Smart, Switch, Sweat, and Shiver

The federal government in Canada has moved to pass coal phase-out legislation into law with its Just Transition Task Force in favor of “clean energy.”

“The end of coal power will help usher in a new era for renewable energy,” said David Suzuki Foundation director of science and policy Ian Bruce. “With conventional coal-fired power officially headed for the history books, people across the country can literally breathe easier about the future of energy production.”

“This is yet another signal that dirty, outdated energy sources are on their way out,” said the Foundation’s lead climate campaigner and senior policy analyst Gideon Forman. “Canada will now join a handful of leading industrialized countries such as the U.K., the Netherlands and France in accelerating the end of coal power worldwide – and the onset of clean, renewable energy.” France uses mostly nuclear power to generate their electricity.

Clean energy sounds great, especially nuclear and gas, but wind and solar electricity production, at the current rate of production and cost, cannot possibly replace all the energy needs of the planet for the industrial and public energy sectors.

Rationing electricity via smart meters which turns off power during peak electricity use and now Smart Cooling Rewards are ways in which the global warming advocates are forcing people to do without electricity in order to save the planet from a manufactured global warming catastrophe renamed climate change which we used to call seasons.

It is hard to convince people to give up their civilization, air conditioning, refrigeration, cars, central heat, and other amenities that make life more comfortable. They were bribed or forced to install smart meters on their homes. But people fought back and many states now have opt-out programs.

They tried to force people out of their cars by narrowing roads, bulldozing parking lots, building high-rise, mixed use tiny apartments, limiting suburbia with regulations and fines, and charging ungodly tolls of $46.50 to go 10 miles on I-66 to Washington, D.C. But Americans find ways around this global warming piracy because they love their cars and the freedom which the open-wide roads given them.

Private-public partnerships now scalp the public, working against the public interest and for the globalist investors’ interest. Governments, whether local, state, or federal, despite their claims, do not know what works best for their citizens.

Virginia citizens fought back and won the right to keep their standard meters, protecting their privacy, lower electricity cost, and their health. Dominion Energy recently came up with another scheme to control electricity consumption, Smart Cooling Rewards. The rewards are $40 at the end of each year that a household volunteers to participate in the program.

What is the program about? Dominion Energy installs “a switch on or near the outside of your air conditioner or heat pump system.” How convenient and generous, $40 for the privilege to sweat to death in summer time or freeze to death in winter time when the mother ship decides to cut off your power in order to save them the headache of having to buy more expensive electricity during peak seasons or perhaps build excess capacity storage.

“The switch enables us to automatically ‘cycle’ your central air conditioner for a few hours when electricity demand is highest, helping to reduce demand when it counts most,” says Dominion Power.

Utilities buy electricity annually during low season when the weather is mild and electricity is cheaper; they buy it in a lump sum by estimating their future electricity needs. If the load on the power grid is higher, then they have to buy more electricity at the market price when prices are higher. Some utilities may go as far as helping their customers weather-proof homes during free inspections, and giving them rebates if they comply.

“During periods of high electrical use, Dominion Energy Virginia may call an ‘event’, which means we will cycle your air conditioner or heat pump compressor on and off for defined intervals. The fan will stay on circulating already cooled air. The switch is programmed to cycle your AC unit half of the time it ran preceding an event. If your AC runs non-stop the hour before an event, then it will run 30 minutes for each hour of the event duration. This is accomplished by running 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off. At the end of the event your AC returns to normal operation.” 

It is entirely up to you how much you are willing to sweat or shiver in order to save your power company money and save the planet from a non-existent Armageddon that the global warming alarmists world-wide have been promoting.

This “switch” installed by Dominion Energy will be nothing but another smart meter that will control your energy use since the air conditioning puts the biggest load on electricity use. Why don’t utilities pass costs onto consumers? Is this bribe only about saving costs to them? Could it be possible that it is a way to control the non-cooperating first world people who love their A/C and other modern conveniences that environmentally conscious globalist elites condemn?

According to electricians, the electric grid is not in really good shape, it is a patched job that sometimes results in brown outs and black outs, especially in metropolitan areas that have grown extensively. The grid has not kept up with this expansion and the electricity loads are more than the grid can handle. It is a lot cheaper for utilities to turn power off than to redo the grid.

Will building the smart power grid be safer and will it handle electricity loads better than the existing conventional power grid? According to experts, changing everything to a smart grid will not be any better in terms of load other than the fact that those in charge will be able to turn your power off as they see fit. Additionally, hackers will be able to interrupt service maliciously. There is always the potential of a solar flare or the explosion of an EMP in the atmosphere that would fry everything.

