By Chris Oberholtz
“Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 has a lot to do with this, not exclusively. There are many other factors at play,” said Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia Business School. “As long as we are dependent on commodities, like oil, coal and especially gas in this case, to heat our homes or power our economy, we will be vulnerable to their price fluctuations.”
And every time they reach highs, utility bills go up, Wagner adds.
“The answer is, and has been for a long time, to get off fossil fuels,” Wagner said.
This is something the Inflation Reduction Act, aptly named, addressed, both on the U.S. dependency on fossil fuels and “fossilflation”– the fact that much of the current inflation is due to rising fossil fuel prices.
“It takes a lot of investment, which is precisely where the Inflation Reduction Act comes in,” he said.
“Our electric grid, in part, runs on natural gas. If we burn more natural gas over the summer to cover peak electricity because of extreme heat, that, too, contributes to higher natural gas prices in the winter,” Wagner said.
For Wagner, the prescription to the cost of rising fossil fuel prices is simply getting off fossil fuels. But it takes time to do that.
“The ultimate fix for fossilflation is getting off fossil fuels. It’s about investing in alternative fuels,” he said.
It’s also about the practical steps that people can do help lower their heating bills.
“That begins with insulating homes,” Wagner said. “The second step: electrify everything.”
But electrifying alone doesn’t do it all either, as America’s electricity supply comes from fossil fuels. Wagner adds the electrical grid needs to be decarbonized.
“That’s the third crucial step here,” he said.
Quoted in: “Heating your home will be $177 more this winter. Here’s why.” by Chris Oberholtz, FOX Weather (22 September 2022).
Re-posted by The Daily Mail, The New York Post, and Yahoo!, among others.