Green Power

“My power company - Consumer's Energy - is starting a new kind of thing this fall.

For $17 per month, customers can choose to have all their power come from green sources - wind, solar etc.

Does anyone have this? And would you choose to do this if you had the opportunity?”

“No, we don't have that option.

I don't know if I'd pay $200+ more per year. Especially since my electricity doesn't come with a label identifying it's source.

Good question.”

“Uh oh, be carefui.....l.
They started this kind of crap about 5 years ago in California and look where it got us. Tell me, are the wind and solar farms in place yet? I assume you are connected to the main power grid, just like your neighbors. So how does the "green power" come to your house and not your neighbors? Do the green electrons streaming down the wire say "okay, there's RL's house let's go there?" Is the $17 bucks per month in addition to the energy usage?

Basically your power company is looking for suckers to fund alternate energy sources and there is no way to guarantee that your power is actually from a green source unless they string a dedicated power line to your house.”

“I'm with an electrical cooperative (country hick that I am), an REC, y'know. Yes, they're offering something like that. I can't remember how they said it was supposed to work. I took a quick look and didn't think much of it. Also, the price per month wasn't that high, rl! Ohhhhhhhh and at least I sometimes get dividends on that electricity usage!”

“A while back our power company came up with this ?great plan? to help us all out. If you signed up for this program they would reduce your power bill by a VERY SMALL amount during the summer months. What they did was, they attached something to your heat pump and it was automatically switched off during the peak hours and it would stay off for no more than 2 hours, then it would come back on. (Just long enough for your house to get really hot on the inside, then it would cost you more to cool the house back to a bearable temperature) A friend told me of a guy that fell for?oops.. did this and his power bill nearly doubled. I think it was so popular that they discontinued it because you don?t hear them advertising any more.”

“We had the same sort of offer for our water heater. You saved a couple of bucks a month but forget showering, dishwashing, or clothes washing during the day. I didn't think it was worth losing control over my schedule.”

“I have my water heater on a thing like that. It's not a problem in my schedule. They originally offered a couple bucks off your power bill a month. Now they have nullified that. But I still feel it's a way to help the whole situation with little hassle on my end.”

“I switched to gas and save about $50/month.”

“wasn't it a Republican governors' deregulation plan that launced the mess in California?”

“Our democratically controlled legislature voted unanimously for the plan also (100% approval!!).

Was Pete Wilson a republican? I never saw a politician alienate more people than he did. I wouldn't vote for him for dog catcher. (I would vote for Gray Davis for Dog Catcher...let's see if he is interested).”

“Ped,
Actually, the politcos never deregulated the industry, they re-structured it, adding far more state intervention. The politicians in California imposed retail price controls on the electricity industry; dictated how and when utilities could purchase power; discouraged new competitors from entering the market; imposed onerous new regulations; and created numerous barriers to building new generation plants and transmission systems.

If you want to see how real deregulation works look at Penn. They did it right.”

“Politicians from both parties have been busy selling us out to the highest bidder.

It was Clinton's Justice Dept. that allowed the oil mega-mergers that many predicted would lead to the price increases we've seen recently. Not all of that was necessarily due to a concentration of economic power as any merger tends to put a freeze on spending as the newly formed company devises a new business plan and tries to show a benefit from the merger to investors - but it sure didn't help.

Don't believe the hype (it's a hustle).”

“Thanks for the info Phil and Baso.

"Deregulation" always belongs in quotes.. there was a great book on international deregulation with the subtitle: "less regulation, more rules."

BTW: In terms of the alternative energy surcharge, I'd be worried that I'd really be paying for the alternative energy sources they already use.

As a crude example, imagine that 10% of their energy mix came from alternative sources. Now imagine that users who use 8% of the energy elected to pay for energy from alternative sources. The company could just collect the money, use the same energy sources and have room to sign on more alternative energy consumers without paying a cent.”

“Green power? Yes, John Deere has it.”

“Sounds like a scam to me.

Phil, thanks for educating Pedxing.”

“LOL BacPac!”

“I saw on the CBS news last night where they plan to build a power plant that burns chicken sh!t. Talk about green power. Ahhh, the power of sh!t.”

“Cogeneration - They capture the "exhause gases" from cows and pigs that rises to the top of the pen and use it to generate electricity. No sh!t! Much like they capture methane gas from landfills.

The windmill generators out near Palm Springs are interesting to see. Up close they are huge!”

“BTW: BacPac, you will note I ended my post about the Republican Governor with a question mark. When I'm not sure I have clear picture of things, I'm quite free about admitting it.
I'm actually proud of being able to take in new information and even to change my mind.”