Smart grids, smart meters, and smart switches will also allow utilities to spy on its customers without a warrant in terms of energy consumption, types of appliances they have, when owners are and aren’t home, and then sell other data about your home to an interested third party. Thieves can also easily find out when you are and aren’t home.

"The City of Lights"

The Parisian nickname "the City of Light," of Enlightenment, has nothing to do with the electricity from 276 monuments, hotels, churches, fountains, bridges, and canals that illuminate the city every night, it refers to the light of knowledge coming from intellectuals, poets, writers, artists, sculptors, painters, writers, and musicians of the 1920s when Paris became the cultural center of Europe and of the world.

Parisians have never been penny pinchers with the exception perhaps of Etienne de Silhouette, King Louis XV’s finance minister who attempted to balance the nation’s budget by melting down all items made of gold and silver. Thankfully, reasonable minds prevailed. He was so cheap that he became the symbol of frugality gone awry and of “silhouettes,” shadow profile portraits cut from black paper that were cheaper than real portraits.

Parisians are in love with spending and national financial generosity with other people’s money, better known as socialized welfare. They feel so strongly about their generous government benefits that they kicked out President Sarkozy last year and elected the socialist Francois Hollande who promised them even more welfare and a roll back of the retirement age that Sarkozy had set at 62.

President Hollande is not backing down on his promise to tax those who make 1 million euros or more a year at 75 percent even though France’s Constitutional Council declared the tax unconstitutional. The French government announced a revised tax version for 2013. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/world/europe/gerard-depardieu-stirs-belgian-border-town.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

Gérard Depardieu, actor and producer, has had enough of the outrageous fleecing, so he decided to turn in his French passport and move to a sleepy little village in Néchin, Belgium. Vladimir Putin offered him a Russian passport although it is unclear if Mr. Depardieu accepted. A flat tax of 13 percent in Russia seems more appealing than the 75 percent marginal tax rate for the rich in France. Gérard Depardieu, who owns about a dozen vineyards around the world, a wine label, and a superb movie career, is not a tax dodger; the 64-year old movie producer has paid his lion’s share of taxes in the last 45 years, $192 million to be exact.

The optician chain tycoon, Alain Afflelou, has planned to flee Paris for England to escape President Hollande’s 75 percent marginal tax, joined by thousands other French millionaires. David Cameron was prepared to roll out the red carpet for the expatriates. A Victoria Secret model, restaurateur Alain Ducasse, and singer Johnny Hallyday have already left France. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185231/High-earners-planning-leave-France-75-tax-rate-income-1million-euros-goes-ahead.html#ixzz2K8nAvjP3)

President Francois Hollande and his energy minister, Delphine Batho, would like to turn off lights in and outside public buildings, offices, and stores after 1 a.m. Paris will literally no longer be the city of lights and romantic glow. This is not good for the tourist industry. However, robbers and pick-pockets will thrive. And there are plenty of them in Paris.  

Energy minister Batho touted the energy savings from lights-out and the French “sobriety.” Everyone will be sober figuratively and literally, as few will dare go out in the dark to their favorite cafes and restaurants. A new rule passed in July 2012 required businesses to turn off lights between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. as part of the plan to reduce energy consumption 20 percent by 2020. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2254565/Lights-turned-France-save-money-sobriety.html#ixzz2K8oeGQaV)

The national pastime of drinking wine and dining with friends late at night may suffer. King Louis XVI believed that persons not drinking wine are fanatics. He blamed the French Revolution on the fact that its leader, Robespierre, drank only water. (David Hoffman, Little Known Facts about Paris, 2008)

The draconian measure to turn off lights at night seems extreme since France generates over 75 percent of its electricity needs from nuclear power and 17 percent from recycled nuclear fuel. France is the largest net exporter of electricity because the cost of generating it is very low. The exportation of electricity provides 3 billion euros a year in revenue. (http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf40.html)

Who needs illumination in the City of Lights when the French are unwilling to give up their stellar early retirements, lifetime employment, generous pensions, 5 weeks paid vacations, two year paid maternity leave, subsidized elegant housing, two week spa treatments disguised as health care, and shortened work weeks? Socialized welfare lifestyle is grand until the government runs short of money, corners are cut, and the lavish generosity must be scaled back.

Energy Policy and Biking to the Grocery Store

“Nuclear power provides 20 percent of America’s energy needs via 104 reactors in 31 states, from California to Arizona, Texas to Michigan, and Florida to New York.” The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) gave permits last month to build two nuclear reactors, the first time since 1979 when the partial reactor meltdown occurred at Three Mile Island. The two reactors will begin operating at the Vogle Plant in Waynesboro, Georgia in 2016 and 2017. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko objected, citing potential meltdown of the reactors.

Our economy is starved for energy because this administration has blocked the development of domestic sources of energy in order to promote its expensive and bankrupt green energy in the name of environmental and social justice that the left is pushing so vehemently.

