After years of anticipation, a tipping point in energy pricing had arrived. The place was the state of Colorado; the time, November 2005. That was when, for the first time in the United States, more than 33,000 retail customers—homeowners and businesses—began paying less for electricity generated by wind turbines than other customers buying conventional power from the burning of natural gas and coal. Why was wind power cheaper? Because of a spike in natural gas prices after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita roared through the Gulf of Mexico’s drilling rigs and pipelines, electric utility Xcel Energy raised the fuel surcharge for its conventional power customers to a rate 27% ...
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