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SuperLuigi
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Can it work in the free market?
This looks a solar corporate promotion site.
The price of electricity in Germany has also gone up, and a lot of Germans are not happy about it.
How and where is this data measured?
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SuperLuigi
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No it isn’t
In what?
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Ridgerunner
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Actually, this spring/summer is beginning to have some El Nino earmarks. I see that NOAA has predicted a 65% chance of it this summer. If so, it will be cooler and wetter than normal in my part of the country. So far, that has been the case.
And too, it will be interesting that while last summer was about average, the previous two were very hot and very dry. The global warming people were all over that. But that wasn’t “weather”, you see, that was “climate change”. If we have an El Nino summer, that will only be “weather”.
And too, it will be interesting that while last summer was about average, the previous two were very hot and very dry. The global warming people were all over that. But that wasn’t “weather”, you see, that was “climate change”. If we have an El Nino summer, that will only be “weather”.
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freeRadical
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It went up because your local electric company raised the rates. I’m assuming your electric company is Vectren right? I heard the rates are going to up again sometime soon.
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Lapey
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Most of this post is not directed to you personally or directly, more so to the overall theme of the thread. Please don’t read it as me lecturing you.
If you are saying or implying that the increases are arbitrary and/or done out of greed or profit, you have no idea how utility companies work.
I am a manager for one of the largest utilities in the nation and this industry is of the most regulated industries anywhere; especially profit margins. We are only allowed to profit a certain percentage and all other charges are completely passed on to customers. Any added expense to operation rides right through to customer rates, this is called “base rates”.
So please understand this, any added regulations WILL add more cost directly to customers, rate payers. This is mandated by the regulators, federal and state and in some cases local as well.
Those “evil power companies” are told by their regulators exactly what they will sell power for. If you criticize the utility and not the politicians who cause rates to go up you are being a hypocrite or you are speaking in ignorance.
With these new proposed regulations coal fired plants will be moth balled, this is already happening. There is not enough “alternative sources” available unless, like the latest government backed (tax payer backed I mean) and pushed solar spike, to make up the difference. Rates for power to all will increase. If you believe the latest misinformation put out by this administration then you deserve to pay higher rates. They are not telling the truth about future rates directly affected by regulations proposed by President Obama.
We are heading down a road where real people, mostly the people who are already hurting, will be hurt directly because of these regulations. Those who will be hurt first are the elderly, the sick, the immigrants, the low income areas unfortunately populated mostly by minorities, etc. These are the groups who the liberals say they care about but they are always the ones hurt first and worst by their “progressive” ideas. But as the best liberals state, “it’s not about the results, it’s about the intensions”. Tell that to grandma when she can no longer pay her electric bill and has to go without.
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freeRadical
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Why do you assume that I don’t know how utility companies work? Of course I do. They are government regulated natural monopolies. I never said they raise their rates out of greed and I never said they are evil. Most of the time they raise their rates to pay for ever increasing costs of (name removed by moderator)uts into energy delivery or improvements to infrastructure or to comply with ever increasing government regulations. They have labor and capital (name removed by moderator)uts just like every other business. The only difference that they have to get permission from a regulatory commission to raise their rates.
I was merely explaining to a poster why her energy bill had gone up. I live in the same city she does and our energy company recently raised our rates. That’s why her utility bill went up. So please don’t assume I don’t know what I’m talking about.
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Lapey
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Why did they raise their rates? You seem to gloss over that.
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freeRadical
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I don’t know the exact reason they gave the regulatory commission for raising their rates but I believe it was improving infrastructure.
I don’t see the point you are trying to make. A poster who lives in the same city as me didn’t understand why her utility bill went up. I simply pointed out that our energy utility recently raised their rates and that is why her utility bill went up.
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Lapey
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I understand. That’s why I stated not to take my post as directed at you personally but at the theme of the thread.
The bills are steadily climbing because of government. Even infrastructure is being mandated to be updated,. Almost every expense we are incurring in the business is driven by government these days.
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Tomdstone
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OK, in spite of your unpleasant rhetoric, I am not trying to be disagreeable, but only trying to see how this works. You say that utilities are allowed to profit only a certain percentage because of government regulation. Well, water is a utility, since it involves a company that is involved in the delivery of a natural asset. And I live in a city where a private company (but regulated) delivers the water, although the neighboring cities have public ownership of the water company. Now it has come up in the city council meetings, etc., that the price we are paying for water in this city is almost double that of some neighboring cities which have public ownership of the water company. So there has been an effort made by the city to take over the water company so that this city can enjoy the much lower rates which are available to those who are served by companies owned by the city (publicly owned). Perhaps what you say about being allowed to profit only a certain percentage is true to some extent, but are you omitting the fact that in the private ownership case there may be certain overhead costs, such as excessive CEO salaries that are not present in the publicly owned case and for that reason, the publicly owned utilities may be more efficient, at least in their ability to deliver the product with lower rates?