A barrage of unnecessary and costly regulations has driven up gas prices to more than double since Obama became President. The Keystone XL pipeline would have removed the uncertainty of future supplies that affect energy prices. Sadly, Canadian oil will not be flowing to the United States via the Keystone XL pipeline, but to the port of Vancouver, to be shipped via oil tankers to China.

Releasing energy from the strategic petroleum oil reserves is not a good idea since it would increase further market price volatility and uncertainty. Such reserves would only prop up supply for a short time, and it would not significantly reduce the price of gas to make a difference at the pump.

The Obama administration has hindered domestic energy production at every turn, starting with the oil-drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico. Brazilians were allowed to drill and store oil in the deep ocean of the Gulf of Mexico but not so much for domestic producers.

With gas $6 per gallon in some parts of the country, Secretary of Energy Chu, who admittedly does not own a car, stated that the Department of Energy goal is to strengthen the economy and decrease our dependence on oil.  Yet in 2008, Secretary Chu said, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels of Europe.” His solutions include green energy projects like Solyndra solar panel plant, harvesting algae as a replacement for oil, the electric Chevy Volt that nobody wants to buy in spite of the $10,000 subsidy, and the very expensive Tesla electric car that turns into a “brick” when the battery drains completely.

Candidate Obama promised that under his presidency gas prices will sky rocket and anyone who will build a coal-fired plant will go bankrupt. His supporters were too busy with “hope and change” to pay attention when he promised to “fundamentally transform” this nation.

As this administration states publicly that it is “boosting domestic production onshore,” new leasing on federal lands is down 44 percent, and the number of new oil wells drilled is down 39 percent. The President says that new offshore areas are opening, but his latest plan keeps 87 percent of these areas off limits. Claims that oil and gas activity in the Gulf of Mexico is back to normal are contradicted by a forecasted drop in production this year of nearly 21 percent from 2010 levels. (Speaker Boehner’s Office)

“House Republicans have passed several bills that would eliminate the Obama’s administration barriers to American energy production and move the Keystone XL pipeline forward,” but were defeated in the Senate.

All the anti-domestic energy policies of this administration are lovely music to the leftist environmental movement’s ears. However, they are never satisfied; their demands are more and more aggressive.

According to the Washington Post, drivers must be forced to bear the true economic cost of their choice to drive. It is not enough that we pay $4-6/gallon for gas that cost $1.79 when Obama took office. A federal carbon tax must be imposed on all of us who drive to the grocery store instead of biking, walking, or taking public transit.

“Perhaps fewer people would drive if we reattached costs to driving that are now being offset by non-drivers.” The author is incensed that people like him, who make sacrifices for the planet by biking to his favorite store, have to pay for our “free” parking via higher grocery prices.

Although Whole Foods encourages customers to “go green,” other “grocery chains like Stop and Shop, Giant, Safeway, Price Chopper make deals with gas stations that give customers per gallon discounts when they purchase a certain amount of groceries.”(Washington Post)

“Environmentalists and those who cannot afford to drive end up making it easier for other customers to shop by automobile.” It boils down again to social justice, the haves and have-nots. The author must not have or feed a family of four. How much groceries can one carry daily on a bicycle? Then again, logic is not the strong suit of progressives. Extreme environmentalism looks good on paper, not so much in practice.

Most Americans care for their environment and do not wish to destroy it. Regressing humanity and de-grow developed nations economically to primitive life styles in order to satisfy the goals of the Sierra Club crowd or other like-minded environmentalists is not the majority’s idea of living.

Last time I checked, most food is trucked by 18-wheelers that burn expensive Diesel fuel. Food is priced according to the delivery distance, the amount of fuel burned, production costs, and supply and demand.

Fuel and Diesel prices are driven up on purpose by our “environmentally appeasing” President, to the point that the rental price for the parking lot becomes an insignificant portion of the total operating cost of a grocery store vis-à-vis the inflationary cost of energy and food. Some grocery stores own the land and the costs of the parking lot are sunk over many years of operation.

The author is angry that his biking sacrifice for the planet is nullified by “Range Rover drivers” who do not care about their waistlines, wallets, and “ultimately for the Earth.” He laments, “Why should my bike subsidize your car?”

Liberal environmentalist know-it-alls are not subsidizing our cars. We pay road taxes and high gas prices, which include gas taxes. Should we tax bicyclists for using the paved roads freely while they are a nuisance to those who paid the road tax?

No matter what we do, the lack of a sane energy policy and constant class warfare from the left are going to bring about conflict between outlandish environmentalists and average Americans who wish to live in a free country with choices offered by the free market and not choices dictated by omnipotent few who want to control the entire population under the false premise of protecting the planet.