核反应堆. 今天，美国没有新建燃煤电厂.S.美国只有两座核反应堆正在建设中. 因此, 当太阳能和风能没有出现的时候, electricity providers increasingly must turn to one key flexible resource —natural gas. 今天，40%的美国人.S. 发电由天然气驱动，比2001年的17%有所上升.
Promoters of solar and wind undoubtedly will maintain that utility-scale battery technology is the silver bullet to solve renewables’ intermittency problem. 但是今天，只有不到1%的美国人.S. 太阳能和风能的容量由电池提供支持. The technology for large-scale storage remains largely in the developmental stage. 快速部署大型, utility-scale batteries to back up hundreds of gigawatts of solar and wind resources will require aggressive, 电池制造能力的昂贵增长. Today, much of the mineral content necessary to produce lithium-ion batteries—the foremost technology being pursued for both utility energy storage and electric vehicles—comes from nations like China and Russia, 那些利益与美国不一致的国家.S.
As the U.S. 是学习在这一刻，我们 must 在能源问题上，考虑到外国利益的差异. In recent years, Russia has supplied one-third of Europe’s natural gas for heating and manufacturing. 作为对俄罗斯最近入侵乌克兰的回应, 这些国家实施了制裁, 所以俄罗斯切断了天然气供应. 因此，全球的天然气价格都在飙升. 大型U.S. 天然气购买者, 包括东肯塔基电力合作公司和大河电力公司, have been accustomed to paying $2 to $3 per million BTU for natural gas; meanwhile, 欧洲和亚洲的发电企业则要支付20至30美元. In fact, 最近几个月, spot prices in those regions have shot up as high as $50 to $60 per million BTU. Recently Big Rivers decided to convert one of its coal-fired generating plants to natural gas due to those low gas prices only to see the same gas prices spike over $9 to $10 per million BTU.
For U.S. 电力客户，这意味着高昂的电费. 拜登总统最近承诺扩大美国在阿富汗的军事行动.S. 帮助我们的欧洲朋友出口天然气. (值得注意的是，美国.美国的海外天然气出口是一个新发展. 2016年，美国经济增长放缓.S. 向海外出口的液化天然气很少. 到今年年底，美国将在全球范围内实现经济增长.S. 会比世界上任何其他国家拥有更多的出口能力吗, 每天将近140亿立方英尺的天然气. 另外，每一天，美国都在努力.S. 通过管道向墨西哥出口另外70亿立方英尺.)结果, Americans find themselves in the awkward position of bidding against foreign nations for our own domestic supplies of natural gas.
Meanwhile, the pressures that have constrained and reduced coal and nuclear production are catching up with the natural gas industry. Gas drillers who cut production during COVID’s economic doldrums have been slow to restart production, 尽管工厂和商店在2021年恢复了生机. Media reports suggest gas producers are reluctant to commit big dollars to drilling because of punitive regulatory risks. 即使他们愿意, drillers face difficulties arranging financing due to pressure on banks to cut lending for fossil fuel production.
2019年，在新罕布什尔州的一个市政厅, President Biden famously stated he would jail the heads of fossil fuel companies. It was, perhaps, 只是选举季的夸张而已, 但他的政府当然没有浪费时间来打击这个行业. The Environmental Protection Agency is deploying an intensive barrage of regulations aimed at fossil fuels; this will hasten the closure of even more coal plants and further hinder the development of new natural gas capacity. 这些行动给金融合作伙伴带来了巨大的不确定性, 哪些对资本密集型能源产业至关重要. As a result, financial institutions are abandoning fossil fuels or raising financing costs to prohibitive levels.
与天然气一样，美国石油公司也在使用天然气.S. coal producers suddenly have a lucrative opportunity to export coal to nations willing to pay much higher prices than the U.S. 近年来，煤炭市场有所波动, 在国内造成了急剧上升的成本压力, as well as a scarcity of available coal as mining companies face numerous challenges to restarting operations, 包括劳动力和设备短缺, 受限的铁路运输, 融资成本高，监管阻力大.
Recently, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm visited EKPC’s solar farm near Lexington, Ky. 在她访问期间, EKPC CEO Campbell informed Secretary Granholm that renewables play an important and growing role in energy production, 特别是在减少碳排放和应对气候变化方面. 但他也告诉她，如果美国不采取行动.S. 转变得太快太快了, it will seriously jeopardize the cost and reliability of America’s energy supply, which is critically important to the welfare of the American people and the American economy.
EKPC和大河致力于尽我们所能, by utilizing every tool available to us in protecting the reliability and cost-effectiveness of the energy we supply for 1.35 million Kentucky residents and businesses while moving toward a more sustainable future as technology allows. EKPC and Big Rivers believe in the “all-of-the-above” approach to maintain a more balanced resource portfolio by utilizing solar, hydro, coal, and natural gas in order to protect the environment and sustain reliable energy for our Member-Owners. We call on our nation’s leaders to make the same commitment and also to ensure the U.S. does not expose the cost and reliability of our abundant domestic energy supplies to the whims of radical interests, foreign nations and our enemies who have unscrupulously weaponized the world’s energy supply.
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