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Now the Power Company is Judging Me
As an adult, you begin to understand more about some of the rules that your parents enforced. For example, when you flipped the wall switch, the lights came on. I knew not to leave the light on when I left the room, because my parents had to pay for the power that made the light come on. We children were tasked with not wasting electricity, because I knew that we paid money for it, so shutting off the light when you left the room was the rule.
But, not one time do I recall hearing my parents fuss about anything to do with this utility, except for whatever money they were required to pay to maintain the service.
Last week, I received my power bill from the local electric company. I know that in the summer months it will be a little higher than the winter months, because we live in the Mojave Desert, and we use air conditioning more in August than in January. No problem, I budget for it, and my adult self now knows just how much money paying that bill takes.
But, this month’s electric bill included an extra page: it was titled “Home Energy Performance.” Guess what? We’re only FAIR…with a drawing of a glum-faced light bulb next to the highlighted word “Fair.” If we had been better at our energy consumption, we might have a more cheerful looking light bulb face and the words “GOOD” or even “GREAT” would be highlighted. There was also a little bar graph to show how we compared to similar, nearby homes, and we were not looking good there, either. We spent $140 MORE on electricity than efficient homes.
We are terrible people.
Is that what the power company is trying to communicate? I pay their bill every month. You’d think that they would be delighted to get more money from me than from those efficient neighbors (whoever they are.)
Am I being ridiculous here? I feel that if I pay my stupid bill on time every month, I don’t need a lecture from the power company! It’s not like I’m trying to have a large electric bill. I still shut off lights in rooms when I leave. I have a gas cooking range.
Am I getting this shaming letter because of the need to save the earth? How am I harming the earth with my electricity use? Somebody help me here.
Published in Technology
Our company sends a flyer with each month’s bill: “Your energy use changed this month. Here’s why.”
I always want to say “Well NSS, I thought it would always stay exactly the same, like the climate is supposed to do.”
They used say say new, generally “progressive,” ideas started in Denmark and came here in 10 years. Now? They starts in China and get here faster. In this case, the idea of a “social score” for all citizens. If you rack up nothing but “Fair” scores, you might someday, as in China, not be allowed to travel or attend certain schools, etc. Some of the woke corporations are already on board.
A few years ago with a late summer bill, our gas company sent us a note demanding that we explain why our usage was so variable throughout the year.
“We only use gas for heating. For some reason I can’t quite put my finger on, we tend to use our heating system more in February than in August. If you would like, we can send you our summer electric bills so that you feel more included in our lives at this time of year.”
This is funny, because your an energy consumer. It just means you consume energy. They’re called an energy company, and there’s lots of energy out there. Why don’t they get off their lazy rumps and figure out how to provide more energy?
I get emails each week. After a hot week I get notified of how much more electricity I used than the previous week with a warning that increased usage “could” lead to higher bills. After cool weeks they tell me “good job” conserving electricity. Well, duh!
We live in an older house. We get a monthly email that compares us to our neighbors. Sometimes we have visitors that stay forever and our bills shoot through the roof. It’s annoying and I think it’s wrong. Progressives trying to guilt trip us into consuming less energy.
My eyes were opened many years back, when I was a first-time homeowner, and the electric utility sent us messages urgently asking that we all conserve, because, energy shortage.
So, OK: we conserved.
Come the spring at the state Utilities Commissi0n rate-setting hearings, the friggin utility filed for a substantial increase in rates because customers were using too LITTLE electricity so they weren’t as profitable as the law required for private utilities. I.e., they were losing revenue.
So I saved, but the utility profited? E f ’em.
That’s the thing: What’s it to them how much energy you use? So long as they have the capacity to supply, they ought to be happy to sell you what you desire. If they need to increase capacity, well, that’s a capital investment that requires some strategic thinking. Distorting this transaction into some sort of moral drama makes for weird (to say the least) economics.