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Lapey
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Excuse me? Unpleasant rhetoric? Speaking of unpleasant. Is it because I offer facts that support a differing opinion that causes my words to be “unpleasant rhetoric”?
PS. Do at least a little research before opening yourself up to the debate. Most municipalities are exempt from most regulations. Yes, that is right, even OSHA and most environmental quality regulations. Municipalities, local public owned utilities, benefit from the privately owned infrastructure mandated by government to construct to facilitate operation of the public owned muni. If you take over all of the private corporations I assure you those public entities you love will fold or pass on massive increases in operating costs to you, the customer. Nothing is free.
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Lapey
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If a simple explanation of how the private utility business works, ask nicely. I am not a partisan hack as you seem to think. Can’t we have differring opinions without attacking each other?
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Tomdstone
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There are also the subsidies for municipal utilities, in the form of tax exemptions, preferential power purchasing, low-interest government loans, loan guarantees, and tax-exempt bond financing. So, that is why the water rate from the private company here is twice as much as from the publicly owned water companies in the nearby cities? The City Council here mentioned the high salaries of those in charge of the company and claims that the City can provide the water at a rate much less than what people are paying now.
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Lapey
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More reason for the population as a whole to reject public utilities because cheap rates for a select few cost the general population who does not see the benefit of these lower rates.
The City officials will tell anything that makes their case to feed the monster which is government. The salaries of CEO’s do not make the rates more expensive; that is myth.
Let’s imagine our CEO of the company I work for makes $20 million after all salaries and stock options (BTW, he doesn’t make that much). We serve over 7 million customers, residential and commercial.
Do the simple math, annually that casts the customer $2.86 each. If you want to take it further, $.24 /month/ $.0079 per day. President Obama’s cap & trade regulations, fashioned after the legislation that he couldn’t get passed with a House and Senate controlled by democrats, will cost customers much much more than all the utility CEOs salaries put together. That is fact. Who do you think will be hurt the most? Business? How will business be hurt, all corporations do is pass through costs like this to the customers. The elderly and the poor will suffer under these regulations. I may cut back some usage so my now $250 a month bill doesn’t go to $500; but what about the little old lady down the street that now uses as little as she can so her bill is under $100? How will she pay it when it climbs without an increase in usage to $200? Answer, she won’t, she will have to do without and many sheeple will blame the utility. All in the name of a theory called man made climate change. A theory that many scientists believe is based on inaccurate, at best, models; at worst manipulated lies in the data to promulgate ideology.
I guess this is just more unpleasant rhetoric. They can call me a denier, or a partisan hack (btw way I am neither a rep or a dem), but in the long run I am a simple deacon who ministers to the people these regulations will hurt, the same people who have been hurt by the last decade of government actions. As for the future, our kids and grandkids will suffer more than us for these decisions.
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Tomdstone
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Mr. Deacon:
Just to set things straight, by unpleasant rhetoric, I meant this:
IMHO, there may be other reasons to criticize a utility company, and it would not necessarily mean that I am a hypocrite to do so. It is unpleasant when people go around calling me a hypocrite.
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gilliam
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The pause continues – Still no global warming for 17 years 9 months
According to the RSS satellite data, whose value for May 2014 has just been published, the global warming trend in the 17 years 9 years since September 1996 is zero (Fig. 1). The 213 months without global warming represent more than half the 425-month satellite data record since January 1979. No one now in high school has lived through global warming.
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
wattsupwiththat.com/2014/06/04/the-pause-continues-still-no-global-warming-for-17-years-9-months/
According to the RSS satellite data, whose value for May 2014 has just been published, the global warming trend in the 17 years 9 years since September 1996 is zero (Fig. 1). The 213 months without global warming represent more than half the 425-month satellite data record since January 1979. No one now in high school has lived through global warming.
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
wattsupwiththat.com/2014/06/04/the-pause-continues-still-no-global-warming-for-17-years-9-months/
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gilliam
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AUSTRALIA’S peak body of earth scientists has declared itself unable to publish a position statement on climate change due to the deep divisions within its membership on the issue.
After more than five years of debate and two false starts, Geological Society of Australia president Laurie Hutton said a statement on climate change was too difficult to achieve.
Full story here, but behind a paywall: theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/earth-scientists-split-on-climate-change-statement/story-e6frg8y6-1226942126322#
After more than five years of debate and two false starts, Geological Society of Australia president Laurie Hutton said a statement on climate change was too difficult to achieve.
Full story here, but behind a paywall: theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/earth-scientists-split-on-climate-change-statement/story-e6frg8y6-1226942126322#
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GEddie
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And that’s needed.
If the infrastructure were maintained as it should be, power would cost more, but we might not see so many weather related outages.
Wooden overhead poles are, I have heard, a thing of the past in the European countries.
After Hurricane Sandy came and went, IIRC, a power transformer from 1901 was discovered shorted out! 1901???
You get what you pay for.
ICXC NIKA
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stevegravy
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113 years on the job before failure, pretty good stuff. Don’t make them like they used to.
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