The craziest comments on our blackout piece in the Star Tribune

The Star Tribune ran an opinion piece last week by John Noer and me about the rising risk of rolling blackouts. The article garnered many intelligent comments about the merits of nuclear, coal, natural gas, and renewables.

It also brought out some crazy comments that highlight how some wind and solar advocates are willing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions no matter the cost or if it causes rolling blackouts.

Jacob Kane wrote:

Another comment was directed at the topic of energy bills.

Gene 428 said their gas costs increased from 2020 to 2021, which is true, but they also said their electricity rates went down. This is difficult to believe because U.S. Energy Information Administration data show residential electricity rates were higher in December 2021 than in December 2020.

Of course, these are statewide average costs, so we can’t know for sure if this statement is true without knowing which electric company gene428 has.

Lastly, we had a comment about Xcel Corporate profits:

As far as corporate profits go, it is obvious that this commenter doesn’t quite understand how any of this works.

Utility companies in Minnesota are regulated monopolies that only get to increase their profits when they build new things. The utility makes almost no profit on depreciated assets, like the coal plants, which is why the power they produce is so affordable.