Why Are Utilities So Expensive?
电费为什么这么贵？
译校：FungChuh
Why does your electricity bill keep going up when the cost of producing electricity keeps going down?
为什么你的电费一直在上涨，而电力生产成本却一直在下降？
Since 2010, the price of natural gas has fallen 43% and coal prices have dropped 11%. And yet, the price of electricity for residential users in the U.S. has risen 13% over that time. Why?
自 2010 年，天然气价格下降了43%，煤炭价格下降了 11%。然而，美国居民的用电价格在这期间上升了 13%。为什么？
Because almost all the money Americans should have saved (and we’re talking serious money) went to subsidize renewable energy. Wind and solar, it turns out, are more expensive than advertised.
因为美国人民本该省下来的几乎所有钱（我们说的是一大笔钱）都用去了补贴可再生能源。原来，风能和太阳能力比宣传的要昂贵。
Perhaps if renewable energy was what made our air cleaner, or what caused the dramatic reductions in CO2 over the last decade, you could say it was worth it. But our air was already becoming dramatically cleaner long before wind and solar were identified as “environmentally critical.” Emissions of harmful pollutants have decreased 77% in the US since 1970. And that had nothing to do with wind and solar. It was almost entirely due to the switch from coal to natural gas.
如果说可再生能源让我们的空气更清洁，或者让过去十年二氧化碳大幅降低，你可以说这是值得的。但我们的空气已经变得非常清洁了，早在风能和太阳能被认为「对环境至关重要」以前。在美国，有害污染物排放自 1970 年减少了 77%，而这与风能和太阳能没有丝毫关系，这几乎完全是由于从煤炭转向天气然。
So if we’re getting no cost savings from wind and solar, and minimal benefits in terms of cleaner air or reductions in CO2, why are we so obsessed with it?
因此，如果我们没能从风能和太阳能节省到成本，在清洁空气和二氧化碳降低方面的好处也微乎其微，那为什么我们对它如此痴迷？
The question becomes even sharper if we take a close look at your electricity bill. It consists of three main parts. Part One: Generation Cost. Part Two: Transmission Cost. Part Three: Taxes and Fees.
如果我们仔细看看你的电费单，问题就更变得为尖锐了。它由三个主要部分构成，第一部分：发电成本。第二部分：传输成本。第三部分：税费与规费。
Part One: Generation Cost
第一部分：发电成本。
The cost of generating and reliably maintaining electricity comprises about 50% of your power bill. ln order to keep the lights on, the demand for and supply of electricity must be satisfied at all times.
生产并可靠地维持电力的成本构成你电费的约 50%。为了维持电力供应，电力的需求和供应在任何时候都必须得到满足。
Fossil-fueled electricity is inexpensive, and the fuel can be stored or sourced on site—the electricity is there when you need it. In contrast, wind and solar generate electricity based on the mood of Mother Nature. This is known as the intermittency problem.
化石燃料电力廉价，而且燃料可以就地储存和获取——在你需要的时候就有电。相反，风能和太阳能发电取决于大自然母亲的心情。这即是所谓的间歇性问题。
Here’s what it means in practical terms: For every wind and solar farm you build, you need a fossil fuel facility nearby to supply electricity on demand. This is what filmmaker Michael Moore and his team found out, much to their shock, when researching green energy for their documentary, Planet of the Humans. All that wasted money is reflected in your electricity bill.
它在实践层面意味着：你每建一个风能和太阳能发电场，你需要在附近配备一个化石燃料发电厂以满足电力需求。这是电影制作人迈克尔·摩尔和他的团队发现的，让他们十分震惊，当时他们在为他们的纪录片《人类的星球》调查环保能源。所有那些被浪费的钱反映在你的电费单上。
Part Two: Transmission Cost
第二部分：传输成本
The cost to transmit electricity is determined by the distance between the power plant and your home or business. This is one of the reasons fossil fuel and nuclear plants are ideally suited to power our large, dense cities and industries. They require little land space and can be situated near or within population centers, so they need relatively few transmission lines. But wind and solar resources require large tracts of land and are therefore usually placed in remote locations.
电力的传输成本取决于发电站与你家或公司的距离。这也是为什么化石燃料和核发电站非常适合为我们巨大，密集的城市和工业供能。他们只需要少量的土地空间，并且能够设置得靠近或位于人口中心，因此它们需要相对较少的传输线路。但风能和太阳能资源需要大片土地，并因此通常设置于偏远地区。
That remoteness requires expensive new infrastructure. Texas, for example, has already spent over $7 billion in new transmission lines to bring distant wind power to cities in the east and south. And billions more will be required. Texans are already seeing those costs in their energy bills. But Texas is not unique. It’s happening everywhere.
这一偏远问题要求昂贵的新基础设施。以德州为例，已花费超过 70 亿在新的传输线路上，以将遥远的风能送往东部和南部城市，还将需要额外数十亿。德州人民已经在他们的电费单上看到这些成本了。但德州并非特例，到处都是这样。
Part Three: Taxes and Fees
第三部分：税费和规费。
Most taxes are plainly stated on your power bill. State taxes, city and county taxes, plus a bewildering assortment of fees—those are bad enough. But what you won’t see on your electricity bill are the federal and, in many places, state taxes that you pay to subsidize wind and solar generation.
大多数税费都清楚地注明在了你的电费单上。州税，市和县税，加上纷繁杂乱的规费——这些就已经够糟了。但你不会在你的电费单上看到的是你缴纳的联邦税，还有在很多地方还有州税，被用于补贴风能和太阳能发电。
Federal subsidies alone for the wind and solar industries totaled more than $70 billion from 2010 to 2019. Most state governments kick in their own incentives. The subsidies for wind and solar are in a class by themselves, and have been for decades. We are not incentivizing new technology, but are artificially supporting an industry. Take away the subsidies and, very likely, that industry does not exist.
