In 2008, GDP per capita in the US and UK was roughly equivalent, and Britain could credibly claim to be a wealthy nation. How much difference two decades make. [emphasis, links added]
Now, output per head in the United States is about 60 per cent higher than it is in the UK, and there is little sign that the gap will narrow any time soon. If anything, faster annual growth in the US is likely to compound the difference over time.
And a key factor in the divergence of the two countries is energy – the oxygen of any economy.
Since 2005, US primary energy production has increased by around 50 per cent, energy consumption has remained relatively stable, and although energy prices have risen, they have not done so by anything like the same extent as in the UK.
The US, once the world’s largest energy importer, became a net energy exporter in 2019.
Britain was once a net energy exporter, too. Since 2004, however, UK primary energy production has fallen, while a recent report found that British industry was paying the highest electricity prices in the developed world.
Why does the US manage to produce cheaper energy? It’s not as though the laws of physics are any different on the other side of the Atlantic. Nor has there been any shortage of US leaders determined to adopt the kind of renewable energy targets that have done so much to disrupt UK energy markets.
Federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission set national standards, while Congress has passed a series of laws to determine the overall national approach.
Joe Biden’s dubiously labeled Inflation Reduction Act unleashed vast amounts of federal subsidies to incentivize “clean” energy production.
But states retain significant control over their own energy mix, and there is no single “net zero” law that must be followed across the nation.
This has allowed, in the words of Louis Brandeis, a Supreme Court justice in the early 20th century, the US states to act as laboratories, trying out different approaches.
It has also meant that the US has not followed Europe and the UK, locking itself into a single, economically calamitous energy policy.
According to the Clean Energy States Alliance, about half of all states are pursuing some sort of net-zero or “clean” energy goal, mostly in the Northeast or on the West Coast.
The other half, especially some Southern states but also the likes of Pennsylvania, have chosen a different approach, tending to prioritize energy production over emissions reductions.
The effects of this difference in approach are stark. Many of the states that are committed to phasing out oil, gas, and coal are discovering that the so-called energy “transition” is not as easy as it’s been made out.
Like Britain, some have ended up having to rely on imports to fulfil their energy needs. They are not importing energy from hostile foreign states, however. They are getting it from the likes of Pennsylvania, which was by far the top exporter of electricity to other states in 2023.
Policy differences have, unsurprisingly, begun to show up in prices.
According to official figures, in July, the average price of electricity for households was 26.18 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) in New York (which is rushing to approve new renewable projects), 30.07c per kWh in Massachusetts (a net zero by 2050 state) and 32.58c per kWh in California (one of the nation’s so-called leaders in green policy).
It was only 19.52c per kWh in Pennsylvania (rich in natural gas), 15.12c in Florida (which has been repealing renewable goals), and 13.46c in my home state of Mississippi (which is prioritizing overall energy security to drive growth).
This cannot help but influence decisions on where people want to live and where corporations want to do business.
Yes, parts of the United States have suffered from deindustrialization. But those jobs and factories have not necessarily moved to Mexico or China. Many have shifted South.
In July, average industrial electricity prices were 18.06c per kWh in New England, but only 6.60c per kWh in Texas and 7.47c in Mississippi.
Read rest at The Telegraph
