Green tea. I like that, I don't like everything about it, but I like it.
The granola and organic wine environmentalist have teamed up with the tea party and libertarians. The Green Tea Party, (actually a group of tea baggers now call themselves this) and people for clean energy found some common language that brought them together, and some in the GOP are rather shocked, and a bit worried.
Here's the language. Why can't we use the sunshine that falls on our house or property? Why must we buy from a monopoly when we could make our own energy? Let me tell the utility I want to buy solar, wind or coal fired energy. If I make extra energy why can't I sell it to the neighbor?
In Georgia together they fought the GOP controlled state energy board and legislation as well as the Kochs and allies and won. Georgia will probably mandate more solar and wind from utilities and you can choose the source, and with coal prices higher this year, people will opt for wind and solar. In Wisconsin they are beating back a set of rules on solar home installations. In Arizona the utilites and fossil fuel boys are crying about growing home solar systems, asking the state to change net metering, cutting the rate paid in order to discourage home solar units, the fight is on and it looks like the green tea party and the tree huggers are going to keep net metering at the current rate.
Now I do understand the problem for utilities if lots of customers produce their own power and only buy at night, or in small amounts. They have the power grid cost, cables to repair, tree trimming etc to pay for. I propose that if you install a large solar system and buy little from them, they be allowed to raise your monthly service charge. Call it an insurance policy for those black stormy days or if your PV hits a hickup, you will have access to the energy you need. This higher service charge for solar owners can pay for the grid infrastructure, while the solar owner still has a lot of independence and saves money overall. Sure, finding a fair price for this will be a cat fight, but what isn't.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteFringe,
DeleteMom's electricity bill was $225 for last month! And that power came from Duke Energy's coal fired plants!
Oh, please delete any anonymous comments. If someone doesn't have the balls to say who they are then the SOB is without comment!
Sarge
Sarge, I was gone yesterday and in a sculpture class last night or it would have come down long time ago. I have warned Anonymous before about hiding and making rude remarks, it's unseemly.
DeleteAnyway, the Kochs are funding some of the 'Tea Party' groups.
ReplyDeleteNAC;
DeleteTrue. There are many sources that show the reported amounts of money passed through action committees to fund some of the tea party groups and events. The interesting thing is that the Tea Party as it matures has grown into a multiheaded beast, and some of the heads oppose the Kochs interest when it comes to the sunlight that falls on your house, the wind that blows over your fence, and a view of the energy market as a menu instead of a mandate. The green tea party members are teaming with tree huggers to force power companies to offer choices of power, a real market, the Kochs say we shouldn't choose winners and losers with legislation, fine, open up the market, let me by wind energy if I want, this of course hits the fossil fuel industry where it hurts, in the monopoly. In Texas and Nebraska some tea party members are out with farmers fighting the XL pipeline from crossing their property.
Anonymous comment was deleted, not because it took a stand opposite to what I wrote. He/she is a Koch Industries defender, which is fine with me, defend the radical rich all you want, boast their values till the cows come home. I welcome comments as long as they are left in the spirit of a discussion, but I do not very often let a comment which makes insulting remarks stand if the author is not identified, and can be visited at their blog. Anonymous has done this before, I let a few of them stand, but not this one.
ReplyDelete