I just read another article — by another expert in combatting climate change — about how U.S. electric supply can get to a hundred percent renewables. I’ve lost count of how many of these articles I’ve seen.

A hundred percent can be achieved economically and rather expeditiously, it is typically asserted, remarkably without nuclear power plants. The magic bullet is usually massive quantities of battery storage. But the more thoughtful of these articles adds huge amounts of hydroelectric storage and, in particular, high-voltage transmission.

On August 30, the U.S. Commerce Department published detail on July’s gross domestic product. Including detail on its largest component, personal consumption expenditures. In July, one and a third percent of personal consumption was for residential electric bills. 

Is that a lot or a little? One way to answer this question is to look at what other categories of personal consumption were near one and a third percent in July.

Exactly one and a third percent was also spent on higher education.