Cheap Natural Gas & Wind Energy killing Walker's little friend "Coal."

If you’re Scott Walker or a conservative voter who believes with all their heart and soul that coal is the only cheap fuel holding down our utility bills, you’re not going to like this story.

While Walker and AG Brad Schimel spend taxpayer dollars suing the EPA for supposedly killing coal and supposedly raising the price of energy in Wisconsin, reality and the price of natural gas, just proved them wrong on every count. JS:

The plummeting price of natural gas and future environmental regulations are making utilities do things that were practically unheard of years ago, from shutting down nuclear plants to turning to natural gas for a variety of fuels in power plants. 

The moves are being driven by prices in the wholesale power market, including both the low cost of natural gas and the growing number of wind farms. Low-cost wind provides one-third of the electricity consumed in Iowa.

What's that..."Low-cost wind?" Well what-a-know Walker dupes. The slow steady pace of progress and innovation are suddenly allowing big energy providers to be in compliance with Obama's Clean Power Plan:

We Energies and its sister utility, Wisconsin Public Service, plan to test the burning of natural gas inside coal boilers from Kenosha and Oak Creek to Green Bay and Wausau. The tests are designed to see if burning less coal in the plants will help the utility comply with the federal Clean Power Plan and other air pollution regulations. Burning natural gas inside coal boilers is one of the potential compliance strategies that the Environmental Protection Agency identified for utilities...

Despite Walker's and Sen. Frank Lasee's efforts to kill wind energy in the state, the rest of the nation isn't just building wind farms, they're manufacturing the turbines and equipment for them. Can't say the same for coal in Wisconsin:

Aided by Congress' move to extend production tax credits for renewable energy, the price of wind power has fallen so much that utilities are turning to expansion of their wind power resources.

 Let's ask Scott Walker and Brad Schimel again why they're suing the EPA, I would love to hear their tortured logic on this one.

Big Energy slows consumer solar adoption, proposes new natural gas power plant. Coincidence?

The good news is a few coal fired power plants are going to be shut down. The bad news?

We're going to get a new natural gas power plant at the same time the Public Service Commission is granting huge fixed rate increases to discourage the adoption of consumer installed solar panels.

jsonline: Wisconsin Power and Light Co. announced the project on Thursday, saying it's needed to replace older and less-efficient coal and natural gas-fired power plants owned by Alliant across the state.

Have no fear, Alliant Energy is "thinking" of cornering the solar market too with their own clean energy panels. Hey, if anybody's going to use the free low cost energy of the sun and charge something for it, it might as well be our monopolistic energy companies.

Utility spokesman Scott Reigstad said, "Over the coming months, we are going to look at how solar may fit into our plans."

Oh sure they will.  You think this might also be a way to raise customer bills for the new plant, make up for a drop in their profits, all the while paying out big stockholder dividends? Ya never know.

Alliant said its net income fell nearly 3% … its board has approved an 8% increase in its stockholder dividend target for 2015

Have we answered the question about the Koch brothers interest in reelecting Scott Walker yet? 

Irresponsible Wisconsin Republican Congressmen vote to shrink Natural Gas Supplies, Raise Prices and Export Supplies to Countries that sponsor Terrorism.

In the back pocket of big oil, Republicans are not only pushing the XL Pipeline to export gas out of the countries, they're also planning on padding the industries pockets with natural gas export money. You can say goodbye to low natural gas prices for Americans already on tight budgets, like senior citizens:

EXPEDITED NATURAL-GAS EXPORTS: The House passed a bill (HR 6) requiring prompt Department of Energy (DOE) action on applications from U.S. companies to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to countries in Europe and elsewhere with which America does not have a free-trade agreement. Critics said this would truncate DOE's reviews of whether applications are in the public interest in terms of assuring adequate and affordable domestic supplies of natural gas.

Voting to drain our supply of natural gas and raising prices? Paul Ryan, Jim Sensenbrenner, Tom Petri, Sean Duffy, and Reid Ribble.

Democrats to the Rescue? Not if Republicans can help it:

LIMITS ON GAS EXPORTS: The House defeated a Democratic bid to prohibit natural-gas exports under HR 6 (above) that raise household energy costs for U.S. seniors on fixed incomes or benefit countries that are state sponsors of terrorism or conductors of cyber-attacks on America. 

I can hardly believe I'm about to type this: Voting against cheap natural gas prices for senior citizens and for selling gas to countries that sponsor terrorism: Ryan, Sensenbrenner, Petri, Duffy, Ribble

I wish I were making this stuff up. And yet Republicans are still threatening to be reelected in November.