Since you’re in the Mojave Desert, your utility company’s action could be some state-mandated thing, where the company has been ordered by lawmakers in Sacramento to scold customers if they use above X amount of electricity per month based on the square footage of their home or business.
On the other hand, this is probably better than what the future holds, if California does decide to phase out all fossil fuel use for energy production within the next 10-15 years. Odds are pretty good then if you’ve got hot summer days and the available power on the grid can’t handle the load, the coastal urban centers will be prioritized for keeping the juice flowing, and the folks in the Mojave Desert and elsewhere inland will just have to make due with hand-held fans, or sitting in their (electric) cars with the AC going until that power runs out.
Why does a household use more energy than average? Perhaps…
— A larger family lives there.
— Poor vision requires more light.
— Work from home requires electronics.
— Medical or other bills preclude updating appliances.
— The construction company wired the house poorly.
— Storms or disease killed a tree or two, reducing shade and increasing use of air conditioning.
— The house architecture does not hold or dissipate heat as well as other homes.
There are many various reasons why electricity usage varies, many of which do not represent neglect of efficiency. It’s the presumptious nature of politicians and bureaucrats to pretend one size fits all.
Yeah. You know, I wonder if this kinda bugs other people, who already feel that their bills are high – which would probably motivate them to not waste energy on its own – and then people who can afford energy efficient what have youse, have fewer responsibilities, or are doing well enough that they don’t notice the high prices, effectively telling everyone else that they really need to exist a little less.
I’m in Nevada. But, I was under the impression that at least some of my electricity is being generated when the water from the Colorado River/Lake Mead is sent through the big old turbines down by Hoover Dam. Some of it comes from coal fired plants, too. Never-the-less…I just want the electric company to shut up and take my money.
Oh, I’ve heard of this one, too! Seriously?? “Ooooh–everyone needs to conserve energy because.” Then, “Ahem…we are a public utility company and we need to make THIS much money…so–everyone pay us higher rates!”
I really do think that the Save the Earth mentality is part of this stupidness.
You also get power from the Palo Verde nuclear plant west of Phoenix. Naturally, the majority of the anti-fossil fuel environmentalists are trying to kill that one off, too.
The enviro-crazies don’t like dams much either – spawning fish, habitat, etc.
This kind of thinking was behind the gas-guzzler buy-back-and-destroy debacle. A lot of serviceable and affordable older cars with a few good years left in them removed from the market. Leftist economic stimulus on the backs of those who could least afford it.
Because for several decades the EPA in concert with the Sierra Club and other like organizations have made it increasingly difficult and expensive to build new generating capacity. So one response is to hector existing customers to use less capacity. If this continues we will have shortages very soon. Most of us slept through the building crisis, maybe now people will begin to wake up.
When we moved to KY for retirement I designed and built our retirement home. It is very efficient with extra insulation, tankless water heaters, better windows, led fixtures, etc. So our utility bills here are less than the 40 year old house we moved from in OKC. Plus there are two old people here who keep the doors closed and the lights off (I included 7 solar tube lights which, along with large windows give adequate light for most tasks). But most of this doesn’t apply to older buildings due to the cost of updating/remodeling and the constant of fanning of doors by those too young to decide whether they need to be indoors or out. Those folks need to be serviced and not shamed because they don’t have everything we acquired after 40+ years of hard work.
Exactly like the campaign to get the public to conserve motor fuel by demanding more fuel-efficient cars. They got what they ordered, but that did not take into account that road maintenance depends on gasoline taxes, and drivers used the roads even more than before, causing more wear and tear on roads. Infrastructure did not decrease, prompting higher taxes to replace lower receipts. Same deal with power use. You can reduce your use, but the power lines still need just as much maintenance. Witness PG&E in California.
Doesn’t sound stupid. Sounds like gaming the system.
What is their ticker symbol? Might want to invest.
Yes, the Left’s environmental policies hurt the poor most of all.
Who is most likely to own an older run-down vehicle that fails to pass an emissions inspection? Who is most like to live in an older house with single-paned windows, minimal insulation, and a leaky roof? Who is most likely to own older, less energy-efficient electronics and appliances?
Building codes should embody minimum standards. The wealthy can afford to buy and modernize structures to match ideal efficiency and safety. But making good conditions mandatory increases the price of living for all.
Such hyper-regulation also encourages lawlessness. When laws are over-abundant and regularly questionable, many people commonly disregard them whenever possible.
I know one electrician who insists on bringing everything he finds up to code, per the law. He never finds a home or business up to code, if it was even wired safely and sensibly the first time.
I know the guy well enough to know he is not just making business for himself. Some customers send him away for not simply replacing what exists.
Though in some cases it is just a matter of a place having been wired decades ago, it seems clear that most electricians in the area are as content as customers to ignore regulations. Some places were constructed or wired by illegal aliens. That is a favorite industry of illegals.
Well, of course those people need to stop driving and only use public transportation. They also need to move out of their house and into an efficient, government-run apartment project.
I fear this is not as far-fetched as it sounds. It may not be administered formally by the government (that would take hard work and be subject to too many legal challenges). But powerful government officials (responding to pressure from special interest groups) will “unofficially” lean on businesses to favor or disfavor people based on their participation or non-participation in select activities.
For the most conspicuous example, see how New York Governor Cuomo and others are leaning on financial institutions either to disfavor or to refuse to do business with people who build, sell, or own firearms.
Other politicians have sought to block (or have tried to force semi-public or even private entities to block) people and businesses based on their religious beliefs or their political opinions (airports have blocked food vendors because people connected to the food vendors have contributed to religious groups, and state professional licensing agencies have refused to work with meeting venues because people connected to the venue have contributed to particular political causes), or whether they have ever supported other politicians or worked on projects championed by other politicians (several cities tried to refuse to work with building contractors who had done work for, or even bid for, the US border wall sought by President Trump).
In other words, it is quite possible that the utility’s judgment about whether you are a “good” energy conserver or only a “fair” energy conserver will affect your ability to get a mortgage, your priority in line when there is an electrical shortage or outage, your ability to get home repairs or improvements from a licensed contractor, etc.
Operation Chokepoint by the Obama administration.
Obviously, in a normal universe, the power company would encourage usage, at least sensible usage. But this universe is not normal and the power company must toe the woke line or face judgement.
One factor not taken into account is that we are retired and thus both at home all day. I get the same kind of message from our local supplier, better known as Pacific Graft & Extortion, that judges me as no better than or worse than others of the same type house. No indication of just who those others might be, not even generically. Yet I have dutifully changed all the light bulbs to LED and try to confine heating and A/C to limited areas of our house, only to be rewarded with yet another increase in rates, probably to pay for the wildfire claims.
I am not wholly convinced about those claims, as I suspect the state is piling on to fulfill a desire to gain control of private utilities. California is also resident to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, better known as SMUD, that charges significantly less for electric power. I have yet to see a fair analysis of why this is, as the local papers owned by McClatchy are out and out socialists, that is, except when their ox is gored.
The McClatchys are diametrically opposed to private utilities, especially PG&E. The reporting in their papers (The Sacramento Bee, Fresno Bee, Modesto Bee, etc.) is categorically on the side of the state. One might say, well fair enough, but the state was found guilty of falsifying evidence in a similar case of a fire that they claimed was the fault of a large lumber company. Did they learn from that? Don’t ask McClatchy…
Electric companies probably merit some sympathy. Use of electronics has exploded in recent decades, in addition to population growth. Politicians and bureaucrats restrict their options for expansion. So meeting demand must be challenging.
Texas has its own grid. It’s generally reliable, but there are occasional brownouts to save a little energy here and there during the summer heat.
Send them a letter back with a picture of a frowning windmill or a hamster running in a wheel, with the word “Crappy” next to it. Let them know how they are doing.
This may be why they hate you.
Gee, you’d think they’d want you sending them more